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  • MIL-OSI USA: Warner, Kaine, Scott Urge EPA to Reinstate Funding for Cancelled Community Resilience Grants

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Virginia Tim Kaine

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner, Tim Kaine (both D-VA), and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA-03) sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin urging the agency to reverse its decision to terminate two major Community Change Grants in Virginia. The cancelled grants – approximately $40 million – would have supported dozens of community projects aimed at strengthening flood resilience, reducing pollution, and improving energy efficiency in Hampton and across Southwest Virginia.

    The grants, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), were intended to support projects that increase resilience to major weather events, reduce pollution, and build community capacity.

    The City of Hampton received $20 million in federal funding to address severe flood risk in the Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood. That funding would have advanced 51 projects ranging from stormwater infrastructure upgrades and rain garden construction to stream restoration efforts and improved public health protections for an area where over 22 percent of properties fall within FEMA-designated flood zones.

    United Way of Southwest Virginia and the University of Virginia’s College at Wise also received nearly $20 million in federal funding to support flood resilient housing, the construction of a community center and flood shelter in Dickenson County, and energy efficiency upgrades at childcare centers in eight counties in Southwest Virginia. These investments would have delivered long-term savings, improved disaster readiness, and supported vulnerable Appalachian communities hit hard by extreme weather in recent years.

    In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, “We are deeply concerned that the EPA no longer considers community resiliency, environmental conservation, and economic development to be administration funding priorities.”

    They continued, “EPA’s decision to terminate these grants will leave communities in Virginia less resilient, less prosperous, and more vulnerable to extreme weather-related disasters. We urge you to reinstate this critical funding for communities throughout Virginia.”

    Warner, Kaine, and Scott have long advocated for resiliency efforts in Virginia, championing legislation and funding to help communities strengthen infrastructure against extreme weather. The senators were strong supporters of the Inflation Reduction Act, which authorized the Community Change Grants program to help historically neglected and underserved communities address flooding, pollution, and climate vulnerabilities.

    The lawmakers have also continuously stood up against the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel necessary federal funding for Virginia’s communities. Most recently, Warner, Kaine, and Scott wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to reversethe cancellation of critical infrastructure funding for the Commonwealth. 

    Text of the letter is available here and below.

    Dear Administrator Zeldin:

    We write regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to terminate approximately $40 million in funding intended to prevent localized pollution and mitigate the effects of flooding in Hampton, Virginia, and to support economic development, enhance resilient infrastructure, and lower energy costs across seven counties in Southwest Virginia. We strongly urge you to reverse this decision that will impact efforts to improve resiliency, environmental conservation, energy efficiency, and economic outcomes in communities across the Commonwealth.

    The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided approximately $2 billion to EPA to establish the Community Change Grants Program. Congress intended this funding to be used to support projects that increase community resilience, reduce pollution, and build community capacity. In 2024, EPA selected 105 projects, including two projects in Virginia.

    The City of Hampton, Virginia, was awarded just over $20 million to address significant flood risk in the historic Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood. In a locality where 22 percent of properties are in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-designated Special Flood Hazard Areas, the city and their nonprofit partner, Wetlands Watch, planned to leverage federal funding to advance 51 projects to update stormwater infrastructure, initiate stream-restoration projects, and construct community rain gardens. These projects were intended to mitigate flood risk, lessen the financial burden of flooding on the neighborhood’s residents, and improve environmental and public health outcomes.

    The United Way of Southwest Virginia and the University of Virginia were awarded nearly $20 million to fund eight projects across the Virginia coalfields. Funding would have supported the construction of flood-resilient housing infrastructure in Buchanan County and a new community center and flood shelter in Dickenson County, two communities that have been devastated by flooding and extreme weather in recent years. Additionally, the grant would support energy efficiency upgrades at childcare facilities in eight counties, enabling thousands of dollars of energy cost savings to go towards childcare worker salaries.

    In terminating these grants, EPA wrote to awardees that, “the objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.” We are deeply concerned that the EPA no longer considers community resiliency, environmental conservation, and economic development to be administration funding priorities. EPA’s decision to terminate these grants will leave communities in Virginia less resilient, less prosperous, and more vulnerable to extreme weather-related disasters. We urge you to reinstate this critical funding for communities throughout Virginia. 

    Thank you for your attention to this letter. We look forward to your response.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Grills EEOC Commissioner Lucas on Dismissal of Discrimination Cases Under Trump’s Gender EO

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    ***WATCH: Senator Murray’s questioning***

    Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing to consider pending labor and civil rights nominations, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the HELP Committee, grilled Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Acting Chair and Commissioner nominee Andrea Lucas on dismissal of discrimination cases involving people who are nonbinary and the importance of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Senator Murray also spoke out against Trump’s illegal firing of EEOC Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, which she forcefully condemned in January and led a letter in March demanding their immediate reinstatement.

    [FIRING OF COMMISSIONERS SAMUELS AND BURROWS]

    Senator Murray began by addressing President Trump’s unprecedented move earlier this year to fire two Democratic Commissioners on the EEOC: “On January 27, President Trump made the unprecedented and illegal move to fire two EEOC Commissioners—Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows—without cause. In the EEOC’s 60-year history, the President has never fired a commissioner before their term expired. Commissioner Lucas, in 2021 you actually criticized President Biden’s move to fire the former General Counsel, calling the EEOC a ‘independent agency.’ Now that President Trump is in charge, all of the talk about the EEOC’s ‘independence’ has disappeared. These illegal firings are yet another example of the very long list of ways President Trump is weaponizing and making independent agencies political—in this case, the one Americans actually rely on for justice when they face discrimination at work.”

    “I led a letter to President Trump pressing him to reinstate Commissioners Samuels and Burrows, and I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing any nominations to the EEOC until President Trump does that,” SenatorMurray said.

    [DISMISSAL OF DISCRIMINATION CASES]

    Senator Murray moved onto her questioning, focusing on the EEOC’s recent move to dismiss nearly every lawsuit it had filed over the past year alleging discrimination against transgender and nonbinary workers following President Trump’s Executive Order on “Gender Ideology” that recognizing only two “immutable” sexes: “Under President Trump, the EEOC has moved to dismiss cases they had previously agreed on—by a majority vote—to litigate. For example, the Commission recently dismissed a case, Lush Cosmetics, where the EEOC itself had alleged that a manager: groped an employee, asked an employee for sex, commented on employees’ breasts, tried to engage employees in sexual discussions, and used sexual profanities. Commissioner Lucas, was it your decision to dismiss that case?”

    Commissioner Lucas first acknowledged that she had conveniently changed her position on the independence of the EEOC: “Thank you for the question, Senator, and for the opportunity to acknowledge my prior tweet and to note that I was wrong at that time…the agency is an executive branch agency. At the time that I indicated that, I was not aware of the long record that the agency had taken that position, and therefore it’s important for as an executive agency us to follow the President when he directs us in an Executive Order to defend women’s rights and to refer to individuals solely by their biological pronouns—”

    Senator Murray redirected Commissioner Lucas to answer her question, saying: “Can you answer the question on dismissing the case? You were Acting Chair of the Commission when Lush Cosmetics, was it your decision to drop the case?”

    “It was my decision in consultation with our career staff, unanimous decision of the career staff, that it was impossible to both comply with the President’s Executive Order as an executive branch agency and also zealously defend the workers who we had brought the case on behalf. We could not balance both of those interests and therefore we gave them an opportunity to intervene, and the case proceeds forward with those workers taking a position on their own,” Commissioner Lucas replied.

    “I just want to be clear—what you’re saying is that when an employee is groped, propositioned for sex, and called abject slurs at work, the EEOC will do absolutely nothing to enforce anti-discrimination laws if that employee happens to be nonbinary, or otherwise doesn’t conform to this administration’s ideas about gender,” Senator Murray responded. “Is that correct?”

    Commissioner Lucas replied, “Respectfully, I disagree with that conclusion.”

    “I don’t know what conclusion we come to other than that with that decision,” Senator Murray pushed back.

    “It shouldn’t matter what someone’s gender identity is. If they are harassed at work, they should be able to get the justice they are entitled to under the law,” Senator Murray concluded.

    ___________________________________

    Throughout her career, Senator Murray has championed workers’ rights and fought to combat employment discrimination, including as the top Democrat on the Senate labor committee from 2015-2022—among other things, Senator Murray fought back against a proposed DOL rule by the Trump administration that would allow federal contractors and subcontractors to justify discrimination against women, LGBTQ+ people, and members of certain religious groups on ideological grounds. Senator Murray first introduced the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act—comprehensive labor legislation to protect workers’ right to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces—in the 116th Congress, and also leads the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act, comprehensive legislation to prevent workplace harassment, strengthen and expand key protections for workers, and support workers in seeking accountability and justice.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin: Instead Of Conducting Critical Oversight, Judiciary Committee Republicans Are Holding Partisan Hearing Armchair Diagnosing Former President Biden

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

    June 18, 2025

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, slammed Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans for holding a partisan hearing today where they plan to armchair diagnose former President Biden. In his opening remarks, Durbin called out the lack of oversight the Committee has conducted so far under the Trump Administration, despite the numerous, critical challenges facing the nation that are under the Committee’s jurisdiction.

    By this date in Durbin’s first year as Chair, the Committee had already held two major oversight hearings with Biden Administration agency heads, including one with FBI Director Wray on domestic terrorism threats. So far, the Republican majority on this Committee has not held a single oversight hearing.

    “This Committee has oversight responsibility over the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security. We have a constitutional duty to hold these agencies accountable with public hearings,” Durbin said. “In the last week alone, several events have demanded this Committee’s immediate attention: the horrific assassination in Minnesota, the treatment of our colleague Senator Padilla by federal agents in Los Angeles, and President Trump’s unprecedented deployment of the U.S. military in Los Angeles.”

    Durbin continued, “We should hear without delay from Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel about what they are doing to address the unacceptable political violence in our country, including threats to Article III judges and justices, as well as members of Congress. And we need to hear from Homeland Security Secretary Noem about the treatment of our colleagues, Senator Padilla, and this Administration’s mass deportation campaign against immigrants. But instead of exercising this constitutional oversight duty, my Republican colleagues are holding this hearing. Apparently, armchair diagnosing former President Biden is more important than the current issues of grave concern that I have mentioned.”

    Durbin went on to note just a few examples of issues that the Senate Judiciary Committee should be addressing.

    “The Trump Administration has removed dozens of senior career prosecutors and FBI officials with decades of national security expertise, leaving our nation more vulnerable to terrorism and other national security threats. This should be explained to this Committee,” Durbin said. “The Justice Department has diverted hundreds of law enforcement agents away from combatting cartels, drug trafficking, and gun violence to participate in President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. This should be addressed in an open hearing of this Committee.”

    Durbin continued, “The Justice Department is also turning a blind eye to corruption. The Administration has gutted the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, which oversees political corruption cases, just as the President’s shameful crypto scheme unfolds. And the Administration has removed the Department of Justice’s career ethics officials and shut down the office charged with investigating misconduct by DOJ attorneys.”

    Durbin then called out how his Republican colleagues are eager to discuss President Biden’s pardons, but are ignoring the actual pardon crisis of President Trump’s “pay-to-play” scheme. Durbin highlighted the story of Paul Walczak, whom President Trump pardoned after Walczak pleaded guilty in 2024 to withholding more than $7 million of taxes from his employees’ paychecks and failing to pay the IRS.

    “What warranted Mr. Walczak’s swift pardon by President Trump? His pardon application explicitly cited millions of dollars his mother raised for President Trump’s campaigns and other efforts to support the President. But that was not enough,” Durbin said. “It was three weeks after Mr. Walczak’s mother attended a $1 million a person Trump fundraiser in April of this year that Mr. Walczak was miraculously receiving his pardon—and now he no longer must pay $4.4 million to the taxpayers of this country. That’s one example of the many pardons granted to President Trump’s wealthy donors and political supporters.”

    Durbin continued, “And, of course, these pay-to-play pardons are in addition to the more than 1,500 January 6 rioters who received blanket pardons from President Trump, including 169 who violently assaulted law enforcement officials.”

    Durbin concluded, “If my colleagues are truly interested in issues of presidential succession and disability under the 25th Amendment, I would suggest they embark on this constitutional journey with a proposed amendment, not today’s political adventure.”

    Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

    Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

    Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • ECI launches fast-track delivery of EPICs within 15 Days

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    In a major move aimed at enhancing voter convenience and efficiency in service delivery, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure that Elector Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) are delivered within 15 days of any update in the electoral rolls. This includes both new enrolments and modifications to existing voter details.

    The initiative, introduced under the leadership of Chief Election Commissioner Shri Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi, is part of the Commission’s ongoing commitment to provide timely and citizen-centric services.

    Under the new system, each stage of EPIC processing—from generation by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to final delivery by the Department of Posts (DoP)—will be tracked in real time. Electors will receive SMS notifications at every step, keeping them informed of their card’s status.

    The ECI has developed a dedicated IT module on its recently launched ECINet platform to support this initiative. This platform, designed to replace the older system, offers a streamlined workflow and enhanced data security. Integration with the DoP’s Application Programming Interface (API) ensures seamless coordination and quicker delivery of EPICs.

  • ECI launches fast-track delivery of EPICs within 15 Days

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    In a major move aimed at enhancing voter convenience and efficiency in service delivery, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure that Elector Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) are delivered within 15 days of any update in the electoral rolls. This includes both new enrolments and modifications to existing voter details.

    The initiative, introduced under the leadership of Chief Election Commissioner Shri Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi, is part of the Commission’s ongoing commitment to provide timely and citizen-centric services.

    Under the new system, each stage of EPIC processing—from generation by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to final delivery by the Department of Posts (DoP)—will be tracked in real time. Electors will receive SMS notifications at every step, keeping them informed of their card’s status.

    The ECI has developed a dedicated IT module on its recently launched ECINet platform to support this initiative. This platform, designed to replace the older system, offers a streamlined workflow and enhanced data security. Integration with the DoP’s Application Programming Interface (API) ensures seamless coordination and quicker delivery of EPICs.

  • PM Modi thanks Croatia for backing India’s fight against terrorism

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked Croatia for backing India’s fight against terrorism as both nations began a new chapter in bilateral relationship during his historic visit to the country – the first-ever by an Indian PM – on Wednesday.

    PM Modi held “productive discussions” with his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic in Zagreb as both leaders reviewed the full spectrum of India-Croatia bilateral relations and explored avenues to deepen collaboration in sectors like digital technologies, space, renewable energy, defence, maritime infrastructure, tourism and hospitality, amongst others.

    Asserting that India and Croatia are bound by shared values such as democracy, rule of law, pluralism, and equality, PM Modi thanked Croatia for its “steadfast support” to India in fighting cross-border terrorism. Both leaders also called for further deepening India-EU strategic ties.

    “We agree that terrorism is the enemy of humanity and opposed to those forces who believe in democracy. We are deeply grateful to Prime Minister Plenkovic and the Government of Croatia for their condolences on the terrorist attack in India on April 22. In such difficult times, the support of our friendly countries has been very valuable to us,” said PM Modi after the delegation-level talks.

    He added that both countries have agreed to enhance cooperation in many areas to boost bilateral trade and create reliable supply chains.

    “We will promote cooperation in pharma, agriculture, information technology, clean technology, digital technology, renewable energy, semiconductors. Cooperation will also be increased in shipbuilding and cyber security,” remarked PM Modi.

    In a gesture signifying the centuries-old close cultural links between the two countries, Prime Minister Modi received from his Croatian counterpart a reprint of Vezdin’s Sanskrit grammar – the first printed Sanskrit grammar written in Latin in 1790 by Croatian scientist and missionary Filip Vezdin during his time spent in India.

    “To the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, I handed over a reprint of Vezdin’s Sanskrit grammar – the first printed Sanskrit grammar, written in Latin in 1790 by the Croatian scientist and missionary Filip Vezdin (1748-1806), based on the knowledge he gained during his stay in India from Kerala Brahmins and local manuscripts. With this pioneering work, Filip Vezdin became one of the first European scientists to seriously devote himself to Indian languages and culture. At the same time, this is a symbol of early cultural ties between Croatia and India,” said Plenkovic.

    An Indologist of Croatian nationality, Ivan Filip Vezdin came to Malabar as a missionary in 1774 and later became the Vicar-General on the Malabar Coast.

    He is credited with publishing the first printed Sanskrit grammar in 1790. A plaque to commemorate him was unveiled in Trivandrum in 1999.

    Plenkovic also handed over a book titled ‘Croatia and India, Bilateral Navigator for Diplomats and Business’ to PM Modi, written by Croatian diplomat Sinise Grgica.

    “Grgica in a unique and comprehensive way gives a comparative view of our two countries and explores all dimensions of bilateral relations. This book reflects our achievements, as well as the potential we can still realise, and we believe that it will inspire and encourage the strengthening of our future cooperation and contribute to the further deepening of the mutual friendship between Croatia and India,” said Plenkovic.

    Earlier, Prime Minister Modi received a rousing welcome by the vibrant Indian community in Zagreb as he began his landmark visit to Croatia – the first-ever by an Indian Prime Minister to the country – on Wednesday.

    Zagreb is the last stop on PM Modi’s three-nation tour, which also included visits to Cyprus en route to Canada for Tuesday’s G7 Summit in Kananaskis.

    Prime Minister Modi had emphasised that the three-nation tour is also an opportunity to thank partner countries for their steadfast support to India in India’s fight against cross-border terrorism, and to galvanise global understanding on tackling terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

    In a special gesture, PM Modi was warmly received by Plenkovic at the Franjo Tudman Airport with a ceremonial welcome.

    Members of the Indian diaspora, waiting to catch a glimpse of PM Modi, were seen gathered in huge numbers as the PM’s motorcade drove through the city.

    Hundreds of people, including locals, also gave a grand welcome to PM Modi as he arrived at his hotel.

    Amid chants of “Modi-Modi”, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram”, PM Modi witnessed vibrant and energy-filled cultural performances from people present at the venue.

    PM Modi joined a group of locals chanting Vedic shlokas and also interacted with a few in the gathering while getting inside the building.

    “The bonds of culture are strong and vibrant! Here is a part of the welcome in Zagreb. Happy to see Indian culture has so much respect in Croatia,” said PM Modi.

    “Croatia’s Indian community has contributed to Croatia’s progress and also remained in touch with their roots in India. In Zagreb, I interacted with some members of the Indian community, who accorded me an unforgettable welcome. There is immense enthusiasm among the Indian community here about this visit and its impact in making the bond between our nations stronger than ever before,” he added.

    PM Modi was then warmly received by Plenkovic at the iconic St. Mark’s Square and accorded a ceremonial welcome.

    It was followed by delegation-level bilateral talks between the two leaders.

    Plenkovic said that PM Modi’s significant visit comes at a pivotal moment.

    “We welcomed the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Zagreb! This is the first visit by the Prime Minister of India – the most populous country in the world, and it comes at an important geopolitical moment. We are starting a new chapter in Croatia-India relations and creating the conditions for strengthening bilateral cooperation in a number of areas,” the Croatian Prime Minister commented.

    Analysts reckon that the first-ever visit by an Indian PM to Croatia will help in fostering stronger political and economic collaboration with Croatia. It will also provide a crucial opportunity to expand bilateral cooperation in various sectors including trade, innovation, defence, ports, shipping, science and tech, cultural exchange, and workforce mobility.

    (IANS)

  • MIL-OSI USA: Jay’s Journey Through Cancer, Recovery, and the Mental Healing That Followed

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Three years ago, Jay Buth was preparing for surgery to remove a tumor from his pancreas. Today, he’s returning from a bucket-list trip to Italy. But the road between those milestones was neither simple nor smooth.

    After a successful surgery to remove the tumor, described by his doctors as “better than textbook,” Buth faced unexpected complications that left him in the ICU for two months. From there, he was transferred to the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, where he had to relearn how to walk and regain basic coordination. But the harder recovery, he says, was the mental one.

    “I think mental health doesn’t get enough attention during cancer treatment,” Buth explains. “But even more so, it’s overlooked after treatment ends. That’s when a lot of the mental healing really begins.”

    Jay and Alissa Buth on their trip to Italy.

    Over the past three years, Jay has worked closely with Dr. Judith Cooney, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at the Carol and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health, to help navigate the emotional and psychological aftermath of surviving cancer.

    Cooney specializes in helping patients and survivors manage the emotional impact of cancer diagnoses, treatment, and survivorship.

    Her work includes evidence-based interventions for anxiety, depression, adjustment difficulties, and coping strategies related to chronic and terminal illness. Cooney partners with oncologists and the wider care team to ensure patients receive whole-person care, supporting both the physical and psychological challenges that come with cancer.

    “Mental health is not separate from cancer care,” says Dr. Cooney. “It’s essential to supporting patients’ resilience, quality of life, and ability to heal, both during and after treatment.”

    “One of the most powerful, and often unexpected, challenges survivors face is survivor’s guilt,” said Dr. Cooney. “They ask, ‘Why did I survive when others didn’t?’ These are very real, very human reactions,and they deserve just as much care and attention as the physical aspects of recovery.”

    Buth says that question haunted him after he was declared cancer-free. “When you get the all-clear, you expect to feel nothing but relief,” he said. “But for me, there was this incredible guilt. Why did I make it when others didn’t?”

    Through his work with Dr. Cooney, he’s reframed that guilt as something more constructive.

    “We talked a lot about shifting from ‘Why me?’ to ‘Why not me?’” Cooney said. “Jay’s treatment responded well. His tumor was operable. His body healed. These are blessings, not sources of guilt.”

    Together, they’ve worked through scan-related anxiety, the stress of long-term monitoring, and the daily effort to stay grounded.

    “We focus on mindfulness, breathing, staying present, and viewing follow-up scans as routine medical care, not as looming threats,” said Cooney. “Jay has done an incredible job learning how to take in the data, stay rooted in the moment, and not let fear drive the narrative.”

    Their sessions began every other week and now take place monthly or as needed.

    Jay and his wife Alissa with his sister-in-law and brother-in-law Megan and Brandon on their recent trip to Italy.

    Buth describes his emotional recovery as ongoing, but transformative. “This might sound strange, but cancer might’ve been the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “It forced me to slow down, notice the small things and helped me live more fully.”

    That empathy has turned into action. Quietly and consistently, Jay now supports other pancreatic cancer patients. “I don’t know how helpful I am,” he says. “But sometimes people just need someone who’s been there. Someone who will listen.”

    “That peer support is incredibly meaningful,” Cooney added. “Jay’s willingness to use his experience to help others is not only a testament to his strength, but a vital part of healing. Helping others can also help us find purpose in our own journeys.”

    As he returns from his trip to Rome, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast with his wife, Jay carried with him not just a passport, but a new perspective.

    “You only go once around the ride,” he said. “So we’re doing it. We’re living it.”

    This June, during National Cancer Survivor Month, Jay’s story reminds us that survival is about more than medicine. It’s about healing the whole person, body, mind, and spirit—and the role expert mental health support plays long after the last scan.

    “Mental health is health care,” Jay says. “And it should be part of every cancer care plan, from day one and long after.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: AG Labrador Announces Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act Now Fully Enforceable After Lawsuit Dismissal

    Source: US State of Idaho

    Home Newsroom AG Labrador Announces Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act Now Fully Enforceable After Lawsuit Dismissal

    BOISE — Attorney General Raúl Labrador today announced that challengers have dismissed their lawsuit against Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act. The joint dismissal of Poe v. Labrador ends all court injunctions and allows full enforcement of Idaho’s law protecting children from harmful, life-altering gender transition drugs and surgeries.
    “No one has the right to harm children. For two years, my office defended Idaho’s common-sense law that protects kids from experimental procedures with lifelong, irreversible consequences,” said Attorney General Labrador. “Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act recognizes that children suffering from gender dysphoria need love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality—not life-altering drugs and surgeries. With this lawsuit now dismissed, Idaho can fully enforce our law protecting children, families, and biological reality.”
    Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act, passed in 2023, protects Idaho’s children by prohibiting doctors from providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transition surgeries to children under 18 to alter their appearance or affirm their “gender identity” when that identity differs from their biological sex. The law makes providing these procedures a felony, recognizing that children cannot consent to experimental treatments with permanent consequences.
    In June 2023, activists and two families sued to block the law from taking effect. A federal district judge initially sided with the challengers, issuing a court order that prevented Idaho from enforcing the law statewide while the case proceeded. This meant doctors could continue performing these procedures on children across Idaho despite the state law.
    Attorney General Labrador immediately appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In April 2024, the Supreme Court granted Idaho’s request, ruling that the lower court had overstepped by blocking the law for everyone in the state. The Court narrowed the injunction to apply only to the two families who sued, allowing Idaho to enforce its child protection law for all other children statewide.Now, the challenger families have dismissed their lawsuit entirely. The dismissal ends the remaining injunction, allowing Idaho to fully enforce its protections for all children.
    The dismissal of the Poe v. Labrador case coincides with the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 18, 2025, decision in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld the State of Tennessee’s similar law protecting children from these harmful practices.
    Attorney General Labrador worked with Alliance Defending Freedom to defend Idaho’s law at every level of the federal court system. Idaho continues leading the nation in protecting vulnerable children and supporting parents in their obligation to guide and love their children.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Los eventos del Día Mundial de Toma de Conciencia del Abuso y Maltrato de Adultos Mayores en Oregon resaltan la importancia de prevenir y reportar el abuso

    Source: US State of Oregon

    l Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Oregon (ODHS, por sus siglas en inglés) y socios comunitarios se unieron para resaltar la importancia de prevenir y reportar el abuso hacia los adultos mayores en conmemoración del Día Mundial de Toma de Conciencia del Abuso y Maltrato de Adultos Mayores (WEAAD, por sus siglas en inglés). Esta celebración sirve como un recordatorio de que todos tenemos la responsabilidad de proteger la seguridad, la dignidad y los derechos de los adultos mayores en todo Oregon.

    Cada año, miles de adultos mayores en Oregon son víctimas de diferentes formas de maltrato, como maltrato físico, emocional, económico y negligencia. En el 2024 en Oregon, hubo 18,535 presuntas víctimas de abuso según los datos recolectados por la unidad de Servicios de Protección de Adultos (APS, por sus siglas en inglés) de ODHS. Sin embargo, muchos casos no se reportan por el miedo, el aislamiento o la falta de información. La educación y el compromiso de la comunidad son necesarios para que las personas sepan qué hacer si están recibiendo maltratos o sospechan que alguien que conocen podría estar en peligro.

    “Cualquiera puede ser víctima de abuso. Saber las muchas formas en que se da el abuso y el maltrato y qué hacer cuando pasa es responsabilidad de todos”, dijo Nakeshia Knight-Coyle, Ph.D., directora de la Oficina para Adultos Mayores y Personas con Discapacidades Físicas (APD, por sus siglas en inglés) de ODHS. “El Día Mundial de Toma de Conciencia del Abuso y Maltrato de Adultos Mayores es un momento para fortalecer nuestro compromiso de educarnos a nosotros mismos, estar al tanto de nuestros vecinos y familiares, y hablar cuando vemos o sospechamos abuso.”

    En conmemoración del Día Mundial de Toma de Conciencia del Abuso y Maltrato de Adultos Mayores, que se celebra el 15 de junio de cada año, comunidades de todo Oregon han tenido diferentes eventos este mes, donde han compartido material educativo y colaborado con organizaciones locales para ayudar a crear un entorno más seguro para los adultos mayores.

    En el condado de Klamath, APD se asoció con el Consejo sobre Envejecimiento de los condados de Klamath y Lake, el Centro de Adultos Mayores de Klamath Basin y otras organizaciones locales para tener una feria de recursos comunitarios el 10 de junio. El evento tuvo invitados que dieron pláticas, puestos con información educativa, actividades interactivas, sorteos y un almuerzo gratuito. Al día siguiente hubo un evento similar en el condado de Lake, en The Center (antes llamado Lake County Senior Citizens Center). Cientos de miembros de la comunidad participaron en los dos eventos, mostrando un fuerte apoyo local a la toma de conciencia y prevención del maltrato a los adultos mayores. También se hicieron eventos por internet. Varios líderes de APD dieron una presentación informativa el 12 de junio en la Cumbre de Prevención del Abuso a Adultos Mayores 2025 (Oregon Health Care Association’s Elder Abuse Prevention Summit 2025) de la Asociación de Atención Médica de Oregon (Oregon Health Care Association). La presentación se enfocó en las mejores prácticas que los centros de atención médica pueden aplicar para prevenir el abuso. Otros temas tratados en la cumbre fueron los derechos de las personas que viven en centros de atención a largo plazo, las investigaciones de reportes de maltrato y la resolución de conflictos.

    Recursos:

    Cualquier persona que sospeche de maltrato o abuso a adultos mayores puede llamar a la SafeLine de Oregon al 1-855-503-SAFE (7233). Los reportes son confidenciales y pueden hacerse todos los días, las veinticuatro horas del día.

    Las señales de maltrato y abuso pueden incluir:

    • Físicas: lesiones inexplicables o señales físicas de castigo o restricción.
    • Emocionales: Ansiedad, depresión o cambios de conducta
    • Negligencia: Falta de higiene, llagas o úlceras, pérdida de peso o condiciones de vida inseguras.
    • Abandono: Persona dependiente a la que se deja sola.
    • Sexual: Aislamiento, angustia o síntomas físicos.
    • Económicas: Transacciones bancarias inexplicables, retrasos en el pago de facturas o bienes que han desaparecido.

    Para más información sobre cómo ayudar a detectar, prevenir y reportar el maltrato y abuso, visite https://www.oregon.gov/odhs/es/Pages/reporte-abuso.aspx

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Becca Balint on Supreme Court Anti-Trans Ruling

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Becca Balint (VT-AL)

    Washington, D.C. – Rep. Becca Balint released the below statement following the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Skrmetti. Three transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider challenged a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming hormone therapies for transgender people under 18. The Court’s decision allows the Tennessee law to remain in effect.

    “Every parent wants to keep their child healthy. Parents and trans young people have the right to make private health care decisions with their doctors. Today’s ruling allowing Tennessee politicians to interfere in private health care decisions is not only draconian, it’s dangerous and hateful,” said Rep. Becca Balint. “I want families who are feeling scared today about the consequences of this decision to know that I’m with you. I’m fighting for you in Congress every single day, and I will not back down.”

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Becca Balint on Supreme Court Anti-Trans Ruling

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Becca Balint (VT-AL)

    Washington, D.C. – Rep. Becca Balint released the below statement following the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Skrmetti. Three transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider challenged a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming hormone therapies for transgender people under 18. The Court’s decision allows the Tennessee law to remain in effect.

    “Every parent wants to keep their child healthy. Parents and trans young people have the right to make private health care decisions with their doctors. Today’s ruling allowing Tennessee politicians to interfere in private health care decisions is not only draconian, it’s dangerous and hateful,” said Rep. Becca Balint. “I want families who are feeling scared today about the consequences of this decision to know that I’m with you. I’m fighting for you in Congress every single day, and I will not back down.”

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ahead of Juneteenth, Momentum Grows for H.R. 40, Pressley’s Historic Reparations Legislation

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)

    Bill Would Form Commission to Develop Reparations Proposals for African American Descendants of Enslaved People

    Legislation Now Has Support of Over 100 National and Grassroots Organizations

    H.R. 40 Press Conference | H.R. 40 Bill Text | H.R. 40 Briefing Photos | H.R. 40 Briefing One-Pager

    WASHINGTON – Today, ahead of the Juneteenth holiday and a national celebration of Black joy and emancipation, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) affirmed the strength of the reparations movement and announced growing support for H.R.40, legislation that she is championing to address the harmful legacy of slavery and establish a federal commission to develop reparations proposals for African American descendants of enslaved people. The legislation now has the support of more than 100 national and grassroots organizations and 85 members of Congress.

    In February, during Black History Month, Rep. Pressley and Senator Cory Booker reintroduced H.R. 40, serving as a powerful counterweight to the unprecedented onslaught against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Trump Administration and a call to action to address the systemic oppression of Black people. Last week, Rep. Pressley hosted a briefing on H.R. 40 to provide congressional staffers and their offices an expanded look into the bill, its 36-year legislative journey – led by Congressman John Conyers and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee – and its vital role in the reparative justice movement.

    “The state of our reparations movement is strong and in this moment of heightened anti-Blackness in America, we are more resolved than ever,” said Congresswoman Pressley, lead House sponsor of H.R. 40. “H.R. 40 is racial justice, economic justice, and a moral imperative, and it is deeply necessary to confront America’s damning history of systemic racism head-on. I’m proud of the growing, broad, and intersectional support behind our bill and I am grateful to our grassroots organizations for their partnership in pushing to get this critical legislation over the finish line.”

    Support for reparations has grown nationwide, with state and local officials taking action, including in Massachusetts, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina and Oklahoma. H.R. 40 now has endorsements from over 100 national and grassroots organizations.

    “We are delighted that Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley has picked up the torch from Cong. Sheila Jackson Lee and Cong. John Conyers, Jr. to continue the historic push to achieve long overdue reparations for African Americans.” – National African American Reparations Commission

    “At this pivotal moment in the United States’ existence and identity, we proudly stand with Rep. Ayanna Pressley in the reintroduction of H.R. 40, which if enacted will provide concrete ways to implement reparations,” said Dreisen Heath, Why We Can’t Wait Reparations Coalition. “Providing reparations is a routine practice by the federal government from providing remedy in perpetuity to Holocaust survivors to providing free healthcare to 9/11 victims and veterans exposed to toxic waste waters. By embracing what H.R. 40 legislation will produce, we are not only educating the public on the truth but also energizing a strong movement towards reflection and accountability. While states and cities advance their own reparative efforts, the federal government can no longer neglect and obscure its responsibility to do right by Black Americans, and by extension the rest of the country.

    “The National Urban League, for over a century, has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of systemic racism on countless lives. We have championed social and economic justice for Black Americans, striving to overcome the enduring legacy of slavery. For too long, we have avoided a full and honest reckoning with this history. A federal commission to study the vestiges of slavery, from the harrowing experiences of enslaved people to the ongoing struggles of their descendants, is not just overdue, it is essential. This examination is not about dwelling on the past but about better understanding the present. By understanding how the lingering effects of slavery continue to shape our society and policies, we can finally create a level playing field and unlock the full potential of our nation,” said the National Urban League. “The National Urban League fully supports H.R. 40, a bill establishing a commission to study and develop reparations proposals for Black Americans, as it represents a crucial step towards reconciliation and redress. We urge Congress to swiftly pass this vital legislation. The time for inaction is over. The time for justice is now.”

    “Eradicating poverty requires understanding its root causes and the economic injustices that plague Black communities today can be directly traced to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws,” said Margaret Huang, President and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “This commission would be an important step toward grappling with how our country failed to support so many Americans after slavery and segregation ended. We need to take an honest look at the ugly history of racial discrimination that has denied so many Black and Brown families, particularly in the Deep South, economic opportunities to sustain their families.”

    “This legislation is not symbolic, it’s structural,” said Ebonie Riley, Senior Vice President of Policy & Strategic Partnerships at the National Action Network. “In a moment where the very language of equity is under assault, this bill confronts the unfinished business of this nation: the deliberate extraction of wealth, labor, and life from Black Americans. Under the leadership of Rev. Al Sharpton, NAN has consistently called for federal action that reflects the scale of harm inflicted. Reparations are a matter of economic policy, legal obligation, and historical accountability.”

    “The NAACP has supported the creation and passage of HR. 40/S.40 from its introduction by Congressman John Conyers (MI) through its reintroduction by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (TX) and Senator Cory Booker (NJ) continue to support the passage of this crucial legislation in the 119th Congress,” – NAACP

    “The United Methodist Book of Resolutions and the General Board of Church and Society strongly support HR 40 being reintroduced at a time when truth is under attack,” – United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society

    “Black people have been the backbone to the growth and wealth of this nation and of the global economy, and justly, should be recipients of its fruits. Black people can’t achieve equity without the United States acknowledging the historical past and materially addressing past and present harms. Reparatory justice is a must,” –Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

    “The Council on American-Islamic Relations strongly supports the reintroduction of H.R. 40, recognizing it as a vital measure to confront America’s legacy of slavery and systemic racism head-on. We stand in solidarity with Congresswoman Pressley, Senator Booker, and their colleagues in calling for truth, accountability, and meaningful reparative actions that honor and protect the dignity of Black American communities,” – Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

    “As a church, we understand that the truth shall set us free. We have committed to and embarked on undertaking the work of truth-telling and reconciliation ourselves. H.R. 40/S. 40 would offer the opportunity for our country to begin a process to understand our own history and would present a path forward for repairing historical harms done to African Americans,” – The Episcopal Church

    “It has been nearly 40 years since Japanese Americans received redress for being incarcerated unjustly during WWII. Many of us in the Japanese American community recognize that our own experience of institutionalized racism at the hands of our government is part of a pattern that began with chattel slavery since our country’s inception as a British colony. Although slavery ended formally with the Civil War, its legacy persisted through Jim Crow policies well into the 20th century. Mere words of regret and apology for our history of slavery and Jim Crow do nothing to repay the unfulfilled promise of 40 acres and a mule.” – Japanese American Citizens League

    “We’re making historic progress advancing reparative justice in local communities nationwide.  We stand together in support of HR40, the most promising and just opportunity to repair the harm of the institution of slavery and its uninterrupted legacies to date. The outcomes of the HR40 Commission can result in a comprehensive and tangible portfolio of remedies that transform this nation,” – First Repair

    The full list of endorsing organizations include: AjabuSpeaks, All Souls Movement, Alliance of Baptists, American Humanist Association, Amnesty International USA, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Black Music Action Coalition, Black Veterans Project, Blackroots Alliance, BLIS Collective, California Black Power Network, Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research (CLEAR), Colombia Acuerdo de Paz NGO, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), DC Justice Lab, DC Reparations Coalition, Democrats Abroad Reparations Task Force, Disciples Center for Public Witness (Disciples of Christ), Empowerment Temple, Reparation Education Project, Episcopal City Mission, FirstRepair, Freedom Road Consulting, LLC, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Get Free, Human Rights Watch, Humanity2020 Group LLC, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Japanese American Citizens League, Johnson & Klein Law, Justice for the 110, KC Reparations Coalition, Loc Community Association, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Anti Racism Center (LARC), Make It Plain, Marijuana Justice, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Media 2070, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Movement for Black Lives, NAACP, National Action Network Education Team, National African American Reparations Commission , National Black Justice Collective, National Council of Churches, National Council of Jewish Women, National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, National Urban League, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, New Yorkers 4 Reparations, Northampton Reparations Study Commission, Not In Our Town, Princeton, NP/NCRR – Nikkei Progressives & Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, Pax Christi USA, RebuildingTheCommun7ty, Reparation Generation, Reparations Finance Lab, Reparations Interfaith Coalition of Massachusetts, Reparations United, Reparations4Slavery, San Francisco Bay Area Black & Jewish Unity Coalition, Sanctuary of Hope, SCOPE LA, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team, South Bend Reparations Working Group (SBRWG), State of Loc Nation Global Public Benefit Corp, Terence Crutcher Foundation, The Episcopal Church, The Southern Poverty Law Center, The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, Tsuru for Solidarity, Tulsa African Ancestral Society, Union for Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, United By Equity, United Church of Christ, USTRHT, Virago Strategies, Why We Can’t Wait Reparations Coalition, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Young LLC.

    Co-sponsors of H.R. 40 include: Rep. Adams, Alma S. [D-NC-12], Rep. Balint, Becca [D-VT-At Large], Rep. Barragán, Nanette Diaz [D-CA-44], Rep. Beatty, Joyce [D-OH-3], Rep. Bera, Ami [D-CA-06], Rep. Beyer, Donald S. [D-VA-8], Rep. Bishop, Sanford D. [D-GA-2], Rep. Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR-1], Rep. Brown, Shontel M. [D-OH-11], Rep. Brownley, Julia [D-CA-26], Rep. Carson, André [D-IN-7], Rep. Carter, Troy A. [D-LA-2], Rep. Casar, Greg [D-TX-35], Rep. Case, Ed [D-HI-1], Rep. Casten, Sean [D-IL-6], Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick, Sheila [D-FL-20], Rep. Chu, Judy [D-CA-28], Rep. Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-9], Rep. Cleaver, Emanuel [D-MO-5], Rep. Clyburn, James E. [D-SC-6], Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9], Rep. Connolly, Gerald E. [D-VA-11], Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-NY-14], Rep. Jasmine Crockett [D-TX-30], Rep. Davis, Danny K. [D-IL-7], Rep. Dean, Madeleine [D-PA-4], Rep. Doggett, Lloyd [D-TX-37], Rep. Espaillat, Adriano [D-NY-13], Rep. Evans, Dwight [D-PA-3], Rep. Fletcher, Lizzie [D-TX-7], Rep. Foushee, Valerie P. [D-NC-4], Rep. Frost, Maxwell [D-FL-10], Rep. Garcia, Robert [D-CA-42], Rep. Garcia, Sylvia R. [D-TX-29], Rep. Green, Al [D-TX-9], Rep. Hayes, Jahana [D-CT-5], Rep. Himes, James A. [D-CT-4], Rep. Horsford, Steven [D-NV-4], Rep. Jackson, Jonathan L. [D-IL-1], Rep. Jacobs, Sara [D-CA-51], Rep. Jayapal, Pramila [D-WA-7], Rep. Johnson, Henry C. “Hank” [D-GA-4], Rep. Kamlager-Dove, Sydney [D-CA-37], Rep. Kelly, Robin L. [D-IL-2], Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17], Rep. Landsman, Greg [D-OH-1], Rep. Lee, Summer L. [D-PA-12], Rep. Lieu, Ted [D-CA-36], Rep. McClellan, Jennifer L. [D-VA-4], Rep. McGovern, Jim [D-MA-02], Rep. McIver, LaMonica [D-NJ-10], Rep. Meeks, Gregory W. [D-NY-5], Rep. Meng, Grace [D-NY-6], Rep. Mfume, Kweisi [D-MD-7], Rep. Moore, Gwen [D-WI-4], Rep. Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY-12], Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large], Rep. Omar, Ilhan [D-MN-5], Rep. Panetta, Jimmy [D-CA-19], Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1], Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2], Rep. Quigley, Mike [D-IL-5], Rep. Ramirez, Delia C. [D-IL-3], Rep. Sánchez, Linda T. [D-CA-38], Rep. Scanlon, Mary Gay [D-PA-5], Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. [D-IL-9], Rep. David Scott [D-GA-13], Rep. Simon, Lateefah [D-CA-12], Rep. Smith, Adam [D-WA-9], Rep. Stansbury, Melanie A. [D-NM-1], Rep. Stevens, Haley M. [D-MI-11], Rep. Strickland, Marilyn [D-WA-10], Rep. Swalwell, Eric [D-CA-14], Rep. Takano, Mark [D-CA-39], Rep. Thanedar, Shri [D-MI-13], Rep. Thompson, Bennie G. [D-MS-2], Rep. Titus, Dina [D-NV-1], Rep. Tlaib, Rashida [D-MI-12], Rep. Tokuda, Jill N. [D-HI-2], Rep. Torres, Ritchie [D-NY-15], Rep. Trahan, Lori [D-MA-3], Rep. Velázquez, Nydia M. [D-NY-7], Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie [D-NJ-12], Rep. Williams, Nikema [D-GA-5], Rep. Wilson, Frederica S. [D-FL-24]

    The full text of the bill is available here.

    Throughout her time in Congress, Rep. Pressley has championed policies to address the harmful legacy of slavery and support the true liberation of Black America, including Baby Bonds, a People’s Justice Guarantee, student debt cancellation, addressing the Black maternal morbidity crisis, supporting Black-owned microbusinesses, promoting anti-racist public health policy, and more.

    In April 2025, Rep. Pressley met with Northeastern University’s Center for Law, Equity, and Race to discuss efforts and further action in a shared push for reparative justice.

    Congresswoman Pressley is the lead sponsor of the People’s Justice Guarantee (PJG) – her comprehensive, decarceration-focused resolution that outlines a framework for a fair, equitable and just legal system. 

    Last year, Rep. Pressley and House Oversight Ranking Member Jamies Raskin introduced the Federal Government Equity Improvement Act and the Equity in Agency Planning Act to codify racial equity across federal agencies and improve government services for underserved communities.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Unexplained death, Riccarton

    Source: New Zealand Police

    Christchurch Police are continuing to make enquiries after a woman was found with critical injuries in a Riccarton car park yesterday afternoon.

    Emergency services were called to the car park at around 4.40pm.

    Tragically the woman passed away while being transported to hospital.

    Her death is currently being treated as unexplained and a scene guard is in place at the car park where she was found.

    Police are aware of speculation in the community that this may be related to missing woman Elisabeth Nicholls – we can confirm that is not accurate. The search for Elisabeth remains ongoing.

    ENDS

    Please note: An earlier statement from Police advised the woman had been found deceased in the car park – this was incorrect and we apologise for the error.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICE Tyler joint investigation leads to life in federal prison for Cherokee County man convicted for sex trafficking teens

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    DALLAS — A Jacksonville, Texas man has been sentenced to life in federal prison for sex trafficking violations, announced U.S. Immigrations Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Dallas Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard and acting U.S. Attorney Eastern District Texas Jay R. Combs.

    Desnique Deshawn Herndon, 28, was sentenced to seven life sentences by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker June 18. In 2023, Herndon was convicted by a jury of six counts of sex trafficking of children and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children following a five-day trial.

    “Sex trafficking is one of the most appalling crimes in our society, exploiting the most vulnerable among us. HSI remains committed to identifying traffickers, dismantling their criminal networks, and providing critical support to survivors,” said ICE Homeland Security Investigations Dallas Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard. “Through our victim-centered investigations, we will spare no resource to protect communities and seek justice for those victimized by this modern-day slavery.”

    According to court testimony, beginning in 2019, Herndon trafficked multiple teenage girls for commercial sex acts. Herndon recruited the girls by social media, deceived them by promising riches, and placed them in hotels in the Tyler area. He then posted advertisements on sex trafficking websites showing explicit photos of the girls, offering commercial sex acts. Some of Herndon’s victims were as young as 13 years old. During trial, jurors heard testimony that Herndon used co-conspirators to continue to run his operation while in jail so the victims could earn money to pay his bond.

    “Victimizing children through commercial sex trafficking is reprehensible and will be prosecuted vigorously in East Texas,” said acting U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs. “We will not stand by and watch the lives of young people ruined by predators like Herndon to satisfy the wanton interests of commercial sex customers. Herndon’s life sentence demonstrates our society’s intolerance for such callous disregard for others. I want to thank our many law enforcement partners for their diligent work on this case.”

    Three of Herndon’s co-conspirators previously pled guilty for their roles in the offenses. Malcolm Kadeem Roberts, 29, of Tyler, was sentenced Nov. 16, 2023, to over 12 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. Roberts was also sentenced to 75 years in state prison in Smith County District Court for aggravated sexual assault of a child charges in relation to one of the minor victims in this case. Tavarus D. Watkins, 29, of Jacksonville, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Nov. 16, 2023, for interstate transport of a minor for illegal sexual activity. Patrick Lamont Cross, Jr, 28, of Palestine, pleaded guilty on Aug. 22, 2022, to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. Cross is scheduled to be sentenced July 10.

    This case was investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations Tyler Resident Agent in Charge, supported by the North Texas Trafficking Task Force, FBI Tyler Resident Agent in Charge, Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division, Texas Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Unit, Tyler Police Department, Henderson County Sherriff’s Office, Cherokee County Sherriff’s Office, Jacksonville Police Department, Smith County Sheriff’s Office, Panola County Sheriff’s Office, Palestine Police Department, Abilene Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab.

    This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Locker and Alan Jackson, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Jiral.

    Learn more about HSI Dallas’ mission to preserve public safety on X at @HSI_Dallas.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Chicago Lab Owner Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison in Connection with $14M COVID-19 Fraud Scheme

    Source: US State of California

    The owner of a Chicago laboratory has been sentenced today to seven years in prison for his role in a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme.

    According to court documents, Zishan Alvi, 46, of Inverness, Ill., owned and operated a laboratory in Chicago that performed testing for COVID-19. In 2021 and 2022, Alvi caused claims to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for COVID-19 tests that were either not performed at all or not performed correctly. As part of the scheme, the laboratory released negative test results to patients, even though the laboratory either had not tested the specimens or the results were inconclusive because Alvi had diluted the tests to save on costs, rendering the tests unreliable. Alvi knew that the laboratory was releasing negative results for tests that were not performed or were inconclusive but still caused the laboratory to bill HRSA for those tests. Alvi also lied to laboratory directors to conceal his fraud. As a result of the fraudulent claims, HRSA paid the laboratory more than $14 million.

    Alvi pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on September 30, 2024. At sentencing, he was also ordered to pay $14,199,217 in restitution, and forfeit approximately $6.8 million in cash, a 2021 Range Rover HSE, and over $630,000 from an E-Trade account.

    Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois, Special Agent in Charge Douglas S. DePodesta of the FBI Chicago Field Office, and Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Christian J. Schrank, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

    The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

    Trial Attorney Claire Sobczak Pacelli of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Hasten for the Northern District of Illinois prosecuted the case.

    The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: RIDOH and DEM Recommend Avoiding Contact with Slack Reservoir

    Source: US State of Rhode Island

    The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) are advising people to avoid contact with Slack Reservoir in Smithfield/Johnston due to harmful algae blooms (HABs). HABs are caused by blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, which are naturally present in bodies of water. HABs can produce toxins which can be harmful to humans and animals. Toxins and/or high cell counts have been detected by the RIDOH State Health Laboratory from water samples collected by DEM at this location.

    Use caution in all areas of Slack Reservoir as HABs can move locations in ponds and lakes. All recreation, including swimming, fishing, boating and kayaking, is high risk to health and recommended to be avoided at this location. People should not drink untreated water or eat fish from affected waterbodies. Pet owners should not allow pets to drink or swim in this water. This advisory recommendation remains in effect until further notice.

    Skin contact with water containing blue-green algae can cause irritation of the skin, nose, eyes, and throat. Symptoms can include stomachache, diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea. Less common symptoms can include dizziness, headache, fever, liver damage, and nervous system damage. Young children and pets are at higher risk for health effects associated with HABs because they are more likely to swallow water when they are in or around bodies of water. People who have had contact with these ponds and experience those symptoms should contact their healthcare provider.

    If you or your pet come into contact with an algal bloom (HAB):

    — Rinse your skin with clean water right away. — Shower and wash your cloths when you get home. — If your pet was exposed, wash it with clean water immediately and don’t let it lick algae from its fur. — Call a vet if your pet shows signs of illness like tiredness, no eating, vomiting, diarrhea or other symptoms within a day. — If you feel sick after contact, call a healthcare provider.

    Other HABs may be affecting other waterbodies in Rhode Island. Affected waters might look bright to dark green, with thick algae floating on the surface. It may resemble green paint, pea soup, or green cottage cheese. If you see water like this, people and pets should avoid contact with the water.

    To report suspected blue-green algae blooms, contact DEM’s Office of Water Resources at 401-222-4700 Press 6 or DEM.OWRCyano@dem.ri.gov and if possible, send a photograph of the reported algae bloom. For more information and the Cyanobacteria Tracker Dashboard that lists current advisories and data, visit: www.dem.ri.gov/bluegreen

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ready-To-Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Recalled

    Source: US State of Rhode Island

    The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising consumers that FreshRealm is recalling chicken fettuccine alfredo products that may be adulterated with an outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm). The company is recalling the following products, produced before June 17, 2025:

    — 32.8-oz. tray packages containing “MARKETSIDE GRILLED CHICKEN ALFREDO WITH FETTUCCINE Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken and Shaved Parmesan Cheese” with best-by date 06/27/25 or prior. — 12.3 oz. tray packages containing “MARKETSIDE GRILLED CHICKEN ALFREDO WITH FETTUCCINE Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken, Broccoli and Shaved Parmesan Cheese” with best-by date 06/26/25 or prior. — 12.5 oz. tray packages containing “HOME CHEF Heat & Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with pasta, grilled white meat chicken, and Parmesan cheese” with best-by date 06/19/25 or prior.

    These ready-to-eat products were shipped to Kroger and Walmart retail locations nationwide.

    The products bear the USDA mark of inspection on the product label as well as establishment numbers “EST. P-50784,” “EST. P-47770,” or “EST. P-47718” printed on the side of the packaging.

    Public health officials are investigating an outbreak of Lm that currently includes 17 ill people in 13 states. (No illnesses have been identified in Rhode Island.) As of June 17, 2025, there have been three reported deaths and one fetal loss associated with this outbreak. More information is available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Consumption of food contaminated with Lm can cause listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborns. Less commonly, people outside these risk groups are affected. Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. An invasive infection spreads beyond the gastrointestinal tract. In pregnant women, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn. In addition, serious and sometimes fatal infections in older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics. People in the higher-risk categories who experience flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the health care provider about eating the contaminated food.

    Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Denis Manturov met Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at St. Petersburg airport

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Denis Manturov met Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at Pulkovo Airport, who arrived on an official visit to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and participate in the XXVIII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

    Let us recall that First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, as the chairman of the Russian part of the Russian-Indonesian Joint Commission on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation, visited Jakarta in April of this year to hold the 13th meeting of the commission.

    The high dynamics of bilateral contacts contribute to the successful development of cooperation between Russia and Indonesia in a wide range of areas, including trade, industry, agriculture, energy, transport, tourism, as well as humanitarian spheres, in particular education, culture and sports.

    By the end of 2024, the volume of trade turnover between Russia and Indonesia amounted to 4.3 billion dollars.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Alexey Overchuk took part in a joint meeting of the State Duma committees

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    Alexey Overchuk took part in a joint meeting of the State Duma committees (photo by the State Duma press service).

    Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk spoke at a joint meeting of the State Duma committees on CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots, culture, education, family protection, fatherhood, motherhood and childhood, civil society development, public and religious associations and control.

    The meeting was held as part of preparations for a government hour dedicated to the development of cooperation between Russia and the CIS countries in the humanitarian sphere and the strengthening of common spiritual and moral values.

    The Deputy Prime Minister informed parliamentarians about the comprehensive work being carried out to preserve the common cultural space of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the implementation of measures in the areas of education and science, culture and tourism, and also answered questions from deputies.

    In his speech, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that Russia intends to deepen partnership with the CIS countries, combining economic cooperation with the preservation of a common cultural and civilizational space. The Government’s priorities in this area remain work with youth, the development of education and the popularization of traditional values and the preservation of the Russian language as a common language and means of international communication of the countries of Northern Eurasia.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Reimaging Rochester with Bull’s Head Empowerment Center

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today announced a transformational $23.6 million project to establish the Bull’s Head Empowerment Center on Clifton Street in Rochester. The Empowerment Center, located within the City’s 12.8-acre Bull’s Head Neighborhood Brownfield Opportunity Area, will see the adaptive reuse and expansion of an existing building into a fully occupied mixed-use center that will house workforce development programming, not-for-profit services, and local businesses. Confirmed tenants include a construction workforce development center, two construction firms, and several non-profit organizations, a 24-hour daycare operated by Action for a Better Community, and a proposed coffee shop. New York State is providing $3 million for the project through the Regional Revitalization Partnership (RRP) initiative.

    “The public-private Regional Revitalization Partnership is serving as a national model and catalyst for economic development,” Governor Hochul said. “This investment in the Bull’s Head Empowerment Center in Rochester represents another shining example of the initiative’s success. By targeting these neighborhoods in Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York State is lifting up and transforming disadvantaged communities, building a more equitable future for all New Yorkers.”

    The project, led by USC Builds, a certified New York State Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) member, serves as an early anchor for the City’s $350 million Bull’s Head Revitalization Plan aimed at helping to create equitable and enhanced job and business opportunities, provide quality housing and improved public infrastructure. The center is expected to be operational in the spring of 2027.

    USC Builds President Melissa Suchodolski said, “We are deeply grateful to Empire State Development for this $3 million investment in the Bull’s Head Empowerment Center. This support marks a meaningful step toward realizing our vision for 160 Clifton Street — a space where equity and economic opportunity can take root. By bringing workforce training, affordable childcare and local business support under one roof, we’re laying the foundation for a community resource designed to meet real needs in one of Rochester’s most historically disinvested neighborhoods.”

    Action for a Better Community President and CEO Jerome Underwood said, “For anyone who has lived in Rochester for the past 30 years the revitalization of the Bulls Head Plaza has been a long time coming. As we mark Action for a Better Community’s 60th anniversary of services to the Rochester community we are thrilled to be an integral part of this development. ABC looks forward to providing high quality and affordable childcare to those who so desperately need it. We applaud the vision of the development team and the wisdom of the State to fund this crucial project.”

    The Empowerment Center is directly adjacent to the West Main Gateway project, which received an RRP investment of $10 million. The project is designed to help revitalize the West Main Street Corridor from West Genesee Street to West Broad Street, a historically significant but long-underinvested area of Rochester.

    Phase one of Rochester’s approved RRP includes 14 projects totaling over $40 million in investment across key commercial corridors, riverfront activation, and workforce development. A full list of projects can be found here.

    Overall, Rochester is set to receive a combined $80 million RRP investment, which includes major additional investments in the City’s ongoing waterfront efforts, such as ROC the Riverway and High Falls State Park; further support for multi-faceted workforce training programs and facilities; and targeted small business assistance along commercial corridors in that city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. OneROC serves as the regional intermediary for the RRP in Greater Rochester, ensuring that investments are strategically aligned, collaborative, and impactful.

    Rochester Mayor Malik D. Evans said, “The Bull’s Head Empowerment Center will play a critical role to restore the historic Bull’s Head neighborhood to its place of prominence as Rochester’s western gateway. I want to thank Governor Kathy Hochul and Empire State Development President Hope Knight for making the critical investments to make this project a reality. I’m also grateful for the leadership of USC Builds owner Melissa Suchodolski, who was born and raised in the 19th Ward, for her determination to move this project forward and provide the people of Bulls Head the signs of progress that they deserve.”

    The RRP is a $300 million public-private partnership designed to maximize social and economic impact efforts in Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, by co-investing in projects and programs aimed at improving economic conditions to benefit these communities’ residents and businesses. Overall, New York State has committed $200 million for the initiative and Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, along with other philanthropic and corporate partners, have committed $81 million. The remaining $19 million is coming from city and county governments.

    The Three Pillars of the Program:

    • Fostering small businesses, by providing programs to help improve and grow these enterprises, especially those owned by women and people of color, which expand choices for goods and services to these neighborhoods, revenue and income for community members, and job opportunities.
    • Investing in placemaking, by funding improvements to local business districts, rebuilding community anchors and revitalizing neighborhoods.
    • Preparing our workforce, by enhancing local residents’ skills and improving their access to opportunities for good-paying jobs.

    Additional information is available regarding RRP funding available here.

    Empire State Development President, Commissioner and CEO Hope Knight said, “The Regional Revitalization Partnership is a game-changing initiative. This targeted investment in Rochester’s Bull’s Head neighborhood will support the people, places, and businesses that are dedicated to ensuring that this neglected area can now truly thrive. This inclusive, collaborative effort is stimulating economic revitalization in Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, creating real opportunity for hope one community at a time.”

    State Senator Jeremy Cooney said, “The Bull’s Head Empowerment Center will be a gamechanger for workforce development, small businesses, and the continued revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood. I want to thank Governor Hochul and the work of the Regional Revitalization Partnership to make this project a reality and deliver on behalf of our community.”

    Assemblymember Harry Bronson said, “The Bull’s Head Empowerment Center represents the transformative impact of partnerships between public and private stakeholders, helping to grow our middle class through workforce development programs, expanding employment opportunities, bolstering our economy, and strengthening our neighborhoods. We must have an economy that works for everyone, and the Regional Revitalization Partnership’s investment creates a multiplier effect that uplifts residents and small businesses.”

    Assemblymember Demond Meeks said, “The Bull’s Head Empowerment Center is a long-overdue investment that will help revitalize one of Rochester’s most historic yet underserved neighborhoods. By transforming vacant space into a hub for workforce training, childcare, and local business support, this project will breathe new life into the Bull’s Head area. It’s about restoring pride, creating opportunity, and making sure longtime residents see real, lasting change in their community.”

    Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said, “This investment in the Bull’s Head neighborhood will build upon the revitalization of this important section of the West Main Street corridor. The Bull’s Head Empowerment Center will serve as a cornerstone for area residents, providing workforce training, retail businesses and support services. I want to thank Governor Kathy Hochul, Empire State Development President & CEO Hope Knight and the team at USC Builds for coming together to support the redevelopment of this historic neighborhood.”

    OneROC President and CEO Joe Stefko said, “The Bull’s Head Empowerment Center embodies exactly what the Regional Revitalization Partnership was designed to do – align public, private, and philanthropic partners to invest in transformational projects and maximize community impact. Thank you to Governor Hochul and Empire State Development for their continued leadership and commitment to bringing new life to a storied Rochester neighborhood and creating space for small businesses, workforce training, and vital community services. OneROC is proud to work alongside USC Builds and the City of Rochester to build on the new West Main Gateway project and make this bold vision a reality.”

    About the Regional Revitalization Partnership (RRP)

    The Regional Revitalization Partnership (RRP) is a $300M comprehensive economic development strategy and public-private partnership that maximizes impact and leverages additional investment for Buffalo’s East Side, Niagara Falls and Rochester. This community-driven, collaborative strategy takes a holistic approach to economic development and is designed to build community wealth through multiple paths. The RRP was developed in collaboration with New York State Governor Kathy Hochul and Empire State Development (ESD) and is supported by ESL, Evans Bank, Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation, Five Star Bank, John R. Oishei Foundation, KeyBank/First Niagara Foundation, William & Sheila Konar Foundation, M&T Bank, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, and partners in the cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Rochester. RRP program implementation is led by the Center for Regional Strategies.

    Accelerating Economic Development in the Finger Lakes

    Today’s announcement complements “Finger Lakes Forward,” the region’s comprehensive strategy to generate robust economic growth and community development. The regionally designed plan focuses on investing in key industries including photonics, agriculture‎ and food production, and advanced manufacturing. More information is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Foulds, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it insert text about a debunked conspiracy theory in unrelated responses. Cheng Xin/Getty Images

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.

    While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

    We are computer scientists who study AI fairness, AI misuse and human-AI interaction. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.

    The Grok incident

    On May 14, 2025, Grok repeatedly raised the topic of white genocide in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning debunked claims of “disproportionate violence” against white farmers in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.”

    The next day, xAI acknowledged the incident and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which the company attributed to a rogue employee.

    xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.

    AI chatbots and AI alignment

    AI chatbots are based on large language models, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. Pretrained large language models are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.

    However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also generate toxic or offensive content. To address these problems, AI alignment techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or avoiding harmful stereotypes.

    There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is filtering of training data, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is reinforcement learning from human feedback, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is system prompts, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.

    How was Grok manipulated?

    Most chatbots have a prompt that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce mass shooter manifestos or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. In response, AI companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now openly available. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”

    Grok produced its “white genocide” responses because people with access to Grok’s system prompt used it to produce propaganda instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers have been able to produce similar responses. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”

    The altered prompt had the effect of constraining Grok’s responses so that many unrelated queries, from questions about baseball statistics to how many times HBO has changed its name, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.

    Implications of AI alignment misuse

    Research such as the theory of surveillance capitalism warns that AI companies are already surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit. More recent generative AI systems place greater power in the hands of these companies, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through social manipulation.

    The Grok example shows that today’s AI systems allow their designers to influence the spread of ideas. The dangers of the use of these technologies for propaganda on social media are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.

    A future version of Grok or another AI chatbot could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, toward violent acts. Around 3% of employees click on phishing links. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.

    What can be done

    The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, real spear-phishing attack. Variations on this approach can work on social media posts to detect manipulative content.

    This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.
    Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman.

    The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.

    James Foulds receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Cyber Pack Ventures. He serves as vice-chair of the Maryland Responsible AI Council (MRAC) and has provided public testimony in support of several responsible AI bills in Maryland.

    Shimei Pan receives funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US State Department Fulbright Program and Cyber Pack Ventures

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

    – ref. Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized – https://theconversation.com/groks-white-genocide-responses-show-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Foulds, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

    Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it insert text about a debunked conspiracy theory in unrelated responses. Cheng Xin/Getty Images

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.

    While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

    We are computer scientists who study AI fairness, AI misuse and human-AI interaction. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.

    The Grok incident

    On May 14, 2025, Grok repeatedly raised the topic of white genocide in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning debunked claims of “disproportionate violence” against white farmers in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.”

    The next day, xAI acknowledged the incident and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which the company attributed to a rogue employee.

    xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.

    AI chatbots and AI alignment

    AI chatbots are based on large language models, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. Pretrained large language models are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.

    However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also generate toxic or offensive content. To address these problems, AI alignment techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or avoiding harmful stereotypes.

    There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is filtering of training data, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is reinforcement learning from human feedback, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is system prompts, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.

    How was Grok manipulated?

    Most chatbots have a prompt that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce mass shooter manifestos or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. In response, AI companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now openly available. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”

    Grok produced its “white genocide” responses because people with access to Grok’s system prompt used it to produce propaganda instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers have been able to produce similar responses. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”

    The altered prompt had the effect of constraining Grok’s responses so that many unrelated queries, from questions about baseball statistics to how many times HBO has changed its name, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.

    Implications of AI alignment misuse

    Research such as the theory of surveillance capitalism warns that AI companies are already surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit. More recent generative AI systems place greater power in the hands of these companies, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through social manipulation.

    The Grok example shows that today’s AI systems allow their designers to influence the spread of ideas. The dangers of the use of these technologies for propaganda on social media are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.

    A future version of Grok or another AI chatbot could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, toward violent acts. Around 3% of employees click on phishing links. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.

    What can be done

    The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, real spear-phishing attack. Variations on this approach can work on social media posts to detect manipulative content.

    This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.
    Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman.

    The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.

    James Foulds receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Cyber Pack Ventures. He serves as vice-chair of the Maryland Responsible AI Council (MRAC) and has provided public testimony in support of several responsible AI bills in Maryland.

    Shimei Pan receives funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US State Department Fulbright Program and Cyber Pack Ventures

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

    – ref. Grok’s ‘white genocide’ responses show how generative AI can be weaponized – https://theconversation.com/groks-white-genocide-responses-show-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What happens when aid is cut to a large refugee camp? Kenyan study paints a bleak picture

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olivier Sterck, Associate professor, University of Oxford

    Humanitarian needs are rising around the world. At the same time, major donors such as the US and the UK are pulling back support, placing increasing strain on already overstretched aid systems.

    Global humanitarian needs have quadrupled since 2015, driven by new conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza. Added to these are protracted crises in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and DR Congo, among others. Yet donor funding has failed to keep pace, covering less than half of the requested US$50 billion in 2024, leaving millions without assistance.

    Notably, the US recently slashed billions of US dollars from global relief efforts. The slashed contributions once made up to half of all public humanitarian funding and over a fifth of the UN’s budget. Other donors have been cutting aid as well.

    As funding shortfalls widen, humanitarian agencies increasingly face tough choices: reducing the scale of operations, pausing essential services, or cancelling programmes altogether. Disruptions to aid delivery have become a routine feature of humanitarian operations.

    Yet few rigorous studies have provided hard evidence of the consequences for affected populations.

    A recent study from one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Kenya fills this gap.

    Our research team from the University of Oxford and the University of Antwerp was already studying Kakuma camp and then had an opportunity to see what happened when aid was cut. We observed the impact of a 20% aid cut that occurred in 2023.

    The study reveals that cuts to humanitarian assistance had dramatic impacts on hunger and psychological distress, with cascading effects on local credit systems and prices of goods.

    Kakuma refugee camp

    Kakuma is home to more than 300,000 refugees, who mostly came from South Sudan (49%), Somalia (16%), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (10%). They have been housed here since 1992. With widespread poverty, lack of income opportunities, and aid making up over 90% of household income, survival in the camp hinges on humanitarian support from UN organisations.

    When the research began in late 2022, most refugees in Kakuma received a combination of in-kind and cash transfers from the World Food Programme. Transfers were worth US$17 per person per month, barely enough to cover the bare essentials: food, firewood and medicine.

    Over the span of a year, the research team tracked 622 South Sudanese refugee households, interviewing them monthly to monitor how their living conditions evolved in response to the timing and level of aid they received. We also gathered weekly price data on 70 essential goods and conducted more than 250 in-depth interviews with refugees, shopkeepers, and humanitarian staff to understand the broader impacts.

    Then came the cut. In July 2023, assistance was reduced by 20%, just as the research team was conducting its eighth round of data collection. This sudden reduction in humanitarian aid created a rare opportunity to assess the effects of an aid cut on both recipients and the markets they depend on.

    Consequences of aid cut

    The 20% cut in humanitarian aid had cascading effects, affecting not just hunger, but local credit systems, prices, and well-being.

    1. Hunger got worse. As a Somali refugee interviewed by the researchers put it: “After the aid reduction, the lives of refugees become hard. That was the money sustaining them. […] Things are insufficient, and hunger is visible.”

    Food insecurity was already widespread before the cut, with more than 90% of refugees classified as food insecure. Average caloric intake stood below 1,900 kcal per person per day – well under the World Food Programme’s 2,100 kcal target and about half the average daily calorie supply available to a US citizen.

    Food insecurity further increased following the aid cut, with caloric intake falling by 145 kcal, a 7% decrease. The share of households eating one meal or less increased by 8 percentage points, from about 29% to 37%. At the same time, dietary diversity narrowed, indicating that households tried to mitigate the negative impacts of the aid cut by reducing the variety of foods they consumed.

    2. Credit collapsed. As a refugee shopkeeper of Ethiopian origin reported: “When we give out credit we have a limit; since the aid is reduced, the credit is also reduced.”

    Cash assistance in Kakuma is delivered through aid cards, which refugees routinely use as collateral to access food on credit. When transfers are delayed or unexpected expenses arise, refugees hand over their aid cards as a guarantee to trusted shopkeepers, allowing them to borrow food against next month’s aid.

    But when assistance was cut, the value of this informal collateral plummeted. Retailers, fearing default, reduced lending or refused lending altogether. Informal credit from shopkeepers shrank by 9%. Many refugees reported being refused food on credit or having to repay past debt before receiving any new goods.

    3. Households liquidated assets. With no access to credit, households began selling off possessions and drawing down food reserves. The average value of household assets fell by over 6% after the aid cut.

    4. Psychological distress increased. The aid cut reduced self-reported sleep quality and happiness, indicating that reductions in aid go beyond physical impacts and also have psychological effects.

    5. Prices fell. With reduced expenditure and purchasing power, the demand for food dropped, and food prices went down, partially offsetting the negative effects of the aid cut.

    Implications

    The study carries two major policy implications.

    First, aid in contexts like Kakuma should not be treated as optional or discretionary, but as a structural necessity. It is the backbone of daily life. Mechanisms are needed to protect it from abrupt donor withdrawals.

    Second, informal credit is not peripheral, it is central to economic life in refugee settings. In many camps, shopkeepers act as retailers and de facto financial institutions. When aid transfers serve as both income and collateral, cutting them risks collapsing this fragile credit system. Cash transfer programmes must therefore be designed with these dynamics in mind.

    Olivier Sterck receives research funding from the IKEA Foundation, the World Bank, and The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO).

    Vittorio Bruni is affiliated with Oxford University

    – ref. What happens when aid is cut to a large refugee camp? Kenyan study paints a bleak picture – https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-aid-is-cut-to-a-large-refugee-camp-kenyan-study-paints-a-bleak-picture-259055

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What happens when aid is cut to a large refugee camp? Kenyan study paints a bleak picture

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olivier Sterck, Associate professor, University of Oxford

    Humanitarian needs are rising around the world. At the same time, major donors such as the US and the UK are pulling back support, placing increasing strain on already overstretched aid systems.

    Global humanitarian needs have quadrupled since 2015, driven by new conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza. Added to these are protracted crises in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and DR Congo, among others. Yet donor funding has failed to keep pace, covering less than half of the requested US$50 billion in 2024, leaving millions without assistance.

    Notably, the US recently slashed billions of US dollars from global relief efforts. The slashed contributions once made up to half of all public humanitarian funding and over a fifth of the UN’s budget. Other donors have been cutting aid as well.

    As funding shortfalls widen, humanitarian agencies increasingly face tough choices: reducing the scale of operations, pausing essential services, or cancelling programmes altogether. Disruptions to aid delivery have become a routine feature of humanitarian operations.

    Yet few rigorous studies have provided hard evidence of the consequences for affected populations.

    A recent study from one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Kenya fills this gap.

    Our research team from the University of Oxford and the University of Antwerp was already studying Kakuma camp and then had an opportunity to see what happened when aid was cut. We observed the impact of a 20% aid cut that occurred in 2023.

    The study reveals that cuts to humanitarian assistance had dramatic impacts on hunger and psychological distress, with cascading effects on local credit systems and prices of goods.

    Kakuma refugee camp

    Kakuma is home to more than 300,000 refugees, who mostly came from South Sudan (49%), Somalia (16%), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (10%). They have been housed here since 1992. With widespread poverty, lack of income opportunities, and aid making up over 90% of household income, survival in the camp hinges on humanitarian support from UN organisations.

    When the research began in late 2022, most refugees in Kakuma received a combination of in-kind and cash transfers from the World Food Programme. Transfers were worth US$17 per person per month, barely enough to cover the bare essentials: food, firewood and medicine.

    Over the span of a year, the research team tracked 622 South Sudanese refugee households, interviewing them monthly to monitor how their living conditions evolved in response to the timing and level of aid they received. We also gathered weekly price data on 70 essential goods and conducted more than 250 in-depth interviews with refugees, shopkeepers, and humanitarian staff to understand the broader impacts.

    Then came the cut. In July 2023, assistance was reduced by 20%, just as the research team was conducting its eighth round of data collection. This sudden reduction in humanitarian aid created a rare opportunity to assess the effects of an aid cut on both recipients and the markets they depend on.

    Consequences of aid cut

    The 20% cut in humanitarian aid had cascading effects, affecting not just hunger, but local credit systems, prices, and well-being.

    1. Hunger got worse. As a Somali refugee interviewed by the researchers put it: “After the aid reduction, the lives of refugees become hard. That was the money sustaining them. […] Things are insufficient, and hunger is visible.”

    Food insecurity was already widespread before the cut, with more than 90% of refugees classified as food insecure. Average caloric intake stood below 1,900 kcal per person per day – well under the World Food Programme’s 2,100 kcal target and about half the average daily calorie supply available to a US citizen.

    Food insecurity further increased following the aid cut, with caloric intake falling by 145 kcal, a 7% decrease. The share of households eating one meal or less increased by 8 percentage points, from about 29% to 37%. At the same time, dietary diversity narrowed, indicating that households tried to mitigate the negative impacts of the aid cut by reducing the variety of foods they consumed.

    2. Credit collapsed. As a refugee shopkeeper of Ethiopian origin reported: “When we give out credit we have a limit; since the aid is reduced, the credit is also reduced.”

    Cash assistance in Kakuma is delivered through aid cards, which refugees routinely use as collateral to access food on credit. When transfers are delayed or unexpected expenses arise, refugees hand over their aid cards as a guarantee to trusted shopkeepers, allowing them to borrow food against next month’s aid.

    But when assistance was cut, the value of this informal collateral plummeted. Retailers, fearing default, reduced lending or refused lending altogether. Informal credit from shopkeepers shrank by 9%. Many refugees reported being refused food on credit or having to repay past debt before receiving any new goods.

    3. Households liquidated assets. With no access to credit, households began selling off possessions and drawing down food reserves. The average value of household assets fell by over 6% after the aid cut.

    4. Psychological distress increased. The aid cut reduced self-reported sleep quality and happiness, indicating that reductions in aid go beyond physical impacts and also have psychological effects.

    5. Prices fell. With reduced expenditure and purchasing power, the demand for food dropped, and food prices went down, partially offsetting the negative effects of the aid cut.

    Implications

    The study carries two major policy implications.

    First, aid in contexts like Kakuma should not be treated as optional or discretionary, but as a structural necessity. It is the backbone of daily life. Mechanisms are needed to protect it from abrupt donor withdrawals.

    Second, informal credit is not peripheral, it is central to economic life in refugee settings. In many camps, shopkeepers act as retailers and de facto financial institutions. When aid transfers serve as both income and collateral, cutting them risks collapsing this fragile credit system. Cash transfer programmes must therefore be designed with these dynamics in mind.

    Olivier Sterck receives research funding from the IKEA Foundation, the World Bank, and The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO).

    Vittorio Bruni is affiliated with Oxford University

    – ref. What happens when aid is cut to a large refugee camp? Kenyan study paints a bleak picture – https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-aid-is-cut-to-a-large-refugee-camp-kenyan-study-paints-a-bleak-picture-259055

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Nineteen Eighty-Four might have been inspired by George Orwell’s fear of drowning

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Waddell, Associate Professor in Twentieth-Century Literature, University of Birmingham

    George Orwell had a traumatic relationship with the sea. In August 1947, while he was writing Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) on the island of Jura in the Scottish Hebrides, he went on a fishing trip with his young son, nephew and niece.

    Having misread the tidal schedules, on the way back Orwell mistakenly piloted the boat into rough swells. He was pulled into the fringe of the Corryvreckan whirlpool off the coasts of Jura and Scarba. The boat capsized and Orwell and his relatives were thrown overboard.

    It was a close call – a fact recorded with characteristic detachment by Orwell in his diary that same evening: “On return journey today ran into the whirlpool & were all nearly drowned.” Though he seems to have taken the experience in his stride, this may have been a trauma response: detachment ensures the ability to persist after a near-death experience.

    We don’t know for sure if Nineteen Eighty-Four was influenced by the Corryvreckan incident. But it’s clear that the novel was written by a man fixated on water’s terrifying power.

    This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

    Nineteen Eighty-Four isn’t typically associated with fear of death by water. Yet it’s filled with references to sinking ships, drowning people and the dread of oceanic engulfment. Fear of drowning is a torment that social dissidents might face in Room 101, the torture chamber to which all revolutionaries are sent in the appropriately named totalitarian state of Oceania.

    An early sequence in the novel describes a helicopter attack on a ship full of refugees, who are bombed as they fall into the sea. The novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, has a recurring nightmare in which he dreams of his long-lost mother and sister trapped “in the saloon of a sinking ship, looking up at him through the darkening water”.

    George Orwell in 1943.
    National Union of Journalists

    The sight of them “drowning deeper every minute” takes Winston back to a culminating moment in his childhood when he stole chocolate from his mother’s hand, possibly condemning his sister to starvation. These watery graves imply that Winston is drowning in guilt.

    The “wateriness” of Nineteen Eighty-Four may have another interesting historical source. In his essay My Country Right or Left (1940), Orwell recalls that when he had just become a teenager he read about the “atrocity stories” of the first world war.

    Orwell states in this same essay that “nothing in the whole war moved [him] so deeply as the loss of the Titanic had done a few years earlier”, in 1912. What upset Orwell most about the Titanic disaster was that in its final moments it “suddenly up-ended and sank bow foremost, so that the people clinging to the stern were lifted no less than 300 feet into the air before they plunged into the abyss”.

    Sinking ships and dying civilisations

    Orwell never forgot this image. Something similar to it appears in his novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) where the idea of a sinking passenger liner evokes the collapse of modern civilisation, just as the Titanic disaster evoked the end of Edwardian industrial confidence two decades beforehand.

    The Titanic disaster had a profound impact on Orwell.
    Wiki Commons

    References to sinking ships and drowning people appear at key moments in many other works by Orwell, too. But did the full impact of the Titanic surface in Nineteen Eighty-Four?

    Sinking ships were part of Orwell’s descriptive toolkit. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel driven by memories of unsympathetic water, they convey nightmares. Filled with references to water and liquidity, it’s one of the most aqueous novels Orwell produced, relying for many of its most shocking episodes on imagery of desperate people drowning or facing imminent death on sinking sea craft.

    The thought of trapped passengers descending into the depths survives in Winston’s traumatic memories of his mother and sister, who, in the logic of his dreams, are alive inside a sinking ship’s saloon.

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

    There’s no way to prove that the Nineteen Eighty-Four is “about” the Titanic disaster, but in the novel, and indeed in Orwell’s wider body of work, there are too many tantalising hints to let the matter rest.

    Thinking about fear of death by water takes us into Orwell’s terrors just as it takes us into Winston’s, allowing readers to see the frightened boy inside the adult man and, indeed, inside the author who dreamed up one of the 20th century’s most famous nightmares.

    Beyond the canon

    As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Nathan Waddell’s suggestion:

    As soon as the news broke of the Titanic’s sinking, literary works of all shapes and sizes started to appear in tribute to the disaster and its victims. As the century went on, and as research into the tragedy developed (particularly after the ships wreckage was discovered in 1985), more nuanced literary responses to the sinking became possible.

    One such response is Beryl Bainbridge’s Whitbread-prize-winning novel Every Man for Himself (1996). It reimagines the disaster from the first-person perspective of an imaginary character, Morgan, the fictional nephew of the historically real financier J. P. Morgan (who was due to sail on the Titanic but changed plans before it sailed).

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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

    – ref. Nineteen Eighty-Four might have been inspired by George Orwell’s fear of drowning – https://theconversation.com/nineteen-eighty-four-might-have-been-inspired-by-george-orwells-fear-of-drowning-251289

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Nineteen Eighty-Four might have been inspired by George Orwell’s fear of drowning

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Waddell, Associate Professor in Twentieth-Century Literature, University of Birmingham

    George Orwell had a traumatic relationship with the sea. In August 1947, while he was writing Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) on the island of Jura in the Scottish Hebrides, he went on a fishing trip with his young son, nephew and niece.

    Having misread the tidal schedules, on the way back Orwell mistakenly piloted the boat into rough swells. He was pulled into the fringe of the Corryvreckan whirlpool off the coasts of Jura and Scarba. The boat capsized and Orwell and his relatives were thrown overboard.

    It was a close call – a fact recorded with characteristic detachment by Orwell in his diary that same evening: “On return journey today ran into the whirlpool & were all nearly drowned.” Though he seems to have taken the experience in his stride, this may have been a trauma response: detachment ensures the ability to persist after a near-death experience.

    We don’t know for sure if Nineteen Eighty-Four was influenced by the Corryvreckan incident. But it’s clear that the novel was written by a man fixated on water’s terrifying power.

    This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

    Nineteen Eighty-Four isn’t typically associated with fear of death by water. Yet it’s filled with references to sinking ships, drowning people and the dread of oceanic engulfment. Fear of drowning is a torment that social dissidents might face in Room 101, the torture chamber to which all revolutionaries are sent in the appropriately named totalitarian state of Oceania.

    An early sequence in the novel describes a helicopter attack on a ship full of refugees, who are bombed as they fall into the sea. The novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, has a recurring nightmare in which he dreams of his long-lost mother and sister trapped “in the saloon of a sinking ship, looking up at him through the darkening water”.

    George Orwell in 1943.
    National Union of Journalists

    The sight of them “drowning deeper every minute” takes Winston back to a culminating moment in his childhood when he stole chocolate from his mother’s hand, possibly condemning his sister to starvation. These watery graves imply that Winston is drowning in guilt.

    The “wateriness” of Nineteen Eighty-Four may have another interesting historical source. In his essay My Country Right or Left (1940), Orwell recalls that when he had just become a teenager he read about the “atrocity stories” of the first world war.

    Orwell states in this same essay that “nothing in the whole war moved [him] so deeply as the loss of the Titanic had done a few years earlier”, in 1912. What upset Orwell most about the Titanic disaster was that in its final moments it “suddenly up-ended and sank bow foremost, so that the people clinging to the stern were lifted no less than 300 feet into the air before they plunged into the abyss”.

    Sinking ships and dying civilisations

    Orwell never forgot this image. Something similar to it appears in his novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) where the idea of a sinking passenger liner evokes the collapse of modern civilisation, just as the Titanic disaster evoked the end of Edwardian industrial confidence two decades beforehand.

    The Titanic disaster had a profound impact on Orwell.
    Wiki Commons

    References to sinking ships and drowning people appear at key moments in many other works by Orwell, too. But did the full impact of the Titanic surface in Nineteen Eighty-Four?

    Sinking ships were part of Orwell’s descriptive toolkit. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel driven by memories of unsympathetic water, they convey nightmares. Filled with references to water and liquidity, it’s one of the most aqueous novels Orwell produced, relying for many of its most shocking episodes on imagery of desperate people drowning or facing imminent death on sinking sea craft.

    The thought of trapped passengers descending into the depths survives in Winston’s traumatic memories of his mother and sister, who, in the logic of his dreams, are alive inside a sinking ship’s saloon.

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

    There’s no way to prove that the Nineteen Eighty-Four is “about” the Titanic disaster, but in the novel, and indeed in Orwell’s wider body of work, there are too many tantalising hints to let the matter rest.

    Thinking about fear of death by water takes us into Orwell’s terrors just as it takes us into Winston’s, allowing readers to see the frightened boy inside the adult man and, indeed, inside the author who dreamed up one of the 20th century’s most famous nightmares.

    Beyond the canon

    As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Nathan Waddell’s suggestion:

    As soon as the news broke of the Titanic’s sinking, literary works of all shapes and sizes started to appear in tribute to the disaster and its victims. As the century went on, and as research into the tragedy developed (particularly after the ships wreckage was discovered in 1985), more nuanced literary responses to the sinking became possible.

    One such response is Beryl Bainbridge’s Whitbread-prize-winning novel Every Man for Himself (1996). It reimagines the disaster from the first-person perspective of an imaginary character, Morgan, the fictional nephew of the historically real financier J. P. Morgan (who was due to sail on the Titanic but changed plans before it sailed).

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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

    – ref. Nineteen Eighty-Four might have been inspired by George Orwell’s fear of drowning – https://theconversation.com/nineteen-eighty-four-might-have-been-inspired-by-george-orwells-fear-of-drowning-251289

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Tracing the Drax family’s millions – a story of British landed gentry, slavery and sugar plantations

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Lashmar, Reader in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London

    ‘Planting the sugar-cane’: vast fortunes were made from the trades in both sugar and human slaves in the Americas. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library

    Rich British aristocratic families with a legacy of owning colonial slave plantations are often accused by campaigners that their wealth solely originates from these plantations. One frequent target of this criticism has been the Drax family of Dorset, which is headed by Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, who was the Conservative MP for South Dorset until July 2024.

    Historian Alan Lester of the University of Sussex has noted of Drax (as he is commonly known): “Much of his fortune is inherited, coming down the family line from ownership of the Drax sugar plantations and the 30,000 enslaved people who worked them as Drax property for 180 years before emancipation in Barbados.”

    Recently, I have researched and written a book on the Drax family’s history and involvement in the slave trade in the Caribbean, Drax of Drax Hall, that gives fresh insights into the level of wealth they derived from the sugar trade and the trade in African slaves who worked their plantations – as well as the family’s other income sources.

    I searched the archives in the UK and Caribbean for evidence of their revenue streams until Britain’s 1834 abolition of slavery in the colonies. I estimate that the family today are worth more than £150 million from their land and property in Dorset and Yorkshire.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Over a period of two centuries until 1834, eight generations of Drax ancestors owned and worked hundreds of enslaved African captives at any one time. The latest beneficiary of primogeniture – the legal concept that recognises the first-born child as heir to a familiy’s fortune – Richard Drax inherited the family’s still-operating 621-acre Drax Hall plantation in Barbados in 2021.

    Drax, 67, has said: “I am keenly aware of the slave trade in the West Indies, and the role my very distant ancestor played in it is deeply, deeply regrettable. But no one can be held responsible today for what happened many hundreds of years ago. This is a part of the nation’s history, from which we must all learn.”

    My research reveals the sources of his family’s wealth are more complex than the critics’ claims that it all derives from the slave-worked plantations.

    Like most British landed gentry, much of the Drax family income has come as extensive landlords of their British estates which, in 1883, exceeded 23,000 acres across various counties. Today, it includes nearly 16,000 acres in Dorset and 2,520 acres in the Yorkshire Dales.

    However, my research also shows the Drax family made more money from slavery than was previously thought, when taking into account the way revenues from their plantations were channelled into the family’s British estates over the two centuries of slavery.

    Drax Hall plantation in Barbados

    The Drax Hall plantation in the Barbados parish of Saint George has been described by Barbadian historian Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Community reparations commission, as a “killing field” where as many as 30,000 slaves died in brutal conditions. Despite pressure from reparation campaigners in the Caribbean, Britain and elsewhere, Richard Drax has declined to make a formal public apology or gesture of recompense in the Caribbean for the years of slavery.

    A 19th-century drawing of Drax Hall plantation in Barbados.
    Unknown source, Wikimedia Commons

    As the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, explained in April 2024, despite the efforts of her government Drax has yet to agree to a settlement, pay reparations or contribute all or part of his family’s Drax Hall plantation to provide affordable housing or become a memorial to those who worked and died in colonial enslavement on the island.

    Some other British landed families whose ancestors owned slave plantations in the Caribbean, including the Trevelyans (who owned six slave plantations in Grenada) and the Gladstones (British prime minister William Gladstone’s father owned plantations in Guyana), have made formal apologies and reparations. And while some families have kept the terms of these reparations private, longtime BBC reporter Laura Trevelyan made a US$100,000 (£73,000) donation to a Caribbean development fund.

    The largest family estate

    Four thousand miles from Barbados, Richard Drax lives in Charborough House, a historic 17th-century mansion in Dorset. He oversees the 23.5-square mile estate, the largest family estate in Dorset with over 120 properties, many of which are rented out.

    Charborough was acquired by Drax’s ancestor Walter Erle by marriage in 1549. The family has gradually increased the estate over the centuries. Historically, their income comes from renting land to tenant farmers and cottages to agricultural workers. This, I identified, is where the bulk of their income has come from.

    Charborough House: the Drax family seat in Dorset.
    John Lamper/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    However, profits from sugar produced by slavery also poured into the family coffers over 200 years. Richard Drax’s remote ancestor James Drax (1609-1661) was one of the first settler group to arrive in the then-uninhabited island of Barbados in 1627. In his introduction to my book, TV historian David Olusoga writes that the Drax family were key players – arguably the key players – in the origin story of British slavery:

    The Drax Hall plantation, the first estate on which a crop of sugar was commercially grown and processed by any English planter, became one of the laboratories in which early English slavery was developed and finessed.

    Built around 1650, the Jacobean plantation house is thought to be the one of the three oldest extant residential buildings in the Americas. From the 17th into the 18th century, the Draxes created and owned the largest acreage in Barbados with the Drax Hall and and Mount plantations – plus a 3,000-acre estate, also called Drax Hall, in Jamaica. The family became enormously wealthy: James Drax was said by a visitor to Drax Hall in the 1640s to “live like a prince”, putting on lavish dinners for friends and guests.

    In addition to owning slaves, James Drax shipped African captives to Barbados as a key part of the trade in slaves. Knighted by both Oliver Cromwell and Charles I, by 1660 he was a director and investor in the English East India Company which, in part, traded and exploited enslaved people.

    Paul Lashmar’s book, Drax of Drax Hall.
    Bookshop.com

    In her 1930 study, American historian Elizabeth Donnan presented evidence that the Draxes of the 17th century operated “off the books” – buying enslaved people from, and selling them to, “interloper” ships that circumvented the Royal African Company’s monopoly of slave trading to the colonies.

    The Drax family married into the Erle family in 1719, combining three fortunes: that of the Erles of Charborough, the Draxes of Yorkshire, Barbados and Jamaica, and the landed-gentry Ernles of Wiltshire.

    Despite being deeply involved in the South Sea Bubble scandal, the Drax family flourished. The slave registers in the National Archives show that between 1825 and 1834, the Drax Hall plantation in Barbados produced an average of 163 tonnes of sugar and 4,845 gallons of rum per year. This gave the family an average annual net profit of £3,591 – equivalent to about £600,000 now. Today, the plantation still produces 700 tonnes of sugar a year, earning the family something in the region of £250,000.

    Pressure for reparations

    In recent years, the value of Drax Hall’s land in Barbados has greatly increased as it is sought after for housing, and could now be worth as much as Bds$150,000 (£60,000) per acre. At the same time, pressure for reparations is growing. In 2023, the African Union threw its weight behind the Caribbean reparations campaign.

    David Comissiong, deputy chairman of the Barbados reparations task force, has said: “Other families are involved, though not as prominently as the Draxes. This reparations journey has begun.”

    Yet to date, the only reparations paid in the story of the Drax family’s involvement in the slave trade were to the family itself. In 1837, Jane-Frances Erle-Drax, the heiress of Charborough, received £4,293 12s 6d (worth more than £614,000 today) in reparations for freeing 189 slaves from Drax Hall plantation after the abolition of slavery in the colonies.

    In the course of researching and writing my book, I approached Richard Drax both directly and through his lawyers and put the claims made here to him. He had no comment to add.

    This page contains references to books included for editorial reasons, which may include links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Paul Lashmar is affiliated with the Labour Party.

    – ref. Tracing the Drax family’s millions – a story of British landed gentry, slavery and sugar plantations – https://theconversation.com/tracing-the-drax-familys-millions-a-story-of-british-landed-gentry-slavery-and-sugar-plantations-257376

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Fatal crash – State Highway 1, Seddon

    Source: New Zealand Police

    One person has died following a crash on State Highway 1, Seddon last night.

    The single vehicle crash was reported to Police at 9.30pm.

    The driver was the sole occupant of the car.

    Enquiries into the circumstances of the crash are under way.
     

    ENDS
     

    Issued by Police Media Centre. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Astronauts to Answer Questions from Students in New York, Utah

    Source: NASA

    Students from New York and Utah will hear from NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station as they answer prerecorded questions in two separate events.
    At 11:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, June 23, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain will answer questions submitted by students from P.S. 71 Forest Elementary School in Ridgewood, New York. Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m. Friday, June 20, to Regina Beshay at: rbeshay2@school.nyc.gov or 347-740-6165.
    At 11:05 a.m. on Friday, June 27, Ayers and McClain will answer questions submitted by students from Douglas Space and Science Foundation, Inc., in Layton, Utah. Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, to Sarah Merrill at: sarahmonique@gmail.com or 805-743-3341.
    Watch the 20-minute Earth-to-space calls on NASA STEM YouTube Channel.
    P.S. 71 Forest Elementary School will host kindergarten through fifth grade students. Douglas Space and Science Foundation will host participants from the Science, Technology, Achievement Research camp. Both events aim to inspire students to imagine a future in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers through ongoing collaborations, mentorship, and hands-on learning experiences.
    For nearly 25 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
    Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
    See videos of astronauts aboard the space station at:
    https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
    -end-
    Gerelle DodsonHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1600gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov
    Sandra JonesJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Digital Information Platform Overview

    Source: NASA

    Current day air traffic management systems are segmented by domain, operator groups, and solution provider groups, which creates a challenge for those seeking a system wide solution. Future airspace operations will be increasingly more complex as new types of aircraft (such as on-demand air taxis and autonomous drone deliveries) intensify traffic density. This will require the aviation community to embrace a wider range of managing aircraft operations. Traditional systems were built in an era when rapid technologies were not available or commonplace. Changing the large and complex system-of-systems in the National Airspace System (NAS) is an overwhelmingly complex integration challenge, which often requires significant domain knowledge about operations and data.

    The Digital Information Platform (DIP) team aims to tackle these challenges and address the stakeholder needs. The subproject is one of four contained within the Air Traffic Management – eXploration (ATM-X) project. The primary focus of DIP is to develop and demonstrate a digital service-oriented framework to enable increasingly safe and efficient operations for today and the future airspace system.
    The subproject is actively partnering with flight operators, new entrants, service providers, data integrators, platform providers, and other aviation stakeholders who are committed to building and evaluating a community-supported system of digital services to enhance future aviation operations. Four operational evaluations missions are being conducted to validate concepts that will improve operational efficiency and predictability. 
    The DIP team is embracing advances in technology through cloud-based infrastructures and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to provide improved decision making tools to flight operators that are more collaborative and scalable in nature. more collaborative, integrated, and scalable way.

    Cloud-based microservices infrastructure – The subproject plans to define an interoperability framework that will allow disparate software services to connect and exchange data relying on standards and protocols across various platforms. In addition, a cybersecurity management framework will be defined to assure the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and availability of NASA and partner data assets available on or through the platform.

    Digital trajectory management – The DIP team is conducting a series of operational evaluations with its airline partners, the aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration to showcase digital trajectory management capabilities in real operational environments. Alternate route options are being evaluated, which reduce the pre- and post-departure delays at both the individual flight and fleetwide levels.

    AI/ML use case exploration – The use of AI/ML aviation services offer robust and scalable solutions that can significantly reduce the deployment costs of decision support tools for flight operators and service providers compared to legacy physics-based systems. The subproject has developed and released open-source software for AI/ML solutions that can be readily adopted by the aviation industry and combined in various ways to meet their specific needs.

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