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Category: Transport

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ranking Member Lauren Underwood Delivers Remarks at Homeland Security Subcommittee Markup to Highlight How Republican Funding Bill Weakens National Security and Makes Americans More Vulnerable to Terrorism

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14)

    WASHINGTON — During today’s House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the 2026 Homeland Security funding bill, Ranking Member Lauren Underwood (IL-14) delivered the following remarks: 

    “Good evening, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

    I think we can all agree that whether it is at the border, the airport, our country’s shorelines, or in cyberspace, the Department of Homeland Security cannot fail.  

    But I also believe the Department cannot fail the ideals and values that make America the greatest nation in the world. Under the Trump Administration, DHS is out of control: illegally spending hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars and flagrantly violating the rights and civil liberties of Americans. 

    Under this administration, due process and the limitations that the Constitution puts on our government are being ignored, and this bill does nothing to protect Americans from being targeted.  

    It fails to protect American citizens from deportation.  

    It does nothing to protect American citizens from being confronted in their homes and offices, or having their property seized, as this Administration’s deportation policies ignore legal safeguards.  

    It allows ICE agents to continue to grab people in places of worship and in our schools without a warrant, and it punishes legal immigrants who speak their minds all while rewarding for-profit detention centers with billions of taxpayer dollars.  

    As Members of Congress, we have a constitutional responsibility to keep this Administration accountable in both how it spends taxpayer dollars and how it operates.  

    We saw this year after our FEMA hearing what this Department does when anyone speaks truth to power. I am deeply concerned that if this bill passes and the Trump-Noem DHS goes unchecked, the United States of America will become a country that our own citizens will seek refuge from because of the repeated attacks on our basic freedoms and rights.  

    Giving unchecked power to this Administration is bad enough, but unfortunately, the bill makes things worse, by leaving Americans more vulnerable to catastrophic cyber threats and burdening state and local governments. The bill adopts DOGE staffing cuts to CISA and FEMA personnel by roughly $130 million and $93 million, respectively.   

    The burden to respond to the next ransomware attack on your local hospital or deadly hurricane in your district – will increasingly fall to state and local leaders who lack the resources to protect your sensitive health care information from hackers. States don’t have the ability to rebuild after disasters on their own. This bill abandons our neighbors after a crisis.  

    Both the Acting Administrator and the recently named Acting Deputy Administrator of FEMA have little to no emergency management experience.  

    Let me say that again: the two most senior people running FEMA are severely-under qualified at a time when an above-average hurricane season is forecasted, and when the disaster relief fund is already expected to end fiscal year 2025 with an $8 billion deficit.  

    Listen, as recently as last week, the White House had to clean up after the brand new FEMA Administrator was caught supposedly joking about the upcoming hurricane season. We are also heading into wildfire season in the West, and friends, the funding level provided in this bill is insufficient to help us dig out of this hole, and it all but guarantees that FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund will be at a dangerously low level again by next summer. 

    Meanwhile, the White House requested zero dollars to supplement this critical fund that all Americans rely on to recover from major disasters, and fails to acknowledge an urgent $8 billion dollar deficit in the Disaster Relief Fund.  

    The bill fails to address the catastrophic cybersecurity threats facing our critical infrastructure: our hospitals, banks, schools, and secure government systems.  

    And it does nothing to protect Americans from growing attacks on their privacy. The only people who benefit from this bill’s failure to invest here are cybercriminals in China, Russia, and around the world who will now find it easier to attack Americans.  

    Finally, the bill does not include funding for the Citizenship and Integration Program that has been running for more than a decade by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.   

    This initiative funds faith-based organizations and community-focused organizations that help legal immigrants prepare to become citizens by preparing them for the citizenship exam and helping them learn English.  

    Mr. Chairman, we make America stronger and more secure when we make investments in our communities stronger, and when we uphold our values. But this bill does neither, and I cannot support it.   

    Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to note for the Record that Ms. Escobar is not able to attend today’s markup due to a canceled flight from Texas. I know she would join me in opposing this bill if she were here and I would like that to be reflected.” 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Pappas Urges Passage of Bipartisan Legislation to Permanently Schedule Fentanyl Analogues

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH)

    Pappas has led the fight in Congress to permanently schedule all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs, securing several extensions of the temporary scheduling measure until permanent measures could be passed.

    Last night Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), a member of the Bipartisan Fentanyl Prevention Caucus, urged his colleagues to join him in voting to pass bipartisan legislation to permanently schedule all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs to ensure law enforcement can keep them off the streets and hold drug traffickers accountable. Watch his remarks here.

    On February 6, 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a temporary scheduling order that placed all fentanyl-related substances in Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act for two years. Following Pappas’s leadership, Congress has extended the order several times, and the scheduling of these substances is currently set to expire on September 30, 2025.

    The legislation being considered by the House today, the HALT Fentanyl Act, contains identical key provisions from Pappas’s bipartisan SAFE Act, which he first introduced in the 117th Congress. It will permanently classify any fentanyl-related substance as a Schedule I drug.

    Read his full remarks below or watch the video here:

    Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

    I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the HALT Fentanyl Act when it comes to the floor tomorrow.

    For the past five years, I have engaged with law enforcement, public health experts, and colleagues across the aisle to ensure the scheduling of fentanyl analogues doesn’t lapse and is finally made permanent.

    Permanent scheduling will ensure law enforcement retains important tools they need to tackle the opioid crisis and hold traffickers accountable, tools that have helped drive down drug-related deaths in New Hampshire to its lowest level in 10 years.

    This is thanks to New Hampshire’s all-hands-on-deck approach: pairing enforcement with treatment to bring down both the supply of opioids reaching our communities, as well as the demand for them. 

    There is still work to be done, including getting this bill across the finish line, and restoring vital funding cut by the current administration for treatment and recovery. 

    I will continue fighting to ensure our communities have the support they need to save lives and confront addiction head on.

    I yield back.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICE Phoenix removes Mexican Noroeste Cartel member

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    NOGALES, Ariz. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed Gerardo Nava-Benitez, a 30-year-old Mexican alien and Noroeste cartel member, June 10.

    ICE transported Nava-Benitez from the Florence Detention Center to the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, where he was transferred to the custody of Mexican authorities.

    “The removal of Nava-Benitez demonstrates the collaborative, whole-of-government approach that ICE supports in protecting the citizens of the U.S.,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Phoenix Field Office Director John Cantu. “Our dedicated officers and partners in law enforcement have worked tirelessly to ensure that such individuals are brought to justice and then removed from the United States.”

    Nava-Benitez was previously expelled to Mexico on four occasions in October and November 2022. He reentered the U.S. illegally in November 2022 and was encountered by ICE at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on March 13, 2024, following an arrest for criminal activity. Thereafter he was placed in immigration proceedings and was ordered removed by an immigration judge in April 2025.

    Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives, transnational gang members or other criminal aliens who are in the U.S. illegally, are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 1-866-347-2423, or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form.

    For more news and information on how ICE carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Arizona, follow us on X at @ERO__Phoenix.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: California Will Not Waver in Defending Itself from Federal Overreach: Attorney General Bonta Sues Trump Administration for Attack on California’s Clean Vehicles Program

    Source: US State of California

    LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Rob Bonta, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the California Air Resources Board today led a coalition of 10 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the federal government challenging the unprecedented and unlawful use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to upend California’s clean vehicles program, specifically the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII), Omnibus, and Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) standards. Predicated on illegal actions by the Trump Administration, Congress purported to disapprove the Clean Air Act waivers, granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that allow California to enforce these more stringent, state-level emission standards. In the 50 years since the Clean Air Act was enacted, waivers have never been subject to the CRA.  Nor have any other agency orders that adjudicate requests for permission—such as oil and gas leases or mining permits. Congress’s unprecedented action attempting to invalidate California’s waivers contradicts the non-partisan Government Accountability Office and Senate Parliamentarian, both of whom determined that the CRA process to disapprove federal regulations does not apply to waivers.

    If California is prevented from enforcing these vehicle emission standards, it will result in the loss of significant economic and public health benefits, costing California taxpayers an estimated $45 billion in preventable health care costs. Despite decades of progress, tens of millions of Californians still breathe some of the worst air in the nation—these regulations were specifically designed to change that. Losing these standards would also undermine market certainty for vehicle manufacturers, stifling innovation and job creation, including in the electric vehicle sector, which has been a growing source of high-paying green jobs and investment. 

    “The President’s reckless, politically motivated, and illegal attacks on California continue, this time with his attempt to trample on our longstanding authority to maintain more stringent clean vehicle standards,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The President is busy playing partisan games with lives on the line and yanking away good jobs that would bolster the economy – ignoring that these actions have life or death consequences for California communities breathing dirty, toxic air. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: California will not back down. We will continue to fiercely defend ourselves from this lawless federal overreach.”

    “Trump’s all-out assault on California continues – and this time he’s destroying our clean air and America’s global competitiveness in the process,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “We are suing to stop this latest illegal action by a President who is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big polluters.”

    Motor vehicle emissions contribute to the formation of smog, as well as fine particle pollution and unhealthy levels of air toxics, all of which are linked to premature death, respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, and cancer, among other serious health impacts. Transportation is also the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, and cars and trucks account for more than 80% of those transportation emissions. 

    The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set federal emission standards for air pollutants from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines that cause or contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare. The Clean Air Act allows California to adopt more stringent emission requirements independent from EPA’s regulations, and the Act requires EPA to approve preemption waivers for those requirements absent certain, limited circumstances not present here. Historically, EPA – under both Republican and Democratic administration – has granted California more than 75 preemption waivers for updates to the State’s new motor vehicle emissions control program. As Congress intended, these waivers have allowed California to improve on its vehicle emissions program, which pre-existed the federal government’s efforts to regulate vehicle emissions via the Clean Air Act.

    Consumers are rapidly embracing clean vehicle options. In California alone, over 2 million zero-emission passenger cars have been sold, with clean vehicles now making up 26% of all new car sales. This momentum extends to the medium-and heavy-duty vehicle market as well, where sales have exceeded targets for two consecutive years – well ahead of timelines set by state regulations.

    Since 2023, the EPA granted California three waivers, allowing it to enforce the ACC II, Omnibus and ACT regulations in California. Under ACC II, automakers must continue to sell an increasing number of zero-emission vehicles in California—as they have been for decades. By model year 2035, 80% of the passenger vehicles sold in California must be zero-emission, while the remaining 20% may be plug-in hybrids. Advanced Clean Truck regulations, which aim to accelerate the widespread adoption of zero emission vehicles in the medium and heavy-duty truck sector, are similarly critical for California’s efforts to meet air quality standards and protect public health. By 2040, the Advanced Clean Truck regulations will reduce emissions of NOx by 16.9 tons per day and fine particulate matter emissions by 0.46 tons per day. The Omnibus regulation requires internal combustion heavy-duty trucks sold in California to meet strict standards for oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which are major contributors to smog formation.

    Under the direction of President Trump, the EPA transmitted these waivers to Congress as “rules” in an attempt to invoke CRA procedures, even though all three waivers state EPA’s consistent and longstanding position, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, that waiver decisions are not “rules.” Both the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate illegally used the CRA to “disapprove” of California’s Clean Air Act waivers.

    The complaint filed today alleges that the attempt to invalidate California’s waivers violated constitutional principles of federalism and separation of powers, the Take Care Clause, and multiple federal statutes including the Congressional Review Act and Administrative Procedure Act.  The complaint asks the court to declare the resolutions to be unlawful and to require the Administration to implement the Clean Air Act consistent with the granted waivers. 

    Attorney General Bonta led the lawsuit with the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

    A copy of the complaint is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Man Caught on Missouri Highway with 58 Kilograms of Cocaine Pleads Guilty

    Source: US FBI

    ST. LOUIS – A man from Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday admitted being caught with over 58 kilograms of cocaine in a traffic stop on Interstate 44 in Phelps County, Missouri.

    Rene Alejandro Valdivia-Gonzalez, 41, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of possession with intent to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine. On Sept. 21, 2024, Valdivia-Gonzalez was stopped in a Mercedes Sprinter van by the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department for a traffic violation. After receiving consent to search the van, the deputy spotted an after-market compartment that had been installed to create a cavity under the original floorboards. The deputy found rectangular bricks wrapped in plastic and tape that weighed about one kilogram each. Investigators also found bricks hidden behind the dashboard. The 53 bricks contained cocaine weighing a total of 58.85 kilograms.

    Valdivia-Gonzalez, who was living in Phoenix, is scheduled to be sentenced October 2. He faces at least 10 years in prison.

    The Phelps County Sheriff’s Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen is prosecuting the case.

    This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: FBI Philadelphia Recognizes World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

    Source: US FBI

    World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is recognized each year on June 15, and FBI Philadelphia is taking this time to continue the dialogue on the issue of elder fraud and the effects it has on our community. The abuse of older Americans can come in various forms, to include physical, emotional, mental, or financial exploitation. According to the 2024 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Elder Fraud Report, the FBI received over 147,000 complaints from victims over the age of 60, with reported losses of approximately $4.8 billion. In 2024, Pennsylvanians over the age of 60 field over 6,300 complaints of various frauds and scams with over $151 million in reported losses. “Elder abuse—whether through fraud, neglect, or exploitation—has a devastating impact on victims, their families, and the broader community,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, special agent in charge of FBI Philadelphia. “World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is a reminder of our responsibility to protect older Americans. It’s a chance to reaffirm our commitment to investigating those who prey on the vulnerable, to educate the public on how to safeguard themselves and their loved ones, and to encourage victims to come forward and report scams and abuse to the FBI.”

    Education and outreach are vital in bringing awareness to these crimes, protecting against victimization, and reinforcing the importance of reporting. FBI Philadelphia Community Outreach and field office personnel frequently engage with community groups and partners to bring awareness to the scams impacting our community. Some ways to protect yourself and your loved ones include:

    • Recognize scam attempts and end all communication with the perpetrator. This includes the very simple step to hang up the phone!
    • Resist the pressure to act quickly. Scammers create a sense of urgency to lure victims into immediate action, typically by instilling trust and inducing empathy or fear, or the promise of monetary gains, companionship, or employment opportunities.
    • Be cautious of unsolicited phone calls, mailings, and door-to-door services offers.
    • Never give or send any personally identifiable information, money, jewelry, gift cards, checks, or wire information to unverified people or businesses.
    • Make sure all computer anti-virus and security software and malware protections are up to date. Use reputable anti-virus software and firewalls.
    • Be careful what you download. Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don’t know and be wary of e-mail attachments forwarded to you.

    Combatting elder fraud continues to be a priority for the Department of Justice, which operates the Elder Justice Initiative. The Elder Justice Initiative supports and coordinates the DOJ’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect, and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s seniors. FBI Philadelphia has Victim Specialists who work to ensure victims have the resources they need, as well as support in navigating the criminal justice process. If you think or someone you know may have been a victim of elder fraud, contact FBI Philadelphia at (215) 418-4000 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov. You can also file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Mountain America Credit Union and Keys to Success Empower Utah Youth with $10,000 in Scholarships

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SANDY, Utah, June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mountain America Credit Union, in partnership with the Keys to Success program, awarded $2,000 scholarships to five high school students to support their educational aspirations. The scholarships, totaling $10,000, were presented to students who demonstrated college readiness by engaging in career exploration, applying for scholarships, and taking proactive steps toward higher education—criteria established by Keys to Success.

    “This partnership with Keys to Success highlights Mountain America’s continued dedication to educational advancement and community enrichment,” said Nathan Anderson, EVP and chief operating officer at Mountain America. “By investing in students’ futures, we’re helping build stronger communities and opening doors to lifelong opportunity.”

    Keys to Success, a program of the Success in Education Foundation, serves students across Utah’s middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions. By promoting goal setting and celebrating individual achievements, the program fosters confidence and motivation in students preparing for their futures.

    “Education is the foundation for a brighter tomorrow, and through our Keys to Success program, we are proud to champion the next generation of leaders,” said Hailey Mishler, senior program manager at the Success in Education Foundation. “Our collaboration with Mountain America Credit Union reflects a shared mission to help students succeed—both academically and financially.”

    Rob Brough, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Mountain America, led the scholarship presentation alongside distinguished guests John Garff, CEO of Ken Garff Automotive Group, and Josh Fox, Vice President at Success in Education.

    For more information on Keys to Success scholarships and how to apply, visit www.ktsutah.org.

    To learn more about the Success in Education Foundation, visit www.sieutah.org.

    About Mountain America Credit Union
    With more than 1 million members and $20 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union helps its members define and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure, cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 100 branches across multiple states, and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain America—guiding you forward. Learn more at macu.com.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Simon Gikandi, Professor of English and Chair of the English Department, Princeton University

    The passing of celebrated Kenyan writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on 28 May 2025 marks the end of a remarkable period in African literary history – the fabulous decades in the second half of the 20th century when African writers came to command the world stage.



    Read more:
    Five things you should know about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s greatest writers of all time

    This was the time of what I call the African literary revolution. As a scholar of African literature and the author of many books and papers on Ngũgĩ, I have raised several questions about this period. Why and how did this revolution happen? What motivated this turn to the imagination as a tool of decolonisation? And what was Ngũgĩ’s role in this drama?

    To answer these questions one must think of Ngũgĩ inside and outside a generational cultural project.

    The African literary revolution

    Accounting for this project is not difficult. One can say for certain that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the African continent entered the last phase of decolonisation, writers and intellectuals became important actors in the fight for independence. They did so by quietly entering and occupying the spaces and knowledge systems that had until then been the preserve of colonial agents.

    They used the work of the imagination to challenge colonial systems of thought and imagine decolonial alternatives. And what made this a period like no other in African literary history was a powerful sense of newness and the possibilities of a world yet to come. As the Nigerian writer and critic Chinua Achebe once put it:

    There was something in the air.

    Literature was asked to herald the possibilities and perils of freedom and Ngũgĩ was to play a major role in chaperoning the language of African being and becoming.

    In the memoirs he wrote about his education, he would often return to his mental imprisonment in English literature and the mythology of Englishness.

    Hidden in these narratives of colonial miseducation, however, was the discovery of the gift of African fiction brought by precursors. Nigeria’s Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi and South Africa’s Peter Abrahams gave Ngũgĩ a model of how English could be used against Englishness.

    Coming after these writers provided him with an alternative to the “Great Tradition” of English letters.

    Reimagining Africa

    As a student at Alliance High School in Kenya and later at Makerere University College in Uganda, Ngũgĩ positioned himself as part of a literary vanguard that was reimagining Africa.

    His first major fiction was published in Penpoint, a pioneering journal of literature edited by students at the Makerere English department. He was a delegate to the 1962 Conference of African Writers held at the university, sharing the podium with writers who were to define the African culture of letters for several decades. He was one of the few writers at this historic conference without a major publication, but his presence seemed to signal the promise of the future.

    Something else made this period distinctive: this was a time when African intellectuals, writers and politicians shared a common belief in the redemptive work of art and literature. At Makerere, Ngũgĩ had been preceded by Julius Nyerere, a translator of Shakespeare in Swahili who was to become president of Tanzania. At the same college, Apollo Milton Obote, future president of Uganda, had appeared in a 1948 production of Julius Caesar, the first performance of Shakespeare at the university.

    And the contributors represented in Origin East Africa, an anthology of creative writing at Makerere, provide the most vivid example of the role writing and a literary education could come to play in the making of the postcolonial public sphere. Ngũgĩ had four stories published in the anthology, coming just after a short story by Ben Mkapa, future president of Tanzania.

    Ngũgĩ belonged to a generation that saw literature as a forum for critique, of questioning dominant ideas and beliefs. In this context, creative writing was asked to perform at least four tasks:

    • to reimagine an African past whose resources might be rehearsed for the future

    • to rehearse the drama of decolonisation

    • to account for postcolonial failure

    • to produce fictions that might help readers rethink a global African identity.

    Ngũgĩ’s novels rose to fulfil these tasks with conviction and courage. The River Between and Weep Not, Child dealt with the wounds of history. A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood were positioned in a zone where the figure of the new nation was caught between its aspirations and desires and the possibility of failure and betrayal. Wizard of the Crow was simultaneously an allegory of postcolonial failure and the possibility of its transcendence.

    And then came banishment and exile.

    The late career

    Although he barely acknowledged it in his writings or in public, Ngũgĩ’s late career was defined by the realities of exile and an awareness of his own displacement from his primary audience and the Gĩkũyũ language that had energised his poetics.

    He was celebrated and honoured in powerful American universities and institutions including the Library of Congress. He was recognised in the global African world and cited by the few African leaders like Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama who understood the need for a forceful response to racial ideologies.



    Read more:
    Drama that shaped Ngũgĩ’s writing and activism comes home to Kenya

    But he was a persona non grata in the one place – Kenya – where recognition mattered most to him.

    In the end, there was a certain kind of belatedness in Ngũgĩ’s later fictions. The subject of these works and their points of reference were distinctly Gĩkũyũ, Kenyan, African, pan-African, and global. Nonetheless, these gestures of being African were enacted far away from the homelands in which Ngũgĩ’s writing and thinking was both intelligible and functional.

    Imagining and writing about Africa away from Africa was a promise and debt. It was an obligation to a place but also a measure of one’s distance from it.



    Read more:
    3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive

    I reflected on this problem as I reviewed Ngũgĩ’s 2006 novel set in an imaginary autocratic country, Murogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow), in its original Gĩkũyũ edition and later in its translation.

    I was reading the same book, but it was pointing in two different directions – towards home and away from it.

    In our many encounters, Ngũgĩ made fun of the fact that I seemed to have adopted alienation as the essential condition for thinking and writing. What he sought to do until the last minute of his life was carry within himself and his fictions that place that used to be home, its politics and poetics.

    Simon Gikandi 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. Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution – https://theconversation.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo-and-the-african-literary-revolution-258428

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hedley Twidle, Associate Professor and head of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

    Across three decades of democracy, South Africa has – like many places undergoing complex and uneven social change – seen an outpouring of remarkable nonfiction. The Interpreters is a new book that collects the work of 37 authors, all of it writing (plus some drawing) concerned with actual people, places and events.

    The anthology is the product of many years of reading and discussion between my co-editor Sean Christie (an experienced journalist and nonfiction author) and me (a writer and professor who teaches literature, including creative nonfiction).

    The book is a work of homage to the many strains of ambitious and artful writing that shelter within the unhelpful term “nonfiction”. These include: narrative and longform journalism; essays and memoir; reportage, features and profiles; life writing, from private diaries to public biography; oral histories, interviews and testimony.

    To give an idea of the range, energy and risk of the pieces collected in the anthology, here I discuss five of them.

    1. Fighting Shadows by Lidudumalingani

    We debated for a long time which piece to start the anthology with, and ultimately went for this one, which begins:

    One afternoon my father and the other boys from the Zikhovane village decided to walk across a vast landscape, two valleys and a river, to a village called Qombolo to disrupt a wedding.

    It’s a quietly compelling opening. First of all, there is intrigue: why the disruption? It could also easily be the first sentence of a novel (maybe even one by famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe). And so we begin with a reminder of how storytelling is such a deep, ancient and fundamental part of societies – an impulse that long predates writing and moves across and beyond the fiction/nonfiction divide. (Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for a short story, so he works across both.)

    Fighting Shadows is about the tradition of stick fighting, and how it’s transported from rural areas to urban ones. But it’s also about so much more, about “the dance between then and now”, as the writer puts it later on. The prose is so deft and graceful, as if the author is trying to match the “dance” of expert stick fighters with his own verbal arts. For me it’s a story that could only have emerged from this part of the world: it has a distinct voice, precision and poetry to it.

    2. The End of a Conversation by Julie Nxadi

    This is the shortest piece in the anthology, but for me one of the most affecting. It traces how a young girl comes to realise that the (white) family she is being brought up with are not really her family. She is the daughter of the housekeeper, the domestic worker:

    I was not ‘the kids’.
    I was not their kin.

    It’s probably best described as autofiction, a kind of writing that lies somewhere in the borderlands between autobiography and fiction. Nxadi has spoken of how she decided to write in a way that contained her own life story – the “heartbreak” of that moment – but was also able to carry and represent the experience of others who had gone through something similar.

    The piece is also a product of the #FeesMustFall student protests (2015 onwards), when many young South Africans felt able to share unresolved, awkward or shameful stories for the first time.

    The End of a Conversation is such a deft, wise and subtle handling of a difficult subject, with no easy targets or easy resolutions. Somehow the writer has found just the right distance – emotionally and aesthetically – from this moment of childhood realisation.

    3. South African Pastoral by William Dicey

    I co-own a pear farm with my brother. I attend to finances and labour relations, he oversees the growing of the fruit.

    This essay by William Dicey thinks hard, very hard, about what it means to manage a fruit farm in the Boland (an agricultural region still shaped by South Africa’s divided past). It is one of the most frank and unflinching accounts of land and labour I’ve ever come across. The writer makes the point that he could easily have stayed in the city, lived in “liberal” circles and not thought about these issues much.

    But becoming a farmer confronts him with all kinds of difficult questions (How much should he intervene in the lives of his employees? In family and financial planning, in matters of alcohol abuse?) as he is drawn into an awkward but meaningful intimacy with others on the farm.

    The US essayist Philip Lopate suggests that scepticism is often the tool for moving towards truth in personal nonfiction writing:

    So often the “plot” of a personal essay, its drama, its suspense, consists in watching how the essayist can drop past his or her psychic defences toward deeper levels of honesty.

    This is very much what happens in South African Pastoral, and why it is such a mesmerising piece (even while written in such a plain and restrained style).

    4. Hard Rock by Mogorosi Motshumi

    My co-editor said from the start we should include graphic nonfiction (drawn stories and comics) and I’m so grateful he did. Mogorosi Motshumi’s warm, zany but also harrowing account is about coming of age under apartheid and then the heady days of the 1990s transition.

    In his early career, Motshumi was widely known for his comic strips and political cartooning, but this graphic autobiography is far more ambitious. The style of drawing changes and evolves as the protagonist gets older; also, there is something intriguing about seeing weighty subjects like detention, disability, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS stigma approached through the eyes of a wry cartoonist with a keen sense of the absurd.

    Hard Rock is a prologue to the graphic nonfiction memoir that he has been working on for many years, the 360 Degrees Trilogy. The first two instalments have appeared – The Initiation (2016) and Jozi Jungle (2022) – and I would urge anyone to seek them out. Mogorosi’s work is a major achievement in South African autobiography and life writing (or life “drawing”).

    5. The Interpreters by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele

    This co-authored piece is what gave the anthology its name. The Interpreters is a reflection on being a language interpreter during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings (1996-1998) into gross human rights violations during white minority rule.

    A series of individuals recall the challenges of that process. Sitting in glass booths in the middle of proceedings, they had to move across South Africa’s many official languages in real time, translating the words of victims, perpetrators, grieving families, lawyers and commissioners.

    The chapter is also a reminder of how our English-language anthology faces the challenge of doing justice to a multilingual, multivocal society where all kinds of cultural translations happen all the time.

    The piece is a blend of many people’s voices, testimonies and reminiscences. As such, it also seemed to symbolise the larger project of The Interpreters: trying to record, render and honour the many voices that make up our complex social world.

    Hedley Twidle worked with Soutie Press in the creation of this anthology.

    – ref. 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories – https://theconversation.com/5-great-reads-by-south-african-writers-from-30-years-of-real-life-stories-258340

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ibrahim Z. Bahreldin, Associate Professor of Urban & Environmental Design, University of Khartoum

    What makes a public space truly public?

    In Khartoum, before the current conflict engulfed Sudan, the answer was not always a park, a plaza or a promenade.

    The city’s streets, tea stalls (sitat al-shai), protest sites and even burial spaces served as dynamic arenas of everyday life, political expression and informal resilience.

    In a recently published article, I studied 64 public spaces across pre-war Greater Khartoum, revealing a landscape far richer – and more contested – than standard urban classifications suggest. Specifically, I uncovered four classifications: formal, informal, privately owned and hybrid spaces – each alive with negotiation and everyday use.

    While some spaces were planned by colonial engineers or municipal authorities, many were carved out by communities: claimed, adapted and reimagined through use.

    My research offers valuable insights into the design and planning of Africa’s cities. As they grow and face mounting political and environmental pressures, it’s time to rethink how public spaces are defined and designed – not through imported models, but by listening to the ways people already make cities public.



    Read more:
    Sudan needs to accept its cultural diversity: urban planning can help rebuild the country and prevent future conflict

    Across the African continent, cities are growing fast – but not always fairly. Urban expansion often privileges gated developments, mega-projects and high-security zones while neglecting the everyday spaces where most people live, work and gather.

    In Sudan, these dynamics have been further complicated by conflict, displacement and economic instability. The ongoing war has disrupted not only governance, but also the spatial fabric of urban life.

    My paper aims to invite those involved in planning policies and post-conflict reconstruction to move beyond formal, western-centric models that often overlook how publicness actually unfolds in African cities: through informality, negotiation and social improvisation.

    Khartoum’s public spaces, as documented in my study, serve as diagnostic tools for understanding how cities survive crises, express identity and contest inequality.

    In the wake of war and displacement, these spaces will play a role in shaping how Sudan rebuilds not just infrastructure, but social cohesion.

    Pre-war Khartoum

    Khartoum’s public spaces cannot be understood through conventional categories – like formal squares and urban parks – alone. These formal squares represent only one layer of a much more plural and negotiated urban reality.

    Drawing on fieldwork and the documentation of 64 public spaces across Greater Khartoum, I identify four overlapping types that reflect how space is produced, accessed and contested.

    1. Formal public spaces: These include planned parks, ceremonial squares, civic plazas and administrative open spaces, often relics of colonial or postcolonial urban planning. They are defined by order, visibility and regulation. Mīdān Abbas, originally an active civic space in the centre of Khartoum, repeatedly reclaimed by informal traders and protesters, is one example, illustrating how even the most formal spaces can become contested. It was notably active during Sudan’s April 1985 uprising, serving as part of a wider network of civic spaces used for political mobilisation. Informal traders consistently transformed it into a bustling marketplace, embedding everyday commerce and social exchange into the formal urban fabric.

    2. Informal and insurgent spaces: These emerge beyond or against official planning logics – riverbanks used for gatherings, neglected lots transformed into social nodes or bridges appropriated by traders. They include spiritual sites like Sufi tombs, and protest spaces such as the sit-in zone outside the city’s army headquarters. These spaces reveal the city’s capacity for bottom-up urbanism and collective adaptation.

    3. Privately owned civic spaces: Shopping malls, privately managed parks and cultural cafés fall into this category. While they appear public, they are often classed, surveilled (monitored through cameras or security presence) or exclusionary. The rise of these spaces coincides with the decline of state-managed urban infrastructure, reflecting the turn in Sudanese urban governance.



    Read more:
    Sudan: the symbolic significance of the space protesters made their own

    4. Public “private” spaces: These spaces blur lines between ownership and use. They include mosque courtyards, school grounds, building frontages or underutilised university lawns that serve as informal gathering points. Access here is governed less by law and more by social codes, trust or class.

    Together, these typologies highlight that “publicness” in Khartoum is relational. It depends not only on who planned a space, but who uses it, how and under what conditions.

    Planning in African cities must therefore move beyond fixed zoning maps to embrace the layered, fluid and lived nature of urban space.

    Rebuilding, rethinking, resisting

    Post-conflict reconstruction in Sudan – and elsewhere in Africa – must resist the allure of “blank slate” master plans. Those involve rebuilding cities from scratch with sweeping, top-down designs that ignore existing social and spatial dynamics.

    Imported models, often guided by bureaucratic thinking or commercial incentives, risk erasing the very spaces where public life already thrives, albeit informally or invisibly.

    Rather than imposing formality, planners should recognise and strengthen the informal and hybrid systems that sustain civic life, especially in times of instability.

    Urban theorists working in and on the global south, such as AbdouMaliq Simone and the late Vanessa Watson, have long argued for planning frameworks that centre on everyday practices, adaptive use and spatial justice.

    Khartoum offers a compelling case.

    From the sit-ins of 2019 to tea stalls run by displaced women, public spaces in Sudan are not inert backdrops. They are active platforms of everyday life, resistance, care and community-making.

    Reconstruction must begin by asking: what spaces mattered to people before the war? Which ones fostered inclusion, dignity and visibility? Only then can new urban futures emerge, ones that are rooted in the practices of those who have always made the city public, even when the state did not.

    What makes spaces truly public?

    The public realm in Sudan has always been shaped through negotiation, sometimes with the state, often despite it.

    Rebuilding after war is not only about reconstructing buildings but also about reimagining the terms of belonging.

    This requires a shift from viewing public space as a fixed asset to understanding it as a dynamic process. Who gets to gather, to speak, to rest, to protest – these are the true measures of publicness.

    Understanding Khartoum’s pre-war public spaces isn’t a nostalgic exercise. It’s a necessary step towards building more inclusive, resilient and locally grounded cities in the wake of crisis.

    Ibrahim Bahreldin is a member of the Sudanese Institute of Architects and the City Planning Institute of Japan, and is registered as a professional architect and urban planner with the Sudanese Engineering Council and the Saudi Council of Engineers. He is also affiliated with the King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia.

    The Author receives funding from KAU Endowment (WAQF) at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

    – ref. Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together – https://theconversation.com/khartoum-before-the-war-the-public-spaces-that-held-the-city-together-258632

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Endometriosis: difficult childhood linked with greater likelihood of being diagnosed – new research

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Marika Rostvall, PhD Candidate, Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet

    Our study of over a million Swedish women revealed a link between difficult childhood circumstances and a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis. Drazen Zigic/ Shutterstock

    Around one in ten women worldwide have endometriosis. This common condition causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow in other parts of the body. This can result in painful periods, chronic pain and even infertility.

    Yet despite how common endometriosis is, there’s currently no cure for it. This may partly be due to the fact that researchers still aren’t entirely sure what triggers endometriosis.

    But one factor that might increase a woman’s likelihood of developing endometriosis is their early life experiences. Recent research published by my colleagues and I has revealed a link between difficult childhood circumstances and a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis.

    Our study included all women born in Sweden between 1974 and 2001, totalling over a million women. We then followed them from birth using the Swedish register system, which allowed us to track each participants’ health data.

    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.

    We also looked at different indicators of childhood adversity that had been captured through the registers. We focused specifically on experiences which previous studies have shown can lead to negative mental or physical health later in life.

    This included having a parent with substance abuse problems, having had to spend a night in the care of child-protection services, having to move around a lot or being exposed to violence. In total, we included 11 indicators of childhood adversity in our analysis.

    We then compared the likelihood of receiving an endometriosis diagnosis in women who had experienced each specific type of childhood adversity with women who had not. We controlled for factors that might have influenced the results, including the womens’ ages, the year they were born, their county of birth and if they had been been smaller than average at birth.

    Our results showed that having experienced some form of adversity between birth to 15 years of age was associated with a higher risk of being diagnosed with endometriosis later in life. The only adverse childhood event that wasn’t linked with a greater risk of being diagnosed with endometriosis was familial death.

    Women who had been exposed to violence had the highest risk increase, with an over twofold greater likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis compared with all other women.

    The likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis increased the more adversity a woman had experienced in their childhood. Women who had experienced one type of adversity in childhood had a 20% greater likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis. But women who had experienced five or more types of adversity had a 60% greater likelihood.

    We also ran a separate analysis that included women who experience painful periods (dysmenorrhea) to see if it affected the results. Many women who are diagnosed with endometriosis initially seek help from their doctor because they experience painful periods. We included women who had dysmenorrhea to capture women who might have endometriosis, but had not yet received a proper diagnosis. The results were similar even when we included women with dysmenorrhea in our analysis.

    Having experienced some form of adversity between birth and 15 years of age was associated with a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with endometriosis.
    DimaBerlin/ Shutterstock

    Previous studies which have looked at self-reported early childhood trauma have seen a link with endometriosis. But our study looked not only at remembered experiences of trauma, but also at other indicators of stress.

    Endometriosis and immune function

    Our findings may be explained, at least in part, by immune system processes and chronic inflammatory responses.

    Having experienced adversity during childhood has previously been linked to higher levels of chronic inflammation, as well as an increased risk for autoimmune disorders. Greater levels of inflammation in the body could worsen endometriosis symptoms or even trigger endometriosis to develop.

    Another possible way childhood adversity could affect endometriosis is through increased pain. Childhood adversity has been linked to a higher risk for chronic pain conditions. This could lead to women in our study who had gone through childhood adversity experiencing more painful symptoms on average, and therefore being more likely to seek medical help and receive a diagnosis.

    Further research might dig into these possible mechanisms. This would improve our understanding of how and why the disease develops. A better understanding of the mechanisms behind the pain experienced by women with endometriosis might also allow researchers to develop more effective treatments than those currently available.

    Our study reinforces the conclusions of previous studies which show a link between early childhood adversity and poor health in later life. This kind of research suggests a connection between mental and physical health, and indicates that we need to re-examine our view of the mind and body as separate entities.

    It should be noted that our study is observational, which means it cannot prove that adverse events in childhood cause endometriosis, it can only show an association between the two things.

    However, our study does highlight the importance of devoting resources to help parents and children. Helping families escape poverty, treating parental addiction or providing stable housing could lead to a healthier population in the future.

    Marika Rostvall receives funding from Karolinska Institutet, Region Stockholm and Karolinska University Hospital.

    – ref. Endometriosis: difficult childhood linked with greater likelihood of being diagnosed – new research – https://theconversation.com/endometriosis-difficult-childhood-linked-with-greater-likelihood-of-being-diagnosed-new-research-258369

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Remembering Frederick Forsyth: my encounters with the spy who stayed out in the cold

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Lashmar, Reader in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London

    One of the great British purveyors of the spy and cold-war genres, Frederick Forsyth, who has died at the age of 86, was best known for his novels The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972) and The Dogs of War (1974).

    He wrote another 22 books, which together have sold 75 million copies worldwide, and spawned several successful films. In his 2015 memoirs, Forsyth revealed he had been a spy for the British government.

    My encounters with “Freddie” came late in his life. Back in 2023 my former colleagues at Brunel University were launching a project called Writers in Intelligence. Having no contacts in the murky world of spookery, they approached me for help.

    They needed a high-profile writer who had worked in intelligence for their first event. I suggested Forsyth, as he had admitted to being an MI6 asset between 1968 and 1988. I wrote to him, and he agreed to an interview.

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    It was not my finest hour. I had carefully created a narrative arc of questions and outlined my plan to Forsyth in the green room. He nodded. After we sat down in front of a packed audience Forsyth proceeded to ignore my first question and launched into his own well-practised narrative.

    “What is the point of espionage in the first place?” he asked rhetorically. “I would sum it up in a single word: forewarning – what the bad guys are doing,” he said, launching into his spiel. He was particularly good on the need for a cover story when working abroad, “where the very nasty secret police ruled the roost”. His cover was being a foreign correspondent.

    For the rest of his “talk”, I tried to predict his direction of travel and lob the occasional question to justify my existence. Relief for me came with the Q&A.

    Inevitably a question came up about the Nigerian civil war in which he had a controversial role. Independent from 1960, Nigeria is a creation of the British empire and in broad terms combines three different colonial and ethnic areas. The Muslim north, mostly the Haus-Fulani people; the mixed religions of the Yoruba west; and the Christian Igbo people of the east in the area known then as Biafra, rich in oil reserves. In 1966, an attempted military coup sparked civil war and anti-Igbo pogroms in the north, forcing 1.2 million Igbo refugees to return to the Biafra region.

    Refugees complained that the Lagos-based Nigerian government under General Yakubu Gowon had failed to protect them. Secessionists under the military commander of the east, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, declared Biafra a separate republic in May 1967. Gowon ordered the Nigerian army to retake Biafra. Initially the Biafran forces countered attacked but Gowan’s troops, reinforced by secretly delivered British munitions, created a lengthy stalemate.

    Forsyth, aged 29 and now a BBC correspondent (after stints as the RAF’s youngest fighter pilot and a Reuters journalist) was posted to Biafra to cover the war. With few of his reports being used despite him being on the frontline (at one point a bullet grazed his head), he grew increasingly disillusioned. He considered the BBC’s reports from its west Africa correspondent in Lagos hundreds of miles away, to be pro-Gowon.

    Angering BBC bosses by making the case for Biafra, Forsyth was ordered out, after which he said he resigned, although this contradicts the tweet made by the BBC’s John Simpson, who this week said that Forsyth was sacked after “introducing Biafran propaganda into his reports”.

    In 1968 Forsyth reported independently from Biafra on the deliberate starvation of people that shocked the world, and became close to Colonel Ojukwu. Eventually, after three years, Biafra was overwhelmed and reintegrated into Nigeria in 1970.

    In the Brunel audience was Nigerian novelist and journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani who is of Igbo heritage. I asked her this week what she recalled of the evening having travelled to see Forsyth whose books “had been a staple” during her teenage years. She asked Forsyth whether his assessment of the war back then was valid. Forsyth did not really give an opinion but, describing what he had seen, clearly thought his reporting had stood the test of time.

    The Brunel evening was deemed a success as Forsyth had lived up to his reputation as a charismatic raconteur. Even in his eighties he cut an imposing figure – decidedly alpha male and a hard-living world traveller. On the thriller-writer spectrum, he combined the spirit of Hemingway with the cool detached air of le Carré. It was not hard to believe that Forsyth had been a little too close to some of the unsavoury events he wrote about.

    We meet again, Mr Forsyth

    A few months later I asked him for a one-to-one interview and was invited to his house in a Buckinghamshire village. I explained that for nearly 50 years I had been intermittently researching the foreign office’s cold-war covert propaganda operation, the Information Research Department (IRD).

    Set up in 1948 to attack communism, by the late 1960s the IRD was a huge operation and had extended its secret remit from anti-communism to covertly attacking anybody or anything its mandarins perceived as anti-British. I had been reading recently released IRD files on Biafra that had long been withheld.

    The first thing that was clear was that Forsyth was still angry over what he saw as the British betrayal of the Biafran people. He cursed the then prime minister Harold Wilson. As a result of Forsyth’s reporting on Biafra – which he saw as objective – he had come under personal attack.

    Who was responsible, I asked. Forsyth identified the high commissioner in Lagos at the time, Sir David Hunt, “a very unpleasant man” whom he held in very low regard. Indeed Hunt had written in one internal memo that Forsyth was “an ardent Ibo partisan and is now employed by them”, and who “spread the most alarming and exaggerated reports”. The memo is now held in the National Archives.

    I was able to tell Forsyth that the foreign office had deployed the full arsenal of the IRD’s propaganda skills to support Gowon’s government – and made a huge effort to neuter Forsyth’s reporting from Biafra. Wilson’s government did not want to lose access to cheap oil supplied by Nigeria, or for it to be known that Britain was secretly supplying Gowan with arms.

    The IRD’s role was all the more curious in that the Soviet Union was pro-Gowon and Ojukwa was anti-communist. In our meeting Forsyth was surprised at what I had to say; he had never heard of IRD, which in turn surprised me. What was all the more puzzling was that IRD was close to MI6 and, as Forsyth revealed in his memoir, he had been an unpaid MI6 asset for 20 years, beginning in Biafra in 1968.

    He thought his targeting might explain the breadth of the personal attacks any against him. In another memo held in the National Archives, this time written in 1969, another British diplomat said he had met Forsyth and bemoaned it was “hard to understand” how the BBC had employed him as correspondent.

    The war ended in January 1970. The number of deaths is still disputed but claimed to be between one and two million – mostly civilians many of whom starved to death. On his return to the UK Forsyth wrote his first book, a non-fiction account called The Biafran Story, which did not sell.

    By the beginning of 1971 Forsyth was unemployable as a journalist and struggling financially. He sat down and over 35 days wrote The Day of the Jackal, a novel set in 1963 about an assassination plot against the French President, which went on to sell ten million copies. In 1973 it was turned into a film starring Edward Fox and was a huge box office hit. Forsyth never had to worry about money again.

    Paul Lashmar is affiliated with the Labour Party

    – ref. Remembering Frederick Forsyth: my encounters with the spy who stayed out in the cold – https://theconversation.com/remembering-frederick-forsyth-my-encounters-with-the-spy-who-stayed-out-in-the-cold-258762

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Wales is overhauling its democracy – here’s what’s changing

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen Clear, Lecturer in Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Public Procurement, Bangor University

    Wales’ Senedd will expand and change as of May 2026. Mareks Perkons/Shutterstock

    Next May’s Senedd (Welsh parliament) election won’t just be another trip to the polls. It will mark a major change in how Welsh democracy works. The number of elected members is increasing from 60 to 96, and the voting system is being overhauled. These changes have now passed into law.

    But what exactly is changing – and why?

    When the then assembly was first established in 1999, it had limited powers and just 60 members. Much has changed since then and it now has increased responsibility including primary law-making powers over matters such as health, education, environment, transport and economic development.

    The Wales Act 2014 also bestowed a number of new financial powers on the now Senedd, including taxation and borrowing powers. But its size has stayed the same.

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    This led to concerns about capacity and effectiveness. In 2017, an independent expert panel on electoral reform concluded that the Senedd was no longer fit for purpose. It warned that 60 members simply weren’t enough to scrutinise the Welsh government, pass legislation and respond to constituents. A bigger chamber, it argued, would improve both the quality of lawmaking and democratic accountability.

    Wales also has fewer elected politicians per person than any other UK nation. Scotland has 129 MSPs, while Northern Ireland has 90 MLAs. Even with next year’s changes, Wales will still have fewer elected members per citizen compared with Northern Ireland.

    It’s a similar picture when Wales is compared with other small European nations.

    More Senedd members could ease workloads, improve local representation and importantly, may encourage a more diverse pool of people to stand for office.

    How is the voting system changing?

    Alongside expansion will be a change in how Senedd members are elected.

    Since its inception, Wales has used the “additional member system”, which is a mix of first-past-the-post for constituency seats and proportional representation for regional ones.

    From 2026, that system will be replaced by a closed list proportional system, using the D’Hondt method. It’s a system which is designed to be fairer, ensuring that the proportion of seats a party wins more closely reflects the votes they get. But it also means voters will have less say over which individuals get elected.

    Wales will be divided into 16 constituencies, each electing six MSs. Instead of voting for a single candidate, voters will choose one party or independent candidate.

    Parties will submit a list of up to eight candidates per constituency. Seats will then be allocated based on the overall share of the vote each party gets, with candidates elected in the order they appear on their party’s list.

    For example, if a party wins a percentage share of the vote equating to three seats, the top three people on their party list will be elected. The calculation for this is defined by the D’Hondt formula. The decision to adopt this method in Wales was one of the recommendations of the special purpose committee on Senedd reform in 2022.

    Jeremy Vine explains just how the D’Hondt system of proportional representation works.

    Several countries across Europe use this system for their elections, including Spain and Portugal. In countries with small constituency sizes, D’Hondt has sometimes favoured larger parties and made it harder for smaller parties to gain ground. That’s something observers in Wales will be watching closely.

    An alternative method, Sainte-Laguë, used in Sweden and Latvia, is often seen as more balanced in its treatment of small and medium-sized parties, potentially leading to more consensual politics. But it too has its downsides. In countries which have many smaller parties, it can lead to fragmented parliaments and make decision-making more difficult.

    In sum, no system is perfect. But D’Hondt was chosen for its balance between proportionality, simplicity and practicality.

    The Senedd chamber will house 36 more members from May 2026 onwards.
    Senedd Cymru

    Could this confuse voters?

    One concern is the growing differences between electoral systems across the UK, and even within Wales itself.

    At the UK level, first-past-the-post (FPTP) is the method used for Westminster elections. Meanwhile, some Welsh councils are experimenting with the single transferable vote method, which lets voters rank candidates in order of preference.

    So, some people in Wales could find themselves navigating three different voting systems for three different elections. Obviously, this raises the risk of confusion. Voters who are used to one vote and the “winner takes all” nature of FPTP may be confused by how seats are allocated in Wales come 2026.

    With numerous different systems, the risk is that people do not fully understand how their vote translates into representation. In turn this risks undermining confidence and reducing voter turnout.



    Read more:
    Wales wants to punish lying politicians – how would it work?

    Voters will need clear, accessible information on how their vote works – and why it matters. But this is particularly challenging when UK-wide media often defaults to FPTP-centric language and framing surrounding debates, which can shape public expectations. News about Wales often barely registers beyond its borders, while news about politics in Wales barely registers within.

    Electoral reform often prompts broader conversations. As Welsh voters adjust to the new proportional system, some may begin to question Westminster’s FPTP model, especially if the Senedd better reflects the diversity of votes cast. FPTP is frequently criticised for producing “wasted votes” and encouraging tactical voting, particularly in safe seats.

    Under a more proportional system, tactical voting becomes less necessary, which has the potential to shift voter habits in Wales.

    If the 2026 reform leads to a more representative and effective Senedd, it may not only reshape Welsh democracy, but reignite debates about electoral reform across the UK.

    Stephen Clear 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. Wales is overhauling its democracy – here’s what’s changing – https://theconversation.com/wales-is-overhauling-its-democracy-heres-whats-changing-256640

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tornado: this samurai-western immigrant revenge tale tries to be many things – but runs out of ammo

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chi-Yun Shin, Senior Lecturer, Film Studies, Sheffield Hallam University

    Tornado is many things: a British period drama, a western, a samurai film, a coming-of-age story and an origin story. Set in the windswept moorland of Britain in 1790, the film offers a lawless backdrop fit for a western, with no visible sign of the industrial revolution that began some three decades prior.

    Its Wuthering Heights-esque wilderness, serenely captured by the cinematographer Robbie Ryan conjures up an almost otherworldly look.

    The film is also a revenge story. Tornado (Kōki), the 16-year-old Anglo-Japanese heroine, seeks to avenge her father’s death, armed with a samurai sword. First, though, she has to escape the clutches of some ruthless highwaymen.

    We begin in the middle of this action, with Tornado being pursued across a desolate landscape by Sugarman’s (Tim Roth) gang, who just killed her father, Fujin (Takehiro Hira).

    They are looking for their ill-gotten sacks of gold, which they believe she stole from them. What they don’t know is that Fujin, a former samurai who was reduced to a travelling puppeteer in Britain, taught his daughter to fight and hid the gold. These archetypal components of western genre, gold and revenge are mashed up with a samurai-sword-wielding heroine.

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    The cross-pollination of western and samurai films has a long history. There is the well-known influence of John Ford’s westerns on the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa. Meanwhile, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) in turn directly inspired the classic Hollywood western, The Magnificent Seven (1960).

    Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) practically started the whole sub-genre of spaghetti western, providing a template for the narrative and character arc. Both Sergio Leone’s influential A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) feature a lone man, seemingly a mercenary, entering a town with two warring gangs where he uses his skills (swapping samurai-sword-wielding for gun-slinging) to manipulate the situation.

    Tornado’s influences

    Tornado pays homage to Leone’s epic spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). This is most obvious in a scene where the vicious gang arrives at the circus troupe’s trailer site where Tornado is taking refuge.

    A knife thrower (Jude Cranston) is practising his techniques, and his steady throwing actions make rhythmic noises as his knives hit the target board in succession. This creates a soundscape reminiscent of the masterful sound design of the opening sequence of Once Upon a Time in the West.



    Read more:
    Tornado is a Scottish samurai-western film – genres with a long-shared history

    The sole black member of the gang, named Psychotic Bandit (Dennis Okwera) is conspicuously dressed in all black, complete with a black cowboy hat. This costuming is almost identical to one of the three outlaws played by Woody Strode (one of the first black American players in the NFL, turned actor) in Once Upon a Time in the West.

    As he approaches the knife thrower and silences him, his out-of-place look (too dandy for a rural bandit) suddenly makes sense and serves a purpose. Like the Strode character, Psychotic Bandit doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t quite pull off the formidable calm menace of Strode.

    The trailer for Tornado.

    Tornado is also a typical immigrant family story that deals with the generational gap. The father tries his best to pass on his culture and knowledge (samurai skill in this case) to Tornado, but his teenage daughter, while reluctantly participating in the family business (a samurai puppet show) wants to have a lie-in and go to town. She speaks to him in perfect English as opposed to his accented English.

    Although the presence of Japanese samurai as a travelling showman in 1790s Scotland is unlikely (considering that the first Japanese visitors set foot on British soil in 1832), director John Maclean’s interest in outsiders and marginalised communities is evident.

    In one scene, now-wounded Sugarman faces Tornado and makes a fatherly suggestion that she go home, to which she answers: “I am home.” It’s a knowing exchange, even if it’s a bit of cliche. Through the course of the film, Tornado grows to accept her father’s teachings and comes of age, as she declares: “I’m Tornado; remember my name.” Though it feels a little contrived, it is fitting for an origin story of a self-assured samurai.

    This coming-of-age story of a young female samurai, set in a desolate landscape, offers a downbeat antidote to the romanticised stories of a westerner who goes to Japan and becomes a samurai, as seen in The Last Samurai (2003) and Shōgun (2024).

    In the end, however, Tornado tries to be too many things, and can’t quite cut it as a satisfying samurai film. It lacks the introspection of Twilight Samurai (2002) or the exhilaration of Zatoichi (2003) and 13 Assassins (2010). It amounts to an unconventional, but underwhelming, execution of a classic genre mash-up.

    Chi-Yun Shin 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. Tornado: this samurai-western immigrant revenge tale tries to be many things – but runs out of ammo – https://theconversation.com/tornado-this-samurai-western-immigrant-revenge-tale-tries-to-be-many-things-but-runs-out-of-ammo-258733

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Welch Celebrates House Passage of His Bipartisan, Bicameral Bill to Require Baby Changing Stations on Amtrak Trains 

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) joined U.S Representatives Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14) and Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ-02) this week in celebrating the House passage of the bipartisan, bicameral Baby Changing on Board Act. This bill would require each Amtrak train to be outfitted with baby changing stations in all accessible restrooms and to post adequate signage indicating their availability. The Baby Changing on Board Act directs Amtrak to utilize current funding streams to install baby changing stations on new cars until Amtrak can meet a minimum service requirement. 
    “A lack of safe and sanitary spaces for parents to care for their children while traveling can make any journey more challenging. Longer train rides can be especially stressful for parents who need to utilize baby changing stations more than once when riding the rails. While some trains are equipped with these crucial facilities, Amtrak can—and must—do more to increase access to these private, sanitary spaces to care for their children,” said Senator Welch. “The House’s passage of our bipartisan bill brings us one step closer to ensuring a smooth ride for rail passengers with infants.” 
    “The route from Memphis to New Orleans – the main Amtrak route used by Tennesseans – is almost nine hours, meaning families need access to changing facilities for their children,” said Senator Blackburn. The Baby Changing on Board Act would ensure that families traveling by Amtrak are supported with baby changing stations in all accessible restrooms.” 
    “Parents and caregivers shouldn’t have to worry about whether there’s a safe, clean place to care for their kids while traveling,” said Rep. Underwood. “I am so pleased that this legislation has passed the House and is now one step closer to becoming law. This common-sense, bipartisan legislation is a practical and necessary step to make sure families have access to the amenities they need on Amtrak.” 
    “Ensuring families have access to baby changing stations in Amtrak train cars is a simple, common-sense solution that will make a world of difference,” said Rep. Van Drew. “As a parent myself, I know how important it is for families traveling with young children to feel comfortable and supported during their journeys. By tapping into existing funding to put in these stations, we are meeting a real need and making travel a lot easier for parents and their little ones. Every family deserves that kind of support on their journeys.” 
    The Baby Changing on Board Act is endorsed by A Better Balance, MomsRising Together, and the National Women’s Law Center. 
    In Fiscal Year 2024, Amtrak set an all-time ridership record with 32.8 million passenger trips and operated routes connecting 46 states, Washington D.C. and two Canadian provinces. The average duration of a trip on Amtrak’s most traveled route, the Northeast Regional, can last between 3.5 and 8 hours, from D.C. to New York and from D.C. to Boston, respectively. Amtrak’s longest route, connecting Los Angeles to Chicago, can take passengers 65 hours to travel. Parents and families who are traveling often need to change a newborn child’s diaper every two hours, making accessible, safe, and comfortable changing facilities essential.  
    Learn more about the Baby Changing on Board Act.  
    Read the full text of the bill. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ricketts Introduces Legislative Package to Protect American Way of Life from Communist China

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska)
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced a legislative package of four bills that would counter malicious efforts to disrupt American prosperity by Communist China and other adversaries. The package includes the No Capital Gains Allowance for Americans Adversaries Act, the PRC Military and Human Rights Capital Markets Sanctions Act, the No China in Index Funds Act, and the Protecting Endowments from our Adversaries Act (PEOAA). This legislative package limits the ability of adversaries like Communist China from taking advantage of America’s economic strength and tax benefits intended for Americans.
    “Communist China is the greatest threat to the American way of life,” said Ricketts. ”Communist China is actively threatening a rules-based system that has maintained peace and prosperity for over 80 years. America’s markets are supposed to benefit Americans. We can’t allow our markets to fund our adversaries like Communist China.”
    The No Capital Gains Allowance for Americans Adversaries Act would:
    Treat capital gains on all Chinese, Russian, Belarusian, Iranian, and North Korean stocks as ordinary income. Such investments would then not be eligible for the lower capital gains tax rates.
    Eliminate the “step-up in basis” for Chinese, Russian, Belarusian, Iranian, and North Korean assets inherited at death – which reduces an heir’s tax liability by ignoring gains that occurred before inheritance.
    Direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain a public list of securities covered by this Act and require that sellers of covered securities disclosure to customers that sales of those securities will be treated as ordinary income.
    The PRC Military and Human Rights Capital Markets Sanctions Act would:
    Direct the President to compile and maintain a single public list of sanctioned companies and their affiliates.
    These lists include those that target human rights violators, including companies that utilize coerced labor in production, companies that proliferate dangerous technologies, and those that have connections to the Chinese military and intelligence services.

    Prevent U.S. persons from purchasing, selling, or holding:
    A publicly-traded security issued by a sanctioned company or affiliate of the sanctioned company;
    A publicly-traded security that is a derivative of a publicly issued security issued by a sanctioned company or affiliate of the sanctioned company;
    A security that provides investment exposure to a publicly-traded security issued by a sanctioned company or affiliate of the sanctioned company.

    Give a U.S. person 180 days after enactment to divest from the prohibited securities.
    The No China in Index Funds Act would:
    Prohibit index funds from investing in Chinese companies and require them to divest from such investments within 180 days after date of enactment.
    The Protecting Endowments from Our Adversaries Act (PEOAA) would:
    Apply to private college and university endowments over $1,000,000,000
    Disincentivize endowments from investing (directly or indirectly) in adversarial entities that are on any of the following US Government Lists (USG):
    Entity List
    Military End User (MEU) List
    Unverified List
    FCC Covered List

    Impose a 50% excise tax on the principal investment at the time of acquisition if an endowment invests in a company that is listed.
    Impose a 100% excise tax on the realized gains derived from listed investments one year after an entity is listed.
    BACKGROUND:
    Other countries have investment incentives not applicable to some foreign investments. For instance, China provides investment incentives through its tax code, but foreign investments are eligible only with the pre-approval of the Chinese government.
    Companies that have their business relations with the United States cut off or strictly restricted should not be allowed to sell securities in the U.S., or to U.S. persons, whether directly or indirectly through a mutual fund or ETF.
    Index mutual funds minimize their expenses by simply investing in all the companies in a certain market sector, without looking closely at the individual companies. There are unique difficulties in evaluating the risks of investing in Chinese companies. Americans should not invest in these companies without carefully evaluating the risk. This bill will keep these hard-to-evaluate Chinese stocks out of index mutual funds.
    University and college endowments are funds or assets donated to support various activities of the institution. These institutions often invest billions from their endowments into organizations and companies listed on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List. While maintaining a tax advantage, endowments can fund these entities even if they pose national security concerns.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: Tuberville Joins “Kudlow” to Discuss President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Alabama Tommy Tuberville

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network to discuss President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” and how the Senate needs to pass it quickly to enact historic tax cuts for Americans. Senator Tuberville also discussed the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers and shared how President Trump’s tariffs are delivering positive results in Alabama.  

    Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s interview can be found below and the full interview can be found on Rumble or YouTube. 

    KUDLOW: “Joining us now is Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, [the] great Senator Tommy Tuberville. Senator, welcome back as always. I just wanna try this thesis out in you. Mr. Trump acted so decisively to stop the riots in Los Angeles, to protect the work of ICE, to keep the deportations going, to make it very clear that criminals would be thrown into jail, if you spit on somebody, you’re going to jail, etc., etc. That was a big win, I mean, I think it was a big win and a big loss for Democrats. But here’s my questions there. I think that kind of action, which is so popular—it’s like an 80/20 issue—plays into passage of the one big, beautiful bill because people want promises made, promises kept. They want the Trump agenda, and they see that he is unhesitatingly defending the Trump agenda on which he was elected last November. What you think? I’m going from LA to one big, beautiful bill.”

    TUBERVILLE: “Well, if you just think about this summer coming up, it’s probably gonna be the ‘summer of hate’ instead of the ‘summer of love,’ Larry. We got huge problems. 1,400 protests just this weekend, but at the end of the day, President Trump never hesitated with this. He goes in—this is a third world country run by a communist governor. And the guy should be in jail, and also the mayor. This is an absolute disgrace. The American people—actually the citizens of California—should be treated a lot better than this. But at the end of the day, it is really gonna help, I think, also, as you said, coming back to the big, beautiful bill, President Trump means business. If you look at this bill, about ¾ of it is tax cuts for all Americans. Tax cuts.”

    KUDLOW: “Mhmm.”

    TUBERVILLE: “And that’s what we need. We gotta get that done. The other—there’s some things in there, that I don’t agree with all of it—a little bit too much spending, but the one thing we have to get done is the tax cuts and all those other things will work itself out as we go through this bill and another reconciliation down the road. But, yeah, President Trump means business. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got huge backing from really smart people like [Secretary Scott] Bessent and [Secretary Howard] Lutnick, and all the people that are working, all the trade and tariff deals. I’m fired up about the big, beautiful bill being passed here in the very near future.”

    KUDLOW: “I mean, you—look, you’ve probably seen some of these numbers from the White House Legislative Affairs, but a 15% tax cut to working families, [has] 82% [support], [support for the] child tax credit [is even] higher, [at] 81% percent. Ending taxes on tips, [has] 77% [support] to 18% [non-support]. Cutting taxes on overtime, [has] 74% [support] to 18% [non-support]. I mean, these are like 75% to 80% [support] to 20% [non-support] issues. You know what they’re like, Senator. They’re like law and order, punishing criminals, or deporting murderers and sex traffickers[which are all popular issues]. They’re 80/20 issues too. And I’m just saying, to me it all kind of comes together—I know LA seems a long way from one big, beautiful bill, but in the public’s mind, the guy they hired to be president is doing what folks want, and I think there’s been momentum. That’s why I wanna get the one big, beautiful bill done as soon as possible, sir.”

    TUBERVILLE: “Exactly. Take our country back like he’s doing in California. Take our economy back like he’s gonna do with this bill. This bill is gonna help a lot of people, Larry, and it’s gonna build growth. You know, just last week, I talked to a group in Alabama that President Trump saved 300 jobs at this manufacturing textile mill because of what he did with tariffs.” 

    KUDLOW: “Mhmm.”

    TUBERVILLE: “That’s gonna happen. Biden, Obama, Clinton, they all sold our manufacturing out. Anywhere you drive in this country, you’re gonna see manufacturing plants that are just old, dilapidated. Nobody’s working there—small towns gone to heck in a hand basket. But at the end of the day, President Trump means business. He’s gonna get people to come back. He’s gonna tariff everybody that’s against this country, especially China. And we’re gonna get manufacturing back and take care of ourself instead of other people.”

    KUDLOW: “Well, you know, full cost expense is gonna help that. But the bigger story is the tariff inflation is missing in action. And I think these exporting countries with their unfair trading practices—you know, Senator, I think they’re eating the tariff. That’s what I think is happening because there’s no inflation. It’s only 1.4% for the past four months. That’s remarkable. Every economist practically in the liberal media was completely wrong.”

    TUBERVILLE: “Well, the Democrats have been hollering, ‘Chicken little, the sky is falling. The sky is falling,’ and all we have to do is look at really what’s going on and everything is getting better. You know, we might not have improved a lot, but we haven’t tanked like the Democrats were expecting because look at all the things we’re having to go through, the tariffs, the wars, all these protests. They’re doing everything they can to slow President Trump down. It’s not working. He’s not listening to the nonsense anymore. The media can do what they want to, but he’s gonna do exactly what he told American people he’s gonna do. He’s gonna stick with it. He’s got a game plan. And I’m looking forward to this game plan continuing on. When we get these tax cuts done, the country is gonna take off in the right direction, and you don’t have to worry about inflation. We’re gonna be on the way up.”

    KUDLOW: “Senator Tuberville, President Trump is hinting at putting in a new Fed chairman. I mean, this guy, Jay Powell, should have been cutting rates with the absence of inflation. How about you running the Federal Reserve System? A commonsense guy like you—businessman, you know the farm community. We need somebody. I know your eye—you got your eye on the Alabama governorship. I got the Federal Reserve checked off for you.”

    TUBERVILLE: “Well, the one thing I will tell you and [you] hit it on one of those ideas there, Larry. The interest rates are killing our farmers. We’re gonna lose our farmers if we don’t get this interest rate down. It’s costing them a fortune. They can’t make a profit. And what happens when we lose our farmers like we did manufacturing, we’re gone go south. And we cannot allow that to happen. We gotta protect our farmers. Yeah, let’s drop the interest rates. Drop them now. They were way too high for way too long.”

    KUDLOW: “Senator Tommy Tuberville, that’s the best. Thank you for your wisdom, sir.”

    Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Miller Participates in Ways and Means Committee Hearing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV)

    Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) participated in a Ways and Means committee hearing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The Congresswoman focused her comments on the success of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill in fixing the Democrat-imposed 1099-K $600 reporting threshold and Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. A video of the Congresswoman’s questions followed by Secretary Bessent’s responses can be found here and is transcribed below. 

    Congresswoman Miller began by voicing support for the One, Big, Beautiful Bill’s inclusion of her Saving Gig Economy Taxpayers Act and asking Secretary Bessent about how reverting back to the time-tested standard of $20,000 and 200 transactions for 1099-K will positively affect taxpayers.

    “One of my top priorities in the tax package is to repeal the Democrat’s absurd 1099-K threshold. Under the Biden Administration, Democrats changed the time-tested standard of $20,000 and 200 transactions to $600 when determining whether a taxpayer receives a 1099-K or not. Before this committee, your predecessor acknowledged that this new threshold would be difficult to administer and lead to the taxpayer’s confusion. Instead of working with us to fix it, the Biden Treasury unconstitutionally delayed implementation and then changed the threshold to try and ease the taxpayer’s confusion in the election year. Unfortunately, there are still millions more 1099-K forms that were sent out and Republicans have worked to restore the 1099-K threshold to the time-tested standard of $20,000 and 200 transactions by including my Saving Gig Economy Taxpayers Act in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. Can you shed some light on how this policy and others being produced from your Department will make life easier for taxpayers?” asked Congresswoman Carol Miller.
     
    “Representative, thank you for discussing these very important issues. As I said, I believe the underappreciated part of President Trump’s economic plan is the deregulation and what you were describing, the cutting back on paperwork that putting thresholds at proper level, is indeed deregulation, lower paperwork. And I think you correctly pointed out that the previous administration, I’m not sure that anyone ever signed […] the front of a paycheck or the back of a paycheck. I think they mostly received direct deposit from the US government because they’re always government employees. So, if you have never made payroll, if you were not processing paperwork, you don’t understand the costs that are inherent in this. If you are a small business person, if you or someone with a lawn care business. [… A]s you said, we have a completely new economy today with the gig economy, whether it is Uber drivers, delivery people, the contract workers who work from home […] in programming fields. So I think that it was tone deaf, completely tone deaf for the nature of the new economy,” replied Secretary Bessent.

    Congresswoman Miller concluded by sharing her support for President Trump’s ongoing trade negotiations and requested Secretary Bessent’s support to secure fairness for America’s domestic steel industry.
     
    “I also want to voice my support for the ongoing trade negotiations that the President and you are working on. For too long, our trusted trade partners have quietly taken advantage of the United States. I am a firm believer that trade truly is the great equalizer and a powerful tool to bring the world together. However, that tool can’t be used effectively if there isn’t fairness within trade deals. I am particularly interested in the domestic steel industry. West Virginia has been producing quality steel for decades, some in my hometown of Huntington, and my district is currently ramping up steel production even further with addition of new mills in Mason County. I am very supportive of the Section 232 tariffs on steel that the President has pursued and am eager to work together with the administration to ensure that a level playing field is also applied to the U.S.-U.K. Economic Prosperity Deal. The U.K. has a history of subsidizing its steel industry – which in turn often undercuts our domestic steel producers. Secretary Bessent, can you commit to continuing working to secure fairness for our domestic steel industry across trade deals?” asked Congresswoman Carol Miller.

    “Representative Miller, I had the privilege of being with the President at the U.S. steel factory in Pittsburgh a week ago Friday, and I can tell you that the President’s commitment to the U.S. steel industry is unwavering [and] that we are bringing back domestic production. And that what we have seen, and one of the previous questions about ‘is China a reliable partner?’, what we have seen during COVID since then is that there are strategic industries, strategic industries in the United States where we must have an industrial base, and I would put steel in the top three,” replied Secretary Bessent. 
     

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Cohen Says Budget Proposal is a “Big Deadly Bill”

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09)

    WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) went to the House floor this evening to deliver a speech on the budget bill the House passed last week and the Senate is considering. In his remarks, he said in part:

    “My father was a physician. One of the things he was taught in medical school, as part of the Hippocratic Oath, was ‘Do No Harm.’ Our budgets are doing a great deal of harm to our health care system. The Association of Medical Colleges came out with a statement yesterday that our heath care is in ‘existential crisis’ because of the cuts to research and the cuts to graduate medical education; that our medical schools will suffer, the number of doctors that are produced will suffer. And that’s not even to mention the needs of the people by taking away their Medicaid, their ACA, taking away that health care. Do No Harm. This bill is a big, deadly bill. People will die because of it. We’re not putting money to the NIH that does the research to protect us from cancer, from Alzheimer’s, from Parkinson’s, heart disease and diabetes – the diseases that kill us. The NIH is our Department of Defense. Francis Collins did a great job; left it in good hands. Do No Harm”

    See the speech here.

    # # # 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Previously Convicted Felon Sentenced to 69 Months in Federal Prison for Illegal Possession of a Firearm

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

                WASHINGTON – Jovan James, 45, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced yesterday to 69 months in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition on November 25, 2024.

                The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Ibrar A. Mian of the Drug Enforcement Administration Washington Division, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.

                James pleaded guilty on March 5, 2025, to one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ordered James to serve three years of supervised release.

                According to court documents, on Nov. 25, 2024, at about 4:55 p.m., MPD officers were patrolling the 5000 block of H Street SE, when they noticed James smoking marijuana in a public space. Officers placed James under arrest. During a search incident to arrest, officers recovered a loaded black Glock 23 .40 caliber pistol with an obliterated serial number from James’s waistband. The handgun was loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition.

                James was previously convicted of first degree murder while armed in February 1998 in the District of Columbia and sentenced to a 30-year prison term. James was resentenced in August 2019 to a 22-year prison term and placed on supervised probation for five years under the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA).

                This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sabena Auyeung.

    24cr541

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Six Defendants Charged In Multimillion-Dollar Check Theft And Bank Fraud Ring

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and the Acting Inspector in Charge of the New York Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service, Edward Gallashaw, announced today the unsealing of a Superseding Indictment charging six defendants – MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela”; SHAKEEMO HILL, a/k/a “Keemo,” a/k/a “LBA Menace,” a/k/a “Lex”; WILLIAM HILL, a/k/a “Eway,” a/k/a “Skinny”; ALIXANDRIA LAUTURE, a/k/a “A$”; SHURON MALONE, a/k/a “First Name Last Name”; and CARLOS MERCADO, a/k/a “Kiz,” a/k/a “Kizzle” – with participating in a scheme to steal millions of dollars in checks from the mail.  EDWARDS and MERCADO were previously taken into custody on related charges, and SHAKEEMO HILL, WILLIAM HILL, LAUTURE, and MALONE were arrested earlier today.  SHAKEEMO HILL, WILLIAM HILL, and LAUTURE are expected to be presented before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, and MALONE is expected to be presented in the Middle District of Florida.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.

    “As alleged, the six defendants charged today lined their pockets by stealing checks destined for hard working New Yorkers and others,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Together with our partners at the Postal Inspection Service, we will fight to protect the integrity of the U.S. mail system—a public service upon which millions of Americans rely every day to send items of financial, professional, and personal importance.”

    “The arrests today should send a very clear message that those who engage in mail theft and bank fraud will be held accountable,” said USPIS Acting Inspector in Charge Edward Gallashaw.  “These charges highlight the commitment of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to bring individuals to justice who steal from USPS customers.  Thank you to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our investigative partners for working tirelessly on this case, and helping to maintain the public’s trust of the U.S. Postal Service.”

    As alleged in the Superseding Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court, as well as statements made in public court proceedings:[1]

    From at least in or about January 2022 through at least in or about July 2024, the defendants perpetrated a massive scheme to steal millions of dollars in checks from Postal Service collection boxes in New York and elsewhere.  As part of their scheme, the defendants conspired to buy or otherwise obtain keys that would allow them to unlock the Postal collection boxes and steal mail, bank cards, and other bank account information.

    After stealing checks from the mail, the defendants and their coconspirators fraudulently altered the information on those checks either by digitally altering the checks and printing them on check stock, or by chemically “washing” the checks to remove the ink.  To avoid getting caught, the defendants also conspired to obtain and exchange information for bank accounts held in the names of third parties for the purpose of depositing the fraudulently altered checks.

    In total, the fraud ring posted millions of dollars in checks for sale on a third-party messaging application, and also deposited millions of dollars in fraudulently altered checks in bank accounts at national banks along the East Coast.

    The members of the conspiracy played different roles. EDWARDS served as the leader of the organization, coordinating the purchase of postal keys with others, such as WILLIAM HILL, and the use of those keys to steal mail from postal boxes with other coconspirators, such as WILLIAM HILL, SHAKEEMO HILL, and MERCADO.  The organization’s activities were lucrative: in the early morning hours of July 10, 2023, EDWARDS and MERCADO used a postal key to steal approximately $176,000 in checks from the mail.  Other members of the conspiracy, such as EDWARDS, WILLIAM HILL, SHAKEEMO HILL, LAUTURE, and MALONE recruited people they knew to supply their bank account information, including account balances and log-in information.  And because the stolen checks were not made out to the names on the third-party bank accounts, the members of the fraud ring—including EDWARDS and SHAKEEMO HILL—altered the checks to match the names on those bank accounts.  After the checks were altered, the members of the conspiracy, including EDWARDS, WILLIAM HILL, SHAKEEMO HILL, LAUTURE, and MALONE, deposited or recruited others to deposit them into third-party bank accounts.

    *                *                *

    A chart containing the defendants’ names, ages, charges, and maximum penalties is set forth below.

    The statutory maximum and minimum sentences are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.   

    Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the USPIS and Homeland Security Investigations.  Mr. Clayton also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut for their assistance.     

    The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s General Crimes Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jerry J. Fang and William K. Stone are in charge of the prosecution.

    The charges contained in the Superseding Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

    COUNT

    CHARGE

    DEFENDANTS

    MAX. PENALTIES

    1

    Conspiracy to commit bank fraud

    18 U.S.C. § 1349

    MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela,” 30;[2]

    SHAKEEMO HILL, a/k/a “Keemo,” a/k/a “LBA Menace,” a/k/a “Lex,” 22;

    WILLIAM HILL, a/k/a “Eway,” a/k/a “Skinny,” 29;

    ALIXANDRIA LAUTURE, a/k/a “A$,” 27;

    SHURON MALONE, a/k/a “First Name Last Name,” 29

    		 30 years in prison

    2

    Conspiracy to commit theft of a postal key

    18 U.S.C. § 371

    MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela,” 30;

    WILLIAM HILL, a/k/a “Eway,” a/k/a “Skinny,” 29;

    CARLOS MERCADO, a/k/a “Kiz,” a/k/a “Kizzle,” 22

    		 Five years in prison

    3

    Conspiracy to commit theft of mail and receipt of stolen mail, and sale and receipt of stolen money

    18 U.S.C. § 371

    MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela,” 30;

    SHAKEEMO HILL, a/k/a “Keemo,” a/k/a “LBA Menace,” a/k/a “Lex,” 22;

    WILLIAM HILL, a/k/a “Eway,” a/k/a “Skinny,” 29;

    CARLOS MERCADO, a/k/a “Kiz,” a/k/a “Kizzle,” 22

    		 Five years in prison

    4

    Theft of a postal key

    18 U.S.C. §§ 1704 and 2

    MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela,” 30;

    CARLOS MERCADO, a/k/a “Kiz,” a/k/a “Kizzle,” 22

    		 10 years in prison

    5

    Theft of mail and receipt of stolen mail

    18 U.S.C. §§ 1708 and 2

    MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela,” 30;

    CARLOS MERCADO, a/k/a “Kiz,” a/k/a “Kizzle,” 22

    		 Five years in prison

    6

    Aggravated identity theft

    18 U.S.C. §§ 1028A(a)(1), 1028A(b), and 2

    MICHAEL EDWARDS, a/k/a “Only1Giela,” 30;

    SHAKEEMO HILL, a/k/a “Keemo,” a/k/a “LBA Menace,” a/k/a “Lex,” 22;

    WILLIAM HILL, a/k/a “Eway,” a/k/a “Skinny,” 29;

    ALIXANDRIA LAUTURE, a/k/a “A$,” 27;

    SHURON MALONE, a/k/a “First Name Last Name, 29”

    		 Mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison to run consecutive to any other prison term

    [1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Superseding Indictment and the descriptions of the Superseding Indictment set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.

    [2] Counts One, Three, and Six charge EDWARDS with committing those offenses while on pretrial release, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3147, which subjects him to an additional maximum sentence of 10 years in prison consecutive to any other prison term imposed.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Lowell Man Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Guns, Drugs, Machinegun Conversion Devices

    Source: US FBI

    The devices, commonly called “switches,” could convert handguns into fully automatic weapons

    BOSTON – A Lowell man has pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes after he was recorded illegally selling numerous guns, thousands of methamphetamine pills and machineguns.

    Billy Chan, a/k/a “Juju,” 20, pleaded guilty on June 6, 2025 to one count of engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license; one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams and more of methamphetamine; one count of distribution and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; and one count of transfer and possession of a machinegun. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencing for Sept. 17, 2025.

    On five different dates in Lowell between March 2023 and June 2023, Chan sold three handguns, four machinegun conversion devices and approximately 2,000 pills marketed as “Adderall,” to undercover law enforcement. Laboratory testing confirmed that the “Adderall” pills were homemade methamphetamine pills pressed with caffeine and designed to look like the genuine pharmaceutical product. Chan trafficked the counterfeit pills with an alleged co-conspirator who was a member of the Asian Boyz gang. The investigation revealed that, in 2023, Asian Boyz gang members and associates had access to a plentiful supply of counterfeit pills containing methamphetamine, which they distributed widely across the Merrimack Valley region.

    During a recorded meeting with a cooperating source, Chan said he worked at a machine shop, could make the machinegun conversion “switch” devices himself and gave instructions and demonstrations on how to install the “switches” on a pistol. A few days later, Chan sent the source a video of a person shooting a fully automatic handgun into the air, with the message: “I let my boys test the switch.”

     
    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Kimberly Milka, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Superintendent Gregory C. Hudon of the Lowell Police Department made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Massachusetts State Police and the Billerica, Haverhill, North Andover and Salem Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred M. Wyshak, III of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit is prosecuting the case.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce gun violence and other violent crime, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit https://www.justice.gov/PSN.

    This case is also part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

    The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendant in the case is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Simon Gikandi, Professor of English and Chair of the English Department, Princeton University

    The passing of celebrated Kenyan writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on 28 May 2025 marks the end of a remarkable period in African literary history – the fabulous decades in the second half of the 20th century when African writers came to command the world stage.

    Read more: Five things you should know about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s greatest writers of all time

    This was the time of what I call the African literary revolution. As a scholar of African literature and the author of many books and papers on Ngũgĩ, I have raised several questions about this period. Why and how did this revolution happen? What motivated this turn to the imagination as a tool of decolonisation? And what was Ngũgĩ’s role in this drama?

    To answer these questions one must think of Ngũgĩ inside and outside a generational cultural project.

    The African literary revolution

    Accounting for this project is not difficult. One can say for certain that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the African continent entered the last phase of decolonisation, writers and intellectuals became important actors in the fight for independence. They did so by quietly entering and occupying the spaces and knowledge systems that had until then been the preserve of colonial agents.

    They used the work of the imagination to challenge colonial systems of thought and imagine decolonial alternatives. And what made this a period like no other in African literary history was a powerful sense of newness and the possibilities of a world yet to come. As the Nigerian writer and critic Chinua Achebe once put it:

    There was something in the air.

    Literature was asked to herald the possibilities and perils of freedom and Ngũgĩ was to play a major role in chaperoning the language of African being and becoming.

    In the memoirs he wrote about his education, he would often return to his mental imprisonment in English literature and the mythology of Englishness.

    Hidden in these narratives of colonial miseducation, however, was the discovery of the gift of African fiction brought by precursors. Nigeria’s Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi and South Africa’s Peter Abrahams gave Ngũgĩ a model of how English could be used against Englishness.

    Coming after these writers provided him with an alternative to the “Great Tradition” of English letters.

    Reimagining Africa

    As a student at Alliance High School in Kenya and later at Makerere University College in Uganda, Ngũgĩ positioned himself as part of a literary vanguard that was reimagining Africa.

    His first major fiction was published in Penpoint, a pioneering journal of literature edited by students at the Makerere English department. He was a delegate to the 1962 Conference of African Writers held at the university, sharing the podium with writers who were to define the African culture of letters for several decades. He was one of the few writers at this historic conference without a major publication, but his presence seemed to signal the promise of the future.

    Something else made this period distinctive: this was a time when African intellectuals, writers and politicians shared a common belief in the redemptive work of art and literature. At Makerere, Ngũgĩ had been preceded by Julius Nyerere, a translator of Shakespeare in Swahili who was to become president of Tanzania. At the same college, Apollo Milton Obote, future president of Uganda, had appeared in a 1948 production of Julius Caesar, the first performance of Shakespeare at the university.

    And the contributors represented in Origin East Africa, an anthology of creative writing at Makerere, provide the most vivid example of the role writing and a literary education could come to play in the making of the postcolonial public sphere. Ngũgĩ had four stories published in the anthology, coming just after a short story by Ben Mkapa, future president of Tanzania.

    Ngũgĩ belonged to a generation that saw literature as a forum for critique, of questioning dominant ideas and beliefs. In this context, creative writing was asked to perform at least four tasks:

    • to reimagine an African past whose resources might be rehearsed for the future

    • to rehearse the drama of decolonisation

    • to account for postcolonial failure

    • to produce fictions that might help readers rethink a global African identity.

    Ngũgĩ’s novels rose to fulfil these tasks with conviction and courage. The River Between and Weep Not, Child dealt with the wounds of history. A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood were positioned in a zone where the figure of the new nation was caught between its aspirations and desires and the possibility of failure and betrayal. Wizard of the Crow was simultaneously an allegory of postcolonial failure and the possibility of its transcendence.

    And then came banishment and exile.

    The late career

    Although he barely acknowledged it in his writings or in public, Ngũgĩ’s late career was defined by the realities of exile and an awareness of his own displacement from his primary audience and the Gĩkũyũ language that had energised his poetics.

    He was celebrated and honoured in powerful American universities and institutions including the Library of Congress. He was recognised in the global African world and cited by the few African leaders like Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama who understood the need for a forceful response to racial ideologies.

    Read more: Drama that shaped Ngũgĩ’s writing and activism comes home to Kenya

    But he was a persona non grata in the one place – Kenya – where recognition mattered most to him.

    In the end, there was a certain kind of belatedness in Ngũgĩ’s later fictions. The subject of these works and their points of reference were distinctly Gĩkũyũ, Kenyan, African, pan-African, and global. Nonetheless, these gestures of being African were enacted far away from the homelands in which Ngũgĩ’s writing and thinking was both intelligible and functional.

    Imagining and writing about Africa away from Africa was a promise and debt. It was an obligation to a place but also a measure of one’s distance from it.

    Read more: 3 things Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o taught me: language matters, stories are universal, Africa can thrive

    I reflected on this problem as I reviewed Ngũgĩ’s 2006 novel set in an imaginary autocratic country, Murogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow), in its original Gĩkũyũ edition and later in its translation.

    I was reading the same book, but it was pointing in two different directions – towards home and away from it.

    In our many encounters, Ngũgĩ made fun of the fact that I seemed to have adopted alienation as the essential condition for thinking and writing. What he sought to do until the last minute of his life was carry within himself and his fictions that place that used to be home, its politics and poetics.

    – Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution
    – https://theconversation.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo-and-the-african-literary-revolution-258428

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ibrahim Z. Bahreldin, Associate Professor of Urban & Environmental Design, University of Khartoum

    What makes a public space truly public?

    In Khartoum, before the current conflict engulfed Sudan, the answer was not always a park, a plaza or a promenade.

    The city’s streets, tea stalls (sitat al-shai), protest sites and even burial spaces served as dynamic arenas of everyday life, political expression and informal resilience.

    In a recently published article, I studied 64 public spaces across pre-war Greater Khartoum, revealing a landscape far richer – and more contested – than standard urban classifications suggest. Specifically, I uncovered four classifications: formal, informal, privately owned and hybrid spaces – each alive with negotiation and everyday use.

    While some spaces were planned by colonial engineers or municipal authorities, many were carved out by communities: claimed, adapted and reimagined through use.

    My research offers valuable insights into the design and planning of Africa’s cities. As they grow and face mounting political and environmental pressures, it’s time to rethink how public spaces are defined and designed – not through imported models, but by listening to the ways people already make cities public.

    Read more: Sudan needs to accept its cultural diversity: urban planning can help rebuild the country and prevent future conflict

    Across the African continent, cities are growing fast – but not always fairly. Urban expansion often privileges gated developments, mega-projects and high-security zones while neglecting the everyday spaces where most people live, work and gather.

    In Sudan, these dynamics have been further complicated by conflict, displacement and economic instability. The ongoing war has disrupted not only governance, but also the spatial fabric of urban life.

    My paper aims to invite those involved in planning policies and post-conflict reconstruction to move beyond formal, western-centric models that often overlook how publicness actually unfolds in African cities: through informality, negotiation and social improvisation.

    Khartoum’s public spaces, as documented in my study, serve as diagnostic tools for understanding how cities survive crises, express identity and contest inequality.

    In the wake of war and displacement, these spaces will play a role in shaping how Sudan rebuilds not just infrastructure, but social cohesion.

    Pre-war Khartoum

    Khartoum’s public spaces cannot be understood through conventional categories – like formal squares and urban parks – alone. These formal squares represent only one layer of a much more plural and negotiated urban reality.

    Drawing on fieldwork and the documentation of 64 public spaces across Greater Khartoum, I identify four overlapping types that reflect how space is produced, accessed and contested.

    1. Formal public spaces: These include planned parks, ceremonial squares, civic plazas and administrative open spaces, often relics of colonial or postcolonial urban planning. They are defined by order, visibility and regulation. Mīdān Abbas, originally an active civic space in the centre of Khartoum, repeatedly reclaimed by informal traders and protesters, is one example, illustrating how even the most formal spaces can become contested. It was notably active during Sudan’s April 1985 uprising, serving as part of a wider network of civic spaces used for political mobilisation. Informal traders consistently transformed it into a bustling marketplace, embedding everyday commerce and social exchange into the formal urban fabric.

    2. Informal and insurgent spaces: These emerge beyond or against official planning logics – riverbanks used for gatherings, neglected lots transformed into social nodes or bridges appropriated by traders. They include spiritual sites like Sufi tombs, and protest spaces such as the sit-in zone outside the city’s army headquarters. These spaces reveal the city’s capacity for bottom-up urbanism and collective adaptation.

    3. Privately owned civic spaces: Shopping malls, privately managed parks and cultural cafés fall into this category. While they appear public, they are often classed, surveilled (monitored through cameras or security presence) or exclusionary. The rise of these spaces coincides with the decline of state-managed urban infrastructure, reflecting the turn in Sudanese urban governance.

    Read more: Sudan: the symbolic significance of the space protesters made their own

    4. Public “private” spaces: These spaces blur lines between ownership and use. They include mosque courtyards, school grounds, building frontages or underutilised university lawns that serve as informal gathering points. Access here is governed less by law and more by social codes, trust or class.

    Together, these typologies highlight that “publicness” in Khartoum is relational. It depends not only on who planned a space, but who uses it, how and under what conditions.

    Planning in African cities must therefore move beyond fixed zoning maps to embrace the layered, fluid and lived nature of urban space.

    Rebuilding, rethinking, resisting

    Post-conflict reconstruction in Sudan – and elsewhere in Africa – must resist the allure of “blank slate” master plans. Those involve rebuilding cities from scratch with sweeping, top-down designs that ignore existing social and spatial dynamics.

    Imported models, often guided by bureaucratic thinking or commercial incentives, risk erasing the very spaces where public life already thrives, albeit informally or invisibly.

    Rather than imposing formality, planners should recognise and strengthen the informal and hybrid systems that sustain civic life, especially in times of instability.

    Urban theorists working in and on the global south, such as AbdouMaliq Simone and the late Vanessa Watson, have long argued for planning frameworks that centre on everyday practices, adaptive use and spatial justice.

    Khartoum offers a compelling case.

    From the sit-ins of 2019 to tea stalls run by displaced women, public spaces in Sudan are not inert backdrops. They are active platforms of everyday life, resistance, care and community-making.

    Reconstruction must begin by asking: what spaces mattered to people before the war? Which ones fostered inclusion, dignity and visibility? Only then can new urban futures emerge, ones that are rooted in the practices of those who have always made the city public, even when the state did not.

    What makes spaces truly public?

    The public realm in Sudan has always been shaped through negotiation, sometimes with the state, often despite it.

    Rebuilding after war is not only about reconstructing buildings but also about reimagining the terms of belonging.

    This requires a shift from viewing public space as a fixed asset to understanding it as a dynamic process. Who gets to gather, to speak, to rest, to protest – these are the true measures of publicness.

    Understanding Khartoum’s pre-war public spaces isn’t a nostalgic exercise. It’s a necessary step towards building more inclusive, resilient and locally grounded cities in the wake of crisis.

    – Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together
    – https://theconversation.com/khartoum-before-the-war-the-public-spaces-that-held-the-city-together-258632

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hedley Twidle, Associate Professor and head of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

    Across three decades of democracy, South Africa has – like many places undergoing complex and uneven social change – seen an outpouring of remarkable nonfiction. The Interpreters is a new book that collects the work of 37 authors, all of it writing (plus some drawing) concerned with actual people, places and events.

    Soutie Press

    The anthology is the product of many years of reading and discussion between my co-editor Sean Christie (an experienced journalist and nonfiction author) and me (a writer and professor who teaches literature, including creative nonfiction).

    The book is a work of homage to the many strains of ambitious and artful writing that shelter within the unhelpful term “nonfiction”. These include: narrative and longform journalism; essays and memoir; reportage, features and profiles; life writing, from private diaries to public biography; oral histories, interviews and testimony.

    To give an idea of the range, energy and risk of the pieces collected in the anthology, here I discuss five of them.

    1. Fighting Shadows by Lidudumalingani

    We debated for a long time which piece to start the anthology with, and ultimately went for this one, which begins:

    One afternoon my father and the other boys from the Zikhovane village decided to walk across a vast landscape, two valleys and a river, to a village called Qombolo to disrupt a wedding.

    It’s a quietly compelling opening. First of all, there is intrigue: why the disruption? It could also easily be the first sentence of a novel (maybe even one by famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe). And so we begin with a reminder of how storytelling is such a deep, ancient and fundamental part of societies – an impulse that long predates writing and moves across and beyond the fiction/nonfiction divide. (Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for a short story, so he works across both.)

    Lidudumalingani has the stick fighting tradition at the centre of his piece. Soutie Press

    Fighting Shadows is about the tradition of stick fighting, and how it’s transported from rural areas to urban ones. But it’s also about so much more, about “the dance between then and now”, as the writer puts it later on. The prose is so deft and graceful, as if the author is trying to match the “dance” of expert stick fighters with his own verbal arts. For me it’s a story that could only have emerged from this part of the world: it has a distinct voice, precision and poetry to it.

    2. The End of a Conversation by Julie Nxadi

    This is the shortest piece in the anthology, but for me one of the most affecting. It traces how a young girl comes to realise that the (white) family she is being brought up with are not really her family. She is the daughter of the housekeeper, the domestic worker:

    I was not ‘the kids’. I was not their kin.

    It’s probably best described as autofiction, a kind of writing that lies somewhere in the borderlands between autobiography and fiction. Nxadi has spoken of how she decided to write in a way that contained her own life story – the “heartbreak” of that moment – but was also able to carry and represent the experience of others who had gone through something similar.

    Julie Nxadi. Soutie Press

    The piece is also a product of the #FeesMustFall student protests (2015 onwards), when many young South Africans felt able to share unresolved, awkward or shameful stories for the first time.

    The End of a Conversation is such a deft, wise and subtle handling of a difficult subject, with no easy targets or easy resolutions. Somehow the writer has found just the right distance – emotionally and aesthetically – from this moment of childhood realisation.

    3. South African Pastoral by William Dicey

    I co-own a pear farm with my brother. I attend to finances and labour relations, he oversees the growing of the fruit.

    This essay by William Dicey thinks hard, very hard, about what it means to manage a fruit farm in the Boland (an agricultural region still shaped by South Africa’s divided past). It is one of the most frank and unflinching accounts of land and labour I’ve ever come across. The writer makes the point that he could easily have stayed in the city, lived in “liberal” circles and not thought about these issues much.

    William Dicey. Soutie Press

    But becoming a farmer confronts him with all kinds of difficult questions (How much should he intervene in the lives of his employees? In family and financial planning, in matters of alcohol abuse?) as he is drawn into an awkward but meaningful intimacy with others on the farm.

    The US essayist Philip Lopate suggests that scepticism is often the tool for moving towards truth in personal nonfiction writing:

    So often the “plot” of a personal essay, its drama, its suspense, consists in watching how the essayist can drop past his or her psychic defences toward deeper levels of honesty.

    This is very much what happens in South African Pastoral, and why it is such a mesmerising piece (even while written in such a plain and restrained style).

    4. Hard Rock by Mogorosi Motshumi

    My co-editor said from the start we should include graphic nonfiction (drawn stories and comics) and I’m so grateful he did. Mogorosi Motshumi’s warm, zany but also harrowing account is about coming of age under apartheid and then the heady days of the 1990s transition.

    Mogorosi Motshumi. Soutie Press

    In his early career, Motshumi was widely known for his comic strips and political cartooning, but this graphic autobiography is far more ambitious. The style of drawing changes and evolves as the protagonist gets older; also, there is something intriguing about seeing weighty subjects like detention, disability, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS stigma approached through the eyes of a wry cartoonist with a keen sense of the absurd.

    Hard Rock is a prologue to the graphic nonfiction memoir that he has been working on for many years, the 360 Degrees Trilogy. The first two instalments have appeared – The Initiation (2016) and Jozi Jungle (2022) – and I would urge anyone to seek them out. Mogorosi’s work is a major achievement in South African autobiography and life writing (or life “drawing”).

    5. The Interpreters by Antjie Krog, Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele

    This co-authored piece is what gave the anthology its name. The Interpreters is a reflection on being a language interpreter during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings (1996-1998) into gross human rights violations during white minority rule.

    Kopano Ratele. Soutie Press

    A series of individuals recall the challenges of that process. Sitting in glass booths in the middle of proceedings, they had to move across South Africa’s many official languages in real time, translating the words of victims, perpetrators, grieving families, lawyers and commissioners.

    Antjie Krog and co-authors write about interpreting language. Brenda Veldtman

    The chapter is also a reminder of how our English-language anthology faces the challenge of doing justice to a multilingual, multivocal society where all kinds of cultural translations happen all the time.

    The piece is a blend of many people’s voices, testimonies and reminiscences. As such, it also seemed to symbolise the larger project of The Interpreters: trying to record, render and honour the many voices that make up our complex social world.

    – 5 great reads by South African writers from 30 years of real-life stories
    – https://theconversation.com/5-great-reads-by-south-african-writers-from-30-years-of-real-life-stories-258340

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murphy to Defense Secretary Hegseth: You Are Not Willing to Defend Our Democracy

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy

    [embedded content]

    WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, on Wednesday questioned U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a Defense Subcommittee hearing on President Trump’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget. Murphy challenged Hegseth on his readiness to deploy the military for President Trump’s political benefit but not to defend the Capitol during January 6th. He also pushed Hegseth to explain why taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill to modify and upgrade the luxury jet the Qatari government gifted Trump for his personal use after his term ends. 

    Murphy pressed Hegseth for refusing to say whether he supported calling in the National Guard to quell the January 6th Capitol riot: “I think that speaks to the worry that many Americans have, that there is a double standard. That you are not willing to defend against attacks made on our democracy by supporters of the president, but you are willing to deploy the National Guard to protect against protesters who are criticizing the president. 

    Murphy continued: “That’s not how our taxpayer dollars are supposed to work. They’re supposed to be used to defend the United States, no matter the nature of the political affiliation of the protesters.” 

    Murphy highlighted the brazen corruption of using taxpayer dollars to upgrade the luxury jet from Qatar after Hegseth confirmed it would be transferred to Trump after his presidency ended:  “Why would we ask the American taxpayer to spend upwards of a billion dollars on a plane that would then only be used for a handful of months and then transferred directly to the president? … I think this is extraordinary, Mr. Chairman. We’re talking about a pretty massive investment of appropriations dollars into a plane that, the Secretary is saying, is currently planned to be transferred personally to the president. There’s a lot of other pending needs that we need to fund. This would seem to be low on the list.” 

    A full transcript of Murphy’s exchange with Hegseth can be found below:

    MURPHY: “Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Secretary for being here today.

    “I wanted to build on some of the questions that Senator Schatz was asking, just to try to build a fact predicate for some of the tough spending decisions we’re going to have to make here. Just to confirm, I heard you say, with respect to the gift of the plane from Qatar, that we do not yet have a signed MOU with the government of Qatar, is that right?”

    HEGSETH: “Correct. We’re in the process of working through that.”

    MURPHY: “And did you also say we don’t have a signed contract with the company that is going to do the work, or did you say that we have a contract, you’re just not willing to disclose the terms?”

    HEGSETH: “The terms should not be disclosed of anything related to an aircraft of this type.”

    MURPHY: “So, in 2018, when the contract was signed with Boeing to do the upgrades, or the new contracts for Air Force One, the terms of that contract were disclosed. They were made public. In fact, it was the Trump administration that issued a press release giving the total as $3.9 billion. Are you saying this time around, even after you signed the contract, you’re not going to make public any of the terms of the contract?”

    HEGSETH: “I wasn’t involved in that previous administration decision, but we’re happy to take a look.”

    MURPHY: “The Air Force testified before the House that that contract would likely deliver the new Air Force Ones by the 2028 timeframe. It doesn’t stand to reason that you will be able to retrofit the plane from Qatar much sooner than 2028. I’m trying to understand what the gap is that we’re trying to fill. If this contract ends up being a half a billion dollars and the gap only ends up being six months, that doesn’t sound like a wise investment for this committee to make.”

    HEGSETH: “Senator, I would defer to the expertise of the Air Force as far as timing of modifications and when that would happen, but there’s also been delay after delay after delay on the Boeing side, so I don’t know that a firm fixed date yet, unfortunately, can be counted on.”

    MURPHY: “So, obviously the underlying question here is ‘what is going to happen to the plane at the end of Trump’s presidency?’ The president said on May 12 that this plane would be transferred to his presidential library at the end of his term. Is that your understanding of what is going to happen with this plane?”

    HEGSETH: “The president said that. That’s my understanding, although I would look at what comes out in the MOU.”

    MURPHY: “Why would we ask the American taxpayer to spend upwards of a billion dollars on a plane that would then only be used for a handful of months and then transferred directly to the president? That doesn’t sound like a wise use of taxpayer dollars.”

    HEGSETH: “A lot of the capabilities, as you know, Senator, of that particular platform are and should remain classified. So there are reasons why you might modify, even for a short period of time, an aircraft to ensure the safety and security of the president of the United States.”

    MURPHY: “When do you believe that those upgrades would be made? How long would the president have it before it got transferred to his personal possession?”

    HEGSETH: “That would be a determination of the Air Force, that would take hold of it and make those modifications within whatever time window they believe gets it to the place where it needed to be.”

    MURPHY: “Yeah, I think this is extraordinary, Mr. Chairman. We’re talking about a pretty massive investment of appropriations dollars into a plane that, the secretary is saying, is currently planned to be transferred personally to the president. There’s a lot of other pending needs that we need to fund. This would seem to be low on the list. 

    “Mr. Secretary, one final question. Obviously you know that there is a concern in the public about a double standard that is applied to protests – sometimes protest that turns violent. The president, when he came into office, issued pardons to the individuals that attacked the United States Capitol, including those individuals who beat, savagely, police officers. You have deployed the National Guard and readied Marines in a way that many people think is unnecessary given the state and the local resources. So maybe let me ask the question this way so that you can assuage people’s concerns that there is a double standard: the National Guard was deployed here on January 6, and that was a decision made by the Department of Defense. Do you support that decision? Do you believe that that was the right decision, to deploy the National Guard to defend the Capitol on January 6?”

    HEGSETH: “All I know is it’s the right decision to be deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles to defend ICE agents, who deserve to be defended in the execution of their jobs.”

    MURPHY: “But I think it’s important to know whether you think it was also important to have the National Guard defending the United States Capitol, when there were violent protesters here on the president’s behalf, to make sure that folks know that you care about protest, whether it’s against the president or on behalf of the president.”

    HEGSETH: “Senator, I was in the Washington D.C. National Guard when that happened, and was initially ordered to go guard the inauguration of Joe Biden. But because of the politicization of the Biden administration, my orders were revoked, and ultimately, because of the politics that were being played inside the Defense Department by the previous administration.”

    MURPHY: “But do you support the decision made on January 6 to send the National Guard here to defend the Capitol?”

    HEGSETH: “I support the decision that President Trump made, in requesting the National Guard, that was denied. President Trump requested support for the National Guard in advance and was denied.”

    MURPHY: “You do not support the decision to send the National Guard here to defend the Capitol.  I think that speaks to the worry that many Americans have, that there is a double standard. That you are not willing to defend against attacks made on our democracy by supporters of the president, but you are willing to deploy the National Guard to protect against protesters who are criticizing the president. That’s not how our taxpayer dollars are supposed to work. They’re supposed to be used to defend the United States, no matter the nature of the political affiliation of the protesters. 

    “Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Exemption for Polystyrene Foam Food Containers Prepackaged at Wholesale Extended until 2027

    Source: US State of Maine

    June 12, 2025

    CONTACT:

    A new law will go into effect immediately that extends the exemption from the ban on polystyrene foam food containers to allow raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs to be sold in polystyrene foam containers until July 1, 2027. It also extends the exemption to allow retailers to sell food or beverages in or on disposable food service containers composed of polystyrene foam that is prepackaged at wholesale until July 1, 2027.
    This law does not make any change to the ban on polystyrene foam disposable food service containers for take-out foods, bakery products, and leftovers from partially consumed meals that is currently in effect. Disposable food service containers are service ware designed for one-time use, and include bowls, plates, trays, carton, cups, lids sleeves, or other items for containing, transporting, and serving foods. Additional information regarding the polystyrene ban can be found on the Department’s Polystyrene Foam webpage.

    A “frequently asked questions” guidance sheet has been prepared by the Department to provide additional information regarding who and what must comply with the ban can be found on the Departments web page at the link above.

    This change in the law only extends the exemption. After July 1, 2027, all food and beverage products sold in Maine, including food prepackaged out of State by wholesalers for retail sale, cannot be packaged in polystyrene foam.

    For additional information, contact: David R. Madore, Deputy Commissioner david.madore@maine.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Update 296 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine

    Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

    Nuclear safety remains precarious at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and its six reactors cannot be restarted as long as the military conflict continues to jeopardize the situation at the site, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told IAEA Member States this week.

    Addressing the regular June meeting of the Board of Governors, the Director General briefed them about his 12th mission to Ukraine during the current conflict, which took place in early June, followed by a visit to Russia, which also focused on nuclear safety and security at the ZNPP.

    Addressing the Board meeting, he highlighted “the extremely vulnerable” status of the off-site power supply at the site, which for more than a month now has relied on one single power line for the electricity it needs to cool its reactors and spent fuel. Before the conflict, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant (NPP) had access to ten power lines.

    In addition, Director General Grossi noted that the ZNPP reactors’ “reliance on groundwater for cooling remains an interim solution, whilst in their cold shutdown state”.  The plant has depended on 11 groundwater wells since the downstream Kakhovka dam was destroyed two years ago.

    In their meeting in Kyiv on 3 June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “made a point to recognize the importance of the IAEA’s permanent presence” at the ZNPP, the Director General told the Board, adding he had assured President Zelenskyy of the IAEA’s continued commitment to Ukraine’s nuclear safety and to helping it rebuild its energy infrastructure.

    The Director General added: “As the military conflict moves further into its fourth year, Ukraine needs support, and the IAEA is providing it … it is also crucial to prepare for the reconstruction phase.”

    At the ZNPP, the IAEA team based there has held several meetings with the ZNPP to discuss the site’s electrical system and also visited its 750 kilovolt (kV) switchyard.

    Apart from the sole remaining 330 kV back-up line that was disconnected due to military activities on 7 May, the site does not know the current condition of its five other 330 kV lines, which remain unavailable after they were damaged outside of the ZNPP area early in the conflict.

    The ZNPP said maintenance work was conducted at one of the four 750 kV power lines that was originally connected to the ZNPP before being damaged in 2022. Since the conflict, the ZNPP had lost access to three of its 750 kV lines.

    In addition, the ZNPP informed the IAEA about a planned project to pump water into the cooling pond from the Dnipro River in order to maintain a water level that is sufficient to cool one operating reactor initially, followed by a second unit, until the pond reaches its full capacity. According to the site, a pumping station will be constructed to supply water directly to the cooling pond until the plant can rebuild the Kakhovka dam.

    The exact location of the pumping station cannot yet be determined, as it depends on the security conditions, the ZNPP said, adding the project would only start once military activities cease.

    Separately this week, the IAEA team was informed that that the Russian regulator, Rostekhnadzor, over the next two weeks will perform pre-licensing inspection activities at ZNPP reactor units 1 and 2, whose current operational licences issued by Ukraine are due to expire in December this year and in February 2026, respectively. The IAEA team has requested to observe these activities and will seek additional information regarding items such as the scope of these undertakings and any criteria for assessing nuclear safety.

    Over the past several weeks, the IAEA team has also been monitoring a leak in one reactor unit’s essential service water system which delivers cooling water to the safety systems. The leak – which can occur in NPPs without any significant safety consequences – was discovered during maintenance and the team was informed that it was caused by corrosion. It has since been repaired.

    The IAEA team reported hearing military activities on most days over the past weeks, at varying distances away from the ZNPP including last week’s purported drone attack on the site’s training centre.

    The Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and the South Ukraine NPPs are continuing to operate amid the problems caused by the conflict. Three of their nine operating reactor units are still undergoing planned outages for refuelling and maintenance. The IAEA teams at these plants and the Chornobyl sites have continued to report on – and be informed about – nearby military activities, including drones observed flying nearby. Last Monday, the IAEA teams at Khmelnytskyy and Rivne were required to shelter.

    Over the past two weeks, the IAEA teams based at these four sites have all rotated.

    As part of the IAEA’s assistance programme to support nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, the Chornobyl site received essential items to improve staff living conditions and the National Scientific Centre Institute of Metrology received personal radiation detectors.

    These deliveries were funded by Austria, Belgium, France and Norway and brought the total number of IAEA-coordinated deliveries since the start of the armed conflict to 140.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Bondholders of Baltic Horizon Fund approved the amendments to the bond terms and conditions

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Baltic Horizon Fund applied for bondholders’ approval for certain amendments to the terms and conditions (the Terms and Conditions) of the Baltic Horizon Fund EUR 42 million 5-year floating rate bonds maturing in 2028 (ISIN EE3300003235, the Bonds) in relation to the Bonds by way of written procedure initiated on 9 June 2025.

    Bondholders who were entered in the registry of bond-holders maintained by Nasdaq CSD SE on 6 June 2025 were entitled to vote in the written procedure (the Holders). Altogether Holders holding in aggregate Bonds with the nominal value of EUR 18,999,997.80 which constitutes 100% of the aggregate nominal value of all Bonds, participated in the written procedure for amending the Terms and Conditions.  The Holders voted unanimously in favour of the decisions to amend the voluntary early redemption provisions of the Bonds and therefore adopted the necessary decision. Following the approval of the amendments, the Baltic Horizon Fund will have the right to carry out voluntary early redemptions in tranches of at least EUR 3 million.

    The amended Terms and Conditions will be published on the website of the Baltic Horizon Fund within three business days as of publishing of this notice.

    For additional information, please contact:

    Tarmo Karotam
    Baltic Horizon Fund manager
    E-mail tarmo.karotam@nh-cap.com
    www.baltichorizon.com

    Baltic Horizon Fund is a registered contractual public closed-end real estate fund managed by Alternative Investment Fund Manager license holder Northern Horizon Capital AS. Both the Fund and the Management Company are supervised by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority.

    Distribution: GlobeNewswire, Nasdaq, www.baltichorizon.com

    To receive Nasdaq announcements and news from Baltic Horizon Fund about its projects, plans and more, register on www.baltichorizon.com. You can also follow Baltic Horizon Fund on www.baltichorizon.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and YouTube.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Credit Agricole Sa: Crédit Agricole Transitions & Energies becomes a majority shareholder in COMWATT, a specialist in energy optimisation

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Press release                                                                    Montrouge, 12 June 2025

    Crédit Agricole Transitions & Energies
    becomes a majority shareholder in COMWATT,
    a specialist in energy optimisation

    Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in COMWATT, an innovative company based in Montpellier, France, specialising in the production and optimisation of solar energy consumption for individual customers.

    This transaction forms part of Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies objective to accelerate the development of concrete solutions to support Crédit Agricole Group customers in their plans to decarbonise and manage their energy costs.

    With COMWATT, Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies is strengthening its solar self-consumption offer. These new services will complement those already offered, such as the “J’écorénove mon logement” platform, which is dedicated to residential energy renovation.

    The impact of the transaction on the CET1 ratio of Crédit Agricole S.A. is not significant.

    Press contact
    Françoise Bololanik – francoise.bololanik@ca-transitions-energies.fr – +33 (0)7 64 61 33 70

    About Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies
    A subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Group, Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies supports and facilitates the environmental transitions of its customers through financing and investing in renewable energy projects; the production and supply of direct distribution decarbonised electricity, in cooperation with local players; and providing transition consultancy and solutions, supporting the energy efficiency efforts of the Group’s customers. Crédit Agricole Transitions & Énergies comprises 82 employees and places its expertise at the service of individual customers, professionals, corporates, farmers and local authorities. https://www.ca-transitions-energies.fr/en/   Follow us on LinkedIn

    About COMWATT
    COMWATT is a French company established in 2013 that provides intelligent energy management solutions.
    Recipient of 15 labels and innovation awards, COMWATT has distinguished itself through its ability to offer solutions that are simple to use but extremely efficient.
    Market leader COMWATT enables its 35,000 users to regain control over their consumption and improve their energy independence.
    www.comwatt.com   https://www.linkedin.com/company/comwatt/

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    The MIL Network –