US tariffs and energy security are expected to remain the focal points for oil and gas trade in 2025. Tariff-induced trade tensions might exert downward pressure on the US and global economy in the near term, potentially affecting the energy demand. It is therefore important for the industry to assess the impact of macroeconomic themes of tariffs, along with geopolitics, and supply chain while charting out its growth plans, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s thematic report, “Top 20 Oil & Gas Themes – 2025,” identifies the top 20 themes that will impact the oil and gas industry in 2025. Besides macro themes, the ones enabling the transition towards clean energy, such as renewables, low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and electric vehicles (EV) are expected to have a potential impact on oil and gas operations in 2025 and beyond.
Ravindra Puranik, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The US government initially imposed hefty import tariffs on most countries in line with their respective trade deficits, which were later normalized at 10% for a period of 90 days. As a result, the global economic forecast is clouded by the frequent changes in the US tariffs and the prospect of retaliatory rate increases from affected trading partners, especially China.”
The industry has largely recovered from the geopolitical developments since 2022 that had vastly impacted global supply chains. While the global oil demand is anticipated to grow in 2025, fueled by consistent economic expansion in Asia, the stability of supply hinges on geopolitical risks and the production strategies of OPEC+ nations.
Puranik adds: “A resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, along with incremental increases in OPEC+ output post-April 2025, could ensure adequate market supply, even in the face of stringent US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela.”
Traditional oil and gas themes, namely LNG, shale, and integrated refineries will continue to enable companies to remain competitive in the energy market. The report also features disruptive tech themes, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics.
Puranik concludes: “GlobalData research shows that companies who invest in the right themes become success stories; those who miss the big themes ultimately fail. Given that so many themes are disruptive, it is very easy to be blindsided by industry outsiders invading the sector. In this scenario it is important to understand the biggest themes in the industry and the how they could help companies thrive in the rapidly changing energy dynamics.”
The first-ever study to examine food and nutrition in preschools in Essex has uncovered significant challenges in providing healthy meals to under-5s.
Led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and commissioned by Essex County Council Public Health, the Nourishing Our Future (NOF) preschools report identified food costs and managing food preferences – including an increasing reluctance to try new foods – as the two biggest obstacles to healthy eating in the county.
Essex has extremes of health and wealth within its population of 1.5 million and the 2023-24 National Child Measurement Programme found that 21% of reception-age children (4-5 years old) in Essex are living with obesity or are overweight, underlining the need for targeted local interventions.
Of Essex’s 298 preschools, 67 took part in the Nourishing Our Future study, which set out to understand the current food environment and identify possible improvements.
The study involved workshops, an online survey, menu and photo analysis and parent interviews, and is published on the same day that report authors Dr Kay Aaronricks and the NOF team at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), along with Emily Fallon and Susie Threadgold of Essex County Council, are presenting findings to MPs at an event held by the Food Foundation at the House of Commons.
When it comes to barriers to providing nutritious meals, 59% of preschools in Essex consider the cost of food to be the greatest challenge, with children’s food preferences and allergies the second biggest factor.
The majority of preschools in the county (57%) only have basic food preparation facilities, such as a microwave, and over two thirds (69%) of children in Essex bring their own food to preschool in the form of parent-provided lunchboxes.
The study identified that these lunchboxes often contained high levels of processed food and had greater nutritional variability than meals provided by the preschools. It also found many lunchboxes of two to four-year-olds included pouches of baby food.
In contrast, meals provided by preschools more consistently adhered to nutritional guidelines, featuring higher protein content, more fruits and vegetables, and less processed food.
One preschool said: “We face a significant challenge with promoting healthy eating to families. Our children’s lunchboxes consist of a lot of processed, unhealthy foods that are high in sugar and additives.”
Another said: “Children are sometimes not used to being encouraged to try anything new! This is evident in some lunch boxes, where the contents never vary.”
One preschool adopts “family mealtimes” to encourage children to try different food. They said: “A lot of children have never eaten the type of food we serve such as soup or pulses and only consume fruit from pouches… It is an increasing challenge to encourage children to try new foods but our family mealtimes where they can watch other children and staff eating and drinking really helps.”
An analysis of 414 photographs of meals (87% home-packed food and 13% provided by the preschool) studied nutritional content. While starchy carbohydrates were well-aligned with portion size guidelines and fruit and vegetables slightly exceeded the target, dairy provision was slightly below and protein was significantly below guidelines.
When it comes to promoting healthier lunchboxes, 75% of communication with parents is carried out at drop off or pick up times Preschools also said they would appreciate support on how to better advise and engage parents in healthier food choices.
The rising cost of food was the single greatest challenge to healthy eating identified by the study. As a recent report by the Food Foundation set out, healthier foods are more than twice as expensive per calorie than less healthy foods. For preschools that provide lunches, delivering high-quality, nutritious meals is becoming increasingly difficult.
Preschools, along with childminders and day nurseries, are not permitted to charge a compulsory fee for food, meaning the cost is borne by the early years settings themselves or through a voluntary contribution from parents.
Practitioners consistently highlighted the financial strain, with one preschool noting, “Fresh food is increasing in price all the time; food purchasing in general has risen significantly over the last two years.”
Trying to provide food on a budget, while also catering to children’s individual food preferences and allergies, adds to the difficulty. One preschool said: “We really try to accommodate food allergies, but more and more children are showing [as] intolerant and [have an] allergy and it is really increasing our spending on food.”
Policy recommendations set out in the Nourishing Our Future report include a nationally funded early years food scheme to support both preschool and parent-provided meals, ensuring affordability and respecting parental choice, establishing public health support for parents on healthy eating, including nutrition advice, and developing targeted programmes to help children build positive relationships around food preferences.
“Our study involved preschools from across Essex, as well as parents, which is important as parents’ voices are often missing from healthy food policy development.
“The report shows that although there is a great deal of excellent work being done by preschools across Essex, there is a need for action to improve the nutritional landscape for young children, including improving children’s relationship with food.
“We would like to see appropriate national funding for preschools to allow them to provide healthy food for all children. However, simply replacing lunchboxes with setting-provided food for one meal a day won’t solve the wider issues for the child or their family, such as what will they eat at the weekend or during the holidays.
“We must support all families in being able to access affordable, healthy food alongside appropriate nutritional advice, because healthy food should be available to all. Of course, there are much wider societal issues around the prevalence of convenience, ultra processed food and the targeted marketing of foods that are high in fat salt and sugar, and tackling this also needs to be a priority.”
Dr Kay Aaronricks, Head of the School of Education at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
Over the coming year, dedicated teams of cleansing staff from the Council are making their way around the Capital with the aim of sprucing up each neighbourhood and ward.
The funding being used is almost a million pounds of additional resource allocated in the February 2024 budget to be used this year as well as the same amount each year going forward.
The ‘Pride in our City’ project began in March when teams concentrated their efforts around the Leith Walk area (Ward 12) clearing 36 tonnes of dog fouling, litter, dumped items, graffiti, weeds and chewing gum.
The Council is using a dedicated website and email address www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cleanstreets and cleanstreets@edinburgh.gov.uk to keep residents up-to-date on when they will be in their area and asking residents to help them prioritise where they think the work most needs to be carried out. Community events are listed on the webpage and how to get involved.
Work is now moving to the Leith area (Ward 13) for the next few weeks where the team has its first community event tonight (Wednesday 14 May). This will help the cleansing teams prioritise which streets should be cleaned. They will also carry out inspections of each neighbourhood they work in and use complaint data to help prioritise the streets that most need to be spruced up.
Social media is also being used to keep residents up-to-date with progress and signage is being placed in areas where the cleansing teams are working to make local residents and businesses aware.
As the teams work in each area around the city, they will also report any other issues they spot, such as pot holes looked after by other Council teams, but which need addressed.
Cllr Stephen Jenkinson Environment Convener said:
I’m really pleased to see this project progressing with the additional funding we allocated last year as it is so important that we all take pride in our city. We’re playing our part as a Council and we’re asking residents in every neighbourhood and ward across Edinburgh to do the same. We are a stunning Capital city popular not only with our residents but also with visitors from across the globe so it’s very important that we all make an effort to do all we can to keep the city looking its best.
I’d encourage you to check out our dedicated webpage for updates on when we are coming to your neighbourhood/ward and let us know if there are particular issues in streets in your area such as dog fouling, fly tipping, weeds, graffiti or general littering. If you live, work or study in the Leith area and are aware of streets causing issues which need to be cleaned, I’d also encourage you to go along tonight and tell the team or email them using the dedicated email address.
Also for residents and visitors to Edinburgh please make sure you play your part helping us to keep our beautiful Capital city clean by binning your litter responsibly when out and about. For our residents please recycle where possible and book a special uplift appointment for bulker items if you are unable to book a slot at one of our Household and Waste Recycling Centres for appropriate disposal.
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Evgeny Zhuk
A graduate of LISI (now SPbGASU) Evgeny Zhuk recalls what the institute was like 60 years ago, how he passed exams and studied. At the same time, he emphasizes that he is one of many ordinary graduates of our university. In fact, Evgeny Pavlovich is quite modest. He was awarded the medal “Veteran of Labor”, the badge “Honorary Builder of Russia”, the badge “Builder of St. Petersburg” 2nd degree, the silver and gold medals of the Holy Supreme Apostle Peter, the badge “Construction Glory”, the Order “For Merit in Construction”, the badge “Labor Valor”, the honorary title “Honored Builder of the Russian Federation”, the title “Honored Builder of St. Petersburg”, the badge of the Holy Martyr Veniamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov, for services to the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate. During his many years of work, he built objects “for three Leningrads”.
At 81, Evgeny Pavlovich works as the chief specialist of the construction control department of general education facilities of the Educational Facilities Construction Department of the St. Petersburg State Institution “Capital Construction and Reconstruction Fund”, subordinate to the St. Petersburg Construction Committee. We talk to him about how to succeed in the profession and remain in demand, despite the situation in the country and age.
– Evgeny Pavlovich, how can one choose a profession for life in one’s youth?
– I continued the family dynasty: my father and grandfather were builders, my mother also received an education in the construction industry, my uncle was an architect. Their example and advice became the determining factor in choosing a profession. I studied well at school, I had excellent math and physics teachers, so there were no problems with entering civil and industrial construction. At that time, applicants also had to successfully pass the swimming test, which is quite fair: a builder must be ready to navigate any situation, for example, during the construction of bridges over water obstacles.
The state system helped me stay in the profession. My first two years of study went like this: students who entered the daytime department right after school studied according to the evening education program, that is, on Mondays we studied during the day, worked on the construction site the rest of the weekdays, and on Wednesdays and Fridays we also went to classes in the evenings. Therefore, already in the second year, we were awarded the qualification of a first-category transport worker, then a concrete worker and a carpenter of the second and third categories. I completed my industrial practice as a backup foreman. Graduates were immediately employed, as they say now, with a good social package – with the provision of a room first in a dormitory, then in an apartment, and then – separate housing, the area of which depended on the family status and the number of children. In addition, there was a mentoring system and career advancement. Therefore, the profession was popular with young people.
– How did you start your career and what successes have you achieved?
– I worked at the Design Institute for the first two years after graduating, and then moved to Glavleningradstroy, a powerful organization with 70,000 employees, and its boss was at the ministerial level. It was interesting to work there because the workers were highly qualified, they were trained in vocational schools and construction colleges. Many of the foremen then became heads of departments, that is, the personnel were trained on the spot. But higher education was required for career growth. I always say that I was lucky to work with good mentors and managers. I always share my professional successes with them. They taught me a lot, and these skills came in handy at all stages of professional growth, starting from a foreman, a site manager, a senior foreman, a site manager to a chief engineer and a department manager.
What buildings have I participated in the construction of? 22-story buildings on Moskovsky Prospekt from the airport side, buildings at the entrance to Sestroretsk, buildings in Kupchino and Kolpino. Modern buildings include the Buff Theater, the Church of the Holy Apostle Peter in Stroiteley Park, the Triumph of the Russian Fleet monument near the cathedral in Kronstadt, the Boris Eifman Children’s Dance Theater, the first block of the oncology hospital in Pesochny, the swimming pool on Khlopina Street, and the building of the Botkin Clinical Hospital on Piskarevsky. Over the past few years, I have participated in the construction of a dozen schools in different areas of the city, for example, the 777th school for almost 2,000 students in the Primorsky District, the 147th in the Krasnogvardeisky District, the 219th school for 1,375 students in the Krasnoselsky District, and the Church of All Saints Who Shone in the Land of St. Petersburg at the Levashovskoye Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
– Before your eyes, the construction industry and the country have experienced dramatic changes: the Soviet system was replaced by difficult years after the collapse of the USSR, and the new history brings its own events. How did you manage to stay in the industry?
– In Soviet times, the personnel training system worked effectively. All trusts had dormitories for employees. All social issues were resolved in an elementary way: places in kindergartens, vouchers for health resorts, benefits. And suddenly the system that had been established over decades collapsed. Hard times came. In the nineties of the last century, I worked as the chief engineer of the construction department. There were orders, but there was also a time when, in order to feed the workers, we negotiated with collective farms about the supply of sugar and food. But the thought of leaving the profession never occurred to me. This is the work of my whole life, an activity that I know well and love. Times are changing, but construction will always be a popular, developing industry. Previously, concrete was transported in dump trucks, now – in mixers, modern technology, high-tech machines and materials have appeared. We rarely used the technology of monolithic housing construction, but now a lot is built in monolith. Knowledge of your profession, development in it helps to adapt to any situation.
– How can today’s graduates become successful specialists in the industry?
– I am sure that after receiving a diploma, you need to work on a construction site to gain experience, master specialties and learn to personally understand all construction processes. Dreaming of immediately becoming a boss is a mistake. It is much more correct to rise to a management position from the lowest rung of the career ladder. Then you will become a highly qualified manager, thoroughly understanding all work processes and able to effectively communicate with employees at all levels.
In addition, I was always wary when a job applicant assured that he could do everything. But if a person honestly admitted that he was a carpenter but did not know carpentry, it inspired respect. I understood that this person understood the meaning of his profession, because a carpenter is one profession, a joiner is a completely different one. Today, new in-demand professions are emerging, but the essence of success for specialists does not change: it is important to find a specific area of activity and develop in it, and not try to learn everything, but little by little. It is good that there are smart young guys who move from construction to office work: there is more trust in such managers, because they know the real state of affairs in the industry. And, of course, the main guarantee of success is to love your business, like your girlfriend or wife.
– You have maintained contact with our university for a long time and even provided sponsorship.
– In 2022, I donated about a hundred copies of educational literature on construction production, collected over the years of work in the industry, to the library of our university. At that time, the position of rector was occupied by Yuri Pavlovich Panibratov. He sent a letter of thanks to the construction corporation where I worked as chief engineer, emphasizing my participation in the events held at LISI. In response, I was thanked and awarded a certificate of the corporation. It is nice, but I donated the educational kits from the bottom of my heart, I wanted to help my native institute.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
News story
New Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury appointed
Jim O’Neil has been appointed as a new Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.
Jim brings a wealth of experience from investment banking and corporate finance to the Treasury, after a long career at Bank of America. He also has experience in the public sector, spending three years at UK Financial Investments. As Chief Executive of UKFI, he managed the government’s holdings in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, and UK Asset Resolution.
His appointment is part of the government’s plan to deliver its number one mission to kickstart economic growth as part of the Plan for Change, and follows the Chancellor’s commitment to lead the most pro-growth Treasury in the country’s history.
Jim’s experience will help the government to secure private investment, boost the economy, and ultimately put more pounds in people’s pockets. His deep knowledge of the private sector will help the government to rip out the barriers to growth, provide support for the key industries at home, and work to secure open and fair trade abroad.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said:
I’m very pleased to welcome Jim as our new Second Permanent Secretary, his extensive knowledge of the private sector will be vital in helping us deliver our number one mission to grow the economy. It’s fantastic to have him join the Treasury’s top team.
Jim O’Neil said:
I am delighted to have been appointed Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury at this important time for our country and our economy. We are living through a time of great change globally, making the need for an economy of stability, resilience, and growth all the more important. I look forward to working with the Chancellor, her ministers, and officials across the department to deliver on these missions so the Treasury can bring positive change to the lives of people right across the country.
Jim is expected to start in his new position in July and will work alongside the two other Second Permanent Secretaries in HM Treasury, Beth Russell who is based at the Darlington Economic Campus and Sam Beckett who is also Chief Economic Adviser. As well as overseeing tax and spending, Beth will continue to be responsible for devolution and regional growth including engagement with regional and local government and others in the north.
Jim was appointed through a fair and open competition and has completed all of the necessary declarations of interest.
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Specialists from the city services complex have washed more than one thousand underground and overground pedestrian crossings after the winter. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement Petr Biryukov.
“As part of the month of improvement, we carried out measures to wash 1,075 underground and glazed overground pedestrian crossings. Each structure was thoroughly cleaned using a specific technology, and special equipment was used when necessary,” noted Petr Biryukov.
During the works, the crossings were not closed, and fences were put up on the spot to leave a passage for pedestrians. The underground crossings were cleaned manually, then the walls, granite parapets and stairwells were washed with high-pressure devices and brushes. Where necessary, individual elements of the structures were painted and repaired. Overhead crossings were washed using aerial platforms. A cleaning agent was applied to the glass structures from the outside, which was then washed off with water using professional high-pressure devices.
The head of the city services complex recalled that in total, within the framework of the month of improvement in the capital, about two thousand objects were washed: bridges, tunnels, underground and overground pedestrian crossings, embankments, fountains and monuments.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jimmy Gomez (CA-34)
Watch Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s remarks HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC — During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing today, Representative Jimmy Gomez (CA-34) introduced an amendment to extend premium tax credits for women and children — particularly for families about to lose Medicaid coverage under the Republican tax plan. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 4.2 million more people will be uninsured if Republicans allow these credits to expire. Despite the growing health care crisis and skyrocketing costs, Republicans blocked the amendment.
Gomez warned that the Republican tax plan would leave millions of working- and middle-class families without affordable health care: “Let’s remember, this bill does nothing to extend the tax credits that help working families afford health insurance. That means millions of Americans are going to see their premiums skyrocket. In the Chairman’s district, a family of four earning $64,000 a year is going to see their premiums double. That family would have to pay $2,571 more a year. I don’t know where they’re going to find that money—do you, Mr. Chairman?”
He ended with a direct challenge to his Republican colleagues: “What’s it going to be—babies or billionaires? I hope you have a good answer ready when you go home to face your constituents. How about instead of giving massive tax cuts to the rich, join me in passing this amendment to prevent moms and kids from seeing their health care premiums go through the roof.”
Surprise Guests Morgan Wallen, Gabby Barrett and Jamey Johnson Join Ernest, Chandler Walters, Cody Lohden, and Rhys Rutherford for First 2025 Concert
Nashville, TN, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AREB) (“American Rebel” or the “Company”), creator of American Rebel Light Beer (americanrebelbeer.com) and a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of branded safes, personal security and self-defense products and apparel (americanrebel.com), announces that American Rebel Light Beer will sponsor the 2025 Losers Bar & Grill (“Losers”) Parking Lot Concert Series and the amazing first concert held Tuesday, May 12, featured surprise guest and country music superstar Morgan Wallen, (morganwallen.com), Gabby Barrett (gabbybarrett.com), and Jamey Johnson (jameyjohnson.com) along with Ernest (ernestofficial.com), Chandler Walters (Instagram.com/chandlerwaltersmusic), Cody Lohden (Instagram.com/codylohden/) and Rhys Rutherford (Instagram.com/rhys_rutherford_/).
As Losers likes to say, “you never know who might show up to a parking lot party,” and this statement was proven true when Morgan Wallen surprised the huge crowd and appeared on stage with Ernest to sing their hit duet “Flower Shops.” Ten-time Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson and top female artist and actress Gabby Barrett also joined Ernest on stage.
“I’ve been coming to Losers for 16 years,” said American Rebel CEO Andy Ross. “I’ve watched Steve Ford grow Losers Midtown into the iconic place where artists, industry and locals like to hang their hat. The Parking Lot Concert Series grew out of those roots and fans get treated to amazing music and surprise guests during these incredible intimate concerts. American Rebel Light Beer is honored to be involved with Steve Ford and the entire Losers team to sponsor the 2025 Parking Lot Concert Series as well as the Raised Rowdy Round and Riley Green’s Duck Blind podcasts. In addition to Losers Midtown, Losers also has a downtown Nashville location, a bar in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and a bar in Belize. It’s incredible what Steve is doing.”
The American Rebel Light Beer sponsorship of the Losers Bar & Grill Parking Lot Concert Series features American Rebel Light Beer signage throughout the concert area and bar and servers proudly wearing official American Rebel merchandise. American Rebel Light is also sponsoring the Raised Rowdy (Instagram.com/raisedrowdy/) songwriter rounds at Riley Green’s Duck Blind, as well as Riley Green’s Duck Blind (Instagram.com/duckblindnash/) podcasts. American Rebel Light Beer is very proud to highlight its Nashville foundation through its sponsorship of the iconic Losers Midtown Parking Lot Concert Series, the Raised Rowdy Rounds and the Riley Green Duck Blind podcast.
About American Rebel Light:
American Rebel Light is more than just a beer—it’s a celebration of freedom, passion, and quality. Brewed with care and precision, our light beer delivers a refreshing taste that’s perfect for every occasion.
Since its launch in September 2024, American Rebel Light Beer has rolled out in Tennessee, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida and Indiana and is adding new distributors and territories regularly. For more information about the launch events and the availability of American Rebel Beer, please visit americanrebelbeer.com or Instagram.com/americanrebelbeer/.
Produced in partnership with AlcSource, American Rebel Light Beer (americanrebelbeer.com) is a domestic premium light lager celebrated for its exceptional quality and patriotic values. It stands out as America’s Patriotic, God-Fearing, Constitution-Loving, National Anthem-Singing, Stand Your Ground Beer.
American Rebel Light is a Premium Domestic Light Lager Beer – All Natural, Crisp, Clean and Bold Taste with a Lighter Feel. With approximately 100 calories, 3.2 carbohydrates, and 4.3% alcoholic content per 12 oz serving, American Rebel Light Beer delivers a lighter option for those who love great beer but prefer a more balanced lifestyle. It’s all natural with no added supplements and importantly does not use corn, rice, or other sweeteners typically found in mass produced beers.
About Losers Midtown
Dive bars are an American tradition. For better or worse, every town has at least one and Nashville’s is Losers Midtown powered by Riley Green’s Duck Blind. Spend the evening with the who’s who of Nashville’s music industry at an intimate, no-frills venue for live music, serving classic bar eats and a variety of beers on tap. You must be 21 years of age or older to enter. You never know who you might run into… This Life Ain’t For Everybody! For more information on Losers Midtown go to losersmidtown.com.
About American Rebel Holdings, Inc.
American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AREB) has operated primarily as a designer, manufacturer and marketer of branded safes and personal security and self-defense products and has recently transitioned into the beverage industry through the introduction of American Rebel Light Beer. The Company also designs and produces branded apparel and accessories. To learn more, visit americanrebel.com and americanrebelbeer.com. For investor information, visit americanrebelbeer.com/investor-relations.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. American Rebel Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ: AREB; AREBW) (the “Company,” “American Rebel,” “we,” “our” or “us”) desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words “forecasts” “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “is likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include benefits of a launch party, actual launch timing and availability of American Rebel Beer, success and availability of the promotional activities, our ability to effectively execute our business plan, and the Risk Factors contained within our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
Source: United States Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock – Georgia
Senator Reverend Warnock Releases New Report Finding Job Loss, Economic Slowdown if Congressional GOP Restricts Medicaid Access
Senator Reverend Warnock’s new report, “Healthy People, Healthy Economy” finds that placing bureaucratic red tape between working people and their health care will lead to hospital closures, job loss, and economic slowdown
The report finds that investing in Medicaid, as opposed to adding bureaucratic and ineffective work reporting requirements, leads to economic growth that creates jobs and gets Americans to work
The Senator’s report found 458 counties across the U.S. where working Medicaid recipients are extremely vulnerable to losing access under these reporting requirements because of lack of internet access, other factors
New legislation marked up yesterday in the U.S. House of Representatives would require onerous reporting requirements that do not get people working, and instead kicks working people off their health care
The House legislation would kick over 7 million Americans off Medicaid and 13.7 million Americans off their health care in total
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) released a new report titled “Healthy People, Healthy Economy.” The Senator’s report is the first publication that analyzes by county which Americans are at risk of losing their health care if Washington Republicans restrict Medicaid access through bureaucratic and ineffective work reporting requirements. The report also analyzes how much it would cost each state in job loss, GDP, and devastating administrative costs.
The report finds that the best way to get the most Americans working is to invest in Medicaid, making health care accessible to eligible Americans. On the other hand, work reporting requirements do nothing to bring people into the workforce and kick working people off their health care, making those working Americans more likely to stop working if they cannot access preventative care or manage chronic illness.
“My parents raised me to have a fierce work ethic, I support getting people to work,” said Senator Reverend Warnock.“The data shows that the best way to create jobs and grow the economy is to remove bureaucratic red tape that keeps working people from accessing health care. Instead, Washington politicians are ignoring clear data and forcing reporting requirements on working Americans as a cynical ploy to kick working people off their health care. All of this so they can fund a tax cut for the ultra-wealthy.”
Nowhere have work reporting requirements failed more than in the state of Georgia, where the state has spent a shocking $91 million in taxpayer dollars to create a slow, glitchy, bureaucratic system to track work reporting requirements. The state of Georgia spent $13,000 per enrollee on administrative costs, roughly five times more than the cost of actual health services, during the program’s first year. If other states follow Georgia’s failed model, millions of Americans will lose their health care access, government bureaucracy will grow, hospitals will close, jobs will be lost, and the economy will slow.
A full copy of the report can be found HERE.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Inuvo, Inc. (NYSE American: INUV), a leading provider of artificial intelligence AdTech solutions, announced today that it will be participating in the Ladenburg Thalmann Innovation EXPO25, to be held on May 21, 2025, at Convene, 101 Park Avenue, New York, NY.
Richard Howe, Chief Executive Officer of Inuvo, is scheduled to present on Wednesday, May 21st at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Management will also be available for one-on-one meetings with investors throughout the conference.
The Ladenburg Thalmann Innovation EXPO25 is a premier event bringing together a diverse group of innovative companies and institutional investors for a full day of presentations, one-on-one meetings, and networking opportunities. The conference will feature approximately 50 technology companies that leverage AI in innovative and breakthrough ways. Participating companies will present their business strategies and innovations through three dedicated presentation tracks and demonstrate their products live in the “Ladenburg Expo format.”
Inuvo, Inc. (NYSE American: INUV) is a market leader in Artificial Intelligence built for advertising. Its IntentKey AI solution is a first-of-its-kind proprietary and patented technology capable of identifying and actioning to the reasons why consumers are interested in products, services, or brands, not who those consumers are. To learn more, visit www.inuvo.com.
Safe Harbor / Forward-Looking Statements
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Mandalay (Agenzia Fides) – “Now we must rebuild hope in our communities, already affected by war and hardship. We renew an urgent appeal: help us rebuild our ecclesial communities in Mandalay,” Father Peter Kyi Maung, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mandalay, which was hit by the devastating earthquake on March 28, told Fides. Meanwhile, in the Diocese of Mandalay, the Emergency Rescue Team has been on site assessing the severely damaged church buildings and pastoral structures. “These sacred places, where we gather for worship, prayer, and mutual support, now urgently need to be repaired and restored. We appeal to our great family of faith, asking for your generous support,” the Emergency Rescue Team wrote in a statement. The need is to repair damaged church structures, restore community centers and catechism rooms, and create safe structures for liturgy and parish meetings. “In this way,” explains Fr. Peter Kyi Maung, “we will be able to resume the spiritual and communal life of the people of God. We are called to help communities flourish anew in faith and resilience,” he notes. “For so many suffering people, we are instruments of God’s mercy and compassion in this time of trial. Therefore, we ask for the support of the faithful everywhere,” he says. Although they are in a time of crisis and serious difficulties, Burmese Catholics also rejoice at the election of Pope Leo XIV.In a congratulatory message on the inauguration of the Petrine ministry, Archbishop Marco Tin Win Mandalay asks Pope Leo “to support peace for Myanmar.” “Many non-Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, and Protestants followed the Pope’s election with great interest. This was a moment of witness and evangelization for us,” said the archbishop. Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, who was present at the Conclave, reaffirmed everyone’s hopes: He sent photos of himself accompanied by Pope Leo to the faithful and told them: “I asked him not to forget us and expressed the hope that he would visit Myanmar soon.” Burmese Dominican Father Paul Aung Myint told Fides: “We are certain that Pope Leo will pay attention to the conflicts of the forgotten, the suffering of the poor, the marginalized, and the many refugees in Myanmar and other parts of the world: we know he will be a voice for the voiceless.”Joseph Kung, a Catholic from Yangon, emphasizes: “We do not yet know the new Pope Leo well, but we know that he has gained important missionary experience. We therefore believe that he will be deeply concerned with all the mission countries in the Global South. Furthermore, he is polyglot, and his knowledge of English will facilitate communication with many realities in Asia, certainly also with the bishops and faithful in Myanmar.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 14/5/2025)
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Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – “Goma, capital of the North Kivu region, two million inhabitants. An occupied city, on its knees. Stretched along the shores of Lake Kivu, caressed by the heat of the Nyiragongo volcano, its beauty and the peace of some thirty years are turning into tears of fear and death.” These are the words that highlight the dramatic testimony sent to Fides from Goma, a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that fell into the hands of the M23 rebels at the end of January. For security reasons, we are publishing it in full, omitting the author’s name: On January 28, after two days of intense fighting between the regular Congolese army, supported by the “Wazalendo” (patriotic militias), against the AFC (Congo River Alliance) and M23 (March 23, an invading rebel group supported by the Rwandan army), the city was once again declared “liberated.” A liberation that left a tragic toll of thousands of innocent civilians dead, many of them in their own homes, built with precarious materials, incapable of offering any shelter. Looting, rape, and abuse perpetrated by armed men from various factions have left deep scars. More than 100 days after the fighting, the wounds remain open, both on the body and in the collective memory of the population. Freedom of expression, human dignity, and the right to life and peace have been brutally violated. Today, the law of terror is imposed at gunpoint and with the blows of batons. The judicial system has collapsed. Instead of courts, detention centers have been set up that, in practice, function as places of torture. Prisons have been emptied—some 3,000 prisoners disappeared during the city’s capture—and trials, when they are held, are summary and improvised, even in the open air. The night has become a nightmare for the most vulnerable neighborhoods. Armed men break into homes to rob and sexually assault. These individuals include former prisoners, former military deserters, militia members, and others, operating anonymously under the cover of darkness. Sometimes, the attackers are captured by neighbors trying to defend the victims; their bodies often appear the next morning, abandoned or even burned. Fear, anger, and the absence of justice fuel a form of mob justice that is faceless and merciless. The search for alleged members of the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), accused of participating in the 1994 genocide and now hiding in the neighborhoods of Goma, often serves as a pretext for personal vendettas or ethnic clashes, exacerbating already existing tensions. Arbitrary arrests and disappearances are part of a policy of repression aimed at silencing any dissenting voice. The economic situation is equally critical. The financial system is paralyzed: banks remain closed, preventing the payment of salaries, including those of teachers in affiliated schools. Commerce is at a standstill, and the international airport, vital to the city’s economic life, was bombed during the fighting and is out of service. The promises to keep alive hope for a better future—occupation propaganda comparing the supposedly more effective new “liberation” regime with the corrupt and ineffective old regime in Kinshasa—are numerous; but they fade with each passing day. Many young people, disillusioned with life or desperate with rage, volunteer to enlist in the army of the new masters and fight the regular army of the central government. Solution or illusion? Dying for the sake of dying: it’s worth a try. But the struggle for life has not been broken. The population helps each other in a thousand ways. The tens of thousands of displaced people, whose camps have been dismantled by the new authorities, have found refuge in the homes of friends, relatives, or people of good will. They share the same fears, the same suffering, but also the same hopes. The number of crosses increases, sometimes even invisible, because there is no trace left of the missing. But among the black lava rocks of the Nyiragongo volcano, scattered along the neighborhood roads, flowers are sprouting. With difficulty, because the earth is still soaked with blood. They are flowers with thin stems, but fragrant and colorful: red flowers, the color of the painful tears shed every day; green flowers, of hope and resistance, so that life does not die; flowers that symbolize a new society: the new society of Congo that is being born from the ashes of war. Yes, because life is like the sun: no matter how long and stormy the night, at dawn the sun reappears. (Agenzia Fides, 14/5/2025)
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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “You are precious”. “The Church needs you”. “Continue to be outstanding for your faith, hope, and charity, and nothing else”. Pope Leo XIV receives in audience a multitude of baptized men and women of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the Paul VI Hall who have come to Rome accompanied by their Patriarchs and Bishops to celebrate their Jubilee of Hope. And he addresses them with an intense and important speech for the entire universal Church. He uses words which highlight the great “contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense”. Words that recall the suffering endured by the Eastern Christian in many war scenarios and are transformed into a new, passionate appeal for peace by the new Bishop of Rome, determined in repeating “I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail”, and that “the Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace”.The topicality of Leo XIII”Christ is risen. He is truly risen”. Pope Leo thus greets the multitude that today, Wednesday, May 14, welcomed him joyfully in the Nervi Hall, and immediately recalls that with those words, “Eastern Christians in many lands never tire of repeating during the Easter season, as they profess the very heart of our faith and hope, a hope unshakably grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.Then the Pontiff born in Chicago weaves a speech full of gratitude for the treasure of faith represented by the Churches of the East, a wealth that draws from the source of the faith of the Apostles.Pope Prevost quotes Pope Francis, to repeat that the Eastern Churches with their spiritual heritage “have so much to say to us about the Christian life, synodality, and the liturgy”; he quotes John Paul II, for whom the Churches of the East have “a unique and privileged role as the original setting where the Church was born”, and some of their liturgies still use the language of the Lord Jesus.The Pontiff also disseminates in his speech quotations from Eastern Fathers, from Ephrem the Syrian to Isaac of Nineveh; he also cites Pope Leo XIII, the Pontiff who inspired him in choosing his name as Successor of Peter.Pope Pecci – recalls Leo XIV – “was the first Pope to devote a specific document to the dignity of your Churches, inspired above all by the fact that, in his words, “the work of human redemption began in the East”, and above all “made a heartfelt appeal that the “legitimate variety of Eastern liturgy and discipline… may redound to the great honor and benefit of the Church”. His concern at that time – Pope Prevost recognizes that – “In our own day too, many of our Eastern brothers and sisters, including some of you, have been forced to flee their homelands because of war and persecution, instability and poverty, and risk losing not only their native lands, but also, when they reach the West, their religious identity. As a result, with the passing of generations, the priceless heritage of the Eastern Churches is being lost”. Leo XIII, in his time, took concrete measures to promote the preservation of the rites of the Eastern Catholic Churches, prohibiting missionaries of the Latin Church from “attracting any Eastern-Rite Catholic to the Latin Rite”. With the same concreteness, Pope Leo XIV emphasized today that “in addition to establishing Eastern circumscriptions wherever possible and opportune, there is a need to promote greater awareness among Latin Christians. In this regard, I ask the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches – which I thank for its work – to help me to define principles, norms, and guidelines whereby Latin Bishops can concretely support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora in their efforts to preserve their living traditions and thus, by their distinctive witness, to enrich the communities in which they live”.Familiarity with the MysteryThe help that can come from the East to Christians throughout the world touches the most intimate fibers of their baptismal faith. “We have great need”, Pope Leo recognized, “to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies, liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God’s majesty embraces our human frailty”. And “it is likewise important”, continued the US-born Pontiff, “to rediscover, especially in the Christian West, a sense of the primacy of God, the importance of mystagogy and the values so typical of Eastern spirituality: constant intercession, penance, fasting, and weeping for one’s own sins and for those of all humanity (penthos)! It is vital, then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them, for the sake perhaps of practicality or convenience, lest they be corrupted by the mentality of consumerism and utilitarianism”.”Your traditions of spirituality,” Pope Leo recalled in one of the most intense passages of his reflection, “are medicinal. In them, the drama of human misery is combined with wonder at God’s mercy, so that our sinfulness does not lead to despair, but opens us to accepting the gracious gift of becoming creatures who are healed, divinized and raised to the heights of heaven.”The peace of Christ and the Manichean “notions”Christians of the East – Pope Leo acknowledged – often find themselves “singing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence” and amid the horrors of war. “From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see! And rising up from this horror,” the Pontiff continued, “from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the Pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: “Peace be with you!”Looking at the tribulations of the Christians of the East, the Successor of Peter repeated words full of suggestions and referable to the evil roots of all the conflicts that tear the world apart. “Christ’s peace,” said the Bishop of Rome, “is not the sepulchral silence that reigns after conflict; it is not the fruit of oppression, but rather a gift that is meant for all, a gift that brings new life.” After reiterating his and the Holy See’s involvement in safeguarding and making every possible seed of peace flourish, Pope Leo XIV addressed the “leaders of the peoples: let us meet – he said -, let us talk, let us negotiate! War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering. Our neighbours are not first our enemies, but our fellow human beings; not criminals to be hated, but other men and women with whom we can speak. Let us reject” added the Pontiff “the Manichean notions so typical of that mindset of violence that divides the world into those who are good and those who are evil”, adding that “the Church will never tire of repeating: let weapons be silenced. I would like to thank God for all those who, in silence, prayer and self-sacrifice, are sowing seeds of peace. I thank God for those Christians – Eastern and Latin alike – who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them. Christians – continued the Bishop of Rome – must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 14/5/2025)
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Headline: Microsoft as customer zero: Empowering research teams with AI
Explore more of Ryen White’s work at Microsoft Research
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Research has always been an integral part of Microsoft’s identity, driving our role as a global technology leader. Since 1991, Microsoft Research has dedicated itself to a fundamental research approach—advancing knowledge, deepening our understanding of the world, and exploring how technology can empower people and organizations. Through its extensive body of publications and a commitment to openly sharing its work, Microsoft Research continues to collaborate with the global research community to drive breakthroughs in AI and beyond. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to extend human capability, create value for our customers, and deliver broad societal benefit.
Transforming research with AI at Microsoft Research
With Microsoft leading the charge in AI, Microsoft Research teams are at the forefront, using our expertise, fostering thought leadership, and driving innovation in AI and research. AI is at the center of many of Microsoft Research’s pioneering projects, from helping researchers analyze massive datasets within seconds, inventing new AI solutions that would benefit humanity, and collaborating with the global research community through the Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program.
Microsoft Research is in a unique position where it can not only adopt and use AI but also invent AI. We have made significant investments in AI, building new AI methods, models, and technologies. To infuse AI more deeply into the research process, an experimental initiative is underway, helping teams move faster, think bigger, and share more effectively. This initiative breaks down into three key strategies: using, infusing, and diffusing AI across the organization.
Using AI (Tools and Operations) focuses on optimizing access and advancement of AI.
Infusing AI (Research and Development) is about maximizing the potential of AI to revolutionize research processes.
Diffusing AI (Connectivity and Information Flow) ensures rapid sharing of AI insights, tools, and learnings with others, both inside and outside of Microsoft Research.
The goal is not just to adopt AI, but to augment and reinvent the way research is done—empowering everyone in the organization to achieve more.
The integration of AI into research processes at Microsoft Research provides valuable insights for researchers and businesses. Using AI can accelerate innovation cycles, improve operational efficiency, and lead to the development of cutting-edge tools and products. These advancements highlight how AI can reinvent traditional workflows, streamline operations, and drive growth and profitability, making it a strategic focus for organizations to implement.
GraphRAG: Advancing research with knowledge graphs
GraphRAG is a modular graph-based retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system that uses large language models to create knowledge graphs from raw text. This technique enhances large language model performance on private datasets by providing structured data and summaries, making it easier for researchers to extract meaningful insights from complex data.
Learn more about GraphRAG
The changes that are happening in AI right now, they really are surprising. The capabilities are expanding so quickly. I think of it as kind of an accelerator. Everything that we do in research, we can do faster, we can ask more questions, and this has all been kind of a warp speed thing.
—Nathan Evans, Principal Software Architect at Microsoft Research
Data Formulator: Transforming data into insights
Exploring how AI can help analysts create rich data visualizations
Read the blog
Data Formulator is an innovative tool designed to help researchers quickly explore and analyze data. By using AI, Data Formulator lets users to create rich visualizations without the need for extensive programming knowledge. This tool combines AI and interactive approaches to communicate visualization intent, making data analysis more accessible and efficient
Explore Data Formulator
AI really speeds up our experimentation process. In the past, we really needed to do a lot of hacking over weeks to experiment on designs. But now we can have a high-level thought, we can do the prototype in a short amount of time, and we can start thinking on top of that.
—Chenglong Wang, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research
Accelerating Foundation Models Research: Democratizing AI research
The Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program provides academic researchers with access to state-of-the-art foundation models hosted on Microsoft Azure through Microsoft Azure AI services. This initiative fosters a global AI research network and offers robust, trustworthy models that help further research in disciplines ranging from scientific discovery and education to healthcare, multicultural empowerment, legal work, and design.
Learn more about Accelerating Foundation Models Research
The AFMR program works with the broader academic research community to explore different aspects of foundation models to accomplish three goals:
Goal 1: Align AI with shared human goals, values, and preferences
This involves enhancing the safety, robustness, sustainability, responsibility, and transparency of AI models. One notable project aligned to this goal is “ERB Bench: An Entity-Relationship based Automatically Verifiable Hallucination Benchmark for Large Language Models.” For this project, researchers created ERB Bench which helps in evaluating and improving the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content. This ensures that AI models align with human values and reduces the risk of misinformation.
Goal 2: Improve AI-human interactions
The second goal focuses on improving AI-human interactions by increasing trust, human ingenuity, creativity, and productivity while reducing the risk of developing AI that is harmful for individuals and society. The project “As Generative Models Improve, People Adapt their Prompts” explores how prompting changes as generative AI models improve. Results showed that participants using more advanced models produced better, longer, and more descriptive prompts. This research provides valuable insights into the evolving dynamics between humans and AI, helping to create more intuitive and effective AI systems.
Goal 3: Accelerate scientific discovery
The third goal is to accelerate scientific discovery through proactive knowledge discovery, hypothesis generation, and multimodal data generation. One project that exemplifies this goal explored “Artificial Intelligence–Based Copilots to Generate Causal Evidence.” In this initiative, large language models were explored as causal “copilots” to help identify flaws in medical study designs. These models could assist researchers by providing expert guidance in study design, improving the accuracy of conclusions drawn from the studies.
AI is really important in research because AI has the potential, the huge potential to really accelerate the research, which is needed to address some of the greatest challenges of today and tomorrow.
—Evelyne Viegas, Technical Advisor at Microsoft Research
The next frontier: Looking ahead to the future of AI in research
As scientific research evolves in an era powered by AI and cloud technologies, the opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and global impact are unprecedented. From accelerating scientific discovery to improving human-agent alignment, foundation models are reshaping how research is conducted, shared, and scaled. Looking ahead, researchers and institutions must not only embrace these tools but also build robust frameworks for adoption, and evaluation.
There is still much more for us to explore on how we can advance research at Microsoft and we’re just getting started.
Explore AI transformation: Watch the Customer Zero video
Genealogist Jari Honora broke the story of the pope’s ancestors’ connection to the Creole of color community in New Orleans. A family historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection’s Williams Research Center, Honora has given research presentations to my graduate students and consulted with me on my own work. In his research on Leo’s lineage, he was also able to find several official documents that list Haiti as the birthplace of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Norval Martinez.
The pope’s Creole lineage in Louisiana is interesting enough. But many commentators have strained to make sense of the link to Haiti, if they mention it at all.
As an expert in 19th-century Haiti, I study the period during which Leo’s ancestors likely traveled between Haiti and New Orleans before migrating to Chicago. Their story is part of a broader American story of race, citizenship and migration.
A grandfather born in Haiti
It’s worth noting that Leo’s genealogy is not entirely straightforward.
At least one record indicates Joseph Norval as having been born in Louisiana. And a 1910 census seems to reinvent the family lineage: Martinez is now “Martina,” Joseph’s birthplace is “S. Domingo,” and he is supposedly Maltese.
Nevertheless, far more documents – numerous census records as well as his marriage certificate – identify Martinez’s place of birth as Haiti. An 1866 passenger list for a ship bound for New Orleans from Haiti, despite some inconsistencies, does indeed appear to list members of the Martinez family, including his father and three siblings.
Just because Leo’s grandfather was born in Haiti, it didn’t mean he was Haitian. Instead, he belonged to a class of people in New Orleans known as Creoles of color.
The descriptor “Creole of color” is somewhat anachronistic; it emerges at the end of the 19th century in Louisiana to categorize the descendants of a historically subordinate class known as free people of color, or “gens de couleur libres” in French.
It has its origins in the tripartite racial order of the French and Spanish colonial periods in the Americas, when authorities created a hierarchy of legal classes: enslaved people, free people of African descent, and white people.
In theory, free people of color encompassed a range of people. It could describe formerly enslaved people; people who had never been enslaved; people born in Africa; or people with extended, mixed-race American families.
In 19th-century Louisiana, the term generally referred to people of mixed racial ancestry who were born with free status, though at varying degrees of removal from slavery. They generally spoke French and were Catholic.
Though they were subject to repressive laws and could never become citizens and gain the right to vote, free people of color could own, inherit and sell property, including enslaved people. Most worked as artisans and shopkeepers, and a handful became quite wealthy through trade and real estate.
The Martinez family fits squarely within this community.
Census records from 1850 list Jacques Martinez – Joseph Norval Martinez’s father and Leo’s maternal great-grandfather – as a tailor and modest property owner in New Orleans. They were never enslaved but do not appear to have been enslavers, either.
Life gets worse for people of color
So why was Joseph Norval Martinez born in Haiti?
At some point, his parents probably felt they had to leave New Orleans.
Despite their relative prosperity, free people of color in Louisiana and throughout the United States were being subjected to increasing legal restrictions, repression and violence in the years leading up to the Civil War.
This situation worsened in the 1840s and ‘50s, as white Southerners worked to further restrict citizenship and rights along hard racial lines. The 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision affirmed that any people descended from Africa, including free people of color, had no right to citizenship.
For those who remained in the South, the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 would have made life even more difficult.
In the first half of the 19th century, many free people of color in Louisiana emigrated to France. But the two main options in the 1860s were Haiti and Mexico.
However, at the time of the Martinez family’s departure, Mexico was embroiled in conflict with France. Haiti, meanwhile, was crafting an ambitious plan to attract immigrants.
Indeed, Haiti long promoted itself as a free soil republic: Any person with African descent would enjoy freedom and, eventually, Haitian citizenship. Several Haitian presidents staged immigration campaigns to attract enslaved and formerly enslaved laborers from the United States.
In response to worsening conditions for people of color in the U.S., Haitian President Fabre Geffrard launched a particularly ambitious campaign, setting up Haitian Emigration bureaus and staffing them with agents in New York, Boston, New Orleans and other major cities. Louisiana newspapers advertised Geffrard’s immigration plan, which included land concessions for families and individuals. Geffrard’s focus was on attracting agricultural laborers – not the kind of work the Martinez family would likely be enticed to take on. Still, skilled artisans were welcomed as immigrants.
It was within this context that the Martinez family probably departed New Orleans for Haiti. At present there is scant information about their voyage, but the journey would have echoed many family histories of migration from Louisiana to Haiti in the 1860s.
Based on my study of census and notarial archives, it appears the Martinez family left sometime after the birth of daughter Adele in New Orleans in December 1861 and before the birth of Joseph Norval in Haiti in 1864.
The promise of Reconstruction crumbles
The Martinez family didn’t stay in Haiti long.
According to the passenger list, they returned to New Orleans in February 1866.
As was the experience for many émigrés to Haiti, they may have found the conditions difficult. It’s also possible that the successes of wartime Reconstruction in Louisiana encouraged them to reestablish their lives in New Orleans.
They returned to a state transformed by the abolition of slavery. Free people of color were at the forefront of the fight for civil rights and key architects behind a progressive, egalitarian state constitution that called for equal access to education for all citizens.
The Martinez children likely benefited – albeit briefly – from that provision. The 1870 census records show them all enrolled in school: Michel (14), Girard (12), Adele (9) and young Joseph Norval (6).
They would also witness the violent backlash to Reconstruction, which was especially intense in Louisiana. In 1866, a white mob laid siege to those attempting to amend the state’s constitution to enfranchise Black voters, in what became known as the Mechanics Institute Massacre. In the ensuing years, the state was gripped by ever more violence.
Joseph Norval Martinez married Louise Baquié in 1887, and they went on to have six children, all girls, in New Orleans. He worked as a cigar maker – a common enterprise for free men of color during the period – and later as a clerk.
The family was subjected to increasing segregation with the Separate Car Act, an 1890 Louisiana statute that separated train cars by race. The Supreme Court went on to uphold the Louisiana statute in 1896, enshrining the “separate but equal” doctrine throughout the South.
An American tale
Martinez and Baquié remained in New Orleans until 1910, at which point they joined the millions of other Black Americans who migrated from the South to the North and the West in the early decades of the 20th century, in what became known as the Great Migration. A significant portion, including Martinez and Baquié, ended up in Chicago.
Joseph Norval Martinez’s census records tell a complex story about the history of race in the U.S. Prior to 1900, he is listed as “m” for “mulatto.” In the 1900 census, he is listed as Black. And then in the 1910 census, he is listed as white.
The Martinez family could not dictate the racial descriptors assigned to them in the census, but they had some claim over birthplace and lineage. Against the backdrop of segregation, disenfranchisement and violence, Martinez appears to have claimed a lineage – Maltese – that the 1910 census categorized as white.
It is this – and so much more – that makes theirs a truly American story.
One thing we do know: Martinez reverted back to his original lineage after he and his family settled in Chicago. The 1920 census lists Martinez’s birthplace of record as Haiti.
Chelsea Stieber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The review process is careful for a reason – and perhaps the only real method of speeding it up is the one Zeldin has proposed: reassigning staff so there are more people to share the work.
The EPA, which regulates pesticides in the U.S., defines a pesticide as any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest, such as weeds, insects and organisms, that attack plants.
Pesticides are often referred to as toxins when found in food, water bodies or other places where they are not intended. But just because something is detected doesn’t mean it’s harmful to humans or wildlife. Toxicity depends on how much of the substance a person or animal is exposed to, how they are exposed to it – such as breathing it, or getting it on their skin – and for how long.
In 1970, the newly formed EPA took over responsibility for pesticides. It shifted its focus to the safety of consumers, farmworkers and the environment after the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act took effect in 1972.
The EPA determines whether the risks to people, animals or the environment are too high for the benefits the pesticide provides and whether any of those risks can be reduced. Sometimes a chemical’s risk can be lessened by recommending mitigation strategies such as wearing protective clothing, reducing environmental spread by barring the use of pesticides near the edges of a property, or decreasing the amount of a pesticide that’s legal to use.
The EPA uses all the available data on a pesticide to evaluate the dose that would be toxic to a range of organisms, as well as what residues the pesticide may leave on plants, in the soil and in water. The data is incorporated into computer models that estimate the potential amount of the chemical that may come in contact with humans, animals and the environment. Those models’ results are then combined with toxicity data to determine risk.
The models used by EPA scientists are very conservative. They often use significant overestimates of exposure, which means that when the models determine the risk of a pesticide is below a particular level, they are evaluating the risk posed by far higher quantities of the chemical than will ever actually be used. The risk from the amount actually used, therefore, is even less likely to cause harm.
If a pesticide is found to potentially be dangerous to a protected species or its habitat, the EPA will discuss those findings with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforce the Endangered Species Act, and determine what to do to ensure the species aren’t harmed.
The law’s requirement to reevaluate each pesticide every 15 years is based on the fact that science evolves and information becomes more precise. New data can shed light on potential risks and benefits, and even lead to pesticides being banned or more closely restricted.
Until recently, for instance, pesticide residues on plants, food and in the environment were measured in parts per million. Newer equipment can measure even smaller amounts, determining parts per billion, which is as precise as identifying one single second in 32 years. Some chemicals can even be measured in parts per trillion, equivalent to one drop of water in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. That means exposures can be more accurately measured. While some chemicals can be toxic in very small concentrations, most pesticides can be detected at levels that do not pose a biological risk.
Allowing a pesticide to be used
If the EPA determines that a pesticide’s risks outweigh its benefits, then its staff will conduct additional analyses to determine how to mitigate the risks enough to justify using it. If that’s not possible, the EPA will reject the application and not allow the pesticide to be used in the U.S.
If the agency determines that the benefits outweigh the risks, the EPA approves the pesticide for sale and use in the U.S. The law requires the pesticide come with a label providing a strict set of guidelines for how, when and where to use the pesticide.
The guidelines define amounts and timing for applying the pesticide safely, and specific restrictions or protection strategies to control the target pests while eliminating or minimizing harm to the environment, workers and the public.
Jeffrey Gore receives funding from the USDA-ARS and has received funding from various state and national commodity boards, and chemical and biotechnology companies in the past.
Jeffrey Gore served on the EPA’s Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Committee from 2019 to 2024.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11)
Legislation to lower taxes for working Americans, senior citizens and middle class families passed by House Ways & Means Committee today
(WASHINGTON, DC)– Today, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis announced that multiple pieces of legislation she authored, co-sponsored or championed are included in the House Ways and Means legislation that will be part of Republicans’ “One, Big, Beautiful Bill.” The bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee by a vote of 26-19 following an 18-hour marathon meeting that concluded at 8:00 AM this morning.
“Today is a great day for Staten Islanders and Brooklynites who are desperate for tax relief so they can keep more of their hard-earned money. I’m proud to have championed and successfully secured provisions into the tax package that will lower the taxes senior citizens pay on their Social Security income, increase the Standard Deduction and Child Tax Credit, and triple the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. These provisions will save individuals and families thousands of dollars annually, and with today’s passage out of Committee, we are a step closer to delivering relief.”
Malliotakis also worked to ensure the Alternative Minimum Tax which, prior to 2017, hurt families with middle incomes, did not return, and that the reduced income tax brackets established in 2017 will be made permanent. Additionally, the legislation provides tax incentives for the expansion of domestic factories and manufacturing operations to repatriate our supply chain, create American jobs and protect our national security.
Highlights of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” include:
Bonus Deduction For Seniors: Would increase the additional bonus deduction for seniors age 65 and over from $1,950 to $5,950 for single filers, and from $3,100 to $11,100 for married couples for individuals with an adjusted gross income (AGI) less than $75,000 and couples with an AGI less than $150,000. This deduction phases down as adjusted gross incomes increases to $175,000 for individuals and $350,000 for married couples.
Increases the SALT Deduction: The SALT deduction will be tripled to $30,000 covering 98% of NY-11.
Prevents the Return of the Alternative Minimum Tax:Successfully stops the return of the Alternative Minimum Tax that crushed middle-income families.
Increases the Standard Deduction:Increases the standard deduction to further lower taxable income for hardworking taxpayers and families to $16,300 for individuals and $32,600 for married couples.
Expands the Child Tax Credit: Builds on the 2017 expansion by increasing the credit by an additional $500 to $2,500.
No Tax on Auto Loan Interest: Makes auto loan interest on American-made car loans fully deductible for American families
Other existing legislation sponsored or cosponsored by Malliotakis included in the bill are:
H.R. 1801 The Employer Participation in Repayment Act–extends tax-free employer reimbursement for students and college graduates is included in the package. Originally enacted under the March 2020 CARES Act, this provision allows employers to provide up to $5,250 annually tax-free to cover student loan payments, tuition, books, and course-related supplies. It is currently set to expire at the end of 2025, and would be made permanent.
H.R. 833 The Educational Choice for Children Act– expands education freedom and opportunity for students, the legislation creates a tax credit for individuals and businesses that make charitable donations to nonprofit organizations offering scholarships. These scholarships help cover K–12 education expenses for qualified students attending public or private schools, including special needs programs.
For a full list of provisions that will benefit our economy, small businesses, individuals, and families visit:The House Committee on Ways and Means Website.
Here are three strategies that could help Detroit’s next mayor build a just and resilient city by focusing on transitional neighborhoods:
Stabilize housing and prevent displacement
Stable housing is the foundation of thriving communities.
Yet, housing instability in Detroit is both widespread and deeply entrenched. Before the pandemic, roughly 13% of Detroiters, or about 88,000 people, had been evicted or forced to move within the previous year. Families with children faced the highest risk.
Many Detroiters had little choice but to remain in deteriorating housing, crowd into shared living arrangements or relocate elsewhere because of an estimated shortfall of 24,000 habitable housing units.
While building more housing is essential, preventing displacement requires more than new construction. It also demands policies that preserve affordability and protect tenants. Researchers have found that household stabilization policies, such as legal representation in eviction court, rent control and property tax relief, have the most immediate impact.
In Detroit, addressing the wave of expiring Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, or LIHTC, units remains an urgent priority. When units reach the end of their compliance period in this federal program, typically 15 years, owners are no longer required to maintain affordable rents and can raise prices. This “conversion to market rate” often results in the loss of affordable housing for low-income residents.
Despite the city’s efforts, a 2023 analysis found that a substantial affordability gap persists, with many households unable to comfortably afford market-rate housing without spending more than 30% of their income, which is the standard set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for affordability.
Stabilizing Detroit’s housing market means ensuring that those who stayed during the hardest times are not pushed out as reinvestment takes hold. To achieve this, the next mayor could expand rental assistance and support tenant organizing efforts. This is particularly needed in transitional neighborhoods where renters come together to fight unfair evictions, improve housing conditions and push for more stable rents.
Reclaim and reimagine vacant land for community benefit
Many view Detroit’s vast tracks of vacant land, estimated in the hundreds of thousands of parcels, as blight. But they could also be seen as a public asset and a generational opportunity if brought together with the right public strategies.
Land trusts can turn empty lots into valuable neighborhood spaces. A land trust is a nonprofit that holds land for the community and keeps housing affordable over the long term, a key to preventing displacement.
Research also shows that greening strategies can improve community health, cohesion and equity. Cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland have launched urban greening initiatives that transform vacant lots into community gardens, small parks and tree-filled spaces. Research shows that these projects can help stabilize property values and strengthen neighborhoods by reducing blight, encouraging investment and creating safer, more attractive environments.
By collaborating with residents to cocreate a land use vision, the next mayor could prioritize community ownership and ecological restoration instead of speculative redevelopment.
Invest in social infrastructure
Neighborhood strength is about more than buildings — it’s about people.
Detroit’s neighborhoods have long faced a lack of investment in schools, recreation centers and social services. This leaves families vulnerable and fuels cycles of poverty and criminalization. Under these conditions, young people, especially Black and brown youth, are more likely to be policed, punished and pushed into the criminal justice system.
A 2021 study found that the Detroit Public Schools Community District reported 2% of its students experienced homelessness, despite 16% of households with children reporting recent eviction or forced moves. This gap reveals major service and awareness gaps. And when families fall through those gaps, it’s often children who suffer the most.
Addressing these gaps requires investing in mental health services, youth development programs and violence prevention, rather than relying solely on policing or incarceration. These approaches recognize that true public safety comes from access to stable jobs, quality education and supportive services that meet people’s health, housing and social needs. Some of the most effective strategies include restorative justice in schools and outreach to older adults and residents experiencing homelessness.
The next mayor has the chance to shift the narrative by centering housing justice, reclaiming land for public good and investing in the people who make Detroit a city worth fighting for.
Deyanira Nevárez Martínez is a trustee of the Lansing School District Board of Education and is currently a candidate for the Lansing City Council Ward 2.
Sitting in my doctor’s examination room, I was surprised when she told me, “Genetics don’t really matter for chronic disease.” Rather, she continued, “A person’s lifestyle, what they eat, and how much they exercise, determine whether they get heart disease.”
As a researcher who studies the genetics of disease, I don’t fully disagree – lifestyle factors play a large role in determining who gets a disease and who doesn’t. But they are far from the entire story. Since scientists mapped out the human genome in 2003, researchers have learned that genetics also play a large role in a person’s disease risk.
Studies that focus on estimating disease heritability – that is, how much genetic differences explain differences in disease risk – usually attribute a substantial fraction of disease variation to genetics. Mutations across the entire genome seem to play a role in diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, which is about 17% heritable, and schizophrenia, which is about 80% heritable. In contrast to diseases such as Tay-Sachs or cystic fibrosis, where mutations in a single gene cause a disease, chronic diseases tend to be polygenic, meaning they’re influenced by multiple mutations at many genes across the whole genome.
Every complex disease has both genetic and environmental risk factors. Most researchers study these factors separately because of technical challenges and a lack of large, uniform datasets. Although some have devised techniques to overcome these challenges, they haven’t yet been applied to a comprehensive set of diseases and environmental exposures.
In our recently published research, my colleague Alkes Priceand I developed tools to leverage newly available datasets to quantify the joint effects that genetic and environmental risk factors have on the biology underlying disease.
Aspirin, genetics and colon cancer
To illustrate the effect gene-environment interactions have on disease, let’s consider the example of aspirin use and colon cancer.
In 2001, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center were studying how regularly taking aspirin decreased the risk of colon cancer. They wondered whether genetic mutations that slowed down how quickly the body broke down aspirin – meaning aspirin levels in the body would stay high longer – might increase the drug’s protective effect against colon cancer. They were right: Only patients with slow aspirin metabolism had a decreased risk of colon cancer, indicating that the effectiveness of a drug can depend on a person’s genetics.
This raises the question of how genetics and different combinations of environmental exposures, such as the medications a patient is taking, can affect a person’s disease risk and how effective a treatment will be for them. How many cases of genetic variations directly influencing a drug’s effectiveness are there?
Rather than ‘nature versus nurture,’ a more accurate way of describing gene-environment interactions is ‘nature through nurture.’
The gene-environment interaction of colon cancer and aspirin is unusual. It involves a mutation at a single location in the genome that has a big effect on colon cancer risk. The past 25 years of human genetics have shown researchers that these sorts of large-effect mutations are rare.
For example, an analysis found that the median effect of a genetic variant on height is only 0.14 millimeters. Instead, there are usually hundreds of variations that each have small but cumulative effects on a person’s disease risk, making them hard to find.
How could researchers detect these small gene-environment interactions across hundreds of spots in the genome?
Polygenic gene-environment interactions
We started by looking for cases where genetic variants across the genome showed different effects on a person’s biology in different environments. Rather than trying to detect the small effects of each genetic variant one at a time, we aggregated data across the entire genome to turn these small individual effects into a large, genome-wide effect.
Using data from the UK Biobank – a large database containing genetic and health data from about 500,000 people – we estimated the influence of millions of genetic variants on 33 complex traits and diseases, such as height and asthma. We grouped people based on environmental exposures such as air pollution, cigarette smoking and dietary patterns. Finally, we developed statistical tests to study how the effects of genetics on disease risk and biomarker levels varied with these exposures.
We found three types of gene-environment interactions.
First, we found 19 pairs of complex traits and environmental exposures that are influenced by genetic variants across the genome. For example, the effect of genetics on white blood cell levels in the body differed between smokers and nonsmokers. When we compared the effects of genetic mutations between the two groups, the strength of gene-environment interaction suggested that smoking changes the way genetics influence white blood cell counts.
Second, we looked for cases where the heritability of a trait varies depending on the environment. In other words, rather than some genetic variants having different effects in different environments, all of them are made stronger in some environments. For example, we found that the heritability of body mass index – the ratio of weight to height – increased by 5% for the most active people. This means genetics plays a larger role in BMI the more active you are. We found 28 such trait-environment pairs, including HDL cholesterol levels and alcohol consumption, as well as neuroticism and self-reported sleeplessness.
Third, we looked for a type of gene-environment interaction called proportional or joint amplification. Here, genetic effects grow with increased environmental exposures, and vice versa. This results in a relatively equal balance of genetic and environmental effects on a trait. For example, as self-reported time spent watching television increased, both genetic and environmental variance increased for a person’s waist-to-hip ratio. This likely reflects the influence of other behaviors related to time spent watching television, such as decreased physical exercise. We found 15 such trait-environment pairs, including lung capacity and smoking, and glucose levels and alcohol consumption.
Environmental factors, such as cigarette smoke and the medications you take, can interact with your genes in unexpected ways. jaouad.K/iStock via Getty Images Plus
We also looked for cases where biological sex, instead of environmental exposures, influenced interactions with genes. Previous work had shown evidence of these gene-by-sexinteractions, and we found additional examples of the effects of biological sex on all three types of gene-environment interactions. For example, we found that neuroticism had genetic effects that varied across sex.
Finally, we also found that multiple types of gene-environment interactions can affect the same trait. For example, the effects of genetics on systolic blood pressure varied by sex, indicating that some genetic variants have different effects in men and women.
New gene-environment models
How do we make sense of these distinct types of gene-environment interactions? We argue that they can help researchers better understand the underlying biological mechanisms that lead from genetic and environmental risks to disease, and how genetic variation leads to differences in disease risk between people.
Genes related to the same function work together in a unit called a pathway. For example, we can say that genes involved in making heme – the component of red blood cells that carries oxygen – are collectively part of the heme synthesis pathway. The resulting amounts of heme circulating in the body influence other biological processes, including ones that could lead to the development of anemia and cancer. Our model suggests that environmental exposures modify different parts of these pathways, which may explain why we saw different types of gene-environment interactions.
In the future, these findings could lead to treatments that are more personalized based on a person’s genome. For example, clinicians might one day be able to tell whether someone is more likely to decrease their risk of heart disease by taking weight loss drugs or by exercising.
Our results show how studying gene-environment interactions can tell researchers not only about which genetic and environmental factors increase your risk of disease, but also what goes wrong in the body where.
Arun Durvasula has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Science.
High-performance computing, or HPC for short, might sound like something only scientists use in secret labs, but it’s actually one of the most important technologies in the world today. From predicting the weather to finding new medicines and even training artificial intelligence, high-performance computing systems help solve problems that are too hard or too big for regular computers.
This technology has helped make huge discoveries in science and engineering over the past 40 years. But now, high-performance computing is at a turning point, and the choices the government, researchers and the technology industry make today could affect the future of innovation, national security and global leadership.
High-performance computing systems are basically superpowerful computers made up of thousands or even millions of processors working together at the same time. They also use advanced memory and storage systems to move and save huge amounts of data quickly.
With all this power, high-performance computing systems can run extremely detailed simulations and calculations. For example, they can simulate how a new drug interacts with the human body, or how a hurricane might move across the ocean. They’re also used in fields such as automotive design, energy production and space exploration.
Lately, high-performance computing has become even more important because of artificial intelligence. AI models, especially the ones used for things such as voice recognition and self-driving cars, require enormous amounts of computing power to train. High-performance computing systems are well suited for this job. As a result, AI and high-performance computing are now working closely together, pushing each other forward.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s supercomputer El Capitan is currently the world’s fastest.
I’m a computer scientist with a long career working in high-performance computing. I’ve observed that high-performance computing systems are under more pressure than ever, with higher demands on the systems for speed, data and energy. At the same time, I see that high-performance computing faces some serious technical problems.
Technical challenges
One big challenge for high-performance computing is the gap between how fast processors are and how well memory systems can keep up with the processors’ output. Imagine having a superfast car but being stuck in traffic – it doesn’t help to have speed if the road can’t handle it. In the same way, high-performance computing processors often have to wait around because memory systems can’t send data quickly enough. This makes the whole system less efficient.
Another problem is energy use. Today’s supercomputers use a huge amount of electricity, sometimes as much as a small town. That’s expensive and not very good for the environment. In the past, as computer parts got smaller, they also used less power. But that trend, called Dennard scaling, stopped in the mid-2000s. Now, making computers more powerful usually means they use more energy too. To fix this, researchers are looking for new ways to design both the hardware and the software of high-performance computing systems.
There’s also a problem with the kinds of chips being made. The chip industry is mainly focused on AI, which works fine with lower-precision math like 16-bit or 8-bit numbers. But many scientific applications still need 64-bit precision to be accurate. The greater the bit count, the more digits to the right of the decimal point a chip can process, hence the greater precision. If chip companies stop making the parts that scientists need, then it could become harder to do important research.
This report discusses how trends in semiconductor manufacturing and commercial priorities may diverge from the needs of the scientific computing community, and how a lack of tailored hardware could hinder progress in research.
One solution might be to build custom chips for high-performance computing, but that’s expensive and complicated. Still, researchers are exploring new designs, including chiplets – small chips that can be combined like Lego bricks – to make high-precision processors more affordable.
A global race
Globally, many countries are investing heavily in high-performance computing. Europe has the EuroHPC program, which is building supercomputers in places such as Finland and Italy. Their goal is to reduce dependence on foreign technology and take the lead in areas such as climate modeling and personalized medicine. Japan built the Fugaku supercomputer, which supports both academic research and industrial work. China has also made major advances, using homegrown technology to build some of the world’s fastest computers. All of these countries’ governments understand that high-performance computing is key to their national security, economic strength and scientific leadership.
The U.S.-China supercomputer rivalry explained.
The United States, which has been a leader in high-performance computing for decades, recently completed the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project. This project created computers that can perform a billion billion operations per second. That’s an incredible achievement. But even with that success, the U.S. still doesn’t have a clear, long-term plan for what comes next. Other countries are moving quickly, and without a national strategy, the U.S. risks falling behind.
I believe that a U.S. national strategy should include funding new machines and training for people to use them. It would also include partnerships with universities, national labs and private companies. Most importantly, the plan would focus not just on hardware but also on the software and algorithms that make high-performance computing useful.
Hopeful signs
One exciting area for the future is quantum computing. This is a completely new way of doing computation based on the laws of physics at the atomic level. Quantum computers could someday solve problems that are impossible for regular computers. But they are still in the early stages and are likely to complement rather than replace traditional high-performance computing systems. That’s why it’s important to keep investing in both kinds of computing.
The good news is that some steps have already been taken. The CHIPS and Science Act, passed in 2022, provides funding to expand chip manufacturing in the U.S. It also created an office to help turn scientific research into real-world products. The task force Vision for American Science and Technology, launched on Feb. 25, 2025, and led by American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Sudip Parikh, aims to marshal nonprofits, academia and industry to help guide the government’s decisions. Private companies are also spending billions of dollars on data centers and AI infrastructure.
All of these are positive signs, but they don’t fully solve the problem of how to support high-performance computing in the long run. In addition to short-term funding and infrastructure investments, this means:
Long-term federal investment in high-performance computing R&D, including advanced hardware, software and energy-efficient architectures.
Procurement and deployment of leadership-class computing systems at national labs and universities.
Workforce development, including training in parallel programming, numerical methods and AI-HPC integration.
Hardware road map alignment, ensuring commercial chip development remains compatible with the needs of scientific and engineering applications.
Sustainable funding models that prevent boom-and-bust cycles tied to one-off milestones or geopolitical urgency.
Public-private collaboration to bridge gaps between academic research, industry innovation and national security needs.
High-performance computing is more than just fast computers. It’s the foundation of scientific discovery, economic growth and national security. With other countries pushing forward, the U.S. is under pressure to come up with a clear, coordinated plan. That means investing in new hardware, developing smarter software, training a skilled workforce and building partnerships between government, industry and academia. If the U.S. does that, the country can make sure high-performance computing continues to power innovation for decades to come.
Jack Dongarra receives funding from the NSF and the DOE.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China will enhance the control over every link in the production and supply chain of strategic minerals to prevent their illegal outflow and safeguard national security, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.
Strengthening the export control of strategic mineral resources is crucial to national security and development interests, according to a ministry spokesperson.
On Monday, a national meeting convened in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, stressed the need to strengthen “full-chain control over strategic mineral exports.” The meeting was attended by officials from 10 central government departments and seven strategic mineral-rich provincial-level regions including Inner Mongolia and Jiangxi.
“To effectively prevent the illegal outflow of strategic minerals, control must start at the source and be strengthened across the entire chain, including mining, smelting, processing, transportation, manufacturing, sales, and exports,” the spokesperson said.
Each department needs to effectively carry out day-to-day supervision to promptly identify risks and hidden dangers, addressing each case as it arises.
Localities should strengthen their supervisory responsibilities, keep track of the production, operation, and flow of strategic minerals, and guide enterprises to enhance their awareness and capability of compliance, ensuring that control measures for strategic minerals are effectively implemented, according to the spokesperson.
The Leisure & Cultural Services Department’s ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritage) Highlight Tours, which brings the public to explore ICH-related traditional craftsmanship or other items, and feel the richness and diversity of ICH will open for registration on May 16.
As the highlight programme of the first Hong Kong ICH Month in June, there will be a total of 15 field trips to Yau Tsim Mong, Tsuen Wan, Tai Po, Sha Tin, Eastern and Islands districts respectively.
Each tour of 20 participants will be conducted in Cantonese and run for approximately two hours.
Interested parties can register online from 10.30am on May 16 to 6.30pm on May 17. Admission is free. In case of excess applications, all quotas will be allocated by ballot.
Successful applicants will receive a confirmation email by May 23.
Presented by the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau and organised by the department’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, Hong Kong ICH Month’s other highlight activities include carnivals, fun days, an exhibition, a seminar, talks and workshops.
As the UK marks Foster Care Fortnight this May, Foster for East Midlands Councils is celebrating the milestone of a successful first 12 months of foster carer recruitment across the region.
Formed in April 2024, Foster for East Midlands is a collaborative initiative between Derby City, Derbyshire, Nottingham City, and Nottinghamshire Councils, funded by the Department for Education. United under one name, the councils are working together to find loving, local foster homes for children in their communities.
This regional approach brings together years of experience, good practice, and shared values. Instead of competing to recruit the same foster carers, the councils now work together making it quicker and easier for prospective foster carers to begin their journey.
Among the new carers are Sharnie and Zak, who live with their young daughter. Inspired to foster through Foster for East Midlands Councils, they are now encouraging others to explore this life-changing path.
Foster carer Sharnie said:
We chose to foster through Foster for East Midlands Councils because we knew it would connect us to a supportive network within our local community. Foster carers play a vital role in helping councils provide the best care for children, and it’s comforting to know we’re part of a system that genuinely prioritises their wellbeing. The ongoing support and resources we’ve received from our local council have been invaluable—whether it’s training, guidance, or just someone to talk to when we need it.
The moment we were approved to foster was incredible. We were excited but also nervous at first, and everyone we’ve met has been so kind and helpful. We’ve never felt alone in this journey. It’s truly rewarding to know we’re making a positive impact on children’s lives right here in our own area.
Over the past year, Foster for East Midlands Councils has also implemented the Mockingbird programme—a global award-winning model that creates extended families of foster carers for mutual support. Led by The Fostering Network, Mockingbird nurtures relationships between children, carers, and support networks, promoting resilience and long-term stability. Following its success, two new constellations will launch this year in Nottinghamshire and Derby City, extending support to even more carers.
Highlights from the first year of Foster for East Midlands Councils (April 2024 – March 2025) are:
1,204 enquiries received
420 converted into initial applications
215 initial home visits completed
110 households submitted a full application
19 households approved following panel taking the total across the two counties to 58 over the year
4 successful Mockingbird constellations
Councillor Paul Hezelgrave, Lead Council’s Cabinet Member for Foster East Midlands said:
The launch of Foster for East Midlands Councils is a big step forward in how we find and support foster carers in our region. By working together, we’ve created a more joined-up, user-friendly service for anyone thinking about fostering. This teamwork helps us break down barriers and make the process simpler, more consistent, and better suited to the needs of carers and the children we look after.
At the heart of this partnership is a shared goal: to build a strong, supportive system that helps more children stay close to home—near their schools, friends, and the communities they know. We understand how important a stable, loving home is for a child’s future, and with this new approach, we’re determined to offer that chance to even more young people across the East Midlands.
Janet Daby, Minister for Children and Families said:
As a former fostering social work registered manager, I’ve had the privilege of seeing so many children flourish thanks to foster care. It’s fantastic to see the success of Foster for East Midlands Councils, enabling more children in the region to grow up in safe, loving homes.
As part of our Plan for Change, we want to encourage more people to transform a child’s life chances through fostering, which is why we’re investing £40 million across the country to increase the number of foster homes and strengthen support for families.
Foster for East Midlands Councils welcomes people from all backgrounds, what matters most is your dedication and your desire to support children who need a safe and loving home.
If you’re considering fostering find out more visit Foster for East Midlands web page, call 03033 132 950 or email hello@fosterforeastmidlands.org.uk
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
RIYADH, May 14 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa here on Wednesday to discuss normalizing bilateral ties and expressed readiness to reach an agreement with Iran.
D. Trump’s meeting with A. al-Sharaa – the first meeting between the US president and the Syrian leader in several decades – took place on the sidelines of D. Trump’s summit with the leaders of the Persian Gulf countries.
During the summit, D. Trump noted in his speech that the normalization of relations between the US and Syria began with his meeting with A. al-Sharaa.
He also called on Syria to join the US-brokered Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel, even though the Israeli military has regularly carried out air strikes and ground operations in Syria since the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
On Tuesday, D. Trump announced at an investment forum in Saudi Arabia that he would lift sanctions on Syria.
During the summit with Gulf leaders, the US president also mentioned the ongoing indirect talks with Iran on Tehran’s nuclear program and the lifting of US sanctions.
“I want to make a deal with Iran… but for that to happen, they [Iran] must stop sponsoring terrorism, stop waging bloody proxy wars, and permanently abandon their goal of building nuclear weapons,” the US president said, calling on “all countries” to comply with the sanctions he had just imposed on Iran, which he called “the most destructive force” in the region.
Trump’s statements provoked a sharp reaction from Iran – the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Trump was “misleading, incorrectly indicating the true source of the threat.” -0-
“I thought I’d just end up as a postmaster in my hometown,” says Muthuramalingam with a soft chuckle. “But life had other plans”.
It all began at a Lions Club eye camp, where Muthuramalingam got involved in helping as a volunteer. He had no medical training, only a strong desire to help.. His dedication caught the attention of visiting doctors and trainers who saw potential in him. Encouraged by their support, he began learning about eye care and refraction—planting the seeds of what would become his life’s mission.
That decision changed his life and brought hope to countless others. Armed with simple tools and a firm resolve, Muthuramalingam rode his bicycle from one village to another, transforming school verandas and shaded spots beneath trees into makeshift clinics. His goal was clear: to restore sight to those overlooked by regular healthcare.
“Eye care is not just treating vision,” he says. “It is giving people a whole new life.”
Over the years, he witnessed community eye care evolve – from humble beginnings with basic tools to well-equipped camps with trained teams and modern facilities. Still, the heart of the work stayed focused on reaching people who needed help the most.
One of Muthuramalingam’s most cherished memeories comes from a school screening in Melur, a town near Madurai. There, he met a 12-year-old boy who struggled in school and appeared withdrawn. The reason: a severe refractive error. “Once he started wearing eyeglasses, he became one of the best students in his class,” Muthuramalingam recalls with pride in his voice. “That single pair of eyeglasses completely changed his path in life.”
Muthuramalingam estimates that over his decades-long career, he has screened and treated tens of thousands across Tamil Nadu. From Madurai to Salem, Erode to Coimbatore, he has travelled tirelessly, village by village, ensuring that no one is left in the dark.
The journey has not been easy – marked by cultural barriers, grueling travel , and constant exhaustion . Yet, the community trust and the visible impact keep him going. “Back then, we handled everything—planning, counseling, and eye exams. Now there’s support , but the mission remains the same,” he says.
Muthuramalingam still organizes school screenings and guides families through care. What motivates him to keep going? “A child smiling after seeing for the first time. That’s all I need,” he says.
As India grapples with rising preventable vision problems, his journey highlights the crucial role of grassroots health workers . “We can’t sit back and wait for people to come to the hospitals,” he explains. “We have to reach them. That’s how we build stronger, healthier communities .”
In a time when most step back from work, Muthuramalingam refuses to slow down. “The body might feel its age,” he says, “but the spirit should never get tired.”
Photo credits: Aravind Eye Foundation
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Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Hong Kong Customs on May 12 and yesterday (May 13) seized about 21 kilograms of suspected ketamine and about 1.1kg of suspected cannabis buds with a total estimated market value of about $10.25 million at Hong Kong International Airport and in Sau Mau Ping.
Through risk assessment, Customs on May 12 inspected an air cargo consignment, declared as audio cable and arriving in Hong Kong from Belgium, at the airport. The consignee address was a residential address in Sau Mau Ping. Upon inspection, Customs officers found about 21kg of suspected ketamine, with an estimated market value of about $10 million, concealed in the consignment.
After a follow-up investigation, Customs officers conducted a controlled delivery operation yesterday (May 13) and arrested a male consignee, aged 24, in the aforesaid residential unit in Sau Mau Ping. Customs officers later searched the premises and further seized about 1.1kg of suspected cannabis buds with an estimated market value of about $250,000.
The arrested person has been charged with two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug. He will appear at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow (May 15).
Customs will continue to step up enforcement against drug trafficking activities through intelligence analysis. The department also reminds members of the public to stay alert and not to participate in drug trafficking activities for monetary return. They must not accept hiring or delegation from another party to carry controlled items into and out of Hong Kong. They are also reminded not to carry unknown items for other people, nor to release their personal data or home address to others for receiving parcels or goods.
Customs will continue to apply a risk assessment approach and focus on selecting passengers from high-risk regions for clearance to combat transnational drug trafficking activities.
Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.
Members of the public may report any suspected drug trafficking activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).
“This will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or undermine the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives,” the Office of Personnel Management proposal reads.
Trump supports these changes and says they can help remove corrupt or unqualified workers. Critics maintain that the changes will allow the administration to fire federal employees the administration sees as not supporting its agenda.
Trump is expected to sign another executive order in the next few weeks that would formally reclassify certain federal job positions as Schedule Policy/Career.
Here are three stories from The Conversation’s archive about the rights of federal civil servants.
Former U.S. Agency for International Development employees terminated by the Trump administration collect their belongings at USAID headquarters in February 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Gety Images
1. When a president fired half of the civil service
Before Trump was elected to a second term in November 2024, he promised he would fire as many as 50,000 civil servants and replace them with people loyal to him.
Nearly 200 years before that, President Andrew Jackson took office in 1828 and promptly fired about half of the government’s civil service. He replaced these employees with political loyalists. This shift became known as the spoils system.
“The result was not only an utterly incompetent administration, but widespread corruption,” write Sidney Shapiro, a professor of law at Wake Forest University, and Joseph P. Tomain, a professor of law at the University of Cincinnati.
Samuel Swartwout, for example, was a Jackson former Army friend whom he selected to serve as collector of customs in New York. The job was well paid and prestigious, and “involved collecting taxes and fees on imported goods that arrived in the nation’s busiest port.”
“But a congressional investigation showed that Swartwout had stolen a little more than US$1.2 million during his tenure, or about $40 million in today’s dollars,” Shapiro and Tomain write.
Jackson also found that he could not legally influence hiring at all federal agencies, including the U.S. Post Office, and easily place his own high-level appointees there.
Today, some federal workers, including U.S. Border Patrol agents, would be exempt from Trump’s reclassification plans.
An 1830 political cartoon by Thomas Nast about civil service reform shows five people bowing down at a statue of Andrew Jackson. Fotosearch/Getty Images
2. Federal workers have protections against partisan attacks
Federal workers have had federal legal protections for their hiring and firing in place since the 1880s. This has helped federal employees thwart moves by presidents like Jackson aiming to “control a lot of workers who would serve the president,” and not the American people, according to James L. Perry, a scholar of public affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington.
The 1883 Pendleton Act ensures that “government workers are hired based on their skills and abilities, not their political views,” Perry says. Congress updated this law in 1978 with the Civil Service Reform Act, which provides additional “protections for workers against being fired for political reasons.”
“Those rules cover about 99% of staff in the federal civil service. Currently, there are just about 4,000 political appointees,” Perry told Jeff Inglis, an editor at The Conversation U.S., in February 2025.
Perry points out that the Trump administration’s proposed restructuring would also likely be unpopular among Americans. As many as 87% of Americans have said they want a merit-based, politically neutral civil services, according to Perry
Leading into Trump’s second term, federal government workers were advised by colleagues to “stay calm and keep their heads down,” and draw minimal attention to their work. This includes not directly using terms like climate change and human rights, which they correctly thought the administration would target, according to Jaime L. Kucinskas, a sociologist at Hamilton College.
There were some unknowns about how Trump’s second administration would act. But many civil servants also likely understood that “this pressure is real” under the new administration and could affect their day-to-day work, Kucinskas writes.
Kucinskas interviewed 66 career civil servants from 2017 through 2020. A number of these workers told Kucinskas that working under the first Trump administration caused their mental health and morale to decline. The experience also worsened their productivity and innovation at work.
“Among a sizable proportion of the people I spoke with, the pressures at work became too much; about a quarter of those I spoke with quit during the first Trump administration,” Kucinskas wrote in January 2025.
Some civil servants chose to not speak openly about their work experiences with the first Trump administration, including mid-level civil service workers who watched as political appointees “fought over policy agendas levels above them,” according to Kucinskas. Other employees tried to simply keep their work moving, regardless of the politics at play.
“Yet, even among those who felt most alone, I found they had many experiences in common with others who also felt isolated in trying to walk a precarious moral and ethical tightrope between their desire to faithfully serve the elected president – under chaotic leadership and insufficient and sometimes questionably legal guidance,” Kucinskas wrote, “and do quality work upholding the law and benefiting the nation and the American public
Zug, Switzerland , May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Waterfall Network, a rapidly growing BlockDAG ecosystem focused on scalability and seamless user experience, today announced the launch of Cascadify and The Lamb, two new tools designed to enhance the Web3 builder experience.
Built on the Waterfall Network, these two complementary platforms offer end-to-end support—from MVP development to secure, transparent fundraising. Together, they provide the technical infrastructure and launch support Web3 projects need to thrive.
Cascadify and The Lamb benefit from Waterfall’s toolkits, responsive developer support, and ecosystem momentum, helping them deploy faster, engage users efficiently, and reduce technical risk early in the product lifecycle. This powerful combination acts as a CTO-like resource for projects, allowing teams to go from idea to deployment to funding without building from scratch or relying on multiple fragmented services.
“In the fast-paced world of Web3, startups often face a tough challenge: how to quickly move from idea to product to fundraising, all without a full in-house technical team. That’s where Cascadify and The Lamb come in,” said Sergii Grybniak, Head of Research at Waterfall Network. “These two projects fill a critical gap in the builder’s journey from MVP to community launch. Waterfall’s high-speed DAG architecture and low fees enable them to scale fast and securely.”
Cascadify is a modular Web3 framework that allows startups to quickly assemble and deploy dApps. Instead of rebuilding the same backend and frontend logic, Cascadify offers a flexible environment where teams can customize user flows, choose only the modules they need, deploy on their own infrastructure or in the cloud. This drastically reduces time-to-market, allowing developers to focus on growth, design, and user experience.
The Lamb is a compliant OTC token investing platform that wraps allocations into NFTs. Each NFT contains structured vesting logic, giving investors a clear view of unlock schedules, timelines, and project information, all while maintaining decentralization and transparency. With built-in KYC, support for stablecoins and fiat, and monthly withdrawal options, The Lamb is built for serious builders and early supporters alike.
One of the first projects launching on Cascadify and the Waterfall Network is Petami, a fresh take on traditional DeFi staking that transforms it into an emotional, gamified experience. Instead of passively blocking tokens, users feed and care for adorable NFT pets. These pets visibly respond to care and nurturing, evolving both emotionally and economically depending on the player’s actions. It was Cascadify and its rich set of different mechanics that allowed for a quick transition into development and more time to focus on the idea and user experience.
Waterfall Network, launched in 2024, is uniquely positioned to support ecosystem-level growth. Its DAG structure enables parallel processing across multiple levels, significantly increasing throughput while keeping costs low. With more than 20 projects already deployed or in progress, Waterfall is rapidly becoming a go-to network for developers seeking both performance and decentralization.
About Waterfall Waterfall is a leading layer one (L1) architecture aiming to provide a solution for scalability and decentralization to help dAPP developers change the world. Waterfall’s Directed Acyclic Graph (“DAG”) achieves and allows it to run a validator node from any device, including low-cost laptops and mobile phones in future. Waterfall is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible, allowing for portability of decentralized applications (dAPPs), and has very low hardware requirements for the participants to become validators.
North Reading, MA, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Powerdyne International, Inc. (Ticker: PWDY) (“Powerdyne” and / or the “Company”) announces A Letter to the Shareholders Update.
Dear Shareholders,
We would like to thank all our shareholders for their patience and perseverance as Powerdyne International, Inc. (the “Company”, “Powerdyne”, “us”, “we”) continues to grow and evolve.
In the coming year, Powerdyne will continue our focus on two key objectives: up-listing PDI to OTCQB and expanding the company through internal growth, acquisitions, or mergers.
With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and the initiative to repatriate manufacturing to the United States, CM Tech anticipates a heightened demand for its custom-designed motors. Although CM Tech does not currently supply the AI market directly, it provides motors for semiconductor equipment manufacturers who produce automated machinery for fabricating silicon wafers used in microprocessor chips. These chips are integral to AI, smart televisions, mobile phones, computers, and almost all smart devices. The AI chip market is projected to exceed $90 billion by the end of 2025 and to grow beyond $100 billion in 2026 and subsequent years.
Regarding CM Technology, we have been engaged by a prominent international corporation headquartered in the United States to collaborate on the custom design of a motor for their new product line. We have reviewed the design specifications, submitted preliminary designs along with price quotes, and are currently awaiting their feedback. We will keep you informed as further developments occur.
In January, we also engaged a highly experienced outside sales representative to enhance our business by expanding our current customer base and exploring new opportunities in other motor industries, such as medical devices, unmanned vehicles (UAVs), and other potential applications.
As mentioned in the October shareholder update, our goal of acquiring motor companies was to expand CM Tech’s market exposure to new sectors. We are also focused on growing our business through increased sales, which can be more cost-effective and less risk adverse. We will add critical staff to support exponential growth and eliminate redundant staffing to enhance profitability and increase shareholder value.
At the end of December, discussions resumed with a company regarding a potential acquisition. In late January, an NDA and a Letter of Intent to Purchase were signed. After reviewing their financials, it was determined that the company’s profits did not justify the asking price. As a result, the Letter of Intent to Purchase was rescinded. Another non-disclosure agreement has since been signed with a new motor company, which is currently preparing their financials to meet the auditor’s requirements. Powerdyne will conduct a thorough due diligence to ensure any acquisition makes financial sense. With pre-approved funding still available, other potential acquisitions will continue to be explored.
We plan to present continued updates to the overall strategic plans for Powerdyne as we advance through 2025 and beyond. Our success hinges on sustaining conservative growth, managing costs effectively, and identifying additional companies that align with Powerdyne’s business model. Our objective remains the same to deliver maximum value and return on investment for our loyal shareholders through ongoing growth and profitability.
Yours sincerely,
Jim O’Rourke
Chief Executive Officer
Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
The use of the word “Company” or “Powerdyne” refers to Powerdyne International, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries. Certain statements in this press release contain or may suggest “forward-looking” information (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that involves risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different from expectations. Statements contained herein that look forward in time that include everything other than historical information, involve risk and uncertainties that may affect the Company’s actual results, including statements relating to future investments, deployment of capital, growth, and creation of long-term stockholder value. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,’ “expects”, “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” and similar statements. Powerdyne may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Current Reports on Form 8-K, in its annual report to stockholders, in press releases and other written materials, and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and there are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by the Company, including but not limited to, plans and objectives of management for future operations or products, the market acceptance or future success of our products and our financial performance. The Company cautions that these forward-looking statements are further qualified by other factors including but not limited to, those set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 (available at http://www.sec.gov). Powerdyne undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
About Powerdyne International, Inc.
Powerdyne International, Inc. (www.Powerdyneinternational.com) now consists of two wholly owned subsidiaries CM Technology LLC and Frame One LLC. CM Technology is a New England-based motor manufacturer which has been in business for over 19 years. CM Technology specializes in the design and custom building of industrial servomotors both brush and brushless motor designs. CM Tech’s current market focus is on the niche motor demands for low volume, high-quality cost-effective motors which are primarily used in industrial robotics for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. robots.
Frame One LLC is a custom picture framing shop located in North Reading, MA. Frame One has been in business since 2006 and brings with it a strong client base consisting of local schools, colleges, artist guilds, artists, interior decorators/designers, museums, photographers, art galleries and theaters.
NEW YORK, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN), the technology-powered real estate brokerage, has selected Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the largest independent sell-side advertising company, as its preferred SSP to power data-driven deals. Leveraging Magnite’s programmatic technology, Redfin can connect advertisers with exclusive real estate audiences at key moments in their home-buying journey.
Redfin Media uniquely connects brands with 46 million upwardly mobile customers at each stage of their buying journey. With a vast network including Redfin, Rent.com, ApartmentGuide.com and WalkScore.com, the partnership delivers national scale and hyper-local targeting in a brand safe environment. Using sophisticated intent signals, Redfin uniquely knows when people move, where they are going, and what type of home they are looking for, enabling marketers to reach high-value, hard-to-reach customers.
“As we build Redfin’s Commerce Media Network, we’re partnering with leading brands and platforms to connect high-intent homebuyers and movers with the right products and services at pivotal moments in their journey—creating meaningful value for both advertisers and consumers,” said Conny Mirza, General Manager of Digital Ads and Partnerships at Redfin.
“Our collaboration with Magnite gives us the tools to package and activate that opportunity through scalable, transparent programmatic solutions,” said Amit Grover, Head of Programmatic Partnerships at Redfin.
“Redfin is a trusted source for millions of homebuyers and renters and their insights provide advertisers with a unique opportunity to reach consumers at key decision-making moments,” said Ashley Wheeler, SVP, DV+ Platform at Magnite. “We’re excited to work closely with the Redfin team to enrich their omnichannel inventory and create more impactful advertising experiences.”
About Magnite
We’re Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising company. Publishers use our technology to monetize their content across all screens and formats including CTV, online video, display, and audio. The world’s leading agencies and brands trust our platform to access brand-safe, high-quality ad inventory and execute billions of advertising transactions each month. Anchored in bustling New York City, sunny Los Angeles, mile high Denver, historic London, colorful Singapore, and down under in Sydney, Magnite has offices across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC.
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, and title insurance services. We run the country’s #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we’ve saved customers more than $1.8 billion in commissions. We serve approximately 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.
