Supporters of opposition candidate and former President John Dramani Mahama celebrate his victory in Accra, Ghana, on Dec. 8, 2024. AP Photo/Jerome Delay
It is also the first presidential vote to take place in Africa in 2025, to be followed by contests later this year in Ivory Coast, Malawi, Guinea, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, Seychelles and Cameroon.
Of particular interest is whether these elections will continue the trend of last year’s votes. As the continent with the youngest population, Africa’s youth was crucial throughout 2024 to a series of seismic political shifts – not least the removal of incumbents and changes in the governing status quo in Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.
Indeed, analysis of the 2024 African Youth Survey – one of the most comprehensive continent-wide polls of people age 18 to 24 – and election results of that year show a clear lack of optimism among the youth.
Unemployment, the rising cost of livingand corruption are primary factors driving youth dissatisfaction on the continent. For example, 59% of South African youth considered their country to be heading the wrong direction – and that’s not hard to imagine given that the country’s youth unemployment rate reached 45.5% in 2024. Not surprisingly, unemployment was a key factor in the election results. Meanwhile, widespread protests in Kenyaand Uganda in the summer of 2024 were youth-led and sparked, respectively, by concerns over tax increases and corruption.
As a professor of political science and an expert in African politics, I believe that a failure to address such concerns could have potentially serious implications for political leaders in the upcoming elections. It also makes it more difficult for countries to consolidate or protect already-fragile democracies on the continent.
Unemployment fueling instability
While African political campaigns often make note of persistently high rates of youth unemployment, the policy priorities of governments across the continent have seemingly failed to fix this intractable problem.
In a 2023 Afrobarometer survey, unemployment topped the list of policy priorities for African youth between the ages of 18 and 35.
Supporters of the UMkhonto weSizwe party, which helped unseat the long-time African National Congress, attend an election meeting near Durban, South Africa, ahead of the May 2024 general elections. AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
Many governments, faced with the ongoing economic aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain issues – which exacerbated rising living costs, high inflation and external debt issues – pursued unpopular revenue collection policies
The violent anti-tax protests in Kenya also provide an example of desperate unemployed youth tapping into a sense of deep popular resentment over fiscal policies.
The combination of deep dissatisfaction with government policies and high youth joblessness can be a destabilizing influence. A 2023 United Nations Development Program study focusing on Ghana pointed to a problem that is common elsewhere on the continent. It concluded that in regions with higher-than-average youth unemployment, that factor was the most common cause for violent extremism and radicalization.
The U.N. study underscored the importance of addressing the social and economic challenges that foster marginalization and anger among youth across sub-Saharan Africa.
The issue of youth unemployment in Africa is exacerbated by the cumulative growth in the youth labor force – estimated to grow by 72.6 million between 2023 and 2050, according to a 2024 report by the International Labor Organization.
The concerns in those countries mirror grievances registered around the continent more broadly, with reducing government corruption listed as a top priority by respondents in the African Youth Survey.
Similar to unemployment, high levels of corruption correlated to some of the political shifts of 2024.
An Afrobarometer survey of attitudes in 2024 showed that 74% of Ghanaians believed corruption had increased over the previous year.
In Kenya, 77% of people view their government’s efforts in fighting corruption as ineffectual.
Of particular concern to many African youth is the belief that security forces and government officials are often considered the most corrupt and that incidents of regularized corruption are underreported.
And it is youth that bear the brunt of much of this corruption. According to a 2022 U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report, people between the ages 18 and 34 are among the most vulnerable to having to pay bribes to public officials in Ghana.
Supporters of soldiers who launched a coup against the government demonstrate in Niamey, Niger, on July 27, 2023. AP Photo/Fatahoulaye Hassane Midou
Again, youth attitudes toward corruption don’t bode well for many of the governments in this year’s elections. Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Guinea-Bissau all score poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
Democracy is at its strongest when it empowers governments to deliver on the needs of their populations, particularly the youth.
But the experience of incumbent governments in 2024 elections suggests that too many may have disregarded young people’s needs, which in turn has led to anger resulting in destabilizing protests and regime change – both through democratic and undemocratic means.
It also makes it harder to instill democratic sentiment among younger voters.
Over half of Africa’s 18- to 35-year-olds surveyed in the 2023 Afrobarometer agreed that the military can intervene when leaders abuse power – a pertinent caution about their willingness to support political change, even if it interrupts the democratic process.
While a majority of youth in Africa still retain an apparent preference for democracy to other forms of governance, a growing proportion would embrace nondemocratic governance under some circumstances, according to the 2024 African Youth Survey. The top scores in this particular response came from Gabon, Ivory Coast and Tanzania – all of which have upcoming elections in 2025.
Richard Aidoo 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 question “Who is Keir Starmer?” echoed across headlines before and after he took office in 2024. Despite leading the Labour party for years, his personality, leadership style and core motivations remained something of a mystery. Now in office, that question matters more than ever. In moments of crisis, a national leader’s psychology plays a decisive role.
The UK faces a difficult foreign policy landscape. Post-Brexit Britain is still rebuilding alliances amid economic strain and Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency has put a more transactional, Russia-friendly approach in the White House. The UK’s balancing act has become even more precarious. Starmer must back Ukraine, strengthen ties with the EU and manage an unpredictable relationship with Trump. For any leader, it’s a high-stakes task.
Traditional international relations theories often treat states as rational actors, with little attention paid to who is making the decisions. In this view, leaders are interchangeable; internal traits are “black-boxed” and considered irrelevant.
But political psychology challenges this. Leaders are not all the same. How they perceive and respond to constraints – be they economic, institutional, or geopolitical – varies dramatically.
Faced with similar conditions, different leaders make different choices. Their decisions are shaped by traits, motivations, emotions and deeply held beliefs.
Starmer: psychologically different to other PMs
Political psychology provides tools for assessing leaders by analysing their public statements. Since traditional psychological assessments are rarely feasible, researchers rely on at-a-distance methods, based on the premise that the way leaders speak and the language they use can reveal underlying traits, motivations and beliefs.
To reduce the influence of speechwriters, the analysis focuses on spontaneous material such as interviews and press conferences. The framework identifies seven core traits that are particularly relevant to foreign policy decision-making.
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Applying this framework to Starmer’s public appearances since taking office reveals notable differences between his profile and that of the average UK prime minister.
Of the seven core traits measured by the framework, Starmer scores within the typical range on task orientation, in-group bias, self-confidence, and conceptual complexity. But he stands out in three areas: distrust, belief in his ability to control events, and need for power. In these, he scores significantly above average.
These traits suggest a leader who is confident in his influence, driven to shape outcomes, and inclined to assert control when faced with obstacles. Leaders high in belief in their ability to control events tend to be proactive and view challenges as manageable. When paired with a high need for power, this reflects a strong drive to steer the political environment, often through strategic manoeuvring and behind-the-scenes influence.
These leaders test boundaries and thrive in direct, high-stakes negotiations. This combination has been seen in figures like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.
Compared with his most recent predecessors – Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson – Starmer shares certain traits but also diverges in meaningful ways. Like Johnson and Sunak, he shows a strong belief in his ability to control political events and a high need for power.
However, what sets him apart most clearly is his elevated level of distrust, which surpasses even Sunak’s. Research links this trait to risk-prone, uncooperative leadership styles.
Distrustful leaders often view others as potential threats, are less inclined to compromise, and fall back on control rather than collaboration. It’s a hallmark of hawkish leadership and has been associated with costly policy errors, such as George W. Bush’s misjudgement of Iraq’s weapons capabilities.
At the same time, Starmer differs from Johnson and Sunak in his greater cognitive complexity. He sees nuance, tolerates ambiguity and avoids black-and-white thinking.
He appears more open to new information and more flexible in adapting his approach. While Johnson and Sunak were more people-focused and scored low on task orientation, Starmer brings a balanced leadership style, combining interpersonal awareness with a clear focus on results. He can build relationships while staying goal-driven – an essential combination in today’s global landscape.
Starmer and Trump
What does this suggest about Starmer’s potential relationship with Trump? While research on leader-to-leader dynamics is still developing, Trump’s leadership profile is well-established.
He scores high in self-confidence, low in task orientation, places a strong emphasis on loyalty, and shows high levels of distrust. His self-confidence means he rarely seeks disconfirming information, often filtering reality to fit his beliefs.
His low task focus reflects a preference for group loyalty over detailed policy. Combined with a deep suspicion of others, this results in a transactional, uncompromising leadership style centred on personal allegiance.
This presents challenges for Starmer, whose high distrust and tendency to defy constraints could complicate efforts to build mutual understanding. Yet his adaptability, pragmatism, and balanced focus on people and tasks, combined with confidence in his ability to shape outcomes, may help him navigate this volatile relationship.
His assertive style, however, could still surprise or alienate some supporters as he makes bold moves beyond expectations.
Starmer’s leadership may lack the charisma or flair of his predecessors, but his personality profile reveals a distinct and consequential approach to power. Confident, strategic, and distrustful, he is not a passive figurehead but a leader likely to assert control, challenge limits, and drive his vision.
When the stakes are this high, Starmer’s psychology may not just influence Britain’s path – it could determine it.
Consuelo Thiers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Deteriorating Human Rights situation in Georgia: Joint Statement to the OSCE, April 2025.
UK and other OSCE participating States express concern over the deteriorating human rights situation and call on Georgia to open an inclusive dialogue with political parties, civil society and the OSCE institutions.
Thank you, Madam Chair,
I am delivering this statement on behalf of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and my own country, Germany.
As OSCE participating States, we have committed to upholding and defending fundamental human rights, democracy, and the rule of law—not only within our own borders, but across our shared OSCE region. This commitment carries a responsibility: to hold each other accountable when we witness signs of democratic backsliding.
It is in this spirit that we express again our deep concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Georgia. Since our last discussion in February, we have regretfully witnessed Georgian authorities taking further steps away from their democratic and human rights commitments.
Madam Chair,
Our main concerns are threefold: the legislative restriction of civic space, the targeting of independent media, and the continued lack of accountability for excessive use of force by police, the use of indiscriminate violence by unidentified groups against peaceful protesters as well as unnecessarily long pre-trial detention periods and the reported ill-treatment of those in pre-trial detention.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires all individuals and organisations receiving foreign funding to register as so-called “Foreign Agents,” with financial sanctions and criminal penalties imposed on those who refuse. We share ODIHR’s concern that “this law, along with other recent legislative initiatives, could further curtail the activities of civil society organizations and human rights defenders by removing the safeguards needed for them to carry out their work”. This law lacks the legal safeguards that prevent civil society, media and private individuals from being branded as instruments of foreign influence based solely on funding sources, which strongly suggests that this law is not about transparency, but about suppressing dissent and tightening the grip on civil society. This is of particular concern in view of the upcoming local elections.
We are also closely monitoring recent amendments to Georgia’s electoral legislation. It is essential that any changes to the electoral framework enhance transparency and public trust, and that reforms are developed through inclusive dialogue and in line with OSCE commitments. Relatedly, we are concerned about legislative amendments undermining freedom of peaceful assembly, including the amendments to the Criminal and Administrative Offences Codes and the Law on Assemblies and Manifestations. The amendments undermine the principle of equal suffrage and restrict freedom of assembly, as stated in relevant ODIHR’s and Venice Commission latest opinions. We urge the Georgian authorities to implement their recommendations.
Madam Chair,
We are alarmed by the escalating threats and intimidation faced by journalists in Georgia. The Public Defender’s 2024 Human Rights Report highlights a significant decline in media freedom, exacerbated by restrictive laws—such as the recent amendments to the Law on Broadcasting—and growing hostility toward journalists.
Notably, there have been incidents where journalists were being targeted by police while covering protests, including physical assaults and equipment seizures. Furthermore, reports of targeting journalists in exile and negative rhetoric from high-ranking officials and politicians have further eroded media freedom and increased risks for journalists.
We call for the immediate cessation of these practices and the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained journalists, including Mzia Amaghlobeli, who remains in detention on charges of up to 7 years in prison.
Finally, we remain deeply troubled by the persistent lack of accountability for police violence. We have seen no evidence of credible efforts by the Georgian authorities to investigate reports of disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters, arbitrary detentions, excessive over-reliance on long pre-trial detention periods, and mistreatment of detainees.
We call on the Georgian authorities to take immediate action to protect the rights of those exercising their fundamental freedoms and to conduct a thorough investigation of the use of police force during peaceful protests since 28 November 2024 in order to hold those responsible for human rights violations to account. Failure to do so further undermines public trust in Georgia’s institutions.
Madam Chair,
Despite repeated statements by Georgia reaffirming their commitment to dialogue and the OSCE principles and commitments, we have yet to see any concrete and genuine steps toward meaningful engagement. Instead, recent actions by the Georgian authorities have moved Georgia further away from democracy. We call on the Georgian authorities to open an inclusive dialogue with all political parties and civil society organisations in order to find peaceful and democratic solutions to the ongoing crisis.
We welcome recent statements by ODIHR and RFoM and strongly urge Georgia to continue to constructively engage with OSCE institutions and make use of their expertise. As fellow OSCE participating States, we will explore all available tools and mechanisms within the OSCE context going forward. In this spirit, we call on Georgian authorities to implement recommendations by ODIHR with regard to the upcoming elections.
Our unwavering commitment to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity remains unchanged. We stand steadfast in our support for the Georgian people and their pursuit of a democratic, stable and European future, and we remain ready to work with Georgia to ensure it upholds its international obligations and ensures that human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully respected.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Speech
Challenges to media freedom in the OSCE region: UK statement to the OSCE, April 2025
Ambassador Neil Holland recalls the vital contribution of media freedom to security in the OSCE region, and calls on Russia, Belarus and others to live up to their OSCE commitments.
Thank you Mr Chair. And welcome back to the Permanent Council in your new capacity, dear Jan.
In this fiftieth anniversary year, I want to start with the Helsinki Final Act. In 1975 our predecessors accepted citizens’ right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas. Free, independent and pluralistic media should be at the heart of our societies and our shared security. Sadly we are still far from realising our predecessors’ ambition when it comes to media freedom and other fundamental freedoms in our region.
We believe early warning sits at the core of your mandate. We welcome your public statements on recent cases of concern and, in particular, take this opportunity to express our concern about the case of Mzia Amaglobeli in Georgia and the so called “foreign agents” law in Republika Srpska.
Since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many journalists and media workers have been killed. And over 100 Ukrainian and foreign journalists have been detained or taken hostage by Russian forces. Furthermore, state disinformation, information manipulation and censorship in Russia and Belarus have reached unprecedented levels. Systemic repression has led to the closure of almost all independent media organizations and a media space largely subject to the State apparatus.
We call on both Russia and Belarus to release all political prisoners (including media actors) immediately and unconditionally, including those held by Russia in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.
In order to realise the ambition of 1975, every participating State has work to do. I am pleased that the Security Committee’s May 2025 meeting will focus on security implications of information manipulation and interference.
And domestically, the UK looks forward to working with you on the safety of journalists, combatting foreign information manipulation and interference and global media freedom challenges.
We launched our National Committee for the Safety of Journalists in 2020 and the UK’s National Action Plan for the Safety of Journalists was first launched in 2021. The Action Plan was refreshed in 2023 following delivery of many of its original commitments. Achievements under the 2023 Action Plan include updated Online Harassment Guidance for Journalists; the launch of a journalist safety tracker by the National Union of Journalists; and a Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation Taskforce and workplan.
The SLAPPs Taskforce has initiated new guidance on SLAPPs for journalists. The Solicitors Regulation Authority who are members of the Taskforce, launched a thematic review on SLAPPs in April 2024 and published an updated warning notice on SLAPPs in 2024, to help solicitors and law firms understand their obligations and how to comply.
In 2025 the UK’s National Committee for Safety of Journalists will focus on three priority areas: enhancing the criminal justice response to crimes against journalists; supporting journalists and their employers to tackle online and offline harassment; and – with a non-legislative focus – tackling the risks posed by SLAPPs and other abusive legal threats against journalists.
The National Committee – co-chaired by the Minister for Sports, Media, Civil Society and Youth and the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls – will also develop the next iteration of the UK National Action Plan later this year.
The UK looks forward to continuing to discuss developments of concern across the wider OSCE region with you as well as our domestic policy framework. And the UK remains a strong supporter of your office, your mandate and your team. Thank you.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 3
Speech
Report by the Representative on Freedom of the Media to the OSCE Permanent Council: Joint Statement, April 2025.
UK and others call for action to uphold safety of journalists and media freedom against a deteriorating background within some OSCE countries.
Thank you Mr. Chair,
I am delivering this statement on behalf of the following participating States that are members of the informal Group of Friends on Safety of Journalists namely Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and my own country, Lithuania.
First of all we welcome the Representative on Freedom of the Media Mr. Jan Braathu – dear Jan- to the Permanent Council and thank him for his first report since taking on this role.
We reaffirm our strong support for the autonomous mandate of the Representative on Freedom of the Media, which plays a vital role in monitoring media developments in participating States, providing early warning on violations, and promoting compliance with OSCE commitments.
Mr. Chair,
We believe there is no genuine security without media freedom, and no media freedom without journalists being able to carry out their work safely. Unfortunately, despite the commitments of participating States, the environment for journalists across the OSCE region is extremely concerning, as they face physical and online violence, legal harassment, including strategic lawsuits against public participation, arbitrary detention, forced disappearance and even death for simply doing their job.
Russia’s unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine, with the complicity of Belarus, has directly impacted media freedom and the safety of journalists. As Russia‘s atrocities in Ukraine continue, Reporters Without Borders has recorded that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, nearly 150 journalists have become victims of Russian abuses performing their duties. 13 journalists have been killed by Russian forces. 47 journalists have been injured while reporting as a result of attacks by Russian forces. 19 Ukrainian journalists are currently detained by Russia after being mainly arrested in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. According to the Moscow Mechanism reports, Russia uses arbitrary detention and threats against journalists in the temporarily occupied territories to intimidate the population and to eliminate activists.
In Russia and Belarus, the systematic crackdown on independent media has reached unprecedented levels. This has resulted in the closure of nearly all independent media organizations, leading to a media and information space almost entirely controlled by the state apparatus. At least 38 journalists and media actors are unjustly imprisoned in Russia, part of over 1500 political prisoners. In Belarus, at least 45 journalists and media actors are unjustly imprisoned among more than 1200 political prisoners. Many more journalists and media actors have been forced into exile. We call on both Russia and Belarus to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, including those held by Russia in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.
We are increasingly concerned about the deteriorating media freedom situation in other participating States, where journalists are labelled under so-called foreign agent laws and hindered from performing their duties. We urge Georgia to immediately and unconditionally release all journalists who are arbitrarily detained or arrested, and to engage in constructive dialogue with the RFoM and ODIHR to align its laws and actions with OSCE commitments. In Azerbaijan, there has been an unsettling rise in cases brought against journalists and independent media outlets. We call on Azerbaijan to ensure all citizens‘ fundamental rights and to provide safe and dignified conditions for detainees in line with its OSCE commitments, including access to health and independent legal services. All those detained for exercising their fundamental rights should be released. We also echo the statement by the RFoM on March 27 calling for the swift release of journalists arrested in Türkiye while covering demonstrations.
Mr. Chair,
In this context, the role of the RFoM is more important than ever. We commend the RFoM’s continued work on the Safety of Journalists by creating a network of National Focal Points, developing guidelines and advising participating states on how to improve the implementation of their commitments from the 2018 Milan Ministerial Council decision. We are pleased to hear that the RFOM is developing a comprehensive capacity-building strategy to ensure that women journalists are able to take part in public debates online and offline without fear of harassment, attacks or violence.
Mr Chair
As pressure on journalists is often an early sign of a broader deterioration of the human rights situation, we also expect the RFOM to fulfil the early warning and rapid response function in cases of serious non-compliance with our shared commitments regarding freedom of expression and media freedom, including with respect to the protection of journalists and other media actors.
£450M surge of military support to boost Ukraine’s Armed Forces as UK and Germany chair meeting of 50 nations
Package will support UK jobs and growth, with equipment and repair contracts connecting UK companies with Ukrainian industry
The UK is surging rapid military support to Ukraine to put them in the strongest position to secure a lasting peace as partners meet in Brussels for the 27th Ukraine Defence Contact Group, chaired by the UK and Germany.
The security of the UK and Europe starts in Ukraine, and a major new military support package will be delivered by British and Ukrainian suppliers to help boost Ukraine’s Armed Forces as they continue to defend against Russian attack. As chair of the meeting, the UK has secured ambitious pledges for Ukraine from donor countries.
Today’s package, worth £450 million, includes £350 million from the UK from this year’s record £4.5 billion military support funding for Ukraine. Further funding is being provided by Norway, via the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine.
The support package will be announced by Defence Secretary John Healey when he chairs the contact group alongside German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius later today, where 50 nations will come together to coordinate urgent military support for Ukraine.
It will include £160 million of UK funding to provide repairs and maintenance to vehicles and equipment the UK has already provided to Ukraine – partnering UK companies with Ukrainian industry, supporting the UK economy and skilled jobs.
Today’s support also includes a new ‘close fight’ military aid package – with funding for radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones – worth more than £250 million, using funding from the UK and Norway. The package builds on the work of the drone capability coalition, led by the UK and Latvia.
This will include high manoeuvrable first-person view (FPV) drones to attack targets, and drones which can drop explosives on Russian positions. These two types of drones are reported to be responsible for 60-70% of damage currently caused to Russian equipment.
The new kit will be procured from a mixture of UK and Ukrainian suppliers, demonstrating how investment into Ukraine’s defence supports jobs and the economies of both the UK and Ukraine.
The £160 million package for equipment repairs and maintenance will ensure vital armoured vehicles and other equipment can get back to the battlefield as quickly as possible. It will be implemented through the UK’s Taskforce HIRST, linking UK and Ukrainian companies to ensure repairs can be conducted in country to ensure that vital equipment is returned to the frontline as quickly as possible.
The support provides opportunities for British companies to learn lessons from the battlefield and support the UK’s own industrial capabilities, an example of the UK-Ukraine 100-year partnership announced by the Prime Minister in action.
Addressing the contact group, Defence Secretary John Healey MP will say:
The work of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group is vital to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position and pile pressure on Putin to help force him to end this terrible war.
We cannot jeopardise peace by forgetting the war, which is why today’s major package will surge support to Ukraine’s frontline fight.
2025 is the critical year for Ukraine. Our job as defence ministers is to put into the hands of the Ukrainian war fighters what they need. We must step up to deter Russian aggression by continuing to bolster Ukraine’s defences.
The meeting followed a series of high-level meetings of leaders and defence chiefs in the last month to move forward with operational planning.
This work delivers on the Prime Minister’s four-point plan to support Ukraine by ramping up delivery of weapons and equipment, boosting Ukraine’s defensive capabilities in the long term, working with allies to develop robust security assurances, and keeping up pressure on Putin.
The UK is fully committed to working with allies to step up support to ensure Ukraine remains in the strongest possible position, which is why £4.5 billion of military support will be provided this year – more than ever before.
As well as demonstrating leadership through the Ukraine Defence Contact Group and Coalition of the Willing, the UK is also contributing heavily to NATO’s Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) Command, which is coordinating further support for Ukraine in the form of training and providing more capabilities. Through the International Fund for Ukraine, the UK will manage the NSATU Trust Fund for rapid procurement – which Canada, Denmark and Iceland have already pledged funding towards, to meet Ukraine’s urgent equipment support and logistical needs.
The Russian consulate in Istanbul said Thursday that progress has been made on ensuring banking and financial services for Russian and U.S. diplomatic missions during the second round of bilateral talks in Istanbul.
Delegations from the two countries “exchanged diplomatic notes to formalise agreed commitments. These commitments are designed to facilitate unimpeded banking and financial services for Russian and American diplomatic missions, in addition to ensuring the fulfillment of the Russian Federation’s contributions to the budgets of the UN and other international organisations,” the consulate said in a press release.
The two sides “agreed to develop a roadmap” regarding the return of six diplomatic real estate properties confiscated by U.S. authorities and lawfully owned by Russia, the consulate said.
They also discussed “easing visa processing and travel regulations for diplomatic staff within the host countries,” it said, adding that the Russian side urged promoting the resumption of direct air flights between the two countries.
The timing of the next round of talks is “currently under coordination,” it said.
Earlier in the day, the two sides finished their second round of talks on restoring diplomatic missions. The U.S. delegation left the Russian consulate in Istanbul in the afternoon, following approximately five hours of meetings with the Russian side.
The primary focus of the discussions is to address issues affecting the functioning of the two countries’ embassies and consulates. The U.S. State Department has emphasized that the talks are limited strictly to diplomatic operations.
“Ukraine is not, absolutely not on the agenda,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday. “These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall, which can only happen, as we’ve noted, once there is peace between Russia and Ukraine.”
The first round of talks was held in Istanbul on Feb. 27.
In recent years, Washington and Moscow have expelled numerous diplomats from each other’s countries, significantly hindering the ability of their diplomatic missions to function effectively.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jean Lantz Reisz, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic, University of Southern California
People hold signs on April 4, 2025, supporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The Supreme Court on April 10, 2025, unanimously upheld the lower court order directing the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
The Supreme Court also directed the lower court to clarify aspects of the order.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego García’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the Supreme Court order states.
The Justice Department admitted to deporting Abrego García to a maximum security prison in El Salvador even though an immigration judge in 2019 ordered that he not be deported. The judge did so under an immigration law called “withholding of removal,” which is a protection, like asylum, for people facing persecution in their home country.
According to the Trump administration, such an order would be “constitutionally intolerable.” The government has compared the court order to return Abrego García to an order to “‘effectuate’ the end of the war in Ukraine or return hostages from Gaza.”
Abrego García should not have been deported
Abrego García received this protective legal status six years ago. That’s when he proved to the court he was highly likely to be persecuted by the government or gangs in El Salvador due to a specific reason, as required under immigration law.
Unlike asylum or refugee status, the status known as “withholding of removal” is not a pathway to citizenship. It allows a person to live and work in the U.S. indefinitely and not be deported to their country of nationality if they face persecution there.
That’s important, because the government failed to follow proper procedure to deport Abrego García based on gang membership. When someone is in “withholding of removal” status, the law requires the government to reopen immigration proceedings based on new evidence and seek to formally terminate the legal withholding status.
Abrego García should have been notified of the government’s desire to deport him, and he should have had the opportunity to make his case at a court hearing. His summary deportation to El Salvador likely violated his right to due process under immigration law and the Constitution.
The crux of the government’s position is that a court does not have the power to order the release of a person in a foreign prison. That would interfere with the separation of powers among the executive and judicial branches. The president has the sole power to conduct foreign relations with El Salvador, and the government has argued that ordering the return of Abrego García interferes with that power.
Prisoners watch as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visits the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 26, 2025. Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
The court cannot order the Salvadoran government to do anything, but it can order the U.S. government to take steps to return García Abrego if he was unlawfully arrested and deported. That’s because the judiciary has the power to determine whether the president’s actions are lawful.
The district court’s order was based on its determination that the president has likely violated immigration law and the Constitution in arresting and deporting Abrego García. The appellate court agreed.
The Supreme Court has now said the order to facilitate Abrego García’s return is proper. But the high court also said the district court judge should further clarify its order, being mindful of the president’s authority when it comes to conducting foreign relations.
Trump administration lawyers have suggested in their briefing to the Supreme Court that there could be reasons under El Salvador law for Abrego García’s imprisonment. The government has not identified any reasons and has not provided any evidence that Abrego García is charged with a crime in El Salvador, or that he is being held under Salvadoran law.
The district and appellate courts determined in this case that the U.S. is using the Salvadoran prison like any other detention facility. Under those circumstances, the U.S. government, not El Salvador, has ultimate control over Abrego García.
The Supreme Court ruled that the government should facilitate Abrego García’s return. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In fact, other appellate courts have ordered the government to return immigrants who had been removed from the U.S. but later won their appeals of their removal orders. Those people were not in foreign prisons.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has created a formal policy for aiding the return of immigrants who were deported while their appeals were pending and then subsequently won their appeals.
The government has argued that those situations are different. Here, it claims the court cannot demand the return of Abrego García, who is imprisoned in another country. The problem with the government’s argument is that it is the Trump administration that put Abrego García in a foreign prison.
The Trump administration has also argued that Abrego García is not entitled to return to the U.S.. It has argued that even though it was a mistake to deport him to El Salvador under his withholding of removal status, Abrego García could have been removed to another country and has no right to return to the U.S..
This would be true if Abrego García voluntarily left the U.S. or was deported to a country other than El Salvador, but that is not what happened. The government removed Abrego García to El Salvador in violation of U.S. law.
The White House’s position in this matter is troubling because the president is supposed to enforce the law, not circumvent it.
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a separate statement published with the order and joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson: “The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”
What steps the government will take to return Abrego García is unclear. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves open the question of how far the court can go to enforce his return.
Jean Lantz Reisz 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.
Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today led a hearing on force posture and budget requirements in the Indo-Pacific region and U.S. Forces Korea. Throughout the full committee hearing, the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), Admiral Paparo, and the Commander of U.S. Forces Korea, General Xavier Brunson, testified on force requirements, budget necessities and our capabilities in the region.
During his opening remarks, Chairman Wicker addressed the growing threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party in the region with respect to Taiwan, along with security issues linked to Russian and North Korean cooperation. Specifically, Chairman Wicker made clear that our underinvestment in INDOPACOM has allowed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to contest our ability to gain air superiority in a conflict in East Asia. Chairman Wicker also stressed that a reduction of our military presence in South Korea would undermine deterrence of both North Korea and China. Chairman Wicker concluded by noting the centrality of the role played by nuclear weapons in deterring conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
Read Senator Wicker’s hearing opening statement as delivered.
At this point, we hold a hearing on U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Force Korea. At the outset, I would like to thank Admiral Paparo and General Brunson for their distinguished service to our country.
Last year at this hearing, I stated that the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific was shifting in China’s favor. Since then, the Chinese Communist Party has significantly increased its coercive activity toward Taiwan and the Philippines. Last week, the Chinese conducted an exercise called Strait Thunder 2025A. This exercise demonstrated the extent to which the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could execute a maritime blockade of Taiwan and pummel it with missile strikes. As China conducts more exercises with Taiwan in mind, it also escalates the rhetoric against the island. Last week, a Chinese military officials called Taiwan’s democratically elected president a “parasite.”
The Chinese have also substantially increased their harassment of our Filipino allies. China’s vast Maritime Militia, backed by the PLA Navy and Chinese Coast Guard, is using increasingly aggressive tactics to advance its expansive claims in the South China Sea. The Second Thomas Shoal remains a major flashpoint. Chinese maritime militias have tried to keep the grounded Filipino Navy ship, the Sierra Madre, from being resupplied. Secretary Hegseth recently visited the region. I was pleased to see that he reaffirmed our Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, reminding the world that the treaty applies to attacks on the Filipino armed forces anywhere in the South China Sea. Even so, it is clear that the Chinese have been emboldened by four years of weakness during the past administration.
There is another reason China has become so confident in its malign schemes. Xi Jinping has steadily modernized his military, and that hardware has made him more brazen. China boasts the world’s largest navy. It also has an air force that is capable of denying the U.S. air superiority in the First Island Chain- we’ll certainly want to ask about that, gentlemen. Its missile force can saturate our theater defenses. China has been expanding its nuclear arsenal at a pace that far outstrips our own. Multiple STRATCOM commanders have called China’s growth ‘breathtaking.’ In just a few short years, Beijing has built more intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than the United States. Meanwhile, our own modernization programs languish from past neglect.
But China is not the only urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific. The Biden administration chose to ignore North Korea. It allowed Kim Jong Un to increase his nuclear arsenal and project his military into the European theater to aid Vladimir Putin in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Kim Jong Un has abandoned the goal of unification of the Korean Peninsula – and again, we’ll want to talk about that – and has declared South Korea to be the principal enemy. The North Korean nuclear and missile arsenal continues to grow and diversify. With the rogue nation adopting a strategic doctrine that embraces nuclear first use.
Kim will surely seek remuneration for his support to Moscow. The Russian technology transfers and military assistance Kim receives will help him to further strengthen his strategic missile forces. The continued demonstrations of Russia, China, and North Korea aligning and cooperating should be of great concern to all in the West. This concern should then lead to action. If we are to maintain global peace and stability, we must continue taking steps now to rebuild our military and reestablish deterrence.
As I noted in my Peace Through Strength report last May, it is time to make a generational investment in our national security- and I do believe that view is bipartisan. We must be able not only to deter and defeat the People’s Liberation Army, but also to maintain deterrence in other theaters. Our adversaries, led by Bejing, are playing a global game. We must be smarter and more agile than they are across the board.
Last year, INDOPACOM’s unfunded requirements list totaled $3.5 billion dollars. This year’s unfunded requirement list was $11 billion, and virtually none of that was funded under the full-year CR. This is unacceptable – and also, I hope we’re going to get from everyone an accurate and full assessment of the various unfunded requirements. We need real growth in the FY26 budget request, in addition to a historic defense reconciliation package.
We need more survivable long-range munitions, more assured U.S. command and control systems, and an improved ability to counter China’s increasingly capable cyber and space systems. We need a wholesale overhaul of our logistics infrastructure and a rapid deployment of unmanned systems. We need a renaissance in our camouflage and deception programs, and we need a drastic improvement in our shipbuilding. The risk is simply too high for us to avoid making these changes.
So, I look forward to hearing our distinguished, and well-informed witnesses and having a candid conversation about what this committee and this Senate and this Congress can do – this year – to begin address these challenges.
Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) called out Republican politicians for blocking efforts to exempt American allies under attack, Israel and Ukraine, from the Trump Administration’s harmful tariffs. On the Senate floor, Cortez Masto sought unanimous consent to pass her legislation which would exempt Israel and Ukraine from blanket tariffs that President Trump has slapped on these wartime economies.
“We all know that targeted tariffs can be a useful tool to protect critical American manufacturing and combat our enemies, but that isn’t what President Trump is doing. Instead, he’s punishing our allies Israel and Ukraine,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Both these countries are currently under attack. They need the United States to be standing with them, not hitting them with nonsensical tariffs that could cause them even more harm. It is outrageous that my Republican colleagues blocked an opportunity to fix this and come together to protect our allies.”
America’s ally Israel originally got hit with a 17% tariff – even though we maintain a Free Trade Agreement with them – their adversary Iran got tariffed at 10%. The Trump Administration put no tariffs on Russia, but charged Ukraine with a 10% tariff. As Senator Cortez Masto was speaking on the floor, President Trump announced via tweet that over 75 countries, including Israel and Ukraine, will be tariffed at 10% for the next 90 days.
Senator Cortez Masto has consistently stood with Israel. She has repeatedly voted to deliver critical funding to support Israel’s national Security, and has urged the Administration to crack down on the finances of international terrorist organizations, including Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism. She has also been a strong advocate for the U.S. to stand up to Russian aggression and support Ukrainian sovereignty. Cortez Masto has voted to pass bipartisan legislation to support Ukraine and helped pass bipartisan economic sanctions that were signed into law to hold Russia accountable for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
GLENVILLE, N.Y., April 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TrustCo Bank Corp NY (TrustCo, Nasdaq: TRST) today announced that it will release first quarter 2025 results after the market close on April 21, 2025. Results are released on the 21st of the reporting months (January, April, July and October), or on the next day that equity markets are open if the 21st falls on a Friday, weekend or holiday. A conference call to discuss the results will be held at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on April 22, 2025. Those wishing to participate in the call may dial toll-free for the United States at 1-833-470-1428, and for Canada at 1-833-950-0062, Access code 048251. A replay of the call will be available for thirty days by dialing toll-free for the United States at 1-866-813-9403, Access code 486810.
TrustCo Bank Corp NY is a $6.2 billion savings and loan holding company and through its subsidiary, Trustco Bank, operates 136 offices in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Florida. For more information, visit www.trustcobank.com.
In addition, the Bank’s Wealth Management Department offers a full range of investment services, retirement planning and trust and estate administration services.
The common shares of TrustCo are traded on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol TRST.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this news release that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “goal,” “seek,” “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “expect,” “strategy,” “future,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” “will” and similar references to future developments, results or periods. TrustCo wishes to caution readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and such forward-looking statements are subject to factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially for TrustCo from the views, beliefs and projections expressed in such statements. Examples of these include, but are not limited to: volatility in financial markets and the soundness of other financial institutions; U.S. government shutdowns, credit rating downgrades, or failure to increase the debt ceiling; changes in interest rates; the effects of inflation and inflationary pressures and changes in monetary and fiscal policies and laws, including changes in the Federal funds target rate by, and interest rate policies of, the Federal Reserve Board; ongoing armed conflicts (including the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the conflict in Israel and surrounding areas); the risks and uncertainties under the heading “Risk Factors” in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and, if any, in our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q; the other financial, operational and legal risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in TrustCo’s cautionary statements contained in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission; and the effect of all of such items on our operations, liquidity and capital position, and on the financial condition of our borrowers and other customers. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release represent TrustCo management’s judgment as of the date of this news release. TrustCo disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update forward-looking statements, either as a result of future developments, new information or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
CHARLESTON, S.C. —Lauren H. Deloach, 69, of Saint Helena Island, has pleaded guilty to Lacey Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) charges for importing and selling sperm whale teeth and bones.
According to court documents and statements made in court, DeLoach admitted to, from September 2021 through September 2024, importing sperm whale parts to South Carolina, including at least 30 shipments from Australia, Latvia, Norway, and Ukraine. Records showed that DeLoach instructed suppliers to label the items as “plastic” so they would not be seized by U.S. customs authorities. From July 2022 through September 2024, DeLoach acknowledged selling the teeth and bones in violation of the Lacey Act. He sold at least 85 items on eBay worth over $18,000, and agents seized approximately $20,000 worth of sperm whale parts from DeLoach’s residence during a search warrant.
The MMPA prohibits importing any marine mammal, which includes whales, except for limited public display, scientific research, or enhancement of a species survival. The Lacey Act is the nation’s oldest wildlife protection law and makes it unlawful to sell any wildlife that was illegally imported.
The sperm whale is the largest species of toothed whale, reaching up to 78 feet and 45 tons. Individuals prize their teeth and bones as decorations or as a scrimshaw or painting medium. Sperm whale have been listed under the Endangered Species Act as endangered since 1970 and are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The United States and the countries from which imported DeLoach are signatories to CITES, an international agreement to protect fish, wildlife, and plants that are or may become threatened with extinction.
“Illegal wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar global business that endangers protected animals and fuels organized crime,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews for the District of South Carolina. “We will continue to enforce the Lacey Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act so vulnerable species like the sperm whale are not killed and sold for parts.”
“Whales are among the world’s most iconic species, and they’re also among the most vulnerable to illegal harvest driven by commercialization. The illicit trade in sperm whale teeth and ear bones contributes to the monetization of at-risk marine mammal populations that America protects through federal laws and international treaties,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement Assistant Director Doug Ault. “As part of ‘Operation Raw Deal’ — a nationwide crackdown on the illegal trade in whale parts — this investigation demonstrates our commitment to bringing justice to those who exploit protected wildlife for profit.”
DeLoach faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the felony Lacey Act charge and a maximum sentence of one year in prison for the misdemeanor MMPA violation. United States District Judge David C. Norton accepted the guilty plea and will sentence DeLoach after receiving and reviewing a sentencing report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews for the District of South Carolina, and Assistant Director Douglas Ault of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) made the announcement.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elle Klein and Winston Holliday are prosecuting the case with Senior Trial Attorney Ryan Connors of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section.
Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, spoke with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The two leaders discussed the imposition of tariffs and ongoing threat of further unjustified global trade actions by the United States. In this context, they emphasized the importance of working together to deepen economic ties and promote economic security for people on both sides of the Atlantic. Prime Minister Carney highlighted his plan to fight tariffs targeting Canada, including those on our auto, steel and aluminum industries, protect Canadian workers and businesses, and strengthen Canada’s economy.
The Prime Minister and the President discussed global issues of concern, including the imperative of supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s invasion. They welcomed enhancing Canada-European Union defence and security co-operation in support of transatlantic security.
Prime Minister Carney and President von der Leyen agreed to remain in close contact.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ted Lieu (33 District of California)
WASHINGTON– Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after the release of Ksenia Karelina, a L.A. resident and U.S. Citizen unjustly held in Russia.
“I am profoundly relieved that Ksenia Karelina, a U.S. citizen and constituent, has finally returned safely to the United States after being wrongfully detained in Russia for 15 months. Russia illegally detained her because she made a modest donation to a U.S.-based nonprofit supporting Ukraine. After more than a year of hardship, Ksenia can now begin the long process of healing and reclaiming her life. Today is a day of joy and gratitude for Ksenia, her loved ones, and the Southern California community.
“Our office and other advocates worked on her case, and we thank President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and the staff at the State Department for securing her release.
“And while we celebrate her return, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to bring home all Americans unjustly held abroad. Their freedom must continue to be a top diplomatic priority.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
PM call with Prime Minister Ishiba of Japan: 10 April 2025
The Prime Minister spoke to the Prime Minister of Japan Shigeru Ishiba this morning.
The Prime Minister spoke to the Prime Minister of Japan Shigeru Ishiba this morning.
On trade, the leaders agreed that a trade war does not benefit anyone, and that now is the time for a cool, calm and pragmatic approach.
They agreed on the importance of likeminded partners such as the UK and Japan to work closely together to lower trade barriers. Through trading blocs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and working bilaterally, there are many options to accelerate growth.
The Prime Minister wished Prime Minister Ishiba success for the launch of the Osaka Expo next week, and they discussed the UK pavilion focussed on innovation, which underpins the UK-Japan bilateral relationship.
On defence and security, the leaders discussed deeper cooperation, welcoming the progress of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) and reaffirmed their commitment to deliver the next generation of fighter jets.
The Prime Minister thanked Prime Minister Ishiba for Japan’s support for the Coalition of the Willing in support for Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has carried out five deliveries of equipment and other technical assistance over the past week as it remains fully focused on helping to prevent a nuclear accident during the military conflict in Ukraine, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.
Since the beginning of the conflict more than three years ago, the IAEA has now organised a total of 125 such shipments to 29 counterparts in Ukraine, including its nuclear power plants (NPPs), the national operator Energoatom, the country’s regulator, technical support organizations and laboratories, emergency services, organizations handling radioactive material, as well as health centres offering medical care to plant personnel and others.
“This technical support is an important component of the IAEA’s overall efforts aimed at ensuring nuclear safety and security in Ukraine. We will continue to provide such critical assistance to Ukraine, prioritizing areas where it is most urgently needed, thanks to the generous donor support,” Director General Grossi said.
In recent days, the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology received equipment to enhance nuclear security at the site, the South Ukraine NPP received a whole body counter to monitor internal exposures of its operating staff, USIE Izotop – which manages radioactive material intended for medical, industrial and other purposes – received a forklift to support the safe handling and transport of radioactive material, and the Khmelnytskyy and Rivne NPPs received influenza medication and dental care equipment.
These deliveries were provided with funding from Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Since the start of the conflict, equipment worth almost 17 million euros has so far reached Ukraine. The IAEA is preparing further assistance for delivery.
At Ukraine’s nuclear sites, frequent air raid alarms and the sound of explosions in the distance continued to highlight persistent risks to nuclear safety. On the night of 9 April, according to information from the site, eight drones were detected flying within 4 km of the South Ukraine NPP.
At the Zaporizhzhya NPP (ZNPP), the IAEA team based at the site has continued to conduct regular walkdowns to monitor and assess nuclear safety and security, including to the dry spent fuel storage where the team observed the safety and security arrangements, the on-site radiation monitoring laboratory, and on-site warehouses.
The team also discussed with the plant upcoming electrical maintenance activities as well as staffing levels, training and qualifications at the ZNPP.
At the Khmelnytskyy and Rivne NPPs, one reactor at each site remains in shutdown for refuelling. On 5 April, two units at the Rivne site had to temporarily reduce their power output due to grid limitations, highlighting the ongoing difficulties caused by the fragile energy infrastructure. Also this past week, the team at the Khmelnytskyy NPP rotated.
PALM BEACH, Fla., April 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FN Media GroupNews Commentary – The global unmanned aerial system (UAS) military drones market has been rising steadily over the past years and it is projected to continue substantially into the next decade at least. A recent report from one such industry insider said that the surge in global defense budgets has had a significant impact on the global market. As political tensions rise worldwide, nations are investing in cutting-edge unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to bolster their defense and security capabilities. Increased defense expenditure has allowed countries like the United States, China, and other NATO members to allocate substantial funds to advanced drone programs, enhancing surveillance, supporting combat missions, and improving autonomous drone features. Geopolitical tensions, especially in regions like Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, are driving a significant demand for military drones. As nations seek to strengthen their surveillance, intelligence, and tactical capabilities, military drones have become integral to modern defense strategies. Active companies in the markets this week include: Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO) (CSE: DPRO), Unusual Machines, Inc. (NYSE American: UMAC), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT).
The report continued: “North America, with the United States leading the charge, dominates the military drone market. This leadership is driven by significant investments in advanced military technologies, a strong defense budget, and the presence of key industry players like General Atomics and Northrop Grumman. The U.S. military continues to strengthen its drone capabilities, emphasizing the development of state-of-the-art systems for a range of missions, including surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat operations. Moreover, the country is strategically investing in autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, ensuring its drones remain at the forefront of modern warfare and maintain a technological edge on the global stage… The U.S. military remains the largest operator of drones… These drones play a vital role in a wide range of operations, including reconnaissance, surveillance, combat, and logistics.”
Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO) (CSE: DPRO)and SafeLane Global Enter into Multi-Year Agreement with Draganfly as the Preferred Global Provider of Landmine Mapping Drones and Aerial Survey Services – First Ukraine Landmine Aerial Survey Contract Underway– Draganfly Inc. (FSE: 3U8A) (“Draganfly” or the “Company”), an industry-leading developer of drone solutions and systems, today announced that it has been selected by SafeLane Global Ltd. (“SafeLane”) as its preferred unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and aerial survey provider.
SafeLane, a world-renowned specialist in explosive threat mitigation, is one of only two private organizations licensed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to conduct landmine and explosive ordnance clearance operations in Ukraine. With over 30 years of experience across more than 60 countries, SafeLane supports governments, humanitarian organizations, and commercial clients in the clearance and disposal of landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and explosive remnants of war (ERW), both on land and underwater.
Under the agreement, Draganfly will provide advanced drone solutions, including UAVs, specialized sensors, and data analysis services, to support SafeLane’s global mine action initiatives. The collaboration aims to enhance the speed, accuracy, and safety of explosive threat detection and removal operations in high-risk environments.
“We are honored to be selected as SafeLane’s UAS partner,” said Cameron Chell, President and CEO of Draganfly. “This partnership represents a significant opportunity to leverage Draganfly’s technology to support critical humanitarian and defense efforts. Together, we will work to deliver scalable, innovative solutions for global landmine action.”
The companies will co-develop joint intellectual property and standard operating procedures tailored for aerial mine detection and clearance. SafeLane will lead proposal submissions and operational deployment, while Draganfly will provide technology, mission planning, piloting, and survey analysis.
According to the Landmine Monitor 2023, more than 60 million landmines remain buried across over 60 countries, posing a persistent threat to civilians, especially children, who account for nearly half of the casualties. Ukraine is currently one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world.
“Draganfly’s drone-based technology will significantly increase the safety and efficiency of our operations,” said Asa Gilbert, Director of Business Development at SafeLane. “This partnership is a critical step in helping communities recover from the legacy of conflict.”
The collaboration further positions Draganfly as a key player in the defense and humanitarian sectors, supporting efforts to create safer environments in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions. CONTINUED…Read this full press release and more news for Draganfly at:https://draganfly.com/news/
Other recent developments in the defense/military industries of note include:
Unusual Machines, Inc. (NYSE American: UMAC), a drone and drone components manufacturer, recently announced it filed its Form 10-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 and provided the following letter to its shareholders from CEO Allan Evans. Dear Shareholders, This shareholder letter follows the completion of our fiscal year 2024. This is our first year being public. It has been an excellent fourth quarter and an incredible year. We continue to see great interest in the company and receive questions from shareholders. We would like to take this opportunity to provide context and deeper insights into our operations and what these represent for Unusual Machines’ future.
Unusual Machines revenue for the fourth quarter revenue was over $2.0 million which represents a sequentially quarter over quarter increase of approximately 31%. This is our best revenue quarter of all time (again) and was done while improving gross margins slightly to 28%. With the launch of our Blue Framework products, approximately 15% of our Q4 revenue was from enterprise sales. Our total revenue of $5.65M for FY2024 exceeded our target of $5M for 2024 by 13%. This growth was achieved without customer concentration as no single customer represented more than 5% of our total revenue for 2024.
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), a technology company specializing in defense, national security, and global markets, recently announced the groundbreaking of Kratos’ Hypersonic System Indiana Payload Integration Facility (IPIF) in Crane, Indiana. This state-of-the-art 68,000-square-foot office, laboratory, integration and test complex will support critical hypersonic vehicle and payload activities and systems for the Multi-Service Advanced Capabilities Hypersonic Testbed (MACH-TB) program. The project demonstrates Kratos’ commitment to advancing hypersonic system payload integration and test capabilities and expanding crucial infrastructure needed to accelerate the time to Mach 5+ flight testing.
Eric DeMarco, President and CEO of Kratos, said: “The Kratos Hypersonic System Indiana Payload Integration Facility represents a strategic investment in our Nation’s hypersonic infrastructure, workforce and capabilities. Kratos is committed to achieving, if not exceeding, the MACH-TB program’s primary goals, which include, increasing the cadence of flight tests and to mature and qualify advanced hypersonic technologies. Kratos’ IPIF will provide a vital commercial launch vehicle environmental test and assembly capability to supplement existing DoD and NASA facilities.”
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) recently announced that it will webcast live its first quarter 2025 earnings results conference call (listen-only mode) on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at 11 a.m. ET. James Taiclet, chairman, president and CEO; Jay Malave, chief financial officer; and Maria Ricciardone, vice president, Treasurer and Investor Relations, will discuss first quarter 2025 results, provide updates on key topics and answer questions. First quarter 2025 results will be published prior to the market opening on April 22.
The live webcast will be available at www.lockheedmartin.com/investor and the accompanying presentation slides and relevant financial charts will also be available on the same website prior to market open.
An on-demand replay of the webcast will be available through Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at www.lockheedmartin.com/investor, and a podcast will be available here.
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), recently announced that it has expanded its technology partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) through a new Strategic Collaboration Agreement to drive digital modernization, deliver efficiencies and advance government missions.
GDIT and AWS will collaborate to develop cutting-edge cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud migration and modernization solutions to accelerate digital transformation for defense, intelligence and civilian agencies. Government agencies will benefit from AWS’s cloud computing environment, widely considered to be one of the most secure available today, to support their unique missions. GDIT will leverage its research and development labs to collaborate with AWS on emerging technologies such as quantum, edge computing and high-performance computing.
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Russia continues to dither, delay and destroy rather than engage seriously towards peace: UK statement to the OSCE
Ambassador Holland calls out Russia’s hollow words about peace while it continues to terrorise Ukraine’s civilian population and infrastructure.
Thank you, Madame Chair. It is now 29 days since Ukraine expressed its readiness to accept a full, unconditional and immediate 30-day ceasefire. If Russia reciprocated, we would be a huge step closer to ending this terrible war. They are yet to take this step.
Instead of showing a commitment to peace, President Putin has chosen to dither, delay and destroy. We have heard desperate and false accusations about the legitimacy of Ukraine’s democratically-elected President. This week the Kremlin said there remained questions “hanging in the air”, including what they say is Ukraine’s lack of control over those defending their homeland and its so-called militarisation. These accusations come from a government that has deployed North Korean troops to the front line and has just ordered the biggest conscription since the war began. They are absurd.
While the Russian state delays a ceasefire, it continues to terrorise Ukraine’s civilian population with indiscriminate aerial attacks. Earlier this week we met to condemn Russia’s awful missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, which claimed the lives of 20 people, including nine children, on 4 April. This attack came only a day after a further five civilians were killed by Russian drone strikes in Kharkiv and was followed by further civilian casualties during aerial attacks over the weekend. Since Ukraine committed to pursue a full ceasefire, Russia’s aerial attacks have increased.
Russia claims to have been respecting an energy ceasefire since 18 March, but it continues to launch attacks which result in damage to energy infrastructure, including two in the last week which left 50,000 people without power. Even when it appeared that Russia had agreed to the proposed Black Sea ceasefire, it immediately backtracked, imposing new and unwarranted conditions. And yet Russia has the cheek to accuse Ukraine of not being serious about peace.
Killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure is not the behaviour of a state genuinely willing to pursue meaningful peace talks. These attacks on the people of Ukraine, including its children and most vulnerable citizens, demonstrate the Russian Government’s true intentions. Their words of peace are so far hollow. We urge the Russian government to commit to peace, end the barbaric attacks on Ukraine’s civilians, and finally demonstrate the sincerity of its words.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
UK and France convene first Defence Ministers’ Ukraine Coalition of the Willing meeting
UK and France convene defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels to progress planning to support a lasting peace in Ukraine
Operational discussions to plan for a multinational reassurance force to support Ukraine in securing a lasting peace will progress today [April 10] with 30 defence ministers set to attend the latest Coalition of the Willing meeting.
The Defence Secretary, John Healey, and his French counterpart, Minister Sébastien Lecornu, will host around 30 nations involved in planning for the Coalition of the Willing in Brussels later today.
The meetings will focus on how the capabilities of each nation in the Coalition could be best used in supporting Ukraine’s long-term defence and security.
The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary have both been clear that a lasting peace in Ukraine will require credible security assurances to deter Russian aggression. The UK has been stepping up to lead international support to keep Ukraine in the fight now and put them in the strongest possible position to secure peace.
Addressing the meeting, Defence Secretary John Healey MP is expected to say:
A couple of weeks ago, I visited the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters where military leaders from around 30 nations were developing options and progressing plans. I was struck by their sense of historic responsibility to secure the peace in Ukraine and to strengthen European security for all our nations.
We cannot jeopardise the peace by forgetting about the war, so we must put even more pressure on Putin and step up our support for Ukraine – both in today’s fight and the push for peace. Our commitment is to put Ukraine in the strongest position to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and deter future Russian aggression.
The meeting today comes after the Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, travelled to Kyiv with French military chiefs last weekend to meet President Zelenskyy, Defence Minister Umerov, and Ukrainian military leaders to update and discuss planning.
Tomorrow, the Defence Secretary and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will chair the 27th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, bringing together around 50 nations to drive forward additional military support for Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian attacks.
The UK convened and chaired the group in its latest format for the first time in February, with 46 nations in attendance, raising an extra 1.5 billion euros in military aid for Ukraine. These latest meetings come after the UK set the path to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence from 2027, and a boost to defence spending of £5 billion for this financial year, delivering on the government’s Plan for Change.
This work delivers on the Prime Minister’s four-point plan to support Ukraine by ramping up delivery of weapons and equipment, boosting Ukraine’s defensive capabilities in the long term, working with allies to develop robust security assurances, and keeping up pressure on Putin.
The UK is fully committed to working with allies to step up support to ensure Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to secure peace and is stepping up support – providing £4.5 billion of military support this year – more than ever before.
This support is vital to European security but is also supporting growth across the UK, with defence as an engine for growth. Last month, the Prime Minister announced a historic £1.6 billion deal to provide more than five thousand air defence missiles for Ukraine – creating 200 new jobs and supporting a further 700. Defence supports more than 434,000 skilled jobs in the UK.
The UK has sent around 400 different capabilities to Ukraine, with a £150 million package including drones, tanks and air defence systems announced on 12 February 2025, a £225 million package including drones, boats and munitions announced on 19 December 2024, and 650 lightweight multirole missiles announced on 6 September 2024.
First Ukraine Landmine Aerial Survey Contract Underway
Tampa, FL, April 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO) (CSE: DPRO) (FSE: 3U8) (“Draganfly” or the “Company”), an industry-leading developer of drone solutions and systems, today announced that it has been selected by SafeLane Global Ltd. (“SafeLane”) as its preferred unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and aerial survey provider.
SafeLane, a world-renowned specialist in explosive threat mitigation, is one of only two private organizations licensed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to conduct landmine and explosive ordnance clearance operations in Ukraine. With over 30 years of experience across more than 60 countries, SafeLane supports governments, humanitarian organizations, and commercial clients in the clearance and disposal of landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and explosive remnants of war (ERW), both on land and underwater.
Under the agreement, Draganfly will provide advanced drone solutions, including UAVs, specialized sensors, and data analysis services, to support SafeLane’s global mine action initiatives. The collaboration aims to enhance the speed, accuracy, and safety of explosive threat detection and removal operations in high-risk environments.
“We are honored to be selected as SafeLane’s UAS partner,” said Cameron Chell, President and CEO of Draganfly. “This partnership represents a significant opportunity to leverage Draganfly’s technology to support critical humanitarian and defense efforts. Together, we will work to deliver scalable, innovative solutions for global landmine action.”
The companies will co-develop joint intellectual property and standard operating procedures tailored for aerial mine detection and clearance. SafeLane will lead proposal submissions and operational deployment, while Draganfly will provide technology, mission planning, piloting, and survey analysis.
According to the Landmine Monitor 2023, more than 60 million landmines remain buried across over 60 countries, posing a persistent threat to civilians, especially children, who account for nearly half of the casualties. Ukraine is currently one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world.
“Draganfly’s drone-based technology will significantly increase the safety and efficiency of our operations,” said Asa Gilbert, Director of Business Development at SafeLane. “This partnership is a critical step in helping communities recover from the legacy of conflict.”
The collaboration further positions Draganfly as a key player in the defense and humanitarian sectors, supporting efforts to create safer environments in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions.
About Draganfly
Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO; CSE: DPRO; FSE: 3U8A) is a pioneer in drone solutions, AI-driven software, and robotics. With over 25 years of innovation, Draganfly has been at the forefront of drone technology, providing solutions for public safety, agriculture, industrial inspections, security, mapping, and surveying. The Company is committed to delivering efficient, reliable, and industry-leading technology that helps organizations save time, money, and lives.
This release contains certain “forward looking statements” and certain “forward-looking information” as defined under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “plans” or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that, while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the ability to enhance the speed, accuracy, and safety of explosive threat detection and removal operations in high-risk environments. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out here in, including but not limited to: the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, on the Company’s business, operations and financial condition; the successful integration of technology; the inherent risks involved in the general securities markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inherent uncertainty of cost estimates; the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, currency fluctuations; regulatory restrictions; and liability, competition, loss of key employees and other related risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors“ in the Company’s most recent filings filed with securities regulators in Canada on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com and with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on EDGAR through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents managements’ best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.
Armed Forces must operate jointly & remain future-ready in today’s ever-evolving multi-domain environment: Raksha Mantri at DSSC, Wellington “Govt transforming the military into a technologically-advanced combat-ready force”
“Building an indigenous future-ready defence ecosystem is a strategic necessity”
Posted On: 10 APR 2025 12:52PM by PIB Delhi
“Armed Forces must operate jointly and remain future-ready in today’s ever-evolving multi-domain environment where cyber, space & information warfare etc. are as potent as conventional operations,” said Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh while addressing the Armed Forces officers of India and friendly countries during the Convocation Ceremony of the 80th Staff Course of Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, Tamil Nadu on April 10, 2025.
Raksha Mantri pointed out that today’s global geopolitics is being redefined by three key metrics: a major pivot towards prioritising national security, a technological tsunami sweeping the global landscape, and accelerating innovation. He urged the officers to study the nuances of these trends in-depth to stay ahead on strategic-military change curve, adding that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi-led Government is leaving no stone unturned to transform the Armed Forces into a technologically-advanced combat-ready force capable of multi-domain integrated operations.
Highlighting that Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies are revolutionising deterrence and war-fighting in critical ways, Shri Rajnath Singh termed the power of technological innovation in combat theatres as breathtaking. “In the Ukraine-Russia conflict, drones have virtually emerged as a new arm, if not a transformative science. The majority of losses of soldiers and equipment have been attributed neither to traditional artillery nor to armour but to drones. Similarly, space capacities in the Low Earth Orbit are transforming military intelligence, persistent surveillance, positioning, targeting and communications, thus taking combat to a new high,” he said.
Raksha Mantri stressed that the world is in the age of Grey Zone and Hybrid warfare where cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns, and economic warfare have become tools that can achieve politico-military aims without a single shot being fired. He added that India faces persistent threats along its borders, which are further compounded by the challenge of proxy war and terrorism emanating from its neighbourhood.
Shri Rajnath Singh also spoke of the impact of the conflict in West Asia and the geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific on the overall security calculus, in addition to non-traditional security threats such as natural disasters and climate change. He stressed on the need to vigorously pursue the transformation of the Armed Forces to remain capable and relevant for future wars, stating that PM Modi’s vision ofViksit Bharatby 2047 rests firmly on two foundational pillars –Surakshit BharatandSashakt Bharat.
Raksha Mantri pitched for the development and modernisation of the Armed Forces through self-reliance. “Lessons of the ongoing conflicts teach us that building a resilient, indigenous, and future-ready defence technological & manufacturing ecosystem is not an option, but a strategic necessity. There is a need to develop low-cost high-tech solutions and enhance the fighting capability of the Armed Forces. Our forces must not only keep pace with technological changes, but also lead it,” he said.
Shri Rajnath Singh also batted for enhanced synergy among all components to ensure national security. Fostering a ‘Whole of Nation’ approach while undertaking actions in the entire spectrum of diplomatic, informational, military, economic and technological domains is key to ensuring success in this endeavour, he said.
Referring to the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘MAHASAGAR’(Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions)for the Global South, Raksha Mantri stated that achieving a better future and prosperity for the nations will always remain a collective pursuit. “Increasing connectivities and dependencies among countries and people implies that the multitude of challenges are better faced together than individually. Mutual interests and synergies will help us achieve our goal at sub regional, regional and even global levels,” he said.
Shri Rajnath Singh exhorted the officers to focus on five ‘A’s – Awareness, Ability, Adaptability, Agility and Ambassadors – to tackle future challenges. “As warfighters and protectors of national security, you need to remain aware of the environment and its implications. You must acquire the ability and skill set required by future leaders. You must imbibe adaptability and agility as key virtues. The battlefield of tomorrow will require leaders who can adapt to unforeseen circumstances, leverage technology to their advantage and come out with innovative solutions. You must become Ambassadors of your respective Armed Forces. Be an ambassador of change and the perfect role model amongst the society at large,” he added.
Raksha Mantri began his address by expressing solidarity and support of the people of India to Myanmar and Thailand in the wake of the recent massive earthquake. “India has always stood by its friends as a first responder in times of crisis and we consider it as our duty to be able to deliver timely relief to the people of Myanmar,” he said.
The 80thStaff Course comprises 479 student officers, including 38 personnel from 26 friendly countries. Three women officers are also participating in the course.
Ahead of the ceremony, Shri Rajnath Singh laid a wreath at the Madras Regiment War Memorial and paid homage to the bravehearts. He also interacted with the veterans, acknowledging their invaluable contributions to the nation. Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan was among the dignitaries present on the occasion.
Established in 1948, DSSC is a premier Tri-service training institution that imparts professional education to select middle-level officers of the Indian Armed Forces and friendly countries. It aims to enhance their professional competencies for assuming higher responsibilities. Over the years, more than 19,000 Indian officers and 2,000 international officers have graduated from DSSC, many of whom have risen to become heads of states and military forces worldwide.
Question for written answer E-001327/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Jörgen Warborn (PPE)
In May 2022, Parliament gave its consent to introduce autonomous trade measures (ATMs) for Ukraine, which have subsequently been renewed twice. This mechanism allows tariff-free imports of Ukrainian products, providing crucial economic relief to Ukraine during Russia’s war of aggression. Parliament has consistently called for these ATMs to be made permanent by amending Article 29 of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement[1]. This would not only reaffirm the EU’s commitment to supporting Ukraine but also strengthen Ukraine’s engagement on the path to EU membership.
The current ATMs will expire on 5 June 2025, and Parliament has received no indication that negotiations on amending Article 29 have commenced. This means that only two months remain before these vital trade measures lapse.
1.Given the urgency of the situation, can the Commission explain why no progress has been made in initiating negotiations on Article 29 of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement?
2.If amending the agreement is not feasible within the given time frame, what steps is the Commission taking to ensure the timely renewal of the current ATMs to bridge the gap?
Failure to act now could have serious consequences for Ukraine’s economy. I ask for an immediate explanation and a clear strategy ahead.
Submitted: 1.4.2025
[1] Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part (OJ L 161, 29.5.2014, p. 3, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/agree_internation/2014/295/oj).
The Commission recognises the critical role of high-quality infrastructure in ensuring connectivity and rapid response to crises at the EU’s borders.
In the Multiannual financial framework ( MFF) 2021-2027 negotiations, the Commission initially proposed EUR 6.5 billion for dual-use transport infrastructure under Connecting Europe Facility — Transport (CEF-T), but the final budget concluded by the Member States in the Council was reduced to EUR 1.7 billion.
Since the adoption of the current MFF, geopolitical circumstances have changed significantly. In response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Commission accelerated the implementation of the military mobility budget, fully allocating it over three calls (2021 -2023), supporting 95 projects in 21 Member States.
The 2023 call alone saw funding requests totalling EUR 3.7 billion, demonstrating the increased urgency and the scale of investment needs.
To enhance coordination and prioritisation, the Commission, in cooperation with the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), identified four EU military mobility corridors, endorsed by the EU Military Committee in October 2024.
These corridors were included in the revised Annex II to the Military Requirements for Military Mobility[1], adopted by the Council on 17 March 2025.
Work is ongoing to assess main bottlenecks and investment needs on these corridors, particularly for short-term upgrades to enhance resilience and adapt to dual-use standards (e.g. rail capacity increase, tunnel widening, bridge reinforcements).
European Commission Press release Brussels, 10 Apr 2025 To facilitate Ukraine’s access to global markets by enabling smoother transit through EU countries and strengthening trade links with the EU market, the EU and Ukraine have extended their Road Transport Agreement until 31 December 2025.
The European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) played a key role in investigating a sophisticated fraud and money laundering scheme involving European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) resources, with an estimated financial impact of EUR 9.5 million.
OLAF’s investigation started following a request from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) regarding suspected EU fraud, document forgery, and money laundering in an IT project in Romania. The EU financial support, intended to develop an innovative IT platform, was in reality exploited by an organised group to fraudulently obtain the EU funds and launder the proceeds of crime.
OLAF’s investigative activities, conducted in close cooperation with EPPO, included several on the spot checks in Cyprus and Czechia, along with operational intelligence analysis of the IT platforms developed under the EU project. As a result of the investigative cooperation, EPPO has indicted 12 defendants—six individuals and six legal entities—on charges of EU fraud and money laundering.
“Good news for European taxpayers and Europe’s digital transformation. This investigation is another excellent result of the close cooperation between OLAF and the EPPO. Fraud knows no borders and conducting cross-border investigations is essential: not only for protecting the EU’s financial interests but also safeguarding Europe’s digital transformation and a fair economy that works for all”, said Ville Itälä, OLAF Director-General.
Sophisticated money-laundering network
The evidence gathered points to a sophisticated and structured money-laundering scheme, orchestrated by a network of individuals and companies across Romania, Cyprus, Czechia, and the United Arab Emirates. OLAF’s investigation helped to determine that the group operated systematically, with each member playing a specific role in the criminal acquisition of EU taxpayers’ money and laundering the proceeds of crime.
The funds were diverted through fictitious contracts before being used for personal enrichment. Operational intelligence analysis revealed suspicious banking transactions spanning multiple jurisdictions, including Cyprus, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Monaco, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States.
OLAF shared its final report with EPPO and issued a financial recommendation to the European Commission to recover the suspected misappropriated funds. Subsequently, in November 2023, EPPO conducted 38 searches, seizing significant evidence. OLAF then analysed seized IT servers, which revealed that the same network had also been using the same modus operandi in another ERDF funded project implemented by another private company part of the group, which also fed into the EPPO’s case.
For more information, please see the EPPO’s press release.
OLAF mission, mandate and competences:
OLAF’s mission is to detect, investigate and stop fraud with EU funds.
OLAF fulfils its mission by: • carrying out independent investigations into fraud and corruption involving EU funds, so as to ensure that all EU taxpayers’ money reaches projects that can create jobs and growth in Europe; • contributing to strengthening citizens’ trust in the EU Institutions by investigating serious misconduct by EU staff and members of the EU Institutions; • developing a sound EU anti-fraud policy.
In its independent investigative function, OLAF can investigate matters relating to fraud, corruption and other offences affecting the EU financial interests concerning: • all EU expenditure: the main spending categories are Structural Funds, agricultural policy and rural development funds, direct expenditure and external aid; • some areas of EU revenue, mainly customs duties; • suspicions of serious misconduct by EU staff and members of the EU institutions.
Once OLAF has completed its investigation, it is for the competent EU and national authorities to examine and decide on the follow-up of OLAF’s recommendations. All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a competent national or EU court of law.
For further details:
Pierluigi CATERINO Spokesperson European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) Phone: +32(0)2 29-52335 Email: olaf-mediaec [dot] europa [dot] eu(olaf-media[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) https://anti-fraud.ec.europa.eu LinkedIn: European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) Bluesky: euantifraud.bsky.social If you’re a journalist and you wish to receive our press releases in your inbox, pleaseleave us your contact data.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
New British Army robotic mine plough aims to better shield soldiers from danger
British soldiers are to be better shielded from danger as a new high-tech, remote-controlled mine plough system is put through its paces.
Mine plough on a vehicle moving through a field
New remote-controlled mine plough device for safer minefield clearing.
The system can be adapted to all suitable military vehicles.
Trials will inform future British Army mine clearing capabilities.
By cutting through minefields, the device clears explosives and pushes them aside, opening a safe path for troops to move faster and more securely towards critical enemy positions or key objectives, outpacing current methods in speed and safety.
The device, called WEEVIL, was developed collaboratively by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Pearson Engineering Ltd – a British company based in the north-east – using the latest tech. WEEVIL can clear minefields quicker and safer than present capabilities, reducing risk to soldiers on the front line. Current mine-clearing methods include the TROJAN Armoured Vehicle, which requires a three-person crew to operate directly within hazardous areas.
The system prototype currently uses the Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle, fitted with a full-width mine plough, advanced remote-control system, and vehicle-mounted cameras. This allows it to be operated by a single person from several miles away from danger and is expected to be able to adapt to work with any suitable vehicle platform
The ground-breaking trials are set to continue with the British Army, who will push the robotic system to its limits, providing vital insight to inform future mine-clearing capabilities. The prevalence of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in modern warfare to slow troop movements has been highlighted in by the conflict in Ukraine.
In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor announced an additional £2.2 billion for defence in 2025/26. This comes on top of the announcement of the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, as the government will hit 2.5% of GDP spend by April 2027 and has a commitment to hit 3% in the next Parliament.
Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard said:
It won’t be a moment too soon when we no longer have to send our people directly into harm’s way to clear minefields.
This kit could tackle the deadly threat of mines in the most challenging environments, while being remotely operated by our soldiers several miles away.
It demonstrates British innovation, by British organisations, to protect British troops.
Delivering on the Plan for Change by driving defence as an engine for economic growth, the government is also significantly increasing the proportion of MOD’s equipment procurement spend on novel technologies like dual-use tech, uncrewed and autonomous systems and AI-enabled capabilities, spending at least 10% from 2025-26.
Dstl Military Advisor Major Andrew Maggs, who pioneered WEEVIL, said:
WEEVIL is the perfect combination of tried and tested technology and modern advancements.
By enhancing existing vehicles with new capabilities, we’re able to maximise their potential and give our troops a much-needed advantage, particularly in missions where time and safety are critical.
Dstl and Pearson Engineering have successfully tested this prototype in Newcastle on a surrogate minefield. The concept is now being passed for further development to the British Army who are seeking to optimise and modernise in-service capabilities as well as develop new solutions for future challenges.
Chief Executive Officer at Pearson Engineering Ian Bell said:
We are proud to contribute to such game-changing capability. It brings together decades of development by Pearson Engineering, delivering the very best of minefield breaching technology proven around the world, and contemporary developments in teleoperation.
Work with UK MOD is an incredibly important part of our business, ensuring our troops get the latest in combat engineering capability and that we can effectively defend our nation and allies.
NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, made his first trip to the Indo-Pacific in this capacity this week (8-9 April 2025) where he was hosted by the Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, in Tokyo, on Wednesday. They took stock of the long-standing partnership between NATO and Japan, agreeing a joint statement that aims to boost this relationship even further.
“Japan is one of NATO’s most valued partners, and today we set out our vision on how to further strengthen our cooperation,” the Secretary General said. “Russia continues to wage war against Ukraine, and its economy is on war footing. And it has not given up its ambitions to reshape European security. Meanwhile, China is pursuing a major military build-up, and seeks to control key technologies, critical infrastructure, and supply chains. It continues to carry out destabilising activities in the Indo-Pacific, and we also see North Korean troops and weapons being used against Ukraine – in return for Russia’s support to North Korea’s illegal weapons programmes.” He highlighted that “in a more dangerous world, NATO and Japan stand strong, to protect our values, our freedom and the peace.”
Secretary General Rutte hailed Japan’s plan to invest 2% of its GDP in defence by 2027 and the country’s continued investments, which he believes will “make Japan’s already capable forces even stronger.” Furthermore, he underscored the value of Japan’s multifaceted support to Ukraine, including through the imposition of sanctions against Russia, the signature of a security agreement between Japan and Ukraine, and substantial contributions to NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package Trust Fund for Ukraine. The NATO Secretary General also highlighted the importance to bolster NATO’s collaboration with Japan on key areas including defence industrial production, cyber defence and maritime security.
During his two-day visit to Japan, the Secretary General also met with the Minister of Defence of Japan, Gen Nakatani, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Investment, Yogi Muto, and with Members of the Japanese Diet Council for Comprehensive Security.
Mr Rutte visited Yokosuka Naval Base on Tuesday, where he was briefed by Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Forces aboard a Mogami-class frigate. He also visited Mitsubishi Electric’s Kamakura Works and took part in a roundtable discussion with Japanese dual use start-ups.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
‘Rational Expectations’ is a problematic theory in economics. Here I want to focus more away from economics; and more on the meanings of ‘rationality’ in decision-making, than on the problematic ambiguity of the word ‘expect’ (and its derivatives such as ‘expectations’). ‘Expectation’ here means what we believe ‘will’ happen, not ‘should’ happen; a rational expectation is a prediction, an unbiased average of possibilities, formed through a (usually implicit) calculation of possible benefits and costs – utilities and disutilities, to be technical – and their associated probabilities.
A rational decision is one that uses all freely available information in unbiased ways – plus some researched information, bearing in mind the cost of information gathering – to reach an optimal conclusion, or to decide on a course of action that can be ‘expected’ to lead to an optimal outcome to the decision-maker.
All living beings are rational to a point, in that they contain an automatic intelligence (AutoI) which exhibits programmed rationality. For most beings, AutoI is fully pre-programmed, so is not ‘intelligence’ as we would normally understand it; for others, that programming is subject to continuous reprogramming through a process of ‘learning’, true intelligence. In addition, beings of at least one species – humans – have a ‘manual override‘ intelligence (ManualI), which is our consciousness or awareness.
AutoI is an imperfect, though subversive, process of quasi-rational decision-making. Brains make calculations about optimal behaviour all the time; calculations of which we are not aware. (Richard Dawkins – eg in The Selfish Gene – would argue that these calculations serve the interest of the genotype rather than the individual phenotype.) For humans at least, full rationality means the capacity to use ManualI to override the amoral limitations of AutoI.
Rational decision-making, through learning, may be called ‘intelligence’. Though intelligence has another meaning: ‘information’, as in the ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ (CIA). It is perfectly possible to use unintelligent (stupid?) processes to gather and interpret intelligence!
Even when rational processes are used, many good decisions will, with hindsight, have inferior outcomes; or many good forecasts will prove partly or fully incorrect. It’s mostly bad luck, but also partly because intelligence is rarely completely unbiased, and partly because the cost of gaining extra information can be too high.
Expected Value, aka Expected Outcome
There is a simple rationality formula – familiar to students of statistics and of finance – which can yield a number called an ‘expected value’. In this expectations’ formula, a high positive number represents a good decision and a higher positive number represents a better decision. A negative number represents a bad (ie adverse) expected outcome, although sometimes all available expected outcomes are ‘bad’, meaning that the better course of action is the ‘lesser evil’. A positive number indicates an expected benefit, though not a necessary benefit. Negative possible outcomes represent ‘downside risk’, whereas positive possible outcomes represent ‘upside risk’.
(It is important to note that, in many contexts, a negative number does not denote something bad. A negative number may indicate ‘left’, as in the left-side of a Bell Curve; or ‘south’ or ‘west’ as in latitude and longitude. In accounting, a ‘deficit’ by no means indicates something bad, though President Trump and many others are confused on that point [see Could US tariffs cause lasting damage to the global economy?Al Jazeera 7 April 2025, where he says “to me a deficit is a loss”]; and we note that the substitution of the term ‘third world’ for ‘global south’ suggests an inferiority of southern latitudes. In double-entry bookkeeping, items must add to zero; one side of any balance sheet has negative values by necessity. A deficit, in some contexts, represents a ‘shortfall’ which is probably ‘bad’; but also a ‘longfall’ – or ‘surplus’ – is often bad, just think of the games of lawn bowls and pétanque.)
A simple example of rational decision-making is to decide between doing either something or nothing; for example, when contemplating asking someone out on a date. The expected outcome of doing nothing – not asking – has a value of zero. But, if you ask the person for the date, and you evaluate the chance of a ‘yes’ as 0.2, the utility of a ‘yes’ as +10, and the disutility of a ‘no’ as -1, then the expected value calculates to 1.2; so, the rational decision is to ask (the calculation is 10×0.2–1×0.8). This example is interesting, because the more probable outcome is a ‘no’, and a ‘no’ would make you less happy than if you had not asked the question; nevertheless, the rational decision here is to ‘take the risk’. (‘Risk averse’ persons might have rated the consequence of ‘rejection’ as a -4 rather than a -1; they would calculate an expected value of -1.2, so would choose to not ask for the date.)
Political Decision-Making when Catastrophic Outcomes are Possible
A rational calculation allocates values and probabilities to each identified possible outcome. A favourable outcome is represented by a positive number, a neutral outcome has a zero value, and an adverse outcome has a negative value.
A basic favourable outcome may be designated a value of one; an outcome twice-as-good has a value of two. An outcome an ‘order-of-magnitude’ better has a utility or happiness value of ten. The same applies to adverse outcomes; the equivalent disutility scores are minus-one, minus-two, and minus-ten.
An aeroplane crash might incur a score of minus fifty to society and minus ten million to an individual. The probability of dying in such a crash, for an individual, getting on a plane is probably about one in 100 million. If it was less than one-in-a-million, hardly anybody would get on a plane. (The chance of winning NZ Lotto first division is about one-in four-million.)
We should be thinking like this when we think about war. What kind of risk would we be willing to take? A problem is that the people who provoke wars do not themselves expect to be fatal victims.
A catastrophic outcome could range from minus 100 (say a small war) to minus infinity. An outcome which meant the total eradication of all life on Earth would come close to minus infinity. However, because of the mathematics of infinity (∞), any outcome of minus infinity with a non-zero probability yields an expectation of minus infinity. So for the following example, I will use minus one billion (-1b) as the disutility score for such a total catastrophe. A catastrophe that leads ‘only’ to human extinction might have a value of minus ten million (-10m). A holocaust the size of the 1943 RAF firebombing of Hamburg might have a catastrophe-value of minus one thousand (-1,000). A catastrophe the size of the 1932-1945 Bloodlands of Eastern Europe (which included 14,000 murders including the Holocaust, and much additional non-fatal suffering) might have an overall catastrophe-value of minus a hundred thousand (-100,000).
(Could we imagine an outcome of plus infinity: +∞? Maybe not, though certain evangelical Christians – extreme dispensationalists – pray for Armageddon; “dispensationalism views the progression of history in stages that begin in the Garden of Eden and ends in the paradise of the New Heavens and New Earth“. Thus, what might be minus infinity to most of us could be plus infinity for a few. There is an analogy of ‘wrap-around-mathematics’ in geospace; a longitude of +180° is the same as a longitude of -180°. And, in another example, some people believe that there is little difference between extreme-far-right politics and extreme-far-left politics. On this topic of extremes, the mainstream media should avoid the mindless repetition of hyperbole – as in a comment recently heard that President Trump’s tariffs may amount to an “economic nuclear winter“.)
My Example – the Ukraine War
In an example with some relevance to today, we might consider the NATO-backed ‘defence of Ukraine’. I could assign a modestly favourable outcome of +1 with a 50% probability, a very favourable outcome +10 with a 10% probability, and a catastrophic -1,000,000 with a 1% probability. (All other possibilities I will treat here as neutral, although my sense is that they are mostly adverse.) I calculate an expected value of minus 9,998.5; practically, minus 10,000; this is an average of all the identified possibilities, a catastrophic risk rather than a prediction of a major catastrophe.
This decision to persevere with the NATO-backed ‘defence of Ukraine’ is only rational if the only alternative decision – to abandon the NATO- backed ‘defence of Ukraine’ – comes up with an even lower expected value. (These two alternative decisions would be characterised by New Zealand’s former Ambassador to the United Kingdom – Phil Goff – as ‘standing up for Good in the face of Evil’ versus ‘appeasement of Putin’.) It seems to me that catastrophe becomes much less probable, in my example, with the ‘appeasement’ option than with the ‘defence’ option. (In the case that Goff was commenting on, his implication was that the 1938 ‘appeasement’ of Adolf Hitler by Neville Chamberlain led to either an increase in the probability of catastrophic war, or an increase in the size of catastrophe that might ensue.)
Morality Fallacy
One view of morality is the identification of some Other as Evil, and that any subsequent calling out of that (Evil) Other must therefore be Good. Further, in this view of morality, the claim is that, if and when hostilities break out between Good and Evil, then Good must fight to the ‘bitter end’ at ‘any cost’. (When we see Evil fighting to the bitter end – as per the examples of Germany and Japan in World War Two – we tend to think that’s stupid; but Good fighting to the bitter end is seen as righteous.)
Of course, this kind of morality is quite wrong. The idea that one must never surrender to Evil is a moral fallacy, based on the false (binary) idea that one side (generally ‘our side’) of a dispute or conflict has the entire ‘moral-high-ground’ and the other side has the entire ‘moral-low-ground’. Further, a victory to ‘Evil’ is surely less catastrophic than annihilation; a victory to Evil may be a lesser evil. Choosing annihilation can never be a Good choice.
Most conflict is nothing like Good versus Evil, though many participants on both (or all) sides believe that their side is Good. Most extended conflict is Bad versus Bad, Bad versus Stupid, or Stupid versus Stupid; although there are differing degrees of Bad and Stupid. Further, in the rare case when a conflict can objectively be described as Good versus Evil, it can never be good to disregard cost.
Morality in Practice
True morality requires a broadening of the concepts of ‘self’ and ‘self-interest’.
The important issues are benefits and costs to whom (or to what), and the matter of present benefits/costs versus future benefits/costs. In a sense, morality is a matter of ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘when’. Is it beneficial if something favourable happens ‘here’ but not ‘there’? ‘Now’, but not ‘then’? To ‘me’ or ‘us’, but not to ‘you’ or to ‘them’.
Human ManualI is very good at inclusive morality; AutoI is not.
It is natural, and not wrong, to prioritise one’s own group; and to prioritise the present over the future. The issue is the extent that we ‘discount’ benefits to those that are not ‘us’, and future benefits vis-à-vis present benefits. And costs, which we may regard as negative benefits. A very high level of discounting is near complete indifference towards others, or towards to future. An even higher level of discounting is to see harm to others as being beneficial to us; anti-altruism, being cruel to be cruel.
Then there is the ‘straw man’ morality much emphasised by classical liberals. ‘Libertarians’ claim that certain people with a collectivist mindset believe in an extreme form of altruism, where benefits to others take priority over benefits to self; such an ethos may be called a ‘culture of sacrifice’, benefitting by not-benefitting. While this does happen occasionally, what is more common is for people to emphasise public over private benefits; this is the sound moral principle that libertarians really disapprove of.
Thus, an important part of our ‘rational calculus’ is the private versus public balance; the extent to which we might recognise, and account for, ‘public benefits’ in addition to ‘private benefits’.
So, when we complete our matrix of probabilities and beneficial values, what weight do we give to the benefits that will be enjoyed by people other than ourselves, to other people in both their private and public capacities. Should we care if another group experiences genocide? Do we gloat? Should we empathise, or – more accurately – sympathise, and incorporate others into a more broadly-defined ‘community of self’?
If we have a war against a neighbouring country, should we care about how it affects other more distant countries through ‘collateral damage’? Should we care about a possible catastrophe if it can be postponed until the end of the life-expectancy of our generation? Should we care about the prosperity of life forms other than our own? Should we care about the well-being of our environments? Should we care more about our ‘natural resources’ – such as ‘land’ – than we care about other people who might be competing for the use of those same resources? If we have knowledge that will allow us to make improvements to the lives of others so that they catch up to our own living standards, should we make that knowledge public and useful? Should we account for the well-being of people who live under the rule of rulers who we have cast as ‘Evil’ (such as the burghers of Hamburg in 1943)?
One important morality concept is that of ‘reciprocation’. If we accept that others have the right to think of us in ways that compare with how we think of them, then we must value their lives much as we value our own lives. If I live in Auckland, should I value the life of a person who lives in New Delhi nearly as much as I value the life of someone who lives in Wellington? I should if I expect persons in Mumbai to value my life nearly as much as they value the lives of people in New Delhi.
Reciprocal morality can easily fail when someone belongs to a group which has apparent power over another group. We may cease to care whether the other group suffers our wrath, if we perceive that the ‘lesser’ group has no power to inflict their wrath onto our group. We may feel that we have immunity, and impunity. They should care about us, but we need not care about them.
It is through our ManualI – our manual override, our consciousness, our awareness – that we have the opportunity to make rational valuations which incorporate morality. Our AutoI, while rational in its own terms, is also amoral. We can behave in amoral self-interested ways – even immoral ways – without being aware of it. Our automatic benefit-cost analyses drive much of our behaviour, without our awareness; we cannot easily question what drives our Auto-Intelligence.
Our AutoI systems may – in evolutionary terms – select for degrees of ignorance, stupidity, blindness as ways of succeeding, of coping. AutoI protects us from having to face-up to the downsides of our actions and our beliefs; especially downsides experienced more by others than by ourselves. And they tell us that we are Good, and that some others are Bad.
Pavlovian Narratives
We come to believe in other people’s narratives through habit or conditioning. AutoI itself has a cost-cutting capacity that allows speedy decision-making; it adopts reasoning shortcuts, in the context that shortcuts save costs. We build careers – indeed our careers as experts in something – by largely accepting other people’s narratives as truths that should not be questioned and that should be passed on. We enjoy belonging to ‘belief communities’; and we are ‘pain-minimisers’ at least as much as we are ‘pleasure-maximisers’; it may be ‘painful’ to be excluded from a community. We too-easily appease unsound public-policy decisions without even knowing that we are appeasing. We turn-off the bad news rather than confronting it.
Our beliefs are subject to Pavlovian conditioning. And one of the most painful experiences any human being can suffer is to have beliefs cancelled as ‘stupid’. So we unknowingly – through AutoI – program our auto-intelligences to protect our beliefs from adverse exposure; and, if such protection fails, to denounce those who challenge our belief-narratives.
One form of cost-cutting-rationality is ‘follow-the-leader’. It’s a form of ‘conclusion free-riding’. We choose to believe things if we perceive that many others believe those things. An important form of ‘follow-the-leader’ is to simply take our cues from authority figures, saving ourselves the trouble of ‘manual’ self-reasoning.
With AI – Artificial Intelligence – we delegate even more of our decision-making away from our moral centres, our consciousnesses, our manual overrides. We allow automatic and artificial intelligence to perform ever more of our mental labour. It’s more a matter of people becoming robot-like than being replaced by robots.
Pavlovian rationalisation is heavily compromised by unconscious bias. Beliefs that arise from uncritical ‘follow-the-leader’ strategies are unsound. They lead us to make suboptimal decisions.
Why War?
Many people, including people in positions of influence, make decisions that are sub-rational, in the sense that they allow auto-biases to prevail over reflective ‘manual’ decision-making. There are biases in received information, and further biases in the way we interpret/process information.
Unhelpful, biased and simplistic narratives lead us into wars. And, because wars end in the future, we forever discount the problem of finishing wars.
When we go to war, how much do we think about third parties? In the old days when an attacker might lay-siege to a castle, it was very much ‘us’ versus ‘you’. But today is the time of nuclear weapons, other potential weapons of mass destruction, of civilian-targeting, and drone warfare. Proper consideration of third-parties – including non-human parties – becomes paramount. A Keir Starmer might feel cross towards a Vladimir Putin; but should that be allowed to have a significant adverse impact on the people of, say, Sri Lanka; let alone the people of Lancashire or Kazan?
Proper reflective and conscious consideration of the costs and benefits of our actions which impact on others should be undertaken. Smaller losses are better than bigger losses, and the world doesn’t end if the other guy believes he has ‘won’. Such considerations, which minimise bias, do allow for a degree of weighting in favour of the protagonists’ communities. But our group should never be indifferent to the wellbeing of other groups – including but not only the antagonist group(s) – and should forever understand that if we expect our opponents to not commit crimes, then we should not commit crimes either.
War escalates conflicts rather than resolves them. And it exacerbates other public ‘bads’ such as disease, famine, and climate change. War comes about because of lazy unchecked narratives, and unreasoned loyalty to those narratives.
Further Issues about Rational Expectations:
Poor People
It is widely believed by middle-class people that people in the precariat (lower-working-class) and the underclass should not gamble; as in buying lottery tickets and playing the ‘pokies’. But ‘lower-class people’ generally exhibit quite rational behaviour. In this case, rare but big wins make a real difference to people’s lives, whereas regular small losses make little difference to people already in poverty or in poverty-traps.
The expected return on gambling is usually negative, though the actual value of a big-win cannot simply be measured in dollar-terms. $100,000 means a much greater benefit to a poor person than to a rich person. Further, the expected value of non-gambling for someone stuck in a poverty-trap is also negative. It is rational to choose the least-negative option when all options are adverse.
Policy Credibility
Here I have commented about the rationality of decision-making, and how rational decisions are made in a reflective, conscious, moral, and humane way. However, there is also an issue around the meaning of ‘expectations’. While the more technically correct meaning of expectation is a person’s belief in what will happen, the word ‘expectation’ is also used to express a person’s belief in what should happen.
(An expectation can be either what someone will do, or should do. Consider: ‘Russia will keep fighting’ and ‘Russia should stop fighting’. To ‘keep fighting’ and to ‘stop fighting’ are both valid expectations; though only the first is a rational expectation from the viewpoint of, say, Keir Starmer; the second is an ‘exhortation’.)
The phrase ‘rational expectations’ is used most widely in the macroeconomics of interest rates and inflation. The job of Reserve Banks (‘central banks’) in the post-1989 world is to condition people (in a Pavlovian sense) into believing that an engineered increase in interest rates will lead to a fall in the inflation rate. This is called ‘credibility’. The idea is that if enough people believe a proposition to be true, then it will become true, and hence the conditioned belief becomes a rational belief. If people come to believe that the rate of inflation this year will be less than it was last year – however they came to that belief – then it should dowse their price-raising ardour; it becomes a contrived ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.
War
The same reasoning may be applied to warfare. If, by one side (especially ‘our’ side) talking-tough (and waving an incendiary stick), people on both sides believe that the other side will dowse its asset-razing ardour (due to fear or ‘loss of morale’), then the belief that a war is more-likely-to-end may in itself lead to a cessation of hostilities. While unconvincing, because humans are averse to humiliation, it’s an appeal to ‘our’ AutoI (automatic intelligence) over our less credulous ManualI (manual override, our reflective intelligence). It’s the ‘credible’ ‘tough-man’ (or iron-lady) narrative. In this sense, Winston Churchill was a credible wartime leader.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Source: United States Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA)
Published: April 9, 2025
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are introducing the bipartisan Global Hunt for Offshore Smuggling and Trafficking (GHOST) Act to strengthen enforcement of U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Currently, Russia is using a “ghost fleet” of unmarked ships to transport 70% of its seaborn oil exports and illicitly fund its economy. Iran has worked through similar actions to smuggle Russian and its own sanctioned oil throughout the world, including to China. This bipartisan action would expand U.S. efforts to disrupt illicit trade networks that are allowing Russia and Iran to evade sanctions.
“Russia is continuing its malign actions by operating a ‘ghost fleet’ to evade U.S. sanctions, enrich its own war machine, and even aid Iranian oil smuggling,” said Ernst. “By enhancing intelligence sharing and equipping law enforcement with the tools needed to go after illicit trade networks, I am working to halt the Axis of Evil in its tracks. In addition to disrupting Moscow’s efforts to undermine U.S. law, this bill will also arm our nation to utilize the seized assets and pay down our own debt.”
“Urgent action is imperative to crack down on Russia’s ghost fleet—a Putin tool financing his bloody assault on Ukraine,” said Blumenthal. “Our bipartisan legislation aims to help halt Putin’s illicit networks—unmarked shadow ships carrying Russia’s oil and other products—that evade sanctions and support his war. This measure will give our export controls real bite.”
Specifically, the GHOST Act:
Equips law enforcement with the means to seize and forfeit Russian assets,
Targets merchant ships violating U.S. sanctions,
Enhances intelligence sharing to counter illicit Russian trade networks,
Ensures interagency coordination by codifying the Export Enforcement Coordination Center, and
Redirects seized Russian assets toward reducing U.S. debt.
Click here to view the bill.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
April 09, 2025
Durbin continues to speak for progress toward a second ceasefire phase and to address the significant humanitarian crisis in Gaza on the Senate floor
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor on the importance of ending the war in Gaza and addressing the humanitarian crisis. During his remarks, Durbin reiterated the need to resume the ceasefire and return the hostages immediately.
“I am proud of the fact that President Harry Truman was the first president to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and I certainly concur with that sentiment to this day. The creation of the state of Israel after World War II was almost inevitable if this group of people were to exist. The holocaust was a reminder of the prejudice against the Jewish faith and the enduring struggle which they had been engaged in for decades—if not centuries. It was the right thing to do. There were times in history when Israel stood with us, when we desperately needed their help and there have been times when we have disagreed with their policy. That has never diminished for me personally or for our nation—Israel’s right to exist,” said Durbin.
“What happened on October 7 was horrific. Some 1200 innocent Israelis were killed [and] butchered by terrorists under the flag of the Hamas movement. Unfortunately, they took hostages as well. I don’t know the exact number, but I believe it was over 250 hostages were taken. Some still remain in captivity under the control of Hamas. Israel is defending itself and it has a right to do that,” Durbin continued.
Recent episodes of 60 Minutes have showed the continued pain and devastation from the war, including hostages still being held and considerable civilian death and destruction in Gaza, with children being a large number of victims. Last Sunday’s episode in particular highlighted doctors from Chicago, including those who had helped in the wars in Syria and Ukraine, sharing their stories of trying to treat innocent civilians caught up in the seemingly endless violence.
One of the doctors Durbin referenced on the Senate floor is Dr. Lisa Thornton, a pediatric rehabilitation expert from Chicago. Dr. Thornton described her first time seeing such war trauma, noting the estimated 15,000 children killed and 30,000 injured in the war (out of an estimated total 50,000 killed), and the thousands more who have lost a parent. Dr. Thornton coordinates therapies and prosthetics forinjured children, explaining, “our goal is to get them back to childhood”—a near impossible task amid the destruction and violence.
Orthopedic surgeon Samer Attar, also from Chicago, volunteers for the Syrian American Medical Society. Dr. Attar knows the horrors of the brutal Syrian civil war, and he said of his time in Gaza, “every day felt like a horror show.” He continued, “Imagine 50 people showing up all at once, and 15 of them are dead on arrival. And they’re all trying to get into the emergency room, and there’s no place to step. I remember one little girl just pounding her fists on the floor, just refusing to believe that her mom was dead, but they had to just forcefully pull her away to make room for incoming wounded because the pace of the wounded just doesn’t stop. They keep coming.”
“The scenes that were depicted last Sunday on 60 Minutes are heart breaking—two doctors from Chicago have gone there risking their lives to volunteer to try to save the children and the victims of Israeli bombing. And I’m sorry to say they have not been successful as they would like to have been. But they reported to us graphically what is going on there with the lack of medical supplies, the lack of hospitals, and [the lack of] basic food. This war has to end. If it is going to continue until every Hamas terrorist is killed, I’m afraid there will be thousands and thousands of innocent Palestinians lost in the process,” Durbin concluded. “The ceasefire should be resumed and the hostages returned immediately.”
Video of Durbin’sremarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available herefor TV Stations.
