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Category: Transport

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Interview with Sarah Ferguson, ABC 7.30

    Source: Australian Government – Minister of Foreign Affairs

    Sarah Ferguson, Host: After nearly a year of conflict in Gaza, there are now fears the situation in southern Lebanon could destabilise the entire Middle East. Israel’s heavy bombardment beginning on Monday targeting Hezbollah is believed to have killed 569 people. Today, Hezbollah fired a ballistic missile towards Tel Aviv. The missile was intercepted. The escalation comes as global leaders gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly, where Secretary-General António Guterres warned Lebanon is at the brink. Foreign Minister Penny Wong was at the meeting in New York. She joined me earlier. Penny Wong, welcome to 7.30.

    Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Good to be with you.

    Ferguson: Now, following this week’s escalation in Lebanon, can you start by describing the atmosphere at the UN?

    Foreign Minister: First, in relation to Lebanon, can I say to your audience, I know there are so many people in Australia who have relatives, friends and family in Lebanon and this is obviously a very stressful situation for them. In terms of how things are here in the United Nations, many countries have been working to try and ensure there is no regional escalation of the conflict in Gaza, and their people are concerned, as you would have, as you would know from what the Secretary-General said to the General Assembly today about the prospect for more loss of civilian life in Lebanon.

    Ferguson: Are Israel’s attacks in Lebanon legitimate acts of self-defence?

    Foreign Minister: What I’d say is this. There is no doubt that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation and there is no doubt that Hezbollah has been engaging in attacks on Israel and has breached international law. Even in law, even in war, however, there are rules and as you know, international humanitarian law applies to all conflicts, even when engaging a terrorist actor. However, what I would say is our advocacy at the moment, like so many others here in New York, is aimed at trying to avert a regional escalation because of what that would mean for Israel and for the people of the region, including the people of Lebanon. Our advocacy is to try and avert further civilian casualties.

    Ferguson: Now, would a ceasefire, however elusive that is at the moment, would a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza halt further escalation in Lebanon? Or do you fear that the course is now set between Israel and Hezbollah?

    Foreign Minister: Whatever people’s views about those hypotheticals, a ceasefire is necessary. I mean, we see what has happened in Gaza. We see the civilian toll. We see that so many tens of thousands of civilians have been killed. We see how many children have been lost. So, we would continue to back in the UN Security Council’s resolution. It’s called for a ceasefire. We will continue to urge all parties, as President Biden did today, to agree to that ceasefire.

    Ferguson: Do you think the international community has learnt anything from the enormous civilian destruction during the war in Gaza?

    Foreign Minister: It has been, I think, quite distressing and, frankly, catastrophic. Horrific for so many around the world. It has been deeply distressing. I hope that what this will do is bring more countries together to galvanise commitment to and compliance with international humanitarian law. That’s my motivation behind the initiative that I launched yesterday alongside many other countries from around the world. A commitment to work together for the protection of humanitarian workers.

    As you probably know, Sarah, you know, this has been the worst year so far on record in terms of the deaths of humanitarian workers, aid workers, of course, one of them Australian Zomi Frankcom. Gaza is the most dangerous place on Earth to be an aid worker. So, we have brought countries together to say whether it’s in Sudan, whether it’s in Yemen, whether it’s in Myanmar or Gaza, we are committed to trying to galvanise greater commitment to and compliance with international humanitarian law, particularly in respect of aid workers, because you can’t assist civilians in conflict zones unless aid workers are protected.

    Ferguson: You’re doing this in the name of Australian Zomi Frankcom. The Israeli Military Advocate General is still considering whether to pursue that case further. Do you trust the Israeli system?

    Foreign Minister: We do want to see full transparency and accountability. We will be watching very closely the work of the Military Advocate General. Obviously, we want to see that report when it is finalised, we want to see those decisions made. And we, again, would be looking to the Israeli Defence Force, which has acknowledged and taken responsibility for those deaths of Zomi Frankcom and her fellow workers from World Central Kitchen. We would be looking for full transparency in relation to any findings.

    Ferguson: Does full transparency include releasing the audio of the drone footage of the killing, which the family hasn’t had access to?

    Foreign Minister: The family has called for that and I have expressed that to the Israeli government, and I’ve expressed the view that in the circumstances, obviously we would ask that the Israeli government, we would seek that the Israeli government respond positively to Zomi Frankcom’s family’s requests.

    Ferguson: Have you had any response from the Israelis about that audio?

    Foreign Minister: Not at my level as yet, no.

    Ferguson: I just want to go back to last week’s UN vote demanding Israel withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. You said that the resolution went too far in its demands. What were the specific obstacles from Australia’s point of view?

    Foreign Minister: I would say two things. One is our preference would have been to support a resolution that was consonant with and consistent with the ICJ advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice advisory opinion. Obviously, the advice to me was that the language went further than we would have liked. We engaged with many other like-mindeds to try and get the sorts of amendments that we would have liked. We’ll keep working through the UN with, obviously, the Palestinian delegation and other like-mindeds because we do want to give effect to a two-state solution. We do want to add our voice to a pathway to peace, and we know that this will only be resolved, the conflict in the Middle East will only be resolved, and we will only see security for both Palestinians and Israelis, if we see two states, as was envisioned by the UN when Israel was established.

    Ferguson: Were the sticking points the issues of land restitution and compensation for Palestinians?

    Foreign Minister: Well, there were a number of issues in that resolution which did go, and I think you’ve picked a couple of them, to final status issues, issues which obviously still would require resolution, even if there can be progress on two states. But I think the broader point is we do support two states. We have taken action which is consistent with our position. Those actions have included our position on settlements, those actions have included sanctions on extremist settlers, and those actions have included the votes you’ve seen in the United Nations.

    Ferguson: In Australia, you’ve been accused of lacking moral courage. Do those words hurt?

    Foreign Minister: I’ve been accused of many things on both sides and as people say things in the street, I get criticism from both sides. The approach I’ve tried to take in this, Sarah, as the Foreign Minister of Australia, is to try to think very carefully about what is the principle position Australia should take and try to act in accordance with that, and that’s what I will always do.

    Ferguson: You’ve had a meeting today with your Chinese counterpart. Did you discuss Australia’s role in the Quad?

    Foreign Minister: I had a meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Obviously, we’ve had quite a number of meetings over the last few years and we discussed multilateral issues, so, United Nations issues, we discussed bilateral issues and we discussed international issues. Obviously, China is very aware of our role, our membership of the Quad and our engagement in that. That was one of the issues that was raised, there were many other issues raised as well.

    Ferguson: Now, just while it pains always to stress the appearance of good relations with China, the Albanese government has committed to much deeper involvement with US military strategy to counter China. How does that, how does that latter position reflect Labor values?

    Foreign Minister: Well, I think Labor values are first to work for peace, stability and prosperity. I think Labor values are to recognise we work in the Alliance, we work in the region, and we work through the rules to assure peace and stability, and that’s what we are doing. Our position as a government to work with the United States, to work with Japan, to work with ASEAN, and to work in the multilateral system as well as to engage with China is all about assuring Australia’s place in the world and trying to ensure that we, our children, grow up in a region which has the same sorts of attributes that we have had, we’ve been privileged to have for most of our lives there.

    Ferguson: Think that the Australian public wants a much deeper involvement in US military strategy?

    Foreign Minister: I think the Australian public want peace and stability, and that’s what we’re seeking to do, and I would make the point if the reference is AUKUS and the involvement with the United States, Australia has a very clear framework in relation to our sovereignty, and that matters. But so too, what matters is the objective that we seek to bring to, as I said, the alliance to the region and the rules, which is peace and stability and shared prosperity.

    Ferguson: Penny Wong, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

    Foreign Minister: Good to speak with you.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congresswoman Frederica Wilson’s Statement on the Continued Resolution to Keep Government Open Until December

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Frederica S Wilson (24th District of Florida)

    Washington, DC — Today, Congresswoman Frederica Wilson released the following statement on the Continued Resolution to Keep Government Open Until December, to which Congresswoman Wilson voted yes to keep government open:

    “Today, Democrats and Republicans came together to prevent a government shutdown that would have hurt millions of Americans by passing a continuing resolution to keep the government open until December. But before we celebrate, let’s take a moment to address how we got here.

    “Last week, House Democrats stood strong to block the extreme MAGA Republicans’ efforts to inject toxic provisions into our funding bills. These poison pills would have implemented parts of Trump’s Project 2025, shortchanged veterans, and harmed the middle class. Make no mistake, the only reason we’re passing a continuing resolution today instead of months ago is because MAGA Republicans deliberately chose to derail the process.

    “Months ago, Democrats and Republicans had already reached a bipartisan agreement to fund the government and avoid this last-minute scramble that people assume is normal in Congress. But instead of honoring that agreement, House Republicans, ordered by President Trump and his political ambitions ahead of the election, decided to stall the process—putting their own political interests above the needs of the American people.

    “This didn’t have to happen. Even with this three-month extension, we could have passed a full budget by now if MAGA Republicans had been willing to put aside politics and work with Democrats for the good of the country.

    “And let’s be clear: this isn’t just about Democrats pointing fingers. Look at today’s vote. Once again, it was Democrats who stepped up today. Once again, it was Democrats who provided the majority of votes to keep the government open. Once again, Democrats have proven that we are committed to solving problems for the American people and delivering real results, while many House Republicans—despite being the majority—voted to shut the government down.

    “So, while I am thankful that we’ve kept the government open, we didn’t need to be pushed to the edge. This process was delayed and nearly derailed by the extremism of MAGA Republicans.”

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Johnson, Peters, Paul, and Blumenthal Release Bipartisan Report Examining U.S. Secret Service Security Failures and Assassination Attempt on Former President Trump

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Ron Johnson
    WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, released a bipartisan interim report on the U.S. Secret Service’s (USSS) security planning, communications and coordination failures that contributed to the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald. J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The interim report includes key findings and recommendations to address those failures and ensure the Secret Service can effectively carry out its protective mission.   
    “Shortly after the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler, PA, I released preliminary findings detailing some of the significant security failures that occurred on that day,” said Ranking Member Johnson. “Today’s interim report expands on those security failures, but the investigation is not complete. Federal agencies like the Secret Service, FBI, and DOJ continue to withhold records that are vital to this Committee’s work. There is still much more information that the public and Congress deserve to know. Going forward, this Committee must be prepared to use compulsory process to ensure that the American people have a complete and thorough understanding of the security failures that resulted in the multiple attempts on former President Trump’s life.” 
    “From planning missteps, to the siloed and flawed communication to the lack of effective coordination between law enforcement, to the breakdowns in technology, the Secret Service’s failures that allowed an assassination attempt on former President Trump at his July 13 rally were shocking, unacceptable, and preventable – and they led to tragic consequences,” said Chairman Peters. “Moving forward, our bipartisan interim report makes recommendations for needed reforms to address these serious failures, provide accountability and transparency for the American people, and ensure that the Secret Service has the tools and resources they need to prevent another disaster like this from happening.”  
    “Our initial findings clearly show a series of multiple failures of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and an inexcusable dereliction of duty,” said Ranking Member Paul. “Not only did USSS fail to ensure the AGR roof was adequately covered, they were also aware of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder for at least 27 minutes and did not delay proceedings or remove former President Trump from the stage, even after being informed that the suspicious individual was on the roof of the AGR building. Someone needs to be held accountable for these egregious failures by the USSS, and despite USSS, DHS, FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies’ continued obstruction of our bipartisan investigation, I will continue to push for answers and accountability.”    
    “What happened on July 13 was an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure,” said Chairman Blumenthal. “It was a tragedy and completely preventable from the outset. There was both a failure to provide resources – like a working radio, drone detection system, or counter surveillance team – and lack of an effective chain of command. Looking forward, we need structural reform in the agency itself. The Secret Service is filled with dedicated and skilled men and women who serve our country at great risk to themselves and personal sacrifice, and they deserve better leadership. Today’s report is only an interim step, and I look forward to our continuing pursuit of evidence to help understand what went so catastrophically wrong and how we can prevent an event like this from ever happening again.” 
    READ THE INTERIM REPORT: “Examination of U.S. Secret Service Planning and Security Failures Related to the July 13, 2024 Assassination Attempt” 
    The interim report’s key findings of failures include:   
    USSS failed to clearly define responsibilities for planning and security at the July 13 rally: USSS personnel responsible for planning in advance of the July 13 rally denied that they were individually responsible for any planning or security failures and deflected blame. USSS Advance Leads told the Committee that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval.      
    USSS failed to ensure the AGR Building was effectively covered: USSS identified the AGR building as a concern due to the line-of-sight from the roof to the stage, but did not take steps to ensure sufficient security measures were in place. USSS knew that local snipers planned to set up inside the AGR building and USSS did not express objections or concerns about that placement. USSS personnel, including the USSS Counter Sniper Team Leader, did not enter the AGR building or go on the roof prior to the shooting. One USSS counter sniper team, whose responsibility included scanning the area around the AGR building for threats, had an obstructed view of the AGR roof.   
    USSS failed to effectively coordinate with state and local law enforcement: USSS did not give state or local partners any specific instructions for covering the AGR building, including the positioning of local snipers. USSS did not adequately consider state and local law enforcement operational plans. Communications at the July 13 rally were siloed and USSS did not ensure it could share information with local law enforcement partners in real time.   
    USSS failed to provide resources for the July 13 rally that could have enhanced security: USSS denied specific requests for additional Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems capabilities and a Counter Assault Team liaison. A USSS Counter Surveillance Unit – which could have helped patrol the outer perimeter that included the AGR building – was not requested by USSS Advance Leads.    
    USSS failed to communicate information about the suspicious person to key personnel and failed to take action to ensure the safety of former President Trump: At approximately 5:44 pm, USSS personnel were notified that local law enforcement observed a suspicious person with a rangefinder near the AGR building. By 5:52 pm, at least eight USSS personnel had been informed. Approximately two minutes before shots were fired, the USSS Security Room, located on the rally grounds, was told that there was an individual on the roof of the AGR building. Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper observed local officers running towards the AGR building with guns drawn.   
    USSS’s counter drone system experienced technical problems that left it inoperable for hours: With no backup system, the USSS agent responsible for overseeing the C-UAS capabilities at the July 13 rally called a toll-free 888 tech support hotline “to start troubleshooting with the company,” which took several hours.  That agent had only three months of experience working with that equipment and lacked knowledge about it.   
    Several USSS officials reported experiencing technical problems with their radios at the rally, and told the Committee such problems are common for USSS: A USSS Hercules 1 counter sniper was offered a local radio on July 13 but said he did not have time to pick it up because he was occupied fixing technical problems with his USSS radio.  In addition, at the Pittsburgh airport before the motorcade left for the rally, the USSS Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Pittsburgh field office gave the Lead Agent his radio because the Lead Agent’s radio was not working.   
     The interim report’s key recommendations include:   
    Planning and Coordination: Congress should require USSS to identify defined roles and responsibilities for USSS personnel responsible for advance planning of any protective event. For all protective events, USSS should improve coordination and specify roles and responsibilities between and among federal, state, and local law enforcement partners. USSS policies and protocols should require advance planning leads to request and review state and local operational plans in advance of any protective event to ensure a shared understanding of security responsibilities and vulnerabilities as well as other critical planning and security components.  
    Responsibility: In advance of each protective event, USSS should designate a single individual responsible for approving all plans, including the responsibility for approving security perimeters.  
    Communications:  DHS and USSS should ensure communications plans between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and first responders are properly executed and should ensure records retention capabilities. Congress should require that USSS record its radio transmissions at all protective events. Congress should require DHS and USSS to evaluate the steps it needs to take to ensure communications plans with state and local partners are fully executed when conducting law enforcement and/or first response activities at a given location.  Congress should require that DHS and USSS report to Congress any steps taken to remedy past failures to execute communications plans and to ensure compliance with those plans in the future.    
    Intelligence: USSS should consider sending additional assets, including counter snipers, to all future outdoor protective events as it evaluates intelligence and threats against protectees. USSS should also ensure that the appropriate agents working protective events are informed of relevant intelligence and threats against protectees.  
    Resources:  Congress should evaluate USSS budget and resources. Security requirements should be determined depending on various threat levels, ranging from less severe threat environments to the highest level of security at National Special Security Events.  Congress should require that USSS allocate assets and resources based on the threat level, not the position or title of the protectee.   

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warner, Connolly Introduce Legislation to Promote Federal Worker Safety

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Commonwealth of Virginia Mark R Warner
    WASHINGTON – With winter cold, flu, and COVID season upon us, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) is leading Senate introduction of the Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act, legislation requiring federal agencies to establish and publish workplace protections in the instance of a public health emergency declared for an infectious disease. Companion legislation was also introduced today in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA).
    The legislation is named for Chai Suthammanont, a kitchen staff worker at a childcare facility on Marine Corps Base Quantico, who died from coronavirus-related complications in May of 2020 after being exposed to COVID-19, likely in the tight kitchen space he shared with additional staff. Confusion and uncertainty regarding best practices and agency policies, as well as a general lack of communication with federal workforce staff, likely contributed to his death.
    Joining Sen. Warner in Senate introduction are Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
    “Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal employees remained hard at work, ensuring that the American people could continue to count on their government. But unfortunately, the pandemic highlighted that our federal agencies were widely unprepared to protect these essential workers,” said Sen. Warner. “It’s crucial that we learn from our mistakes. We owe it to our federal workforce to ensure a safe workplace, and when faced with another public health emergency, we must be prepared.”
    “On May 26, 2020, Chai Suthammanont, my constituent and a kitchen staff worker at a childcare facility on Marine Corps Base Quantico, died from COVID-related complications,” said Rep. Connolly. “Confusion and uncertainty surrounding agency guidance during the pandemic emerged as two of the largest contributing factors to Chai’s death. These factors, combined with a general lack of communication with federal workforce staff, led to tragedy. Our Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act will ensure federal employees are informed and better protected during any future public health emergency. I want to thank Senator Warner for his partnership, and I want to thank Chai’s widow, Christina, for her continued efforts to transform her family’s loss into a charge to help others.”
    Specifically, the Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act would:
    Require each federal agency to develop and maintain a plan that details public health protocols the agency will take during a nationwide infectious disease PHE declaration. The plan must include guidelines for testing, cleaning, occupancy limits, use of personal protective equipment, notification of individuals who may have been exposed, and protections for employees who travel off-site;
    Require each agency to publish the safety plan on its website and communicate its plan to employees, contractors, and subcontractors;
    Ensure accountability and oversight by requiring the Office of the Inspector General for each agency to report to Congress on plan implementation. The Government Accountability Office would also issue a report on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve future protocols.
    This bill has been endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE).
    Bill text is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Schatz Leads Bipartisan Group Of Senators In Urging Senate Leaders To Take Up Legislation To Permanently Extend Telehealth Flexibilities, Expand Access

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) led members of the bipartisan Senate Telehealth Working Group in calling on Senate leaders to take up legislation to permanently extend telehealth flexibilities for Medicare beneficiaries that are set to expire at the end of the year. Specifically, the senators urged for the passage of the bipartisan CONNECT for Health Act which Schatz leads with U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and was reintroduced last year with the support of 66 bipartisan senators. The letter follows Telehealth Awareness Week and comes after the House Energy & Commerce Committee unanimously advanced a two-year telehealth extension. In addition to Schatz, the letter is signed by Wicker and U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.).
    “At least 66 Democratic and Republican Senators support permanently expanding telehealth access, and similar provisions have passed on a bipartisan unanimous basis in committees of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives. The Senate must quickly act to advance these policies, which protect access to telehealth services and align with your objective to advance bipartisan legislation that promotes the health and well-being of Americans,” the senators wrote.
    They continued, “Medicare beneficiaries have come to rely on expanded access to telehealth services and are satisfied with the care they receive. We must provide patients and clinicians with long-term certainty of their ability to access and provide care through telehealth. The CONNECT for Health Act will help us achieve this shared goal and has strong, bipartisan support in the Senate.”
    The CONNECT for Health Act makes permanent telehealth flexibilities made temporarily available during the COVID-19 pandemic and later extended. Additionally, it expands access to telehealth services by removing unnecessary barriers and enabling doctors, particularly in rural and underserved communities, to leverage telehealth to better serve their patients. The bill was first introduced in 2016 and is considered the most comprehensive legislation on telehealth in Congress. Several provisions of the bill have since been enacted into law or adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
    The full text of the letter can be found below and is available here.
    Dear Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell:
    With the end-of-year expiration of telehealth flexibilities rapidly approaching, we write to urge you to prioritize policies that ensure all Medicare beneficiaries retain access to telehealth services. At least 66 Democratic and Republican Senators support permanently expanding telehealth access,  and similar provisions have passed on a bipartisan unanimous basis in committees of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives. The Senate must quickly act to advance these policies, which protect access to telehealth services and align with your objective to advance bipartisan legislation that promotes the health and well-being of Americans.
    Under your leadership, Congress has recognized the critical role of telehealth in health care delivery by expanding coverage during and after the COVID-19 public health emergency. Most recently in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Congress enacted a two-year extension of Medicare telehealth services coverage. This ensured continuity of care and provided time for experts to evaluate the effects of expanded telehealth serves. Recent studies by leading researchers and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) are clear: Telehealth provides essential access to care and improves outcomes, including reduced emergency department utilization and improved medication adherence. 
    Access to telehealth is at-risk, as noted by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Calendar Year 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule: “absent Congressional action, beginning January 1, 2025, statutory restrictions on geography, site of service, and practitioner type that existed prior to the COVID-19 PHE will go back into effect”.   Consequently, Congress must advance policies from our consensus bipartisan bill, the CONNECT for Health Act, before the coverage extension lapses. We urge you to prioritize the following provisions from our bill, which would improve American’s access to and quality of care:
    Telehealth should be available to all Medicare beneficiaries, regardless of where they live. Therefore, Congress should permanently remove geographic restrictions on telehealth services and permit the home and other clinically appropriate settings as originating sites. If budget constraints make permanent policy out of reach, given the significant costs required to ramp up and provide high quality telehealth programs, Congress must provide the maximum extension possible at an adequate length for providers to make necessary investments.
    Practitioners should be able to provide clinically appropriate telehealth services. The flexibility to provide telehealth, within state scope of practice laws, is particularly critical given high rates of provider shortages across disciplines.  Therefore, Congress should expand the authority for practitioners eligible to furnish telehealth services.
    Federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics should be able to provide telehealth services, free from unnecessary barriers and disincentives. Therefore, Congress should include federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics as distant site providers and telehealth should be integrated into these providers’ payment systems.
    Telemental health services should be accessible, free from barriers. Telehealth has transformed mental and behavioral health care, now accounting for 40 percent of telehealth services provided under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.   Notably, just 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries with a telemental health visit in the preceding quarter would satisfy the requirements to access these services under current statute.   Therefore, Congress should permanently repeal the six-month in-person visit requirement for telemental health services.
    Patients receiving hospice care should be permitted to receive assessments by telehealth. Therefore, Congress should allow for the use of telehealth in the recertification of a Medicare beneficiary for hospice.
    Medicare beneficiaries and providers should be supported as health care continues to transition.  Therefore, Congress should provide resources to improve beneficiary engagement and health care professional use of telehealth. Congress should also task the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ensure that telehealth quality is effectively measured, and that limited outlier billing patterns are addressed.
    Medicare beneficiaries have come to rely on expanded access to telehealth services and are satisfied with the care they receive.   We must provide patients and clinicians with long-term certainty of their ability to access and provide care through telehealth.  The CONNECT for Health Act will help us achieve this shared goal and has strong, bipartisan support in the Senate. Further, the Ways & Means and Energy & Commerce Committees have unanimously advanced telehealth legislation.  We appreciate your collaboration and leadership on this issue and look forward to working with you to ensure access to telehealth services is retained by the end of 2024.
    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senate Passes Schatz-Wicker Resolution Designating Telehealth Awareness Week

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz
    WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan resolution authored by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) designating September 15-21 as “Telehealth Awareness Week.” The resolution recognizes that telehealth has helped millions of Americans across the country access quality health care, and has become a critical component of health care delivery.
    “Telehealth helps people access quality health care when and where they need it, and our resolution highlights the broad, bipartisan support for raising awareness of and expanding access to telehealth,” said Senator Schatz, co-chair of the Senate Telehealth Working Group.
    “Telehealth is a cost-effective way for people in rural and underserved areas to access health care. Increasing the services available to patients remains one of my top priorities,” Senator Wicker said.
    The resolution affirms the bipartisan support in Congress for telehealth and encourages expanded access to telehealth services for all people, including members of rural and underserved communities. It notes that 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth services at least once in 2023, and that nearly 90 percent were satisfied with their experience. It concludes that “Telehealth Awareness Week” unites the efforts of patients, caregivers, health care providers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to advance the role of telehealth in health care.
    The resolution is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.).
    Schatz has led efforts to expand access to telehealth, including reintroducing the CONNECT for Health Act, the most comprehensive bipartisan telehealth legislation in Congress. Since its first iteration in 2016, several provisions from the bill have been signed into law.
    The full text of the resolution is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin Questions Judicial Nominees In Judiciary Committee Nominations Hearing

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
    09.25.24
    WASHINGTON – During today’s Senate Judiciary Committee nominations hearing, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned Sarah Morgan Davenport, nominated to be a United States District Judge for the District of New Mexico, about her unique background.  Durbin also began his remarks by highlighting the rigorous vetting process nominees undergo to be considered for a judicial nomination.
    “Among our nominees is Ms. Davenport, who graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor’s in music and who was a music teacher before going to law school and then [becoming] a prosecutor.  She went from professor to prosecutor.  Can you tell me about your background in music [that lead to your nomination]?” Durbin asked.
    Ms. Davenport replied that she wanted to go down a different career path after serving as a music teacher—which led her to attend law school and pursue a career as a prosecutor.
    Durbin then asked Keli Marie Neary, nominated to be a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, about a case where she represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in Federal Trade Commission et al., v. Penn State Hersey Medical Center et al.  The Commonwealth, along with the FTC, sued to block a merger of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center with the Pinnacle Health System. 
    “Can you tell us about that case?” Durbin asked.
    Ms. Neary responded, “that was one of two very important cases I worked on during my career that involved health care and providing care to many people across Pennsylvania.  In that particular case, we were working to make sure that no hospital became a monopoly in order to maintain prices in Pennsylvania, to ensure affordable health care in central Pennsylvania.” 
    She continued to say, “The other case I referenced is a case involving two large insurance companies in Pennsylvania and the hospital systems that participated in those insurance companies, and through my work on behalf of the Commonwealth, we were able to garner an agreement that resulted in affordable health care for many Pennsylvanians in the western part of the state.” 
    Durbin then questioned Judge Anthony J. Brindisi, nominated to be a United States District Judge for the Northern District of New York, about his background as a congressman and his service on the bench.
    “Can you compare those legal experiences?” Durbin asked.
    Judge Brindisi responded that the key to being a good congressman is to be a good listener, work in a bipartisan way to get work done, and to sit down with individuals you might disagree with to better understand their ideas on bills.  He continued to say that he took the lessons he learned from Congress to the bench. 
    Durbin then questioned Elizabeth C. Coombe, nominated to be a United States District Judge for the Northern District of New York, about her legal experience, noting that she has tried almost 40 cases to verdict or final decision.
    Ms. Coombe responded that given her experience litigating in both D.C. and New York federal courts, she was exposed to many bench trials and jury trials.  She continued to say, “I love being in the courtroom presenting cases to juries and seeing the power of the jury work its magic… And I think that my experience as a trial lawyer in front of juries will be helpful if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed.  I would bring that practical experience from the courtroom with me.”
    Video of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here.
    Audio of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here.
    Footage of Durbin’s questions Committee is available here for TV Stations.
    The hearing continues the Committee’s work filling judicial vacancies with highly qualified, diverse candidates who help ensure the fair and impartial administration of the American justice system.
    Under the leadership of Chair Durbin, the Senate has confirmed 212 judges to lifetime appointments on the federal bench during the Biden-Harris Administration. Following the confirmation of Michelle Court to be U.S. District Judge for the District of California and last week’s executive business meeting, 18 lifetime judges – including four circuit court nominees and 14 district court nominees – are eligible for a vote on the Senate floor.
    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Sets Coverage for Agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 Launch, Docking

    Source: NASA

    NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station.
    Liftoff is targeted for 1:17 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is the first human spaceflight mission to launch from that pad. The targeted docking time is approximately 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29.
    Live coverage of the prelaunch news conference, launch, the post-launch news conference, and docking stream on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of additional platforms, including social media.
    The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the orbiting laboratory for an approximate five-month science mission. This is the ninth crew rotation mission and the 10th human spaceflight mission for NASA to the space station supported by Dragon since 2020 as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
    The deadline for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch has passed. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online. For questions about media accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.
    Media looking for access to NASA live video feeds can subscribe to the agency’s media resources distribution list to receive daily updates and links.
    NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
    Friday, Sept. 27
    11:30 a.m. – One-on-one media interviews at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with various mission subject matter experts. Sign-up information will be emailed to media accredited to attend this launch.
    1:15 p.m. – NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Panel: Space Station 101 with the following participants:

    NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free
    Robyn Gatens, director, NASA’s International Space Station Program, and acting director, NASA’s Commercial Spaceflight Division
    Jennifer Buchli, chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program
    John Posey, Dragon engineer, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program

    Media may ask questions in person and via phone. Limited auditorium space will be available for in-person participation. For the dial-in number and passcode, media should contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 12:15 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
    Coverage of the virtual news conference will stream live on NASA+, YouTube, Facebook, and the agency’s website. Members of the public may ask questions online by posting questions to the YouTube, Facebook, and X livestreams using #AskNASA.
    5 p.m. – Prelaunch news conference from Kennedy with the following participants:

    NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free
    Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate
    Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
    Dina Contella, deputy manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
    Jennifer Buchli, chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program
    William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build & Flight Reliability, SpaceX
    Brian Cizek, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

    Coverage of the virtual news conference will stream live on NASA+ and the agency’s website.
    Media may ask questions in person and via phone. Limited auditorium space will be available for in-person participation. For the dial-in number and passcode, media should contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
    Saturday, Sept. 28
    9:10 a.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+ and the agency’s website.
    1:17 p.m. – Launch
    Following the conclusion of launch and ascent coverage, NASA will switch to audio only. Continuous coverage resumes on NASA+ at the start of rendezvous and docking and continues through hatch opening and the welcome ceremony. For NASA+ information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit:

    Home

    3 p.m. – Postlaunch news conference with the following participants:

    NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy
    Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate
    Dana Hutcherson, deputy program manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
    Dina Contella, deputy manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
    Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX

    The virtual news conference will stream live on NASA+, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
    Media may ask questions in person and via phone. Limited auditorium space will be available for in-person participation. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
    Sunday, Sept. 29
    3:30 p.m. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+ and the agency’s website.
    5:30 p.m. – Targeted docking to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module
    7:15 p.m. – Hatch opening
    7:40 p.m. – Welcome ceremony
    All times are estimates and could be adjusted based on real-time operations after launch. Follow the space station blog for the most up-to-date operations information.
    Audio Only Coverage
    Audio only of the news conferences and launch coverage will be carried on the NASA “V” circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240 or -7135. On launch day, “mission audio,” countdown activities without NASA+ launch commentary, will be carried on 321-867-7135.
    Launch audio also will be available on Launch Information Service and Amateur Television System’s VHF radio frequency 146.940 MHz and KSC Amateur Radio Club’s UHF radio frequency 444.925 MHz, FM mode, heard within Brevard County on the Space Coast.
    Live Video Coverage Prior to Launch
    NASA will provide a live video feed of Space Launch Complex-40 approximately six hours prior to the planned liftoff of the Crew-9 mission. Pending unlikely technical issues, the feed will be uninterrupted until the prelaunch broadcast begins on NASA+, approximately four hours prior to launch. Once the feed is live, find it online at:  http://youtube.com/kscnewsroom
    NASA Website Launch Coverage
    Launch day coverage of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission will be available on the agency’s website. Coverage will include livestreaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 9:10 a.m. Sept. 28, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff.
    For questions about countdown coverage, contact the Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on the commercial crew or Crew-9 blog.
    Attend Launch Virtually
    Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities or changes, and a stamp for the NASA virtual guest passport following a successful launch.
    Watch, Engage on Social Media
    Let people know you’re following the mission on X, Facebook, and Instagram by using the hashtags #Crew9 and #NASASocial. You can also stay connected by following and tagging these accounts:
    X: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASASocial, @Space_Station, @ISS_Research, @ISS National Lab, @SpaceX, @Commercial_Crew
    Facebook: NASA, NASAKennedy, ISS, ISS National Lab
    Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @ISS, @ISSNationalLab, @SpaceX
    Coverage en Espanol
    Did you know NASA has a Spanish section called NASA en Espanol? Make sure to check out NASA en Espanol on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more coverage on Crew-9.
    Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425;antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov; o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371; messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov.
    NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, more science, and more commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.
    For NASA’s launch blog and more information about the mission, visit:
    https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
    -end-
    Joshua Finch / Jimi RussellHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1100joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
    Steven Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott / Stephanie PlucinskyKennedy Space Center, Florida321-867-2468steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / danielle.c.sempsrott@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
    Leah CheshierJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Final Rule on Mitigating the Impact of Significant, Anomalous, and Highly Suspect Billing Activity on Medicare Shared Savings Program Financial Calculations in Calendar Year 2023 (CMS-1799-F)

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services

    On September 24, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the final rule entitled, “Medicare Program: Mitigating the Impact of Significant, Anomalous, and Highly Suspect Billing Activity on Medicare Shared Savings Program Financial Calculations in Calendar Year 2023” (CMS-1799-F). This final rule is part of a larger strategy to address significant, anomalous, and highly suspect (SAHS) billing activity within Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) reconciliation. A proposal in the calendar year (CY) 2025 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule addresses SAHS billing activity for CY 2024 onwards. This fact sheet summarizes the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program) policies that are included in this final rule. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: The Marshall Star for September 25, 2024

    Source: NASA

    By Wayne Smith
    NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center honored top contractors, subcontractors, teams, and individuals of fiscal year 2024 at the 38th meeting of Marshall’s Small Business Alliance. The awards honor aerospace companies and leaders who have demonstrated support of the center’s small business programs and NASA’s mission of exploration.

    The event took place Sept. 19 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville. Around 650 participants from industry and government gathered to network, learn about business opportunities, and recognize outstanding achievements in support of NASA’s mission and the small business community. Those attending represented 32 states and 10 nations.
    “The Marshall Small Business Alliance is an outreach tool designed to introduce the business community to the NASA marketplace,” said David Brock, small business specialist for the agency’s Office of Small Business Programs at Marshall. “Those in attendance can gain valuable insight into Marshall’s exciting programs and projects, upcoming procurement opportunities, and get an opportunity to network with Marshall prime contractors.”
    Marshall Director Joseph Pelfrey welcomed attendees, while Jeramie Broadway, deputy director of Marshall’s Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications, provided an update on the center for fiscal year 2025 and beyond.
    Marshall’s Industry & Advocate Awards are presented annually and reflect leadership in business community and sustained achievement in service to NASA’s mission.
    “We are excited about this year’s winners,” Brock said. “Each play a key role in helping NASA achieve successes in support of key programs and projects, including the Human Landing System and Space Launch System rocket. Maintaining and sustaining an experienced and competitive industry base is what makes America strong, and small businesses are at the core of those successes.”

    Marshall manages the Human Landing System and Space Launch System programs.
    This year’s award recipients are:
    Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year
    Media Fusion
    Small Business Subcontractor of the Year
    Zin Technologies
    Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year
    Jacobs
    Mentor-Protégé Agreement of the Year
    Jacobs (mentor) and CodePlus (protégé)
    Procurement Person of the Year
    Joseph Tynes  
    Program Person of the Year
    Patrick McVay
    Small Business Technical Coordinator of the Year
    Leah Fox
    Technical Person of the Year
    David Hood

    NASA civil service employees nominate eligible individuals and organizations for awards. A panel of NASA procurement and technical officials evaluates each nominee’s business practices, innovative processes, adoption of new technologies and their overall contributions to NASA’s mission and the agency’s Small Business Program.
    Award recipients in the following categories become candidates for agency-level Small Business Industry and Advocate Awards:

    Large and Small Business Prime Contractors of the Year
    Small Business Subcontractor of the Year
    Procurement Team or Person
    Technical, Small Business Technical Coordinator/Technical Advisor
    Program Person or Team of the Year

    Learn more about Marshall’s small business initiatives.
    Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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    By Serena Whitfield
    A new flag is reaching for the Moon outside the Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center following a Sept.19 ceremony, marking contributions from center team members toward the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
    The Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The mission is scheduled to launch Sept. 28 no earlier than 12:17 p.m. CDT.

    Crew-9 will be the first human spaceflight mission to launch from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the ninth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the orbiting laboratory under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The crew will spend approximately five months at the station, conducting more than 200 science and research demonstrations before returning in February 2025.
    Once aboard the space station, Hague and Gorbunov will become members of the Expedition 72 crew and perform research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance activities. The pair will join NASA astronauts Don Petitt, Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Wilmore and Williams, who launched aboard the Starliner spacecraft in June, will fly home with Hague and Gorbunov in February 2025.

    The flag raising has been a tradition for missions supported at Marshall’s Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC), as well as a tradition within the CCP to celebrate the successful conclusion of NASA’s Agency Flight Readiness Review prior to launch. The HOSC provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the CCP, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
    The CCP support team at Marshall provides crucial programmatic, engineering, and safety and mission assurance expertise for launch vehicles, spacecraft propulsion, and integrated vehicle performance. Marshall’s role within the CCP is to support certification that the spacecraft and launch vehicle are ready for launch. The support team performs engineering expertise, particularly for propulsion, as well as program management, safety and mission assurance, and spacecraft support. 

    The flag-raising ceremony was a joint effort between the Payload and Mission Operations Division (PMOD) and CCP team. Dave Gwaltney, technical assistant, specialty systems, and Commercial Crew Program representative, gave the introductions. He recognized Brady Doepke, structural analyst for liquid propulsion systems, for his significant contributions in preparation for Crew-9 mission success. Gwaltney said Doepke exemplified leadership and innovation through his guidance of Marshall’s CCP engineering team, which resulted in a successful risk assessment of the updated SpaceX turbine wheel fleet leader acceptance criteria.
    Payload and Mission Operations Division Manager Nicole Pelfrey also recognized Thomas “Reid” Lawrence as the division’s Crew-9 honoree.
    “Reid serves dutifully in the HOSC as part of the HOSC’s Data Operations Control Room Operations Engineers,” Pelfrey said. “Reid has a number of technical specialties, including his expertise in the Backup Control Center activation procedures. This expertise has been vital over the past year as JSC has worked through power upgrades. He also diligently ensures our ISS payload users receive their data and is a key engineer for the testing, verification, and operation of our HOSC interfaces that support commercial crew communications.”
    Whitfield is an intern supporting the Marshall Office of Communications.
    › Back to Top

    NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center hosted the Rossi Prize Recognition Dinner at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville on Sept. 18. The dinner was held to recognize the IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) team members honored with the Bruno Rossi Prize, a top prize in high-energy astronomy. From left, Martin Weisskopf, Rossi Prize awardee and NASA emeritus scientist, who served as the principal investigator for IXPE during its development, launch, and commissioning; Paolo Soffitta, Rossi Prize awardee, and the Italian Space Agency’s principal investigator for IXPE; Hashima Hasan, program scientist for IXPE at NASA Headquarters; Andrea Marinucci, IXPE team member and researcher with the Italian Space Agency; and Marshall Director Joseph Pelfrey, who provided welcome remarks at the dinner. “The Bruno Rossi Prize highlights how partnerships and teamwork can push the boundaries of scientific knowledge,” Pelfrey said. “The (IXPE) mission, a groundbreaking collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, represents over 30 years of dedicated effort and stands as a testament to the innovative work of a truly multinational team.” (NASA/Jennifer Deermer)

    Rossi Prize winners Weisskopf and Soffitta, center seated, are joined by a plush goat, the unofficial mascot of the IXPE mission, and other IXPE team members at the Rossi Prize Recognition Dinner. Read more about the award and the prize winners. (NASA/Jennifer Deermer)
    › Back to Top

    By Wayne Smith
    Talk with Shannon Segovia for any length of time and you’ll quickly discover the care and enthusiasm she has for her position as director of the Office of Communications at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. And that care and enthusiasm extends to those she works with across the center to share news about Marshall missions and team members.
    In her role, Segovia oversees a team responsible for media relations and public affairs, digital and social media, stakeholder relations and engagement, internal and employee communications, and executive communications for the center.

    “We manage these activities for the entire center of about 7,000 people, so it is a definitely a very busy job!” said Segovia, a native of Athens, Alabama, who was named as permanent communications director this summer after more than 12 years at Marshall.
    She was the deputy director of communications starting in June 2023 after working as Marshall’s news chief and public affairs team lead starting in 2019. From 2012 to 2019, Segovia was a public affairs officer at the center. Prior to joining NASA, she was the communications manager for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
     At Marshall, she said it’s the people who continue to be her biggest motivators.
    “As a public servant, I want the people I serve – the people who follow our channels, listen to the news stories we create, and attend our events – to know why NASA’s missions are important and critical to the world we live in,” Segovia said. “I am so fortunate to have such a brilliant team, and they motivate me daily with their hard work.”
    “I’m also motivated by my husband and family because I want to make them proud. I want my nieces and nephews to have a bright future, and I truly believe the work we are doing at NASA will help them do that.”
    Question: What excites you most about the future of human space exploration, or your NASA work, and your team’s role it?
    Segovia: NASA’s missions depend on public and stakeholder support, and that is what our office does – ensures people know what we are doing at NASA and specifically at Marshall, why it is important, and how our missions are benefiting humanity. From social media posts to events like the South Star music festival to interviews with media outlets and stakeholder tours, we use every channel we can to tell others about the work we are doing at Marshall and NASA. Our office touches every organization at the center, and it is so exciting to have a front seat to everything we are doing to get humans back to the Moon and on to Mars.

    Question: What has been the proudest moment of your career and why?
    Segovia: I helped take a team of 12 Marshall female engineers to The Today Show in 2019 for a segment about International Women’s Day. As a public affairs specialist, one of our job duties is to prepare subject matter experts for interviews, making sure they have messages, talking points, and anything else they need. I have never been more proud to be a woman and to work for Marshall than I was that day, seeing how well these women represented NASA and the extraordinary achievements they have made possible. It also made me even more thankful for the job I have – preparing them to make sure they felt confident and could talk about their work was a wonderful experience. The other moment in my career I will never forget is the Artemis I launch in November 2022. I’ve supported the Space Launch System since I started working at NASA, and seeing that rocket fly was one of the best moments of my career. It was the culmination of so much hard work and sacrifice from so many people and was truly an overwhelming and amazing experience.
    Question: Who or what inspired you to pursue an education/career that led you to NASA and Marshall?
    Segovia: My parents have always been my No. 1 fans, encouragers, and supporters. They instilled in me a strong work ethic and the belief I could do anything I wanted to do if I worked hard. They made education a priority for my brothers and I and would do anything to help us succeed. I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family. My mom always wanted me to do something in the medical field, but a biology course in college changed my mind quickly on that. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but had been at school for two years and needed to declare a major. I liked to write and read but didn’t know how to make a career out of that until I went to a journalism class taught by Ms. Bobbie Hurt at the University of North Alabama, and I was hooked. She became my mentor and really taught me how to be a good writer, which has been the foundation for my entire career. I ended up with a double major in journalism and public relations, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
    Question: What advice do you have for employees early in their NASA career or those in new leadership roles?
    Segovia: Find people to whom you can go to for advice, who have your back, and can help you accomplish your goals. I’ve had some amazing mentors, teammates, and bosses who have not only supported me but pushed me to do things I wasn’t sure I could do and helped me even when I messed up. I would not be here without them, and I think it is so important to have those people in your entire career, but especially when you are new. Ask for help when you need it. Time flies, so enjoy the season and job you are in. You will know when it is time to move on, but being present and learning from where you are will help you succeed.
    Question: What do you enjoy doing with your time while away from work?
    Segovia: I love the water – ocean, river, pool, lake – I like being outside and water activities. I love to read and travel, and also to spend time with family and friends. I have three nieces and two nephews, and I like to go to their games and activities. I have a 4-year-old terrier mix named Ted and I enjoy taking him on walks and to the park.
    Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
    › Back to Top

    NASA has awarded a total of $1.5 million to two U.S. teams for their novel technology solutions addressing energy distribution, management, and storage as part of the agency’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. The innovations from this challenge aim to support NASA’s Artemis missions, which will establish long-term human presence on the Moon.

    This two-phase competition has challenged U.S. innovators to develop breakthrough power transmission and energy storage technologies that could enable long-duration Moon missions to advance the nation’s lunar exploration goals. The final phase of the challenge concluded with a technology showcase and winners’ announcement ceremony Sept. 20 at Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the visitor center for NASA’s Glenn Research Center.
    “Congratulations to the finalist teams for developing impactful power solutions in support of NASA’s goal to sustain human presence on the Moon,” said Kim Krome-Sieja, acting program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “These technologies seek to improve our ability to explore and make discoveries in space and could have implications for improving power systems on Earth.”

    The winning teams are:

    First prize ($1 million): H.E.L.P.S. (High Efficiency Long-Range Power Solution) of Santa Barbara, California
    Second prize ($500,000): Orbital Mining Corporation of Golden, Colorado

    Four teams were invited to refine their hardware and deliver full system prototypes in the final stage of the competition, and three finalist teams completed their technology solutions for demonstration and assessment at Glenn. The technologies were the first power transmission and energy storage prototypes to be tested by NASA in a vacuum chamber mimicking the freezing temperature and absence of pressure found at the permanently shadowed regions of the Lunar South Pole. The simulation required the teams’ power systems to demonstrate operability over six hours of solar daylight and 18 hours of darkness with the user three kilometers (nearly two miles) away from the power source.
    During this competition stage, judges scored the finalists’ solutions based on a Total Effective System Mass (TESM) calculation, which measures the effectiveness of the system relative to its size and weight – or mass – and the total energy provided by the power source. The highest-performing solution was identified based on having the lowest TESM value – imitating the challenges that space missions face when attempting to reduce mass while meeting the mission’s electrical power needs.

    Team H.E.L.P.S. (High Efficiency Long-Range Power Solution) from University of California, Santa Barbara, won the grand prize for their hardware solution, which had the lowest mass and highest efficiency of all competitors. The technology also featured a special cable operating at 800 volts and an innovative use of energy storage batteries on both ends of the transmission system. They also employed a variable radiation shield to switch between conserving heat during cold periods and disposing of excess heat during high power modes. The final 48-hour test proved their system design effectively met the power transmission, energy storage, and thermal challenges in the final phase of competition.
    Orbital Mining Corporation, a space technology startup, received the second prize for its hardware solution that also successfully completed the 48-hour test with high performance. They employed a high-voltage converter system coupled with a low-mass cable and a lithium-ion battery.
    “The energy solutions developed by the challenge teams are poised to address NASA’s space technology priorities,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “These solutions support NASA’s recently ranked civil space shortfalls, including in the top category of surviving and operating through the lunar night.”

    [embedded content]
    Watch the finale of NASA’s Watts on the Moon challenge, a $5 million, two-phase competition designed to develop breakthrough power transmission and energy storage technologies.

    During the technology showcase and winners’ announcement ceremony, NASA experts, media, and members of the public gathered to see the finalist teams’ technologies and hear perspectives from the teams’ participation in the challenge. After the winners were announced, event attendees were also welcome to meet NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen.
    The Watts on the Moon Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge led by Glenn. Marshall manages Centennial Challenges, which are part of the agency’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA contracted HeroX to support the administration of this challenge.
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    Manufacturing equipment that will be used to build components for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for future Artemis missions is being installed at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility.
    The novel tooling will be used to produce the SLS rocket’s advanced exploration upper stage, or EUS, in the factory’s new manufacturing area. The EUS will serve as the upper, or in-space, stage for all Block 1B and Block 2 SLS flights in both crew and cargo configurations.

    In tandem, NASA and Boeing, the SLS lead contractor for the core stage and exploration upper stage, are producing structural test articles and flight hardware structures for the upper stage at Michoud and the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Early manufacturing is already underway at Michoud while preparations for an engine-firing test series for the upper stage are in progress at nearby Stennis Space Center.
    “The newly modified manufacturing space for the exploration upper stage signifies the start of production for the next evolution of SLS Moon rockets at Michoud,” said Hansel Gill, director at Michoud. “With Orion spacecraft manufacturing and SLS core stage assembly in flow at Michoud for the past several years, standing up a new production line and enhanced capability at Michoud for EUS is a significant achievement and a reason for anticipation and enthusiasm for Michoud and the SLS Program.”

    The advanced upper stage for SLS is planned to make its first flight with Artemis IV and replaces the single-engine Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) that serves as the in-space stage on the initial SLS Block 1 configuration of the rocket. With its larger liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks feeding four L3 Harris Technologies- built RL10C-3 engines, the EUS generates nearly four times the thrust of the ICPS, providing unrivaled lift capability to the SLS Block 1B and Block 2 rockets and making a new generation of crewed lunar missions possible.
    This upgraded and more powerful rocket will increase the SLS rocket’s payload to the Moon by 40%, from 27 metric tons (59,525 lbs.) with Block 1 to 38 metric tons (83,776 lbs.) in the crew configuration. Launching crewed missions along with other large payloads enables multiple large-scale objectives to be accomplished in a single mission.

    Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon. The rocket is part of NASA’s deep space exploration plans, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. NASA’s SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.
    NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program and Michoud.
    › Back to Top

    Chris Pereira can personally attest to the immense gravitational attraction of black holes. He’s been in love with space ever since he saw a video on the topic in a high school science class.
    But it wasn’t just any science class. It was one specially designed for English learners.

    “I was born and raised in Guatemala,” Pereira said. “I came here at 14 unable to speak any English.”
    Pereira did not know how to navigate the U.S. educational system either, but after that class, he was certain he wanted a career in space.
    Thus began a journey that ultimately landed him at L3Harris Technologies, where he works in the Aerojet Rocketdyne segment as an engineer and operations integrator on the RS-25 engine – used to power the core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will launch astronauts to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis campaign.
    Pereira’s first step was to stay after class and ask to borrow a copy of the video on black holes. His teacher not only obliged but took him across the street to the local library to get his first library card.
    Pereira quickly recognized that the pathway to his desired career in space was through higher education. It was equally clear, however, that he was not yet on that pathway. English as a Second Language classes, including that science class, did not count toward college admissions. His guidance counselor, meanwhile, was nudging him toward the trades.
    But with the help of teachers and a new guidance counselor, he got himself on the college-bound track.
    “I came to understand there were multiple career pathways to explore my interest in space,” Pereira said. “One was engineering.”
    There was a lot of catching up to do, so Pereira took eight classes per day, including honors courses. He also worked every day after school cleaning a gymnasium from 6 to 11 p.m. to help his family make ends meet.
    Pereira earned his mechanical engineering degree at California State University at Los Angeles while also working as a senior educator at the California Science Center to cover the cost of his college tuition and living expenses.
    Pereira’s first career experience was as an intern in manufacturing engineering at Aerojet Rocketdyne. “I learned that making 100% mission-success engines requires a strong culture of attention to detail, teamwork and solid work ethics.” Pereira said. His first full-fledged engineering job was with Honeywell Aerospace working on aircraft programs.
    Eventually, space came calling – literally. “My mentor at Aerojet Rocketdyne called me up and said, ‘Chris, I have a job for you,’” Pereira said.
    He began his new job working on rocket engine programs including the AR1 and RS-68 but shifted to the RS-25 after NASA awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne a contract for newly manufactured versions of the engine. Initial versions of the SLS are using refurbished engines from the Space Shuttle Program. Evolved versions of the RS-25 recently concluded a critical test series and will debut with the fifth Artemis flight.
    As RS-25’s operations integrator, Pereira is responsible for ensuring that the many pieces of the program – from tracking on-time procurement of supplies and labor loads to coordinating priorities on various in-demand machine centers – come together to deliver a quality product.
    Playing a key role in the nation’s effort to return astronauts to the Moon feels a bit like coming home again, Pereira said. “You develop your first love, work really hard, take different pathways and encounter new passions,” he said. “It’s almost funny how the world and life work out – it’s like I’ve taken a big circle back to my first love.”
    NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.
    NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program.
    Read other I Am Artemis features.
    › Back to Top

    Renee Weber, chief scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, talks during the “Legacy of the Invisible” event in downtown Huntsville on Sept. 20. About 300 people attended the event, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The celebration featured “No Straight Lines,” a new mural at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Washington Street by local artist Float. The mural honors Huntsville’s rich scientific legacy in astrophysics and highlights the groundbreaking discoveries made possible by Marshall scientists and engineers. Other speakers included Collen Wilson-Hodge, principal investigator of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The event also offered members of the community the opportunity to meet the scientists who worked on some of NASA’s most revolutionary astrophysics missions. Featured exhibits from Marshall included the Apollo Telescope mount, the main science instrument on Skylab; the High Energy Astrophysics Program (HEAO); the BATSE instrument on the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory; Chandra X-ray Observatory; Fermi; IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer); and Marshall’s X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility. “I had a really nice time at the event,” Weber said. “It’s always great to see such interest and enthusiasm in our science work from the public.” Wilson-Hodge said the mural is an artistic depiction of the historic event detected with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory on Aug. 17, 2017. “On that day, for the first time ever, we observed both a gamma-ray burst and gravitational waves from two very dense neutron stars merging to form a black hole,” she said. (NASA/Serena Whitfield)

    From left to right, scientists and astrophysicists from Marshall, Cori Fletcher, Michelle Hui, Steven Ehlert, Weber, Colleen Wilson-Hodge, Lisa Gibby, and the artist Float pose for a photo in front of the “No Straight Lines” mural at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Washington Street in Huntsville. (NASA/Serena Whitfield)
    › Back to Top

    Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found a galaxy cluster has two streams of superheated gas crossing one another. This result shows that crossing the streams may lead to the creation of new structure.

    Researchers have discovered an enormous, comet-like tail of hot gas – spanning over 1.6 million light-years long – trailing behind a galaxy within the galaxy cluster called Zwicky 8338 (Z8338 for short). This tail, spawned as the galaxy had some of its gas stripped off by the hot gas it is hurtling through, has split into two streams.
    This is the second pair of tails trailing behind a galaxy in this system. Previously, astronomers discovered a shorter pair of tails from a different galaxy near this latest one. This newer and longer set of tails was only seen because of a deeper observation with Chandra that revealed the fainter X-rays.
    Astronomers now have evidence that these streams trailing behind the speeding galaxies have crossed one another. Z8338 is a chaotic landscape of galaxies, superheated gas, and shock waves (akin to sonic booms created by supersonic jets) in one relatively small region of space. These galaxies are in motion because they were part of two galaxy clusters that collided with each other to create Z8338.
    This new composite image shows this spectacle. X-rays from Chandra (represented in purple) outline the multimillion-degree gas that outweighs all of the galaxies in the cluster. The Chandra data also shows where this gas has been jettisoned behind the moving galaxies. Meanwhile an optical image from the Dark Energy Survey from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile shows the individual galaxies peppered throughout the same field of view.
    The original gas tail discovered in Z8338 is about 800,000 light-years long and is seen as vertical in this image. The researchers think the gas in this tail is being stripped away from a large galaxy as it travels through the galaxy cluster. The head of the tail is a cloud of relatively cool gas about 100,000 light-years away from the galaxy it was stripped from. This tail is also separated into two parts.

    The team proposes that the detachment of the tail from the large galaxy may have been caused by the passage of the other, longer tail. Under this scenario, the tail detached from the galaxy because of the crossing of the streams.
    The results give useful information about the detachment and destruction of clouds of cooler gas like those seen in the head of the detached tail. This work shows that the cloud can survive for at least 30 million years after it is detached. During that time, a new generation of stars and planets may form within it.
    The Z8338 galaxy cluster and its jumble of galactic streams are located about 670 million light-years from Earth. A paper describing these results appeared in the Aug. 8, 2023, issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is available here.
    NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
    Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
    › Back to Top

    What does it take to build a massive spacecraft that will seek to determine if a mysterious moon has the right ingredients for life? Find out in a new video series called “Behind the Spacecraft,” which offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the roles of five engineers working on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, from building the spacecraft’s communications systems to putting it through rigorous tests so the orbiter can meet its science goals in space.

    [embedded content]

    With its launch period opening Oct. 10, Europa Clipper is the agency’s first mission dedicated to exploring an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles to the Jupiter system, where it will investigate the gas giant’s moon Europa, which scientists believe contains a global saltwater ocean beneath its icy shell.
    The videos are being released here weekly. The first two are already out.
    Meet the team:

    Dipak Srinivasan, lead communications systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, makes sure the Europa Clipper team can communicate with the spacecraft. Learn more about his work in the video above.
    Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, helped plan Europa Clipper’s trajectory, ensuring the spacecraft arrives at Jupiter safely and has a path to fly by Europa dozens of times. Learn more about Sarah’s work here.
    Jenny Kampmeier, a science systems engineer at JPL, acts as an interface between mission scientists and engineers.
    Andres Rivera, a systems engineer at JPL and first-generation American, works on Europa Clipper’s cruise phase — the journey from Earth to Jupiter.
    Valeria Salazar, an integration and test engineer at JPL who spent her childhood in Mexico, helped test the Europa Clipper spacecraft to ensure its launch readiness.

    Europa Clipper experts will answer questions about the mission in a NASA Science Live show airing in English on Oct. 1, and in Spanish on Oct. 3. The broadcasts will appear on NASA+, YouTube, Facebook, and X. The Spanish broadcast will be streamed on the NASA en Español YouTube channel. Viewers can submit questions on social media using the hashtag #askNASA or by leaving a comment in the chat section of the Facebook or YouTube stream.
    Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission and will fly through the most punishing radiation environment of any planet in the solar system. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and, during multiple flybys of Europa, will collect a wealth of scientific data with nine science instruments and an experiment that uses its telecommunications system to gather gravity data.
    Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
    › Back to Top

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: BEAVER COUNTY – Governor Shapiro and Local Leaders to Highlight Key Investments in Workforce Development, Expanded Job Training, and Vo-Tech Initiatives

    Source: US State of Pennsylvania

    September 26, 2024 – Monaca, PA

    ADVISORY – BEAVER COUNTY – Governor Shapiro and Local Leaders to Highlight Key Investments in Workforce Development, Expanded Job Training, and Vo-Tech Initiatives

    Governor Josh Shapiro will visit Beaver CountyCareer & Technology Center (BCCTC) to highlight the investments in workforce development, job training, and career and technical education (CTE) included in the bipartisan budget the Governor signed into law this year.

    In the 2024-25 budget, Governor Shapiro secured key investments to help grow our workforce and give Pennsylvanians the freedom to chart their own course and the opportunity to succeed.

    WHO:
    Governor Josh Shapiro
    Laura DelVecchio, Administrative Director, BCCTC
    David Liptak, Carpentry Instructor, BCCTC
    Karleigh Matscherz, student, BCCTC
    Representative Robert Matzie
    Congressman Chris Deluzio

    WHEN
    Thursday, September 26, 2024, at 11:15 AM
    *Press conference to begin around 11:45 AM

    WHERE:
    Beaver County Career & Technology Center (BCCTC)
    145 Poplar Avenue
    Monaca, PA 15061

    LIVE STREAM:
    pacast.com/live/gov
    governor.pa.gov/live/

    RSVP:
    Press who are interested in attending must RSVP with the names and phone numbers for each member of their team to ra-gvgovpress@pa.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Leader of Gorilla Stone Mafia Gang Convicted of Two Murders on Staten Island and Drug Distribution

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

    While in Jail, the Defendant Wrote About the Murders: “I Feel Like the Reaper”

    Today, a federal jury in Brooklyn returned a guilty verdict against John Pena, leader of the Gorilla Stone Mafia (GSM), a subgroup of the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation (UGSN), which is a faction of the nationwide Bloods street gang. The jury convicted Pena, also known as “Tragedy,” “Don Tragg,” “Last Don” and “Money Baggz,” on all six counts of a second superseding indictment charging him with racketeering; murder in-aid-of racketeering; causing death through use of a firearm; unlawful possession, brandishing and discharge of a firearm; being a felon in possession of ammunition; and conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and crack cocaine.  Pena was convicted of murdering Mark Bajandas on March 10, 2021, and Francisco Gonzalez on June 22, 2021, on behalf of GSM.  The verdict followed a seven-day trial before United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly.  When sentenced, Pena faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

    Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Thomas G. Donlon, Interim Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the verdict.

    As the evidence proved, Pena was consumed by seeking revenge against rivals and maintaining his leadership position in the Gorilla Stone Mafia gang by any means necessary,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “Killing a man as he slept in bed and shooting another man with a dozen bullets are shocking examples of Pena’s ruthlessness.  Today’s verdict ensures he will spend the rest of his life in prison for his direct role in the extreme violence and drug trafficking wreaked on a Staten Island community.” 

    Mr. Peace thanked the U.S. Marshals Service for their assistance.

    “Today’s guilty verdict is a direct result of the focused and collaborative efforts of dedicated investigators from the NYPD, FBI, and the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York,” stated Interim NYPD Commissioner Donlon.  “Gang activity, especially the carrying and indiscriminate shooting of illegal guns on our streets, instills fear in the daily lives of New Yorkers. It is crucial that we and our law enforcement partners continue to target and dismantle these criminal groups, and work toward preventing the violence that is so often associated with their activities.”

    As proven at trial, Pena committed the crimes of conviction in connection with his leadership of GSM, which operated out of the Stapleton Houses, a public housing development on Staten Island.  Members of GSM use intimidation, threats of violence and acts of violence to preserve and protect GSM’s power, territory and criminal activities.  They also use drug trafficking as a means of obtaining money.

    In the early morning hours of March 10, 2021, Pena fired multiple gunshots from close range at Mark Bajandas, also known as “Drama,” a former GSM associate and perceived rival, killing him.  Bajandas, a former GSM member who had defected to the rival Bugatti set of USGN, suffered at least 12 gunshot wounds.  The murder occurred after Pena and Bajandas had attended a memorial earlier in the evening to commemorate the death of Avanti Brock, a former GSM member who was murdered allegedly by Bugatti approximately one year earlier. 

    On June 22, 2021, Pena murdered Francisco Gonzalez, a former GSM member, by shooting him three times in the head while Gonzalez was asleep in bed next to Pena’s ex-girlfriend. 

    Law enforcement recovered writings from Pena’s jail cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center that included statements in which he took responsibility for the murders of Bajandas and Gonzalez, such as: “Kuz I Turn all my opps into ghost / Francisco I mix them N / Mark / A … shhh / Gotta chill … they don’t Know / Lately how I feel / Like the reaper / If I spot em I’m snatching his soul.”  Pena also wrote about killing Gonzalez, including: “left his brains on them sheets man what was he thinkin’?,” referring to the fact that he had shot Gonzalez in the head while Gonzalez was asleep in bed.

    Witness testimony and evidence obtained from cell phones proved that GSM members enriched themselves by selling controlled substances in and around the Stapleton Houses and also in Vermont, and that Pena was involved in the sale and distribution of marijuana, crack cocaine and heroin.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  As part of the program, U.S. Attorney’s Offices work in partnership with federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement and their local communities to develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime.

    The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.  Assistant United States  Attorneys Dana Rehnquist, Andrew Roddin and Elias Laris are in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Elizabeth Reed and Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Galeotti.

    The Defendant:

    JOHN PENA (also known as “Tragedy,” “Don Tragg,” “Last Don” and Money Baggz”)
    Age:  32
    Staten Island, New York

    E.D.N.Y. Docket No.:  21-CR-176 (S-2) (AMD)

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Mixing it up: hybrid work models can offer the best of both worlds for worker wellbeing and productivity

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Blumenfeld, Director, Centre for Labour, Employment and Work, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sparked debate on the future of work in New Zealand this week when he ordered public service employees back to the office.

    But Luxon’s edict neglects a broader transformation in work culture.

    Work from home (WFH) arrangements have grown considerably over the past decade, propelled by an increase in dual-income households and rapid technological advancements.

    The COVID pandemic acted as a catalyst for further change, proving that many jobs could successfully be performed remotely.

    Our upcoming article in the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations addresses the pros and cons of remote work. We highlight how a hybrid model – mixing days in the office with days working from home – can improve wellbeing, engagement and productivity.

    We found embracing a hybrid approach may lead to better outcomes as society shifts with technology and employment expectations. And, despite the prime minister’s demands on public service workers, it may be too late to go back.

    Embracing flexibility

    Under current rules, employees can request flexible working arrangements. Employers must provide valid reasons if they decline the request.

    According to a 2023 survey from Human Resources New Zealand, 40% of HR professionals noted productivity gains as a critical advantage of WFH arrangements.

    And some professional organisations have embraced work from home or hybrid work arrangements.

    The New Zealand Law Association, for example, has emphasised the significant benefits of flexible work for their members, including increased employee engagement, productivity, and overall wellbeing.

    A report from Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission noted the public service’s success in delivering quality services during the pandemic while working remotely.

    The commission’s current guidance on hybrid work arrangements supports flexibility that allows working from home to focus and working together when necessary.

    Does WFH reduce efficiency?

    Luxon argues forcing workers back to the office will promote efficiency. But there is little evidence suggesting New Zealand’s productivity has significantly declined with WFH or hybrid arrangements.

    Instead, we found office-only arrangements risked introducing new inefficiencies for the government. These included new layers of permissions and reporting on arrangements that have already been agreed to.

    The assumption that office work suits everyone is also contradicted by experiences during and after COVID.

    During the first year of the pandemic, many workers felt the void of casual interactions that once sparked creativity. They also struggled with isolation. This was especially pronounced for caregivers, often women, who had to juggle professional duties with increased childcare responsibilities.

    Despite this, a University of Otago survey conducted during the pandemic noted 67% of participants preferred a hybrid work model.

    Many expressed optimism regarding remote work’s continuation, with significant portions reporting stable or increased productivity, although some struggled with home distractions.

    And our research found taking a hybrid approach to work – with one or more days at home – reduced the risks from professional and social isolation and improved collaboration.

    Opportunities to work at home some of the time also allowed time for focused work, reduced commuting time and improved wellbeing.

    Boosting productivity from home

    Luxon’s assertion that working from home is “not an entitlement” aligns with traditional views on work. These include the belief that time at a desk is a measurement of productivity, rather than measuring the outcomes from work.

    However, a growing body of evidence indicates remote work can elevate both productivity and employee satisfaction.

    Eliminating daily commutes allows employees to redirect time toward focused work, positively impacting job satisfaction and mental wellbeing.

    Moreover, remote work fosters inclusivity, enabling organisations to source talent from a broader geographic area, which in turn enhances diversity and innovation.

    A report from McKinsey & Company found businesses adopting flexible work arrangements are better positioned to navigate future uncertainties, sustaining or even boosting productivity.

    A survey by the Australian Council of Trade Unions exploring WFH revealed nearly 48% of participants experienced enhanced productivity, attributed in part to the elimination of commuting.

    However, it also highlighted challenges. Some 40% of respondents said they were facing longer work hours, which can lead to burnout. Addressing these issues is essential to maintaining employee wellbeing.

    The future of work

    Instead of enforcing strict office attendance, leaders should adapt to the changing work landscape.

    Promoting flexible arrangements can foster a more productive and engaged workforce, ultimately benefiting New Zealand’s public service in today’s dynamic environment.

    Balancing both office and remote work presents the most promising path forward.

    Joanne Crawford receives funding from the Health Research Council and the NZ Industrial Relations Foundation Trust.

    Roya Gorjifard receives funding from the Victoria University of Wellington for Doctoral Research.

    Chris Peace and Stephen Blumenfeld 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. Mixing it up: hybrid work models can offer the best of both worlds for worker wellbeing and productivity – https://theconversation.com/mixing-it-up-hybrid-work-models-can-offer-the-best-of-both-worlds-for-worker-wellbeing-and-productivity-239710

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The government is reviewing negative gearing and capital gains tax, but this won’t be enough to fix our housing shortage

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Cull, Associate professor, Western Sydney University

    Negative gearing and capital gains tax are back on the national agenda as Australians deal with a housing crisis and politicians look for ways to tackle the issue and win voters’ support at the upcoming election.

    The Labor government confirmed this week the tax concessions were being reviewed. Meanwhile, the government is struggling to pass its Help to Buy housing assistance legislation through the Senate.

    The Help to Buy legislation is aimed at helping first home buyers on low and middle incomes purchase their first home. The government would contribute up to 40% of the home purchase price and require only a 2% deposit from buyer. Buyers could eventually buy back the government’s equity share.

    But the legislation has stalled with the Greens wanting more including rent caps and pulling back negative gearing while the Coalition says the government “shouldn’t be in the business of co-owning people’s homes”.

    The review, revealed yesterday, could reportedly include a cap on the number of properties a person could negatively gear. The changes would not affect anyone who is currently negatively geared.

    Negative gearing lets taxpayers claim deductions on their tax for the expenses relating to owning an investment property. They can save on tax as the property potentially rises in value. They can also be eligible for a reduced capital gains tax when they sell the property.

    But any changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax policies could face further opposition – depending on how they are implemented. The crucial issue is whether the changes free up enough housing stock and make it more affordable for buyers and renters.

    Home ownership in Australia

    Based on National Housing Supply and Affordability Council data, home ownership across most age groups has been declining since the 1970s.

    Younger households, aged between 25 and 34 years, are hardest hit, having 34% of household income spent on mortgage costs in 2022–23.

    About 67% of households in Australia are home owners, and the remainder renters. While the proportion of owners with a mortgage has increased since 1994, so too has the proportion of private renters.

    Size of the investment market

    Just under 10% of all taxpayers negatively geared their properties in 2020–21 and more than 70% of property investors have only one investment property.

    While there have been calls for changes to negative gearing policy to cap the number of investment properties at six, this would impact about only 20,000 individual property investors.

    Changes to capital gains tax

    Suggestions to increase capital gains tax (CGT) need to be considered carefully, given that:

    • there is no solid evidence to show that increasing CGT will increase housing supply and in fact, it may have the opposite effect by limiting rental housing available

    • any change to CGT legislation also impacts other investments (such as shares), as the CGT discount also applies to other capital gains

    • multiple investment properties are often held within self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) which are subject to different CGT rules and also benefit from superannuation tax concessions

    • the rapid increase in housing prices over recent years is likely to result in very large amounts of CGT being paid on investment properties, even with the current 50% CGT discount.

    Other ways to improve affordability and availability

    Policy discussions around housing affordability and availability invariably lead to suggestions to change how negative gearing and capital gains tax operate. However, taxation policy is not the only solution available.

    Another suggestion put forward is to allow first home buyers to use their superannuation for deposits.

    Regardless of one’s position on accessing superannuation for something other than retirement, this suggestion is not viable for low to middle income earners. These households are unlikely to have substantial superannuation balances. Also, they don’t have the earning capacity to service a mortgage for the outstanding amount.

    There is currently a push to use self-managed super funds SMSFs to enable home ownership. This would effectively allow individuals to become tenants in homes owned by their super funds.

    However, the complexities of superannuation law mean this could cause big problems for people whose relationships break down.

    Considering the generational wealth that currently exists in property, the government could consider making it easier for parents or grandparents to gift (or sell) property to their children or grandchildren, in certain circumstances.

    This area has not yet been sufficiently explored.

    What needs to change

    The real issue of housing affordability is multifaceted, and any change needs to be done as part of a broader policy.

    It is likely that on its own, changes to negative gearing and/or capital gains tax will not achieve the intended outcome to make housing more accessible and affordable for Australians who want to buy a home.

    While the debate around the best way to achieve housing affordability and accessibility continues, and while there are statistics that tell us about the current housing crisis, one crucial thing that is missing is the voice of the very people that any new housing policy should be designed to assist.

    More consultation is needed with younger age groups and low to middle income earners who are struggling with high rent and unable to purchase their own home.

    Australia desperately needs bold new innovative housing policies that do not rely solely on the taxation system but that consider a raft of measures that meet the housing needs of everyday Australians.

    Michelle Cull is co-founder of the Western Sydney University Tax Clinic which has received funding from the Australian Taxation Office as part of the National Tax Clinic Program. Michelle Cull is a member of CPA Australia and the Financial Advice Association Australia. Michelle is also an academic member of UniSuper’s Consultative Committee and volunteers as Chair of the Macarthur Advisory Council for the Salvation Army Australia.

    – ref. The government is reviewing negative gearing and capital gains tax, but this won’t be enough to fix our housing shortage – https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-reviewing-negative-gearing-and-capital-gains-tax-but-this-wont-be-enough-to-fix-our-housing-shortage-239813

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Our electricity workforce must double to hit the 2030 renewables target. Energy storage jobs will soon overtake those in coal and gas

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jay Rutovitz, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

    Wanwajee Weeraphukdee/Shutterstock

    The electricity workforce will need to double in five years to achieve Australia’s 2030 renewable energy target, our new report finds. More than 80% of these jobs will be in renewables. Jobs in energy storage alone will overtake domestic coal and gas jobs (not including the coal and gas export sector) in the next couple of years.

    The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) updates its Integrated System Plan every two years. It’s a blueprint for the energy transition from coal to renewable energy. The plan lays out scenarios for how the electricity system might change to help put in place all the elements needed to make the transition happen.

    AEMO and the RACE for 2030 co-operative research centre commissioned the Institute for Sustainable Futures to undertake modelling on the workforce needed for this transition. The “step change” scenario in the Integrated System Plan is broadly aligned with the 2030 renewables target. Under this scenario, we found the electricity workforce would need to grow from 33,000 to peak at 66,000 by 2029.

    Rooftop solar and batteries together are projected to account for over 40% of these jobs. Wind farms will employ around one-third and solar farms just under 10%. Jobs would also treble in transmission line construction to connect renewables in regional areas to cities and other states in the next few years.

    Job projections in the National Electricity Market under the ‘step change’ scenario that aligns with the 2030 renewables target.
    Author provided

    Job growth would surge in a ‘renewable energy superpower’

    In the “green energy export” scenario, Australia becomes a “renewable energy superpower”. The country uses renewable energy to export green hydrogen and power heavy industry. In this scenario, the electricity workforce would almost treble to 96,000 by the late 2020s.

    By 2033, after construction peaks, more than half of electricity sector jobs will be in operations and maintenance. This applies to both the step change and green energy export scenarios.

    A significant employment downturn is projected during the 2030s. But in the green energy export scenario jobs then climb steeply again to a peak of 120,000. This projection reflects AEMO’s expectations of when green export growth will occur.

    New South Wales is projected to have the most renewable energy jobs in the 2020s. However, Queensland would become the largest state for renewable jobs (especially in wind farms) in the green energy export scenario.

    Projected total job numbers by scenario.
    Author provided

    What are the other possibilities?

    “Progressive change” is another scenario in the Integrated System Plan. For this scenario, we modelled slower growth in renewable energy. It reflects constraints on the economy and supply chains (including labour and minerals) for renewables.

    In an “enhanced manufacturing” scenario, local renewable energy manufacturing increases. Our modelling found it could create a peak of 5,000 extra jobs.

    Importantly, these projections don’t include upstream jobs in supply chains for the sector (for example, increased mining to supply the resources that renewables need) or electrification of homes.

    Creating this many jobs is very challenging

    Our modelling shows the workforce needs to grow very rapidly to make Australia’s energy transition happen. Unfortunately, the challenges of building this workforce are daunting. They include:

    • there’s a shortage of almost all key occupations in demand for the electricity sector – electricians, engineers, construction managers – according to Australia’s Skills Priority List

    • “extraordinary growth” forecast by Infrastructure Australia in other major infrastructure projects, such as transport, which will compete for many of the same skilled workers

    • under AEMO’s scenarios, employment will be subject to boom-bust cycles, which increases the risk of skill shortages and damaging impacts, such as housing shortages, in regional areas

    • Australia has relied heavily on skilled migrants – and will look to do so again – but many parts of the world are chasing the same workers.

    The International Energy Agency has noted:

    Labour and skills shortages are already translating into project delays, raising concerns that clean energy solutions will be unable to keep pace with demand to meet net zero targets.

    What can be done to avoid skill shortages?

    Some action has been taken to increase the workforce. The federal government, for instance, is subsidising apprentices under the New Energy Apprenticeship program.

    But action isn’t happening at the scale and pace required.

    What else can be done?

    Firstly, Jobs Skills Australia and Powering Skills Organisation (which oversees energy skills training) have outlined ways to increase the system’s capacity to train more skilled workers. This includes creating better pathways into renewable energy for students, especially in recognised Renewable Energy Zones.

    Secondly, Jobs Skills Australia has noted the need for renewable energy businesses to increase their intakes of apprentices. It recommends expanding the Australian Skills Guarantee to include generation and transmission projects.

    The guarantee has set mandatory targets for apprentices or trainees to complete 10% of labour hours on Commonwealth-funded major construction and information technology projects (A$10 million plus). It could also be applied to major government funding programs for renewable energy and transmission. These include:

    • the Capacity Investment Scheme, a government tender program to support a large volume of new renewables and storage projects

    • Rewiring the Nation, a $20 billion fund for transmission lines

    • grants from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

    Thirdly, government tenders could moderate the peaks and troughs in employment by limiting the maximum and minimum volumes built each year.

    Fourthly, including more women and First Nations Australians can increase labour supply and workforce diversity. Only one-in-two First Nations Australians are employed compared to around two in three in the wider population. Yet they account for around one-in-ten people in some major Renewable Energy Zones.

    Government pre-employment programs, working with industry and First Nations groups, could also increase the supply of workers. These could have a dramatic social impact too.

    It’s a challenging problem whichever way you look at it. We need rapid change to build renewable energy capacity before coal plants retire and to tackle climate change. But that depends on growing the workforce amid skill shortages.

    There’s a range of ways to increase the supply of workers and improve local outcomes. But we are running out of time. Urgent action is needed.

    The Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney received funding from the Australian Energy Market Operator and the RACE for 2030 CRC for the report upon which this article is based

    The Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney received funding from the Australian Energy Market Operator and the RACE for 2030 CRC for the report upon which this article is based.

    – ref. Our electricity workforce must double to hit the 2030 renewables target. Energy storage jobs will soon overtake those in coal and gas – https://theconversation.com/our-electricity-workforce-must-double-to-hit-the-2030-renewables-target-energy-storage-jobs-will-soon-overtake-those-in-coal-and-gas-239718

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why are we seeing more pandemics? Our impact on the planet has a lot to do with it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Anikeeva, Research Fellow, School of Public Health, University of Adelaide

    ImageFlow/Shutterstock

    Pandemics – the global spread of infectious diseases – seem to be making a comeback. In the Middle Ages we had the Black Death (plague), and after the first world war we had the Spanish flu. Tens of millions of people died from these diseases.

    Then science began to get the upper hand, with vaccination eradicating smallpox, and polio nearly so. Antibiotics became available to treat bacterial infections, and more recently antivirals as well.

    But in recent years and decades pandemics seem to be returning. In the 1980s we had HIV/AIDS, then several flu pandemics, SARS, and now COVID (no, COVID isn’t over).

    So why is this happening, and is there anything we can do to avert future pandemics?

    Unbalanced ecosystems

    Healthy, stable ecosystems provide services that keep us healthy, such as supplying food and clean water, producing oxygen, and making green spaces available for our recreation and wellbeing.

    Another key service ecosystems provide is disease regulation. When nature is in balance – with predators controlling herbivore populations, and herbivores controlling plant growth – it’s more difficult for pathogens to emerge in a way that causes pandemics.

    But when human activities disrupt and unbalance ecosystems – such as by way of climate change and biodiversity loss – things go wrong.

    For example, climate change affects the number and distribution of plants and animals. Mosquitoes that carry diseases can move from the tropics into what used to be temperate climates as the planet warms, and may infect more people in the months that are normally disease free.

    We’ve studied the relationship between weather and dengue fever transmission in China, and our findings support the same conclusion reached by many other studies: climate change is likely to put more people at risk of dengue.

    COVID was not the first pandemic, and is unlikely to be the last.
    Jaromir Chalabala/Shutterstock

    Biodiversity loss can have similar effects by disrupting food chains. When ranchers cleared forests in South America for their cattle to graze in the first half of the 20th century, tiny forest-dwelling, blood-feeding vampire bats suddenly had a smörgåsbord of large sedentary animals to feed on.

    While vampire bats had previously been kept in check by the limited availability of food and the presence of predators in the balanced forest ecosystem, numbers of this species exploded in South America.

    These bats carry the rabies virus, which causes lethal brain infections in people who are bitten. Although the number of deaths from bat-borne rabies has now fallen dramatically due to vaccination programs in South America, rabies caused by bites from other animals still poses a global threat.

    As urban and agricultural development impinges on natural ecosystems, there are increasing opportunities for humans and domestic animals to become infected with pathogens that would normally only be seen in wildlife – particularly when people hunt and eat animals from the wild.

    The HIV virus, for example, first entered human populations from apes that were slaughtered for food in Africa, and then spread globally through travel and trade.

    Meanwhile, bats are thought to be the original reservoir for the virus that caused the COVID pandemic, which has killed more than 7 million people to date.

    Climate change can affect the distribution of animals which carry disease, such as mosquitoes.
    Kwangmoozaa/Shutterstock

    Ultimately, until we effectively address the unsustainable impact we are having on our planet, pandemics will continue to occur.

    Targeting the ultimate causes

    Factors such as climate change, biodiversity loss and other global challenges are the ultimate (high level) cause of pandemics. Meanwhile, increased contact between humans, domestic animals and wildlife is the proximate (immediate) cause.

    In the case of HIV, while direct contact with the infected blood of apes was the proximate cause, the apes were only being slaughtered because large numbers of very poor people were hungry – an ultimate cause.

    The distinction between ultimate causes and proximate causes is important, because we often deal only with proximate causes. For example, people may smoke because of stress or social pressure (ultimate causes of getting lung cancer), but it’s the toxins in the smoke that cause cancer (proximate cause).

    Generally, health services are only concerned with stopping people from smoking – and with treating the illness that results – not with removing the drivers that lead them to smoke in the first place.

    Similarly, we address pandemics with lockdowns, mask wearing, social distancing and vaccinations – all measures which seek to stop the spread of the virus. But we pay less attention to addressing the ultimate causes of pandemics – until perhaps very recently.

    Often we treat the proximate causes of illness, but not the ultimate causes.
    Basil MK/Pexels

    A planetary health approach

    There’s a growing awareness of the importance of adopting a “planetary health” approach to improve human health. This concept is based on the understanding that human health and human civilisation depend on flourishing natural systems, and the wise stewardship of those natural systems.

    With this approach, ultimate drivers like climate change and biodiversity loss would be prioritised in preventing future pandemics, at the same time as working with experts from many different disciplines to deal with the proximate causes, thereby reducing the risk overall.

    The planetary health approach has the benefit of improving both the health of the environment and human health concurrently. We are heartened by the increased uptake of teaching planetary health concepts across the environmental sciences, humanities and health sciences in many universities.

    As climate change, biodiversity loss, population displacements, travel and trade continue to increase the risk of disease outbreaks, it’s vital that the planetary stewards of the future have a better understanding of how to tackle the ultimate causes that drive pandemics.

    This article is the first in a series on the next pandemic.

    Olga Anikeeva receives funding from Green Adelaide.

    Jessica Stanhope receives funding from the Ecological Health Network and Green Adelaide. She is affiliated with the Environmental Physiotherapy Association.

    Peng Bi receives funding from the Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, AusAID,

    Philip Weinstein receives funding from competitive external granting bodies. He is affiliated with Nature Foundation, Australian Entomological Society, and the South Australian Museum.

    – ref. Why are we seeing more pandemics? Our impact on the planet has a lot to do with it – https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-seeing-more-pandemics-our-impact-on-the-planet-has-a-lot-to-do-with-it-226827

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The government allocated a quarter of a billion rubles for a clinic in Khakassia

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

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

    Order dated September 17, 2024 No. 2561-r

    Document

    Order dated September 17, 2024 No. 2561-r

    A prefabricated modular polyclinic designed for 170 visits per shift will be purchased and installed for residents of the village of Bograd in the Republic of Khakassia. The order to allocate 250 million rubles for these purposes was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

    The subsidy was allocated to the budget of Khakassia on co-financing terms. The total cost of the work is almost 590 million rubles. The installation of the clinic and connection of the building to utility networks is planned to be completed in 2025.

    The new building of the polyclinic will have departments for adults and children, with the children’s department designed to receive 40 young patients per shift. Medical equipment needed to serve residents will be transported from the old building of the polyclinic, which is considered unsafe.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://government.ru/nevs/52786/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Two appear in court charged with manslaughter of man in Erith

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    Two men have appeared in court charged with manslaughter following the death of a man in Erith.

    Mark Pearce, 40 (28.01.84) of Lower Road, Bexley and Markie Collins, 18 (16.04.06) of Galleon Close, Bexley, have been charged with the manslaughter of Amamudin Alikhel, referred to as Ali Khan.

    Police were called at approximately 22:25hrs on Monday, 28 August 2023 to reports of a man injured after being struck by a bus in West Road, Erith.

    Officers and London Ambulance Service attended. Ali Khan, was pronounced dead at the scene. An investigation was launched after it became apparent that there had been an altercation prior to the victim being struck by the bus.

    Pearce and Collins both appeared at Bromley Magistrates Court on Wednesday, 18 September. They were bailed to appear at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, 16 October

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: A new bus route will connect the Skolkovo Innovation Center and the west of the capital

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    For the convenience of employees, residents and students, a new bus route to metro stations and Moscow Central Diameters will appear in the Skolkovo Innovation Center. In addition, routes in TiNAO will change – transport will come closer to social facilities. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport and Industry Maxim Liksutov.

    “Starting September 28, we will launch a new route in Skolkovo and adjust the routes in TiNAO in the area of the new Potapovo metro station. They cover eight districts in two districts of the capital, as well as Odintsovo urban district in the Moscow region. We continue to improve the quality of passenger service on behalf of the Mayor of Moscow,” said Maxim Liksutov.

    The new route No. 1147a will connect the Skolkovo innovation center and the west of the capital. Buses will pass through the Slavyansky Bulvar and Filevsky Park stations.

    Route #971 has been extended to the Sosenskoye stop. It will pass near the Olkhovaya metro station and social facilities in Kommunarka. Route #117k will receive a new number (#917), buses on the line will run at shorter intervals.

    You can find out about these and other changes on the website State Unitary Enterprise “Mosgortrans”

    About 90 routes were adjusted in Moscow this summer

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144382073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Moscow doctors have introduced the latest method of treating a common disease in men

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    Doctors of the urology center of the Moscow Multidisciplinary Scientific and Clinical Center (MMNCC) named after S.P. Botkin have introduced the latest minimally invasive method of treating prostate adenoma. This is the most common disease in men, which significantly affects the quality of life. It occurs in about a third of patients aged 40-45 years and in 70 percent after 60.

    The method of the capital’s doctors is based on the use of sterile high-temperature steam. It is delivered to the prostate through the urethra using special instruments under local anesthesia. The procedure does not require surgical incisions. Sterile steam passes through the tissues of the enlarged prostate and reduces its size, improving the quality of urination. The operation takes about 15 minutes and does not require long-term hospitalization.

    The Urology Center of the S.P. Botkin MMNCC was the first among the clinics of the capital Department of Health was equipped with high-tech equipment to perform such operations. Urologists underwent specialized training to perform them.

    According to the head of the urological center, professor and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Pushkar, the new method of treating prostate adenoma is the most modern and most gentle of all those that exist today. More than 100 patients have already received high-quality care.

    The Moscow Urology Center, the S.P. Botkin MMNCC, began operating in November 2023. Doctors can perform up to 17,000 urological surgeries per year, including endourological, laparoscopic, and robotic interventions. The center includes a consultative and diagnostic department, three general urology departments and two oncourology departments, as well as seven operating rooms equipped with expert surgical equipment, and an intensive care unit. The minimally invasive surgical interventions used here allow patients to quickly recover and maintain a high quality of life.

    Moscow Mayor Talks About Implementation of New Moscow Healthcare Standard

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144392073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Another 44 milk distribution points have been renovated in Moscow

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    In Moscow, 44 milk distribution points have opened after renovation. Thus, families from 39 districts of the capital will receive free quality food products in comfortable conditions. This was reported by Anastasia Rakova, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Social Development.

    “The city cares about the health and well-being of young Muscovites and provides comprehensive support to their parents even in the most insignificant, at first glance, issues. For example, we create comfortable conditions for receiving free food products intended for pregnant women, nursing mothers and their babies. To date, we have already managed to repair another 44 milk distribution points, re-equipped them according to modern standards: this is new plumbing, reliable fire safety and air conditioning systems. Inside and outside – convenient and clear navigation, the design of the premises is done in a single style, at the disposal of visitors and employees are ergonomic and functional furniture. In total, within the framework of the modernization program of the capital’s milk kitchens, 128 points have already been updated, and we plan to open another 28 in the near future,” said Anastasia Rakova.

    The total area of 44 renovated points exceeded four thousand square meters. They opened in 10 districts: four in the Eastern Administrative District, two in the west of the city and in the Zelenograd Administrative District, five in the north and southwest, three in the center, southeast and northwest, as well as six in the Southern Administrative District and 11 in the North-Eastern Administrative District. In addition, 84 premises were previously renovated and re-equipped as part of the renovation program.

    In total, there are more than 200 milk distribution points in Moscow. They are open daily from 06:30 to 15:00 (lunch break from 12:30 to 13:00). The right to free meals is granted to pregnant women and nursing mothers of children under six months, children under three years old and children from large families under seven years old. In addition, the benefit applies to children under 15 with certain chronic diseases, as well as children with disabilities. Women are given fortified juices and milk, children are given milk formulas, vegetable and fruit purees, cottage cheese and other products.

    To receive discounted products, you must have permanent registration in the capital, a Moscow temporary or permanent compulsory medical insurance policy (CHI), and also be attached to a city clinic or antenatal clinic.

    Permission to independently place orders on mos.ru is issued by a doctor at a city medical organization. For those who have already confirmed their preferential category and received free meals based on medical reports, the service is available on mos.ru automatically in the section “Family and Children”. There you can also choose a specific milk point and day of visit. After submitting an application on the portal, an electronic referral is issued, which must be presented at the milk kitchen when receiving the products.

    In case of repairs at the milk distribution point, you can pick up your order at any other free food distribution point. Their addresses published on the mos.ru portal.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144366073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: An educational complex will be built in the north of Moscow as part of the KRT project

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    The investor will build and transfer to the city an educational complex, as well as transport and engineering infrastructure facilities within the framework of the integrated development of the territory (IDT) of the former industrial zone of Bratsevo. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development Policy and Construction Vladimir Efimov.

    “Based on the results of the preparation and approval of the territory planning project, the city entered into an additional agreement to the contract for the integrated development of the site with the company that is redeveloping the former industrial zone of Bratsevo. According to the document, by 2030 the investor will build and transfer to the city an educational complex for 1,075 places, including a kindergarten designed for 325 pupils and a school for 750 students, as well as transport and engineering infrastructure facilities,” said Vladimir Efimov.

    The territory is located in the north of the capital near the Baltiyskaya station of the Moscow Central Circle.

    “The project for the integrated development of a 22-hectare territory is already being actively implemented. The investor has begun construction of the first-stage facilities. In total, by 2031, it is planned to build more than 550 thousand square meters of residential, social and public-business real estate on the site,” noted the Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of City Property of the City of Moscow

    Maxim Gaman.

    The company will also improve the courtyards and create a park with a boulevard. A promenade area of over two hectares will be laid along Vyborgskaya Street and Novopetrovsky Proezd. At each stage, the construction of the residential quarter on the site of the former industrial zone of Bratsevo is monitored by Mosgosstroynadzor.

    According to the Chairman of the Moscow State Construction Supervision Authority Anton Slobodchikova, in August 2023, the committee gave permission to begin construction of the first stage of the project. It includes 10 sections of a residential building with 1,506 apartments. The developer began work on the site in the Voykovsky district on Admirala Makarova Street (building 2/16) in November of the same year. The area of residential premises will be 86.7 thousand square meters. The first stage of construction is expected to be completed in 2027.

    Earlier Sergei Sobyanin told, that over 80 percent of KRT projects involve the construction of real estate near major transport facilities. Multifunctional city blocks are being created within the framework of the program. Roads, comfortable housing and all necessary infrastructure are being designed on the sites of former industrial zones and inefficiently used areas.

    Currently, there are 236 KRT projects in Moscow at various stages of implementation, with a total area of over 3.1 thousand hectares. Their development is being carried out on behalf ofSergei Sobyanin.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144418073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Doorstop – Launceston

    Source: Australian Executive Government Ministers

    ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s fantastic to be here with the Premier of Tasmania, Jeremy Rockliff, with my Education Minister, Jason Clare, with Senator Helen Polley and with Deputy Premier, Michael Ferguson here this morning. And this is a big day for the Commonwealth and a big day for Tasmania. The two services that are most important to people’s lives are health and education. And today, we have some fantastic announcements on both. First of all, it’s great to be here at Launceston General Hospital. I do want to thank the administration and the staff, the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers who’ve shown us around here this morning. It’s been a great privilege, and I do want to take the opportunity to thank them for the difference that they make to people’s lives here in Northern Tasmania. But I want to say that it’s a good day for them too, it’s a good day, most importantly, for the people of Northern Tasmania. Because this announcement today of $120 million from the Federal Government for a Northern Heart Centre will make an enormous difference. People in Northern Tasmania should not have to cross the Bass Strait to the North Island in order to get the health care that they deserve. They should get it here in their local community and this Northern Heart Centre, which is well advanced in terms of its planning, will make an enormous difference for research. Most importantly, to be able to get that early detection and early care here, so that if you avoid a traumatic incident, then you actually save money as well as saving lives. And that’s why I’ve been talking with the Premier about the importance of this. This will mean more beds and less pressure on the hospital’s Emergency Department. The Centre will have its own dedicated lab that can diagnose and treat various heart conditions, allowing patients to bypass the Emergency Department with its own access to the intensive care unit and medical imaging. That will make an enormous difference here in Northern Tasmania. And I’m very proud that this is a part of my Government’s commitment to strengthening Medicare and providing better healthcare for all Australians, regardless of where they live. Further today I can announce that my Government and the Tasmanian Government have signed a historic agreement that means all Tasmanian public schools will be fully and fairly funded. We promised we would fully fund schools in Tasmania and today we deliver. Tasmania is the third state now after Northern Territory and Western Australia to sign up. The Commonwealth has $16 billion on the table to make sure that every school can reach that designation of fair funding that was first put forward by Gonski, by David Gonski, in his Review. The other thing that it will do of course, is the nature of education as well. Because we want to make sure it’s not just about dollars, it’s about how education is delivered. And the signing up of this agreement will make sure that the priorities that parents talk about, making sure that the basics are looked after, make sure that we lift literacy and numeracy right across Tasmania, but right across the country, is what we want to see. We want to make sure that if a child falls behind that a school is in a position to be able to lift them up. Simple as that. During the election campaign in 2022, I spoke about no one being left behind and no one held back. And that’s what education and health are at the centre of. Making sure that no one’s left behind. Every child has the opportunity to fulfil their potential, but also making sure that people are looked after in terms of their healthcare. So, this is a really exciting day and it’s a good day. And I do want to thank Jeremy for the relationship that we have, in spite of the fact we’re from different political parties, we’re just concerned about getting things done. And that’s what this is about today. Getting things done in the interests of Northern Tasmanians when it comes to healthcare and getting things done on behalf of all younger Australians, Tasmanians and their families, importantly going forward as well. So, I want to thank Jason Clare as well for the extraordinary work that he has done. Mark Butler, our Health Minister has worked hard on this as well, and that is a very good thing that we’ve been able to achieve this today. I’ll hand over to Jeremy, I will then hand to Jason Clare, the Education Minister, and then I’m happy to take some questions and I’m sure that Jeremy will as well. And then we have some document signing that we’re going to do to fulfil this delivery that we’re announcing today.

    JEREMY ROCKLIFF, PREMIER OF TASMANIA: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. And it’s great to be here with the Deputy Premier, Michael Ferguson, Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare and Senator Helen Polley. Thank you Fiona, for your commitment and passion to healthcare across the North. As Chief Executive of the Launceston General Hospital, can I say to you a big thanks to all the people that you work with on a daily basis. From administration to the healthcare professionals, to the volunteers that make up this wonderful institution, the Launceston General Hospital, delivering healthcare for many, many thousands of Tasmanians across north and north west Tasmania. This is a great day for healthcare. This is a great day for our schools, education and public investment in education. And I want to thank the Prime Minister for the great collaboration that we have had over the course of the last couple of years. It’s not the first time I’ve stood alongside the Prime Minister when it comes to announcing key partnerships in health. Whether that be GP recruitment, whether that be Urgent Care Clinics. It’s not the first time, of course – we’ve also got partnerships when it comes to urban renewal projects as well. And so what Tasmanians expect is their federal and state governments to work together in the very best interests of them and in this case the best interests served in healthcare and indeed our schools across Tasmania. We made a very clear commitment at the last election that we will deliver a $120 million Heart Centre and that is exactly what will be delivered at this site over the course of the next few years. That commitment has been realised through the strong collaboration and working relationship with the Federal and State Governments. A $120 million commitment from the Federal Government. And can I say Prime Minister, thank you to you, to Mark Butler – who I worked with very closely as Health Minister for a number of years – but also on behalf of all Tasmanians that will of course be cared for through this facility. Northern and north western Tasmania have the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the country. This is why this investment is so critical and the partnership will endure. The partnership of capital investment from the Federal Government and of course the operational investment from the Tasmanian Government means that this will be delivered. It will be delivered by 2029 and will be servicing Tasmanians, particularly Northern Tasmanians, for many, many decades to come. Can I also pay tribute to Jason Clare, the Federal Minister for Education, and of course our State Minister for Education, Jo Palmer, who would be here if it wasn’t for Budget Estimates in southern Tasmania. I know Jason and Jo have worked very closely in securing this Agreement on behalf of families across Tasmania, our students, of course, in public schools. There is no better investment in productivity and wellbeing than education. And having been Education Minister for seven years, I can well and truly appreciate the need for fair funding when it comes to our public schools, particularly our schools of disadvantage across the country and indeed in Tasmania. That’s why I was very proud to be part of the Gonski Two Agreement as Education Minister, where you apply that fair funding model to support students across our public school environment. What this will mean is an additional $300 million into our public schools over the course of the next five years, focusing on early intervention when it comes to numeracy and literacy, focusing on students well being as well. And when students have good wellbeing, they have a very strong learning environment as well. And so we are committed as a Tasmanian Government, in partnership with the Federal Government, to deliver significant uplift in funding for our public schools over the next five years or sooner. So, thank you for working with us, Prime Minister and Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare. It is a great example of federal and state governments working together. At the end of the day, what Tasmanians care about is good quality services and what they want to see is cooperation in partnership between federal and state government, irrespective of political colour, to deliver for them. And today we have delivered in spades for our public schools and healthcare across Northern Tasmania. And with those few words, I’ll hand to Jason.

    JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks Premier. Can I start by paying credit to the Prime Minister and the Premier. These are two leaders who know how to get the job done and these are two leaders who understand the power of education. The power of education to change children’s lives. And this investment, this announcement that we’re making today, will change the lives of children here in Tasmania. Can I also thank you Deputy Premier. And can I thank my dear friend, the Education Minister of Tasmania, Jo Palmer, who, as the Premier said, can’t be with us because of Estimates. She is a great Education Minister. It’s a privilege to work with her and I’m looking forward to implementing this Agreement that we’ll sign today with her. This is a historic day for Tasmania. It’s a historic day for public education in Tasmania. Today we sign agreements that will make sure that every public school in Tasmania is fully funded, as the Prime Minister said, at that level that David Gonski set for us all those years ago. And the Premier talked about the money, about $300 million. But he also made the point, and I’m glad you did, Premier, about what this money will be invested in. Because it’s not just about the money, it’s what it does. This money will help us to invest in things like a phonics check and a numeracy check in year one or in the early years, to identify children who are falling behind when they’re little and then make sure that we intervene and provide them with the sort of supports that will help them to catch up and to keep up and to finish school. Things like catch up tutoring. We know that when a child’s falling behind in a classroom of 20 or 30, if you take them out of that classroom, into a classroom of two or three, with one teacher, four days a week, 40 minutes at a time, that they can learn as much in six months as they’d normally learn in a year. In other words, they catch up. And if children catch up when they’re young, they’re more likely to go on and finish high school and then go on to TAFE or to university. And the investment in health and wellbeing is just as important. There’s a real and obvious link between education and health. You see it in these two announcements today, but we also see it in our classrooms. Because children that are experiencing mental health challenges are more likely to not be at school, to be absent from school. And by year nine, they’re about a year and a half or three years behind the rest of the children in their class in literacy and numeracy. So, investments in things like psychologists and counsellors to provide that wrap around support at schools can make all the difference in whether a child finishes school or not. Can I end where I began – this is a fantastic example of our two governments working together. And most importantly, it shows what we can achieve when we work together. And when Parliament returns, I’ll introduce legislation to make this extra investment in our children and in Tasmania a reality.

    PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Jase. Happy to take questions.

    JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, has your Government asked Treasury –

    PRIME MINISTER: We’ve got an announcement to help every child in school and can we have questions about this first? And then I’m happy to go down whatever direction you want. Are there any questions about today’s announcements?

    JOURNALIST: The Education Union has been calling on this for some time. Why are you choosing to fund it now?

    PRIME MINISTER: We’ve been in government for two years and we’re getting it done. We’ve got it done now with the Premier, Roger Cook. We’ve got it done in the Northern Territory, which in particular required a substantial lift up per person in the Northern Territory because so many schools there, particularly in remote areas, have missed out. And we’ve got this done in Tasmania and we’re hopeful of getting it done in other states as well, are imminent. I’ve been speaking with Premiers and Chief Ministers. At the last meeting of the National Cabinet, the Premier and I, as well as other Premiers and Chief Ministers, spoke about how important this was, that we get this done. David Gonski did this work some time ago in the Gillard Government to look at what the level of funding was needed to bring every child up to the best of their potential. And that’s what Jason has spoken about – practical differences that it makes. I think it helps, the fact that Jeremy’s been the Education Minister and gets it. And so I’d encourage the other states to sign up. We’ve got $16 billion on the table. This means that the Commonwealth contribution will be lifted up to 22.5 per cent of that standard and the state contribution will be lifted to 77.5 per cent. Making sure that this is realised, because this is so important and we’ve been able to get it done and we’re getting it done today.

    JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the Heart Centre. We know right across Australia, Tasmania is no exception, that there is a critical shortage of healthcare workers. How confident are you that there will be the workers that are needed to make this Centre a success?

    PRIME MINISTER: We’re very confident that that can be done. One of the things that we’re doing as well is making sure that we train additional doctors, that we train nurses and healthcare professionals. I’ve been into TAFEs here in Tasmania, for example, I met young people and people retraining to go back into the health system. That has been very important. So we’ll work as well, we have – as Jeremy said, we had quite an innovative plan for additional GPs here that we announced. I think just down the road in Devonport at the Mercy Hospital. We are working with the Tasmanian Government to make sure that we have that capacity. We do need an appropriate workforce in order to deliver. But the other thing is, if you don’t do the right thing, sometimes you can end up chasing your tail. So, emergency departments get more and more pressure on them, which creates more difficulties in the system. So, we have, for example, our four Urgent Care Clinics that have opened here in Tasmania. We’ve got a fifth coming and there’s a potential of more there. They have seen tens of thousands of Tasmanians – all Tasmanians have needed is their Medicare card, not their credit card. They’ve got the care that we need. I’ve been into the Urgent Care Clinic there in Hobart that has been an enormous success. There’s one here in Lonnie. And what we do if you do that is you stop people going to the emergency departments of hospitals, if they have a broken arm or the kids fall off the bike or the skateboard, or they cut themselves preparing dinner – they can get that care on the spot when they need it, where they need it and for free as part of our commitment to extending Medicare. So, that’s made a difference as well to the system. Okay. Happy to take other things.

    JOURNALIST: Have you asked for a modelling on the impacts of negative gearing, Prime Minister?

    PRIME MINISTER: Look, I’ve seen those reports and what we do is we value the Public Service. So, from time to time I’m sure the Public Service are looking at policy ideas. That’s because we value them. But we have our housing policy. It’s out there for all to see. It’s currently being blocked. At the risk of being partisan here, it’s currently being blocked by a No-alition of the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens in the Senate. They’re blocking our Help to Buy scheme that’s about increased home ownership. They’re blocking our Build to Rent scheme. I mean, why you would block – the Greens position is that they’re blocking the Build to Rent scheme because if you have medium density housing built, it’ll be built by developers. Well, yeah, hello. I’m not sure who they think builds houses and medium density housing and increases supply. So, our focus as a Government is on supply.

    JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

    PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?

    JOURNALIST: Is your Government considering making changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions?

    PRIME MINISTER: What our Government is considering is fixing housing supply by getting our legislation through the Senate. That’s what we’re considering.

    JOURNALIST: Would you rule out changes to negative gearing and property taxes this term or next?

    PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we’re doing is doing the legislation that we have before the Senate. So, I talk about what we’re doing, not what we’re not doing. And what we’re doing, is trying to get through that legislation through the Senate.

    JOURNALIST: But just to confirm, Prime Minister, your Government has asked Treasury for modelling?

    PRIME MINISTER: No, I didn’t confirm that. Treasury, I’m sure, like other departments do a range of proposals, policy ideas. I want a Public Service that is full of ideas.

    JOURNALIST: The RBA is looking through your rebates (inaudible)?

    PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?

    JOURNALIST: The RBA is looking through your rebates. Have your attempts to get a rate cut failed?

    PRIME MINISTER: What we’ve done is to reduce inflation to half of what it was. Half of what we inherited. Now, there’ll be new figures out tomorrow, or today, actually, we will wait and see what they show in a couple of hours’ time. But we know that the last time around, the monthly figures showed a rate of 3.5 per cent. Which is half, basically, of what we inherited. And we’ve done that, putting that downward pressure on inflation, by producing two budget surpluses, turning a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus last year. And this year, the financial year just finished, another surplus that will be in double digits in terms of the figures when they’re finally released or finalised in a couple of weeks’ time. So we have as well, we indicated on Monday, that has seen debt decreased by the Commonwealth by around about $150 billion from what was predicted in PEFO, the Pre-Election Forecast, that were there in Treasury of what the former Government was going to deliver. And we’ve done all of that whilst we have given cost of living support. Whether it’s a tax cut for every taxpayer, Energy Bill Relief for every household, 500,000 Fee-Free TAFE places, Cheaper Child Care. While we have delivered all of those measures, as well as delivering important funding, such as what we’ve been able to deliver here in Tasmania. Making sure we’re working to deliver proper services in health and education. That’s what happens when you have responsible economic management. And the Reserve Bank, of course, set interest rates independent of the government – that is their job. Our job is to put downward pressure on inflation, but also look after people. We have had now 980,000 jobs created on our watch. More jobs created since I’ve been elected as Prime Minister than in every previous term of any Prime Minister since Federation. I’m very proud of that. It’s been a difficult economic task, but we have delivered what we have set out to do, which is that downward pressure on inflation whilst we’ve been helping with cost of living relief.

    JOURNALIST: On cost of living, will you introduce new cost of living measures in a pre-election Budget?

    PRIME MINISTER: Well, one of the things that we are going to do, and you will have seen on Monday when it comes to cost of living as well, is take on businesses when they’re not doing the right thing by consumers. Now, this action by the ACCC in taking Woolworths and Coles to court in order to hold them to account for what the ACCC alleges has happened. When you have a packet of Oreos lifted up in prices and by triple the amount in which they’re then decreased and a sign put on them saying that it’s a special, then that is not doing the right thing by consumers. Now people out there are under financial pressure and they’re looking for value, they’re looking for bargains. And so when they go into a supermarket and see ‘special’ or ‘prices down’, they trust that that is the truth. Now it’s not the truth if a supermarket has increased the price by $1.50 from what it was and then a month later put it down by fifty cents and purported to argue that they have decreased the price. That is a breach of trust, it’s a breach of faith. Australians are rightly angry about it, as they should be, and my Government is taking action. The ACCC are taking them to court. We have released on Monday as well exposure drafts of our changes to legislation, as well as our changes to the mandating of the code of conduct for supermarkets, as recommended by Dr Craig Emerson. It is extraordinary that under the former Government you had a voluntary code of conduct, just expecting that people would voluntarily do the right thing. Quite clearly, that’s not good enough, which is why we’re mandating. That’s a part of dealing with cost of living pressures. So we want wages to increase and we’re delivering that, including in Jason’s area, a 15 per cent increase in the wages of early educators in childcare. We have delivered a substantial increase in the wages of aged care workers. We’ve delivered tax cuts on top of that. So we want people to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. That’s all a part of our cost of living measures.

    JOURNALIST: Here in Tasmania, will you exempt the Macquarie Point Stadium from GST calculations?

    PRIME MINISTER: No.

    JOURNALIST: Why not?

    PRIME MINISTER: Because if we did that, we’d have to do the same for the Olympic sites in Queensland, for every infrastructure project in the country.

    JOURNALIST: Wasn’t that done for a stadium in Jim Chalmers electorate?

    PRIME MINISTER: We won’t, well I’m not sure what stadium with hundreds of millions of dollars you’re referring to in Jim’s electorate in Logan. I’m very familiar with the electorate. So we will be, can I make this point. We’ll be exempting this contribution to the hospital, to the Northern Tasmania Heart Centre from the GST. It’s very different. But infrastructure projects, of course, it all adds up. It all evens out. I’m not sure this is understood fully by people in these positions, but when you have the GST equalisation, if you have a proportion of funds invested around the country, then it evens itself out. This is a separate thing which we’ve agreed to exempt from the GST because it’s about healthcare. But infrastructure across the board is not exempt. I was an Infrastructure Minister for six years, I assure you there was no GST exemptions during that period.

    JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with the Heart Centre comes a lot of money for Northern Tasmania. How concerned are you about your prospects in Lyons?

    PRIME MINISTER: I think Lyons, what I’m doing in every seat, in every state, in the one country of Australia, is governing. We’re doing things here regardless of the political colour. I don’t have a colour coded spreadsheet to determine my funding proposals. And I am working and delivering here in Northern Tasmania, in North West Tasmania, in Hobart. We’re delivering at UTAS down the road here, $65 million each to fix up UTAS and to make it into a much better stadium. We are investing in Macquarie Point, we’re investing throughout Tasmania. We’ll continue to do so and I believe there’ll be an election at some time. If you keep your eye on that white car with the little flag on the front on the day it goes to Yarralumla, then we’ll call an election sometime before, or on or before May, and we’ll put our case to the Australian people. But we have a serious plan for health, a serious plan for education, a serious plan for energy. We’re working here as well. The Marinus Link Project is a great example of the cooperation that was talked about for a long period of time. Well, myself and this Premier have actually got it done. Thanks very much.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Control Risks and Oxford Economics Africa launch the 2024 Africa Risk-Reward Index: Opportunity through transformation

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

    LONDON, United Kingdom, September 25, 2024/APO Group/ —

    Leading global specialist risk consultancy, Control Risks (www.ControlRisks.com), and its economics consulting partner, Oxford Economics Africa (www.OxfordEconomics.com), today announced the launch of the ninth edition of the Africa Risk-Reward Index. This authoritative report is designed to provide policymakers, business leaders, and investors with a comprehensive guide to navigating the evolving investment landscape across key African markets.

    Download document: https://apo-opa.co/3zu16yU

    The report is released at a time when Africa is experiencing a significant generational shift in politics, increased continental connectivity, and the rapid emergence of transformative technologies that could potentially propel its progress. This pivotal moment presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses operating in African markets, but also risks exacerbating fragilities in some African countries.

    Africa’s outlook is promising. But understanding the nuanced market dynamics and adopting a long-term perspective will be essential for stakeholders — from policymakers and investors to development agencies and civil society — as they navigate the evolving landscape to successful investment outcomes in 2024 and beyond. For African countries and investors looking to invest or grow their business in Africa, the time is now.

    In the ninth Africa Risk-Reward Index, Control Risks and Oxford Economics Africa compare some of the continent’s largest and emerging markets, offering investors a comparative snapshot of market opportunities and risks across Africa in the year ahead.  

    The report examines three key themes outlined below, summarising Control Risks’ and Oxford Economics Africa’s views on Africa’s trajectory in the year ahead.

    Bridging the generational divide – a new era for African politics

    The report’s first theme focuses on how African political leaders are increasingly mindful of their young, growing populations. Recent events have shown that young people are becoming more frustrated with governance, impatient with development, and disillusioned with political establishments. This discontent has manifested in some surprising election results, youth-led protests, and some policy shifts.

    Patricia Rodrigues, Associate Director at Control Risks, said, “The 2024 Africa Risk-Reward Index provides crucial insights into the dynamic changes shaping investment opportunities across the continent. As Africa faces a period of significant political and economic shifts, our report highlights both the potential rewards and the risks that investors must consider. This year’s edition emphasizes the importance of understanding the complex interplay between emerging technologies, infrastructure developments and geopolitical influences to make informed and strategic investment decisions.”

    In South Africa, the ruling party lost its parliamentary majority in the May 2024 elections. In Senegal, the opposition candidate achieved a resounding victory, further illustrating the changing political dynamics in the region. In Kenya, young people organised nationwide protests that led the president to dismiss the entire cabinet.

    Businesses must now operate in a less predictable security and policy environment, as governments strive to balance investment attraction with rising societal demands.

    White elephants and lifelines – the megaprojects reshaping the continent

    Over the past decade, Africa has witnessed a significant surge in infrastructure investment, with large-scale energy, port, and rail projects taking centre stage. These megaprojects are often seen as catalysts for transformative economic growth, addressing long-standing deficiencies in trade corridors and enhancing connectivity across the continent.

    However, these ambitious projects are not without their challenges. Questions about these ventures’ true cost, long-term utility, and the transparency of the deals underpinning them have sparked heated debates across the continent. Many of these megaprojects have been financed through government-to-government agreements, often accompanied by concerns over opaque terms, lack of local involvement, and the potential for unsustainable debt burdens.

    Geopolitical dynamics also play a significant role in shaping Africa’s infrastructure landscape. While China has historically dominated infrastructure investment on the continent, other global powers are increasingly vying for influence. The US, Gulf countries, and other geopolitical actors are stepping up their efforts to fund and develop critical infrastructure projects in Africa, driven by competition for access to natural resources and strategic positioning in the global economy.

    This has resulted in a more complex and competitive environment, where African governments and businesses alike have to carefully navigate competing interests and align their infrastructure needs with their long-term goals.

    Emerging technologies – supercharging economic development

    The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to unlock new opportunities for innovation across Africa. AI applications in agriculture, climate adaptation, healthcare, and education offer the potential to accelerate economic growth. However, African governments risk lagging their global counterparts in regulating these technologies. Countries like Morocco, Rwanda, and South Africa are taking proactive steps, but others may adopt a more cautious approach, leading to a fragmented regulatory landscape.

    Jacques Nel, Head of Africa Macro at Oxford Economics Africa, added, “The 2024 Risk-Reward Index reveals a continent in flux, where significant shifts in political landscapes and economic conditions are reshaping the investment environment. This year’s report highlights the dual nature of Africa’s growth prospects – offering substantial opportunities while also presenting considerable risks. Our insights aim to equip stakeholders with the knowledge needed to make strategic decisions and utilize all the continent has to offer for sustainable growth.”

    Investment Landscape Outlook

    The 2024 Africa Risk-Reward Index continues to provide a grounded, long-term perspective on investment opportunities and challenges across major African economies. The report examines the shifting economic and political dynamics that are reshaping the continent’s risk-reward profile and offers actionable insights for stakeholders seeking to make informed decisions in this complex environment. African countries are at the intersection of global competition for resources, new trade corridors, and digital innovations. This index serves as a valuable tool for those looking to navigate the continent’s diverse markets and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

    Methodology 

    The Africa Risk-Reward Index is defined by the combination of risk and reward scores that integrate economic and political risk analysis by Control Risks and Oxford Economics Africa.  Risk scores from each country originate from the Economic and Political Risk Evaluator (EPRE), while the reward scores incorporate medium-term economic growth forecasts, economic size, economic structure, and demographics.  

    For details on the individual risk and reward definitions, please contact us at:

    communicationsEMEA@controlrisks.com or africa@oxfordeconomics.com 

    To request a copy of the report please contact: tracy.walakira@apo-opa.com 

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The big physics day “PhysFest” will take place at NSU this Sunday

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

    The large-scale program of the event will begin on September 29 at 11:00 in the main building of NSU (Pirogov St., 2). Participants will be able not only to have a fascinating time, but also to expand their knowledge in the field of natural science, get involved in fundamental science, and meet practicing scientists.

    The history of the project began in 2023, when Faculty of Physics The university successfully held the “Physics Day at NSU” as part of the All-Russian Physics Day. The event attracted great interest: it was attended by about 700 people, including more than 500 schoolchildren of different ages. It became clear that PhysFest should become regular, since it promotes the popularization of physics and science in general, attracts new schoolchildren to study the subject, and highlights the activities of NSU and the Physics Department as platforms that allow one to gain knowledge in this area.

    This year, the Science Festival has acquired a larger scale — PhysFest received grant support from Rosmolodezh. The program of the day includes: demonstration of unique physics experiments, interactive exhibitions, lectures, master classes, competitions and mini-Olympiads in physics.

    The project partners were scientific institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, departments and workshops of the Physics Faculty of NSU, and the PetroGM company.

    — The project promotes the dissemination of knowledge about physics, helps young people understand the importance of this science in the modern world. In addition, PhysFest has a large social effect — popularization of scientific research activities, development of pre-university natural science training, familiarization of schoolchildren with career opportunities in science and high-tech industries, — said the project manager, Deputy Dean of the Physics Department of NSU Roman Spitsyn.

    According to the organizers, a full-fledged Physics Festival at NSU is not only an opportunity to get closer to science and get to know the university, but also to contribute to your future education. It is also an opportunity to have a fun and unusual time with the whole family.

    Registration for PhysFest is open at the main site of the festival, and in VKontakte group You can learn more about the day’s events and choose the ones you like.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://www.nsu.ru/n/media/nevs/education/big-day-physics-physicsfest-will-be-held-in-NSU-this-Sunday/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “City of Tasks” provides useful information on apartment redevelopment

    MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    Project participants “City of tasks” check knowledge about the reconstruction and redevelopment of premises in an apartment building. In their reviews, Muscovites note that they learned a lot of new and useful things while completing the task. More than eight thousand people have already successfully answered the questions. They received 470 city points each.

    When completing the task, participants use educational material prepared by the State Housing Inspectorate of Moscow. City residents learn in which cases it is necessary to draw up project documentation, how to coordinate redevelopment, what a fine can be imposed for, and much more. They also receive answers to specific questions – for example, whether it is allowed to combine a room and a balcony or change the direction of opening of the front door. Some city residents save the information they receive to use this information in the future.

    To complete the task you need to on the special project page click the “Get Started” button and log in to your account via your mos.ru account. Then you need to follow the attached link, study the material on the rules for redevelopment and reorganization in an apartment, and answer 10 questions. The form with them becomes available in the “Progress” section an hour after the task is opened. This time is given to familiarize yourself with the educational materials.

    Verification of submitted answers takes no more than 10 working days. During this time, the task will have the status “In progress” in the user’s personal account, and immediately after verification – “Completed”. Participants who correctly answer eight questions out of 10 receive points for the city loyalty program “A Million Prizes”. They can be exchanged for discounts in stores, cafes and restaurants, donated to charity, or used to top up a Troika transport card or a parking account in the Parking Russia app, and much more.

    The task to test knowledge about redevelopment and reconstruction of premises in an apartment building is open until January 13 of next year. It can be completed once. You have 10 hours to complete it.

    The “City of Tasks” project appeared in January 2022. With its help, residents of the capital can control the work of the capital’s services, participate in environmental, cultural and sports events. Muscovites have already completed more than 2.3 million tasks. The project is being developed by the State Institution “New Management Technologies” and the capital Department of Information Technology.

    The use of digital technologies to improve the quality of life of city residents corresponds to the objectives of the national program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” and the regional project of the city of Moscow “Digital Public Administration”. More information about the national projects implemented in the capital can be found Here.

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

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144415073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Walk challenge enrolment starts Oct 1

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Department of Health announced today that it will organise a walking challenge under the “10,000 Steps a Day” Campaign in November to encourage people to increase their physical activities. The enrolment will start on October 1. 

    As this year’s event coincides with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Health Bureau and the department will, for the first time, partner with the Greater Bay Area Mainland cities to organise walking activities during the same period.

    Target participants of the event in Hong Kong are adults aged 18 or above.

    With the slogan “Shall We Walk & Talk”, the walking challenge aims to raise public awareness of the physical and mental health benefits of walking, encourage friends and colleagues to support each other and walk 10,000 steps daily, the department explained.

    Participants are required to enrol in the event and record their step count during the challenge period through “e+Life”, the recently launched health challenge platform under the eHealth app.

    Participants reaching a daily average of 10,000 steps during the challenge period will be awarded an electronic certificate of achievement.

    Interested individuals can enrol through “e+Life” by logging into the eHealth app from October 1 to 31, while interested workplace organisations can register with the department on or before October 15.

    After successful enrolment of the workplace organisation, their staff will be able to select their respective organisations when enrolling through “e+Life”, and the step counts of participating staff will be attributed to the organisation they choose. 

    According to the Population Health Survey 2020-22, nearly a quarter of persons aged 18 or above performed an insufficient level of physical activities, and about one in seven persons aged 15 or above reported spending 10 hours or longer sitting or reclining each day, the department noted.

    It added that walking brings us plenty of health benefits including improving cardiopulmonary function, strengthening muscles and bones, reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes, as well as relieving symptoms of anxiety and depression.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI: Municipality Finance issues NOK 2 billion green bond under its MTN programme

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Municipality Finance Plc
    Stock exchange release
    25 September 2024 at 10:00 am (EEST)

    Municipality Finance issues NOK 2 billion green bond under its MTN programme

    Municipality Finance Plc issues NOK 2 billion green bond on 26 September 2024. The maturity date of the green bond is 26 September 2029. The notes bear interest at a fixed rate of 3.666% per annum.

    The notes are issued under MuniFin’s EUR 50 billion programme for the issuance of debt instruments. The offering circular, the supplemental offering circular and the final terms of the notes are available in English on the company’s website at https://www.kuntarahoitus.fi/en/for-investors.

    MuniFin has applied for the notes to be admitted to trading on the Helsinki Stock Exchange maintained by Nasdaq Helsinki. The public trading is expected to commence on 26 September 2024.

    Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB acts as the Dealer for the issue of the notes.

    MUNICIPALITY FINANCE PLC

    Further information:

    Joakim Holmström
    Executive Vice President, Capital Markets and Sustainability
    tel. +358 50 444 3638

    MuniFin (Municipality Finance Plc) is one of Finland’s largest credit institutions. The owners of the company include Finnish municipalities, the public sector pension fund Keva and the Republic of Finland. The Group’s balance sheet totals over EUR 50 billion.

    MuniFin’s customers include municipalities, joint municipal authorities, wellbeing services counties, joint county authorities, corporate entities under the control of the above-mentioned organisations, and affordable social housing. Lending is used for environmentally and socially responsible investment targets such as public transportation, sustainable buildings, hospitals and healthcare centres, schools and day care centres, and homes for people with special needs.

    MuniFin’s customers are domestic, but the company operates in a completely global business environment. The company is an active Finnish bond issuer in international capital markets and the first Finnish green and social bond issuer. The funding is exclusively guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board.

    Read more: www.munifin.fi

    Important Information

    The information contained herein is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, in or into any such country or jurisdiction or otherwise in such circumstances in which the release, publication or distribution would be unlawful. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, any securities or other financial instruments in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

    This communication does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The notes have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) or under the applicable securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons except pursuant to an applicable exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Asian Development Blog: The Fed Has Cut Interest Rates: What Does This Mean for Asia and the Pacific?

    Source: Asia Development Bank

    The recent interest rate cuts by the United States Federal Reserve present opportunities and challenges for central banks in Asia and the Pacific. Policymakers must adopt a balanced, country-specific approach to navigate potential inflationary pressures, exchange rate volatility, and capital inflow dynamics.

    The United States’ Federal Reserve (Fed) kicked off a long-anticipated monetary policy loosening cycle at its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting, cutting interest rates by 50 basis points. Committee members project another 50 basis points of cuts this year, and that Fed loosening will continue in 2025.

    This could have significant consequences for the global economy, including for developing economies in Asia and the Pacific.

    Inflationary pressures in have continued declining in the region this year, as commodity prices stabilized and the lagged effects of last year’s monetary tightening took hold. As a result, most of its central banks have paused their hiking cycle, with some switching to policy rate cuts. Others may now follow suit.

     In shaping their policy stance, central banks in emerging economies need to take account of interest rate differentials with the US, which impact capital flows and exchange rates. The Fed rate cut opens up the opportunity for more of the region’s central banks to loosen policy to stimulate domestic demand and growth, without triggering capital outflows and exchange rate depreciations.

    Still, since the pace and length of the Fed loosening cycle remains uncertain, an appropriate policy response in Asia and the Pacific will require caution and a careful balancing act, for a number of reasons.

    One option for central banks is to cut rates in the wake of the Fed. This would support growth, but it may also revive price pressures and encourage excessive borrowing in economies where household and corporate debt levels are already high.

    Alternatively, central banks in the region could continue to maintain a relatively tight monetary stance—e.g., by cutting interest rates with a lag and/or less than proportionally with respect to the Fed.

    In such a case, the lower interest rates in the US could increase capital flows to Asia and the Pacific, as investors adjust their portfolios toward assets with more attractive yields. This could boost equity and bond markets across the region, providing some breathing space to more vulnerable economies.

    However, capital inflows could also present some challenges, as significant swings in short-term portfolio investment could increase financial market volatility. 

    Additionally, higher capital inflows may result in exchange rate appreciations vis-à-vis the US dollar in the region. This would benefit economies heavily dependent on oil and other commodity imports, reducing price pressures and improving trade balances. For economies with high US dollar-denominated debt, the depreciation of the US dollar would make it easier to sustain the debt burden.

    The beginning of the Fed monetary loosening cycle brings challenges and opportunities for Asia and the Pacific.

    On the other hand, exchange rate appreciations would boost imports, with potentially negative effects on current accounts. In the medium term, stronger currencies could also hamper export growth, particularly for economies reliant on exports of traditional manufacturing goods, such as garments or textiles, which depend mainly on price competitiveness.

    This variety of potential effects and channels suggests that  policy responses to the Fed loosening cycle in Asia and the Pacific will need to be country-specific and nuanced, and include a combination of the following measures.

    As well as adjusting interest rates, monetary authorities in the region could rely on targeted measures, such as on banks’ reserve requirements, to affect financial and liquidity conditions. Forward guidance can also be an effective tool to anchor inflation expectations and reduce uncertainty and financial volatility, by clearly laying out the future path of monetary policy for market participants and economic agents.

    For economies receiving increasing capital inflows, well-developed financial markets are key to absorb the inflows and turn them into productive investment in the domestic economy. Policy action should focus on increasing competition, efficiency, and transparency in the financial sector, with the central bank or other overseeing independent authority providing adequate supervision.  

    To deal with the risks associated with rising capital inflows, capital flow management measures and macroprudential policies can be used, including measures aimed at mitigating exposure to currency mismatches.  Where capital inflows result in excessive currency appreciation, targeted intervention in foreign exchange markets could help reduce volatility, while also increasing foreign exchange reserves.

    Fiscal policy could be used the cushion the impact of falling exports. Depending on fiscal space, stimulus could be directed at several objectives, including boosting consumer spending; incentivizing activity in particular sectors with stronger multiplier effects on the rest of the economy; and infrastructure, energy-saving, climate-adaptation, and other projects aimed at addressing structural gaps, which would also boost the economy’s productive potential.

    The beginning of the Fed monetary loosening cycle brings challenges and opportunities for Asia and the Pacific. Lower interest rates in the US and a weaker dollar could lower import costs, boost financial markets, and spur larger capital flows toward the region. But these positive developments would not be without risks, including possible exchange rate volatility and renewed inflationary pressures.

    Policymakers will need to adopt a flexible approach, remaining vigilant and proactive in taking advantage of the opportunities and addressing the risks.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: ICON Week aims to help parents to cope with infant crying

    Source: City of Wolverhampton

    ICON Week aims to raise awareness of infant crying and how parents and carers can cope with it to help prevent serious injury, illness and even death which can result from adults not knowing how to soothe or otherwise safely attend to crying babies.

    Research indicates that some parents and carers may lose control when faced with persistent infant crying, potentially leading to severe outcomes such as shaking a baby. This can cause abusive head trauma, which may result catastrophic brain injuries and lead to death or long term health and learning disabilities.

    ICON consists of a series of key messages:

    I – Infant crying is normal and will eventually stop. 
    C – Comfort methods can sometimes soothe the baby, and the crying will cease. 
    O – It’s OK to walk away for a few minutes if you have ensured the baby’s safety and the crying is overwhelming. 
    N – Never shake or hurt a baby.

    Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing, said: “Most babies start to cry more frequently from 2 weeks of age, with a peak usually being seen around 6 to 8 weeks.

    “The ICON Week campaign is about sharing messages of support and advice to parents and carers who might be struggling to cope. We want to normalise the fact that babies do cry and some aren’t easily soothed and we want to share information far and wide about what to do in these situations and, most importantly, how to stay calm.

    “Anyone who needs support, please don’t continue to struggle. Help is available from your midwife, health visitor or GP, or you can go online and find resources on the ICON website.”

    Dr Suzanne Smith, nurse, health visitor, and founder of ICON, added: “Abusive head trauma can occur in any setting when a parent or carer is overwhelmed by persistent crying. The additional pressures from the rising cost of living further strain families, leading to potentially devastating consequences.

    “ICON’s mission is to offer support and advice to parents and carers who may be struggling. We aim to normalise the experience of infant crying, share practical information on managing stress, and ultimately reduce the risk of abusive head trauma.”

    For more information about ICON week, which runs until Sunday (29 September), please visit ICON.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –