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Category: United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to study looking at ultra-processed food consumption and premature deaths

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine looks at ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and premature mortality. 

    Prof Nita Forouhi, Professor of Population Health and Nutrition, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, said:

    “There are limitations to this paper, including the points the authors themselves raised.  Nonetheless, evidence on the ‘health harms of UPF’ are accumulating and this paper does add to that body of evidence, and UPFs are unlikely to be healthful.

    “We already know that correlation does not necessarily mean causation.  But well conducted observational studies with long term prospective cohort data are often the best we are going to get realistically; we will not get randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of behaviours awaiting death or chronic disease events, and RCTs have their own biases and limitations, particularly for behavioural factors (different to taking medication vs placebo studies).  So we should not ignore such findings, especially as the current research has reported consistently similar associations in several countries which increases the degree of confidence.

    “In addition to the 8 countries they included for their population attributable fraction (PAF) estimates (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, UK, USA), it would have been useful if they had also included the countries that provided the results on associations of UPFs with mortality but were not included (e.g. France, Italy, Spain).”

    Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, Open University, said:

    “I’d be pretty cautious about the details and specific numerical estimates in this paper, for reasons I’ll explain.  Also, some of the terminology in the paper and the press release appears, in my opinion, much more definite about what’s causing what than the evidence in the paper merits.  That’s partly because some of the technical wording, even though it’s standard in this kind of research, doesn’t mean quite the same as it means in ordinary English.

    “The problems of interpretation arise because the studies involved are observational, but they go further than that.  The researchers have to make mathematical assumptions about exactly how UPF consumption is correlated with mortality risk, and even though they base these assumptions on data, there is at least one issue (described later).  And in calculating what’s known as the attributable epidemiological burden, or population attributable fraction, of UPF consumptions, the researchers may appear to be making a simple comparison, but in fact it’s a lot more complicated than you might think.

    “The data that the paper draws on for its conclusions, about consumption of UPFs and mortality, is all observational.  The researchers are not reporting any new data here – they are taking data from previous studies, and population estimates for the countries concerned, and putting it all together.  Nothing at all wrong with that – in fact in general it’s a good idea to review studies of the same things from different times and places, to see what overall picture emerges.

    “The seven studies that the authors of this paper used, to find an overall pooled estimate of the association between UPF consumption and all-cause mortality, are all themselves observational.  Again there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s pretty difficult, indeed impossible in most cases, to do a study linking diet to long-term health outcomes that is not observational.  Such a study would have to allocate different individuals to different diets, and somehow ensure that they stuck to these diets for many years.  So instead, researchers record what people eat, and then follow them up for a long time and record if and when they die.

    “This all means that it’s impossible, for any one study like that, to be sure whether differences in mortality between people who consume different UPF amounts are actually caused by differences in their UPF consumption.  There are bound to be many other differences between groups who consume different UPF amounts, in terms of other details of their diet, their lifestyle, their economic position, their sex and age, and so on.  These differences might be, in part or in whole, the reason for the differences in the risk of early death.  In other words, each individual study can find a correlation, an association, but can’t say for sure whether the association between UPF consumption and mortality is one of cause and effect.  It might be, or it might not.

    “The researchers in each of the studies reviewed in this new paper obviously are aware of this, and they all made statistical adjustments to allow for differences in other factors (though in different ways in different studies).  But that doesn’t make the problem disappear – you still can’t be sure from any study of this kind exactly what’s causing what.

    “The fact that the new paper puts together data from seven different observational studies does again help somewhat with the issue of what’s causing what, but it can’t deal with it entirely.  There have been many criticisms of interpretation of observational studies involving UPFs and health outcomes, some of them on the basis that UPFs are defined in rather different ways by different writers, or on the grounds that the mechanisms by which UPFs might actually cause ill health haven’t been established clearly enough.

    “I’m certainly not saying that there is no association between UPF consumption and ill health – just that it’s still far from clear whether consumption of just any UPF at all is bad for health, or of what aspect of UPFs might be involved.

    “Then there are particular aspects of this new study that make the interpretation more complicated than it would be for other observational studies of UPFs and health.

    “The authors begin by estimating the nature of the association between the consumption of UPFs and the risk of premature death.  That is, they aren’t just trying to see whether high levels of UPF consumption are correlated with higher mortality.  They want to know something more precise – exactly how much does the risk of dying increase, for every additional 10 per cent of a person’s calorie intake that comes from UPFs.  (Again, no assumption here that the increase in risk is all caused by UPFs.)  That sounds fine, but it involves assuming a particular mathematical form for the association (in the light of the data).

    “After that, the authors use the estimate of that association between UPF consumption and risk of early death to calculate estimates of the population fraction of premature deaths (ages 30-69) attributable to UPF consumption, for 8 different countries including the UK.  They use that to calculate estimates of the number of additional deaths in each of the 8 countries attributable to UPF consumption, and some of those numbers look pretty large.

    “This is done by taking data on the number of people in different groups (defined by age and sex) in each country.  This is then used to calculate how many would be expected to die at current levels of UPF consumption (using data from the estimate of the association between UPF consumption and premature death in all the studies that were put together in the first part of the work, so not just for the UK for example).  Finally this is compared with the number that would be expected to die in a theoretical population where nobody consumes (or ever consumed) UPFs.  No such population exists, not in a whole country, so this calculation has to be based on a statistical model.  Then the deaths attributable to UPF consumption is the difference between these two expected numbers of deaths.

    “What this sounds like, for the UK in 2018-19 for example, is that there would have been almost 18,000 fewer deaths of people aged between 30 and 69, if nobody in the country had consumed any UPFs (ever). However, that’s very far from the whole story, for a lot of reasons.

    “First, it doesn’t mean that, because the studies involved are observational, and as the authors of the new paper rightly point out, there could be factors that could not be adjusted for in the original studies, that are involved in causes of early death.  That’s why it’s called a population attributable fraction, rather than something even more definite, like population fraction caused by UPFs.  Technically, it can’t mean that we know we could save those lives just by changing UPF consumption.

    “But it’s deeper than that.  There isn’t a whole population in the UK or in the other seven countries in the study, where nobody ever consumed any UPFs.  So the comparison is being made between an estimate for current UPF consumption levels and an estimate for a theoretical population that can’t exist.  Even if somehow all UPFs were banned today, it would take many decades before there was a population where nobody had ever consumed UPFs.

    “And even if somehow we did get to that position, well, people have to eat something, and if they aren’t getting their calories from UPFs, they would need to get them from something else.  They might well not get them all in the same way that people who consume very few UPFs do today.  We just can’t tell.

    “So it’s not the case that we could save 18,000 premature deaths annually in the UK by taking action to reduce UPF consumption.  This doesn’t mean that taking such actions wouldn’t reduce early deaths – just that we can’t tell how much the reduction might be, or when it would occur, or how much longer the individuals concerned might have lived – not from the calculations in this paper.

    “I have some other concerns.

    “Several of the authors of the new paper collaborated on a previous paper, published in 2023 (reference 17 in the new paper, which is the reference given for the model used in the new paper for estimates of attributable deaths).  The 2023 paper uses similar methodology to make an estimate of the premature deaths attributable to UPFs in Brazil in 2019.  This uses similar data on the association between UPF consumption and premature mortality, from a systematic review and meta-analysis, to what’s used in the new paper, except that there are three additional studies reviewed in the new paper.  The estimate is only for Brazil, and is 57,000 deaths in a year.  The estimate for Brazil in the new paper is just over 25,000 deaths in a year.

    “The big difference between the 2023 and the 2025 estimates for Brazil seems to be very largely because of a different assumption made in the two papers about the mathematical form of the association between UPF consumption and death risk.  (In the jargon, they use a log-linear model in the 2023 paper but a linear model in the 2025 paper.)  The new estimate is based on more data from more countries – but the big difference does emphasise the importance of mathematical modelling assumptions.  Data can throw light on what assumptions are appropriate, but don’t tie things down very firmly at all in a situation like this.

    “Finally, the systematic review and meta-analysis in the new paper is missing some of the technical details that one normally sees in this kind of work.  The paper is very unclear on how the researchers chose the studies they included in their review, which after all drives all the estimates of attributable deaths.  The authors write that studies were selected ‘on the basis of recently published systematic reviews’.  That’s not normally the way it’s done, and in any case three of the included studies were not mentioned in the systematic reviews that are referred to in the new paper.  I don’t know where the researchers got them.  They may well be perfectly respectable studies – I haven’t had time to look at them – but really the authors of the new paper should have been much clearer about what they were doing, if we are to be confident about their conclusions.  Also it’s usual in a systematic review to give some assessment of the quality of the research studies that were included, and that just isn’t done here.  None of this increases trust in how the work was done.”

    Dr Nerys Astbury, Associate Professor – Diet & Obesity, Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences, University of Oxford, said:

    “Here Nilson and colleagues report findings from a study reporting associations between consumption of Ultra Processed Foods (UPF), defined by the NOVA classification system, and premature mortality.

    “This study combines evidence on dietary intake of UPF from Columbia, Brazil, Australia, Canda, United Kingdom and USA and reports that for each 10% increase in proportion of UPF in the diet there was a 3% increase in all-cause mortality.  The authors then used a mathematical formula to estimate the population attributable fraction, which is an estimate of the number of deaths which could be prevented if the exposure (consumption of UPF) was eliminated.  It is important to note this does not mean that these deaths were caused by UPF consumption.  The methods of this study simply cannot determine this.

    “It’s been established for some time including in the Global Burden of Disease Consortium that consuming diets higher in energy, fat and sugar can have detrimental effects on health, including premature mortality.  This study adds to the body of evidence on the association between UPF and ill health and disease.  However, many UPF tend to be high in these nutrients, and studies to date have been unable to determine with certainty whether the effects of UPF are independent of the already established effects of diets high in foods which are energy dense and contain large amounts of fat and sugar.

    “The authors of the study conclude that advice to reduce UPF consumption should be included in national dietary guideline recommendations and in public policies.  However, rushing to add recommendations on UPF to these recommendations is not warranted based on this study in my opinion.  Many national dietary guidelines and recommendations already advise the reduction of consumption of energy dense high-fat high-sugar foods, which typically fall into the UPF group.  Adding additional recommendations based on UPF could cause consumer confusion – some foods may be considered unhealthy by nutrient standards, but not so by NOVA classification (and vice versa).

    “This study and other similar studies that have explored the association between UPF and diet related disease, have used the NOVA classification system invented by Dr Carlos Monteiro (an author on this paper).  In my view the NOVA system which defines foods according to different levels of food processing has many limitations, including arbitrary definitions and overly broad food categories, the over-emphasis of food ingredients opposed to the processing per se and the difficult practical application of the system in accurately classifying foods.  This is especially notable when attempting to classify foods from dietary data collected in large cohort studies, as in this study.

    “More research is needed to ascertain a causal link between UPF and disease and to establish the mechanisms involved.”

    Dr Stephen Burgess, statistician in the MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, said:

    “This study assesses observational associations rather than interventions, and so it is not able to make reliable causal claims.  That is to say, it shows that individuals who consume higher levels of ultraprocessed foods have greater risk of premature mortality, rather than showing that increasing your consumption of ultraprocessed foods would increase your mortality risk.  However, the similarity of findings across populations is notable, as consistent associations were seen in a variety of contexts, including those where high consumption of ultraprocessed foods is a sign of relative wealth and those where it is a sign of relative deprivation.  This type of research cannot prove that consumption of ultraprocessed foods is harmful, but it does provide evidence linking consumption with poorer health outcomes.  It is possible that the true causal risk factor is not ultraprocessed foods, but a related risk factor such as better physical fitness – and ultraprocessed foods is simply an innocent bystander.  But, when we see these associations replicated across many countries and cultures, it raises suspicion that ultraprocessed foods may be more than a bystander.”

    ‘Premature Mortality Attributable to Ultraprocessed Food Consumption in 8 Countries’ by Eduardo A.F. Nilson et al. was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine at 05:05 UK time on Monday 28 April 2025. 

    DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2025.02.018

    Declared interests

    Prof Nita Forouhi: “No conflicts of interest to declare.”

    Prof Kevin McConway: “Previously a Trustee of the SMC and a member of its Advisory Committee.”

    Dr Nerys Astbury: “No conflicts.”

    Dr Stephen Burgess: “No relevant conflict of interest to declare.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: City announces new Director Healthy Communities and Environments

    Source: New South Wales Ministerial News

    Following a competitive recruitment process, the City of Greater Bendigo is pleased to announce Jessica Howard has been appointed the new Director Healthy Communities and Environments.

    Ms Howard is a familiar face to many at the City, as she is the current Director Corporate Performance since joining the City in March 2023.

    Most recently, Ms Howard has been at the forefront of the Councillor induction process and development of the 2025-2029 Council Plan, had an integral role in the recent organisation restructure and led the development of successive budgets.

    She has also contributed critical thinking relating to organisation policy, systems and processes, and is a valued member of the City’s Executive Leadership Team.

    Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cooney congratulated Ms Howard on her new role and said he was pleased she would be continuing her career at the City.

    “Prior to joining the City, Jess was a Director at Mount Alexander Shire Council and had a similar portfolio of responsibilities as the Healthy Communities and Environments directorate, including sport and recreation, community safety, local laws, climate resilience and project delivery,” Mr Cooney said.

    “Jess is also a former Councillor at Mount Alexander Shire, where she stood on a platform of strong community participation, and she has a personal interest in sport through her extensive involvement in playing and coaching soccer locally.

    “Her considerable experience in State Government and skills developed in various policy and advisory roles are also valuable.

    “I look forward to Jess continuing to make a great contribution to our organisation and community in her new role.”

    Ms Howard’s new responsibilities include Maternal and Child Health, immunisation, early learning centres, environmental health, local laws, climate change resilience and emergency management, parking, animal management, provision of recreation facilities, celebrating cultural diversity and inclusion, and community capacity building.

    Ms Howard said she was excited to take on this new challenge.

    “I am really looking forward to meeting the many organisations, clubs, groups and volunteers that the Healthy Communities and Environments directorate works with and who have such a critical role in making our community such a great place to live,” she said.

    Ms Howard will transition to the Director Healthy Communities and Environments role in the coming months, following recruitment to appoint a new Director Corporate Performance.

    The Director Corporate Performance role will be advertised by mid-May.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How much do election promises cost? And why haven’t we seen the costings yet?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra

    With the May 3 federal election less than a week away, voters still have little reliable information on the costs of Labor or Coalition policies.

    Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said Labor’s policy costings will be released imminently. At the 2022 election, the costings were not released for nearly two months after polling day.

    Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley last week told Sky News the Coalition costings will be “released in the lead up to election day and will be able to be fully interrogated”.

    This is now too late for the voters who have already cast their ballots. We have seen a record number of pre-poll votes this election, with more than 2.3 million as of Saturday. This means a sizeable percentage of the electorate has voted without knowing what their votes will cost.

    Voting without all the facts

    Whichever side wins, taxpayers eventually pay to implement policies. So knowing at least in broad terms the costs of the policies would be helpful.

    The Coalition has probably had many of its policies costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office. This process thorough and impartial.

    Importantly, the Parliamentary Budget Office costs policies over ten years. This allows the full costs of policies to be understood better. Some policies such as large infrastructure take many years before the full impact on the budget is felt.

    Labor has already published the costs of many of its policies in the March 25 federal budget. This only covered the forward estimates, three years into the future, but is reliable for most policies. But we still need the costings for policies announced post-budget.

    The true picture?

    Even when we see what the parties release, we can have no confidence their lists will be accurate and complete. Parties may omit costings that might attract criticism.

    They may also present costings prepared by consultants rather than the Parliamentary Budget Office. You may recall controversy late last year over private modelling of the Coalition’s plans for nuclear power.

    Unfortunately we have to wait until after the election for a comprehensive and independent set of costings.

    The Parliamentary Budget Office does not publish its full list of costings (in the election commitments report) until well after the election. This is either 30 days from the end of the caretaker period or seven days before the new parliament first sits, whichever comes later.

    The election commitments report has some accountability value in relation to the party that forms government but does not help inform voters. It is a mystery why anyone would be interested in the costs of policies of the losing side. But they still must be published, according to electoral law.

    The report must include the major parties, although minor parties and independents can also be included in the report if they wish.

    Are there other approaches?

    By contrast, in New South Wales the state Parliamentary Budget Office publishes a complete set of costings five days before the election. Policies announced after this date miss out but these rarely affect the budget bottom line.

    Although, as occurs federally, many voters cast their ballots in advance, at least NSW’s approach gives most voters a chance to see the costs. This encourages the major parties to compete to produce a fiscally responsible total.

    The NSW approach is self-policing. Each major party studies the statements and if the other side omits something – large or small – they rapidly and loudly complain. Parties therefore try to make their policy lists as accurate as possible.

    Both sides are obliged by law to provide the budget office with all the proposed policies of the leader’s party.

    Toting up all the costs

    Federally, the budget office takes on the time-consuming job of tracking down all the policy announcements to cost and include in its post-election report.

    The differences arise from the different legislation that applies to each PBO.

    NSW has arguably an easier job because it costs policies only for the premier and leader of the opposition. The federal budget office costs for all members of parliament.

    The federal system requires policies submitted during the caretaker period, and their costings, must be published “as soon as practicable”. But major parties are highly unlikely to submit a policy only to have it and its costing released at a time not of its choosing.

    The requirement is likely motivated by transparency, but clashes with political reality. In NSW costings remain confidential until the leader advises the budget office the policy has been announced. This gives parties a way to have policies costed with a low risk of their premature release.

    DIY assessments

    Federally, there are other ways to estimate the costs of policies. The budget office has a Build your Own Budget Tool, and a tool for modelling alternative
    income tax proposals (SMART), both available online.

    These provide a fair approximation and are often used by journalists trying to get behind political announcements.

    The OECD lists 35 independent fiscal bodies in 29 OECD countries responsible for assessing election costings. Some are tiny, with just a few analysts. Some are
    huge and influential, like the US Congressional Budget Office. Few have the same focus on costing election policies that applies in Australia.

    Costs are a big deal here. Both parties have run advertisements attacking the other side on the question of whether their policies are affordable.

    On major policies such as the Coalition plans for nuclear power there are massive differences between cost estimates put forward by each side. Such differences could be resolved by an independent and impartial costing. This is why Australian voters deserve to see such costings as soon as possible.

    Stephen Bartos was NSW Parliamentary Budget Officer for the past three NSW general elections. He is now a professor at the University of Canberra.

    – ref. How much do election promises cost? And why haven’t we seen the costings yet? – https://theconversation.com/how-much-do-election-promises-cost-and-why-havent-we-seen-the-costings-yet-255104

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for April 28, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 28, 2025.

    Reefs in the ‘middle’ light zone along NZ’s coast are biodiversity hotspots – many are home to protected species
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James J Bell, Professor of Marine Biology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington James Bell, CC BY-SA The latest update on the state of New Zealand’s environment paints a concerning outlook for marine environments, especially amid the increasing push to use the marine estate for

    Pokies line the coffers of governments and venues – but there are ways to tame this gambling gorilla
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Recently, much public attention has been given to the way online wagering and its incessant promotion has infiltrated sport and our TV screens. Despite a 2023 parliamentary inquiry that recommended new restrictions on online

    Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns and casts a pall on Canada’s election
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Asgary, Professor, Disaster & Emergency Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies & Director, CIFAL York, York University, Canada A car attack at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver just two days before Canada’s federal election has killed at least 11 people and injured many

    Is Canada heading down a path that has caused the collapse of mighty civilizations in the past?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Hoyer, Senior Researcher, Historian and Complexity Scientist, University of Toronto Canada is, by nearly any measure, a large, advanced, prosperous nation. A founding member of the G7, Canada is one of the world’s most “advanced economies,” ranking fourth in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s

    Rwanda’s genocide: why remembering needs to be free of politics – lessons from survivors
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Lakin, Lecturer, Clark University Memory and politics are inherently intertwined and can never be fully separated in post-atrocity and post-genocidal contexts. They are also dynamic and ever-changing. The interplay between memory and politics is, therefore, prone to manipulation, exaggeration or misuse by clever actors to meet

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    What will the UK Supreme Court gender ruling mean in practice? A legal expert explains
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Maine, Senior Lecturer in Law, City St George’s, University of London jeep2499/Shutterstock The Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers will mean changes in how trans people in the UK access services and single-sex spaces. In the highly anticipated judgment announced

    What are ‘penjamins’? Disguised cannabis vapes are gaining popularity among young people
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Chung, PhD Candidate, National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland Stenko Vlad/Shutterstock E-cigarettes or vapes were originally designed to deliver nicotine in a smokeless form. But in recent years, vapes have been used to deliver other psychoactive substances, including cannabis concentrates and

    Used EV batteries could power vehicles, houses or even towns – if their manufacturers share vital data
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryoush Habibi, Professor and Head, Centre for Green and Smart Energy Systems, Edith Cowan University EV batteries are made of hundreds of smaller cells. IM Imagery/Shutterstock Around the world, more and more electric vehicles are hitting the road. Last year, more than 17 million battery-electric and hybrid

    Climate change and the housing crisis are a dangerous mix. So which party is grappling with both?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ehsan Noroozinejad, Senior Researcher and Sustainable Future Lead, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Australia is running out of affordable, safe places to live. Rents and mortgages are climbing faster than wages, and young people fear they may never own a home. At the same time,

    Why film and TV creators will still risk it all for the perfect long take shot
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristian Ramsden, PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide Apple TV In the second episode of Apple TV’s The Studio (2025–) – a sharp satirical take on contemporary Hollywood – newly-appointed studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) visits the set of one of his company’s film productions. He finds

    Is there a best way to peel a boiled egg? A food scientist explains
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paulomi (Polly) Burey, Professor in Food Science, University of Southern Queensland We’ve all been there – trying to peel a boiled egg, but mangling it beyond all recognition as the hard shell stubbornly sticks to the egg white. Worse, the egg ends up covered in chewy bits

    Australia once had ‘immigration amnesties’ to grant legal status to undocumented people. Could we again?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior Lecturer, International Migration and Refugee Law, University of Technology Sydney The year is 1972. The Whitlam Labor government has just been swept into power and major changes to Australia’s immigration system are underway. Many people remember this time for the formal end of the

    Independents may build on Australia’s history of hung parliaments, if they can survive the campaign blues
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University Major parties used to easily dismiss the rare politician who stood alone in parliament. These MPs could be written off as isolated idealists, and the press could condescend to them as noble, naïve and unlikely to succeed. In

    Peter Dutton: a Liberal leader seeking to surf on the wave of outer suburbia
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In searching for the “real” Peter Dutton, it is possible to end up frustrated because you have looked too hard. Politically, Dutton is not complicated. There is a consistent line in his beliefs through his career. Perhaps the shortest cut

    Albanese has been a ‘proficient and lucky general’. But if he wins a second term, we are right to demand more
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Monash University Barring a rogue result, this Saturday Anthony Albanese will achieve what no major party leader has done since John Howard’s prime-ministerial era – win consecutive elections. Admittedly, in those two decades he is only the second of the six

    Peter Dutton declares Welcome to Country ceremonies are ‘overdone’ in heated final leaders’ debate
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andy Marks, Vice-President, Public Affairs and Partnerships, Western Sydney University Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have had their fourth and final leaders’ debate of the campaign. The skirmish, hosted by 7News in Sydney, was moderated by 7’s Political Editor Mark Riley. Cost of

    Election Diary: a cost-of-living election where neither leader can tell you the price of eggs
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The fourth election debate was the most idiosyncratic of the four head-to-head contests between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Apart from all the usual topics, the pair was charged with producing one-word responses to pictures of

    Trump’s war on the media: 10 numbers from US President’s first 100 days
    Reporters Without Borders Donald Trump campaigned for the White House by unleashing a nearly endless barrage of insults against journalists and news outlets. He repeatedly threatened to weaponise the federal government against media professionals whom he considers his enemies. In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has already shown that he was not bluffing.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Murdered officer honoured on milestone day

    Source: New South Wales – News

    South Australia Police (SAPOL) and the South Australian Police Historical Society has today commemorated Police Foundation Day by unveiling a memorial plaque in Hindmarsh Square for an officer killed on duty.

    Dignitaries including Lord Mayor, the Honourable Dr Jane Lomax-Smith AM, Minister of Police Stephen Mullighan, Commissioner of Police Grant Stevens APM LEM and Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams APM LEM united with other guests this morning to honour and remember 23-year-old Foot Constable John McLennan Holman, who was tragically murdered at the location on 23 February 1929.

    Police Foundation Day is held annually on 28 April to commemorate SAPOL’s founding in 1838, being the oldest centrally organised police service in Australia, and one of the oldest civilian police services in the world.

    “Today, we pay tribute to Constable John McLennan Holman who had his life tragically cut short early in his policing career,” Commissioner Stevens said.

    “Constable Holman was a promising young officer who was held in the highest esteem by fellow comrades and his dedication to the job sadly eventuated in the loss of his life.

    “Since the establishment of South Australia Police in 1838, 62 police officers have been killed in the line of duty. This is a stark reminder of the dangers police face when protecting the community.”

    During a historical address, former Deputy Commissioner and Police Historical Society member John White revisited the tragic 1929 incident as part of the memorial service.

    “Constable Holman’s death brought about a shock wave across the community,” he said.

    “This memorial reminds us of the sacrifice this young officer made in the vicinity of where he was heartbreakingly killed.”

    Foot Constable Holman and fellow constables Budgen and Marshall responded unarmed to a report of shots being fired at Grenfell Street. Upon arrival, they reportedly found the area strangely quiet, with a motorcycle and sidecar parked unattended.

    Seizing the machine, the constables travelled a short distance when suddenly confronted by two men, one John Stanley McGrath, who suddenly shot Constable Holman after he dismounted and identified as a police officer.

    “Both men turned and ran away while, unarmed and wounded, constables Holman and Budgen bravely gave chase. Shot in the abdomen, Constable Holman collapsed while Constable Budgen continued chase, calling for backup from a nearby Constable King,” Mr White told the crowd.

    “Following a vicious gunfight involving Constable King, McGrath was shot in the leg and fell. When

    Constable Budgen leant over the offender, he heard a click and, fortunately, realised McGrath was out of ammunition.”

    Once McGrath and his accomplice were apprehended, Constable Holman was found unconscious and conveyed to the then Adelaide Hospital, where he sadly died from his wounds an hour later.

    Constable Holman had only joined the service two years prior in 1927 and was due to be married a week later. McGrath was found guilty of his murder in July 1929 and sentenced to death. This was later commuted to life imprisonment, but he was released after serving only 13 years.

    On Monday 25 February 1929 a state funeral was held for the fallen constable, seeing thousands line Adelaide streets in respect and disbelief.

    “For their actions on 12 May 1930, Constables Budgen and King were awarded the King’s Police Medal for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in recognition of the fearless discharge of their duty at the risk of death on February 23, when Constable Holman was fatally shot,” Mr White added.

    Minister of Police Stephen Mullighan paid his respects at today’s memorial and acknowledged the work of all police, past and present.

    “Today, decades on, we honour the sacrifice of a young officer who died tragically far too soon,” he said.

    “The State Government acknowledges the ongoing risk and sacrifice our brave police continue to take on while protecting fellow South Australians. “

    Meanwhile, Constable John McLennan Holman is also remembered and honoured on the South Australia Police Roll of Honour and Wall of Remembrance, and the Australian National Police Memorial Wall of Remembrance, Canberra.

    Bill Prior, President of the SA Police Historical Society, former Deputy Commissioner and Police Historical Society member John White, Commissioner of Police Grant Stevens, Honourable Dr Jane Lomax-Smith AM and The Hon Stephen Mullighan MP, Minister for Police at today’s Police Foundation Day memorial event in Hindmarsh Square.

    Commissioner of Police Grant Stevens APM LEM with the unveiled plaque dedicated to Constable John McLennan Holman, who was killed on duty in 1929.

    In 2025 we recognise and honour the passing of Constable John McLennan Holman who died as a result of a fatal gunshot, whilst he was in the execution of his duty on 23 February 1929 in Hindmarsh Square Adelaide.

    Foot Constable John McLennan Holman and his  gravesite. The gravesite was restored in 1998 with funding from the Police Association of South Australia.

    The Register state funeral coverage February 26, 1929.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Pokies line the coffers of governments and venues – but there are ways to tame this gambling gorilla

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

    Recently, much public attention has been given to the way online wagering and its incessant promotion has infiltrated sport and our TV screens.

    Despite a 2023 parliamentary inquiry that recommended new restrictions on online (especially sport) gambling advertising, the federal government neglected to implement any of the 31 recommendations.



    Read more:
    Will the government’s online gambling advertising legislation ever eventuate? Don’t bet on it

    This seems to have resulted from a furious and well resourced campaign by gambling’s ecosystem: wagering companies, broadcasters, sporting leagues, and others who currently drink from the fountain of gambling revenue.

    Naturally, this issue garnered a great deal of attention, as it should.

    But there’s another even bigger gambling gorilla that has steadily rebuilt its profits post-pandemic. You’ll probably find some at a hotel or social club near you.

    This is, of course, pokies: Australia’s version of slot machines.

    Australia’s major source of gambling problems

    Australians lost A$15.8 billion on pokies in 2022–23, over half of that ($8.1 billion) in New South Wales. That’s an increase of 7.6% from 2018–19 (before pandemic restrictions closed many venues or restricted operations).

    Wagering (sports and race betting) losses grew a hefty 45% over the same period, to around $8.4 billion. Even so, it remains way behind the pokies as Australia’s biggest source of gambling losses and problems.

    Casino losses dropped by 35.5%. Casinos are also poke venues, but also offer other forms of gambling. Pokies in casinos are counted as “casino” gambling in national gambling statistics, while pokies in clubs and pubs continue to be counted separately.

    A recent study found pokies responsible for between 52% and 57% of gambling problems in Australia. Wagering was estimated at 20%.

    Recent growth may have altered these a little but pokies are still responsible for half of Australia’s gambling losses.

    The gambling industry is fond of pointing out only a modest proportion of the population have serious gambling problems. That’s true, according to most prevalence studies.

    But what also has to be remembered is, most people never use pokies. In 2024, the latest population study for NSW found only 14.3% of adults used pokies at all.

    But around 18.5% of pokie users are either high or moderate risk gamblers: 35% of gamblers who use pokies at least once a month are classified as either high or moderate risk gamblers.

    And in 2010 the Productivity Commission estimated 41% of the money lost on pokies came from the most seriously addicted, with another 20% coming from those with more moderate issues. Overall, well over half of the losses.

    It’s little wonder pokie operators resist reforms.

    Why are pokies so profitable?

    The first and obvious answer to this is that there are a lot of them: they are widely accessible across Australia (apart from Western Australia, where they’re only in a single casino).

    NSW alone has about 87,500. Queensland has about half that number, and Victoria about 26,000.

    All of these are located in pubs or clubs, and in NSW they collect (on average) $93,000 per machine per year.

    Second, they’re overwhelmingly concentrated in areas where people are doing it tough. Stress and strain are common where there are pokies.

    Some people start to use them thinking they might alleviate financial woes. They don’t, of course. But they do provide an escape from the vicissitudes of daily life.

    Once sampled, that can become addictive.

    People who use pokies a lot call this escape from reality “the zone” – once you’re there, nothing matters, except staying there.

    The zone is also known as “immersion”, or “loss of executive control”: people using pokies find it very difficult, if not impossible, to stop. Once the money’s gone, reality crashes in.

    Pokies are also extremely addictive. Along with online casino games (which includes virtual pokies or slot machines), they are generally regarded as the most addictive and harmful gambling products.

    They have a host of features engineered into them, including “losses disguised as wins”, “near misses” and many others.

    They are engineered with 10 million or more possible outcomes and it is not possible for anyone to predict what outcome will come next.

    Crucially, the house always wins. In a machine where the “return to player ratio” is set at 87% (a common, completely lawful setting), the machine would retain 13% of all wagers.

    Unfortunately, few pokie users understand these characteristics.

    Can’t we rein in the pokies?

    So why do politicians resist reform?

    One reason for this is the pokie revenue that flows into government coffers.

    In 2022–23, state governments received a total of more than $9 billion in gambling taxes – 7.8% of all state tax revenue. Of this, $5.3 billion came from pokies. NSW alone got $2.23 billion from pokies, Victoria $1.3 billion, and Queensland $1.1 billion.

    The venues, of course, receive a great deal more. One of the consequences of all that money flowing into the coffers of pubs and clubs is political access and influence.

    We can, however, tame the pokies if we want to.

    Various solutions are available, including pre-commitment, generally believed to be the most likely candidate.

    This involves pokie users being required to set a limit prior to using the machines, which is now common in many countries in Europe, and has been proposed (but delayed or scuttled) in Australia for Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales.

    More broadly however, this has been strongly resisted by the gambling ecosystem, including parties such as ClubsNSW and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association. Their influence appears profound.

    Change is needed, urgently

    Australia’s reputation as the world’s biggest gambling losers is unenviable: we lose $32 billion on gambling products every year.

    Clearly, prohibition of gambling ads, and the termination of sports sponsorships that tie football, cricket and other major sports to gambling is needed urgently.

    But if we really want to reduce gambling problems and their extraordinary catalogue of harm, reining in the pokies is a must.

    That may take some serious effort.

    Charles Livingstone has received funding from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the (former) Victorian Gambling Research Panel, and the South Australian Independent Gambling Authority (the funds for which were derived from hypothecation of gambling tax revenue to research purposes), from the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, and from non-government organisations for research into multiple aspects of poker machine gambling, including regulatory reform, existing harm minimisation practices, and technical characteristics of gambling forms. He has received travel and co-operation grants from the Alberta Problem Gambling Research Institute, the Finnish Institute for Public Health, the Finnish Alcohol Research Foundation, the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Committee, the Turkish Red Crescent Society, and the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand. He was a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council funded project researching mechanisms of influence on government by the tobacco, alcohol and gambling industries. He has undertaken consultancy research for local governments and non-government organisations in Australia and the UK seeking to restrict or reduce the concentration of poker machines and gambling impacts, and was a member of the Australian government’s Ministerial Expert Advisory Group on Gambling in 2010-11. He is a member of the Lancet Public Health Commission into gambling, and of the World Health Organisation expert group on gambling and gambling harm. He made a submission to and appeared before the HoR Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm.

    – ref. Pokies line the coffers of governments and venues – but there are ways to tame this gambling gorilla – https://theconversation.com/pokies-line-the-coffers-of-governments-and-venues-but-there-are-ways-to-tame-this-gambling-gorilla-252038

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: 133-2025: Xylella emergency measures: Change in country status for Iraq

    Source: New South Wales Government 2

    28 April 2025

    Who does this notice affect?

    This notice affects importers of live plants (nursery stock), customs brokers and departmental staff.

    What has changed?

    Effective immediately, enhanced regulatory measures are now in place to manage the risk of Xylella fastidiosa (Xylella) in plant hosts imported from Iraq for use as nursery stock.

    The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has identified a recent publication which…

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: City invites feedback on draft plan for new Garden Gully Reserve Playspace

    Source: New South Wales Ministerial News

    The City of Greater Bendigo has developed a draft plan for the development of an exciting new suburban level playspace at Garden Gully Reserve and is now seeking community feedback.

    The draft playspace plan includes:

    • A new public toilet and a shelter with a BBQ
    • Shade trees, seating, irrigated lawn areas, and planted garden beds
    • Paths to connect the playspace to the Ironbark Gully Trail, Ashley Street, and to the existing hockey ground
    • Colourful concrete play tunnels and an all-abilities carousel
    • A big swing unit with a basket swing, a standard seat and a toddler seat
    • A play tower for climbing and sliding
    • Spring rockers, weave poles, colourful steppers, balance boulders; and,
    • Bike hoops and a drinking fountain with a dog bowl

    City of Greater Bendigo Parks and Open Space Manager Chris Mitchell said in 2024 the City of Greater Bendigo updated the existing masterplan which was developed in 2004 to incorporate new public toilets, construction of a new suburban level playspace and the provision of improved paths and linkages to the Ironbark Gully Trail.

    “The new playspace and new public toilets are both key projects of the updated Masterplan and will be constructed in a safer and more accessible location west of the existing hockey ground,” Mr Mitchell said.

    “When the masterplan was up-dated the community were informed that there would be a separate community engagement process for the design of the playspace.

    “The City now wants to know what the community likes about the draft design, what they don’t like and what colours they would like to see in the new playspace.

    “Things that cannot change in the draft plan include the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) accessible footpath alignment, the location of the shelter and toilet block, the 10metre buffer from the existing hockey fencing and the extent of the playspace footprint.

    “The existing neighbourhood level playspace will remain in operation until construction of the new playspace is completed in 2027.  Following construction of the new playspace the existing playspace will be dismantled and removed.”

    Residents can provide their feedback on the draft plan by visiting the City’s Let’s Talk Community Engagement website by Friday May 16, 2025.

    To provide feedback, visit:

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Major NHS App expansion cuts waiting times

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 2

    Press release

    Major NHS App expansion cuts waiting times

    Reform of NHS App stops 1.5 million hospital appointments being missed, with 87% of hospitals now offering services through NHS App.

    • Reform of NHS App stops 1.5 million hospital appointments being missed, saving 5.7 million staff hours since July  
    • Push to get patients seen quicker is part of Government’s Plan for Change to end hospital backlogs and shift NHS services from analogue to digital 
    • 87% of hospitals now offering services through NHS App – up nearly 20% since July and exceeding government target 

    Millions of patients are benefiting from greater choice and flexibility in the way they access healthcare as the Prime Minister welcomes a major milestone in the roll out of the NHS App today.

    Latest data shows 1.5 million appointments have been saved thanks to the Government’s accelerated rollout of the NHS App, which helps patients access treatment more conveniently so that it fits around their lives, rather than the other way round.

    Making sure patients get greater power over how and when they can book their treatments and appointments is at the heart of the government’s plans to end hospital backlogs and improve care through the Plan for Change.   

    Users can manage appointments, view prescriptions, access their GP health record, and receive notifications at the touch of a button, reducing stress on healthcare services and providing easier access to information and services.   

    The government has exceeded its first target under the plan to increase the number of hospitals allowing patients to view appointment information via the App up to 85% by the end of March – reaching 87%, up from 68% in July 2024. 

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

    Our NHS has been stuck in the dark ages – held back by old fashioned systems where patients are struggling for appointments and unable to access their own data.

    We saw during the pandemic how apps can totally transform everyday access to health services. So there’s no excuse for the lack of progress in the NHS we’ve inherited.

    NHS reform has to come through better use of tech – it’s the fuel we need to power change.

    As we deliver our Plan for Change to end hospital backlogs, I want to see more and more people having the option to use the app, so that everyone benefits from more control and choice over their treatment.

    Measures to expand the use of the App were set out earlier this year in the government’s Elective Reform Plan, which set out how patients will be offered a wider choice of providers and an easier, quicker way to book appointments.  

    The move comes as the government steps up the use of health data to accelerate the discovery of life-saving drugs and improve patient care. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister announced an investment alongside Wellcome Trust of up to £600 million to create a new health data research service. This will transform access to NHS data by providing a secure single access point to national-scale data sets, slashing red tape for researchers and boosting the UK’s world leading life sciences sector.

    Health Secretary Wes Streeting said:      

    This government is determined to get our NHS fixed and fit for the future – and this is just one of the innovative ways through the Plan for Change that we’re helping patients, cutting waiting lists and saving taxpayers money all at the same time.  

    By putting the latest technology into the hands of patients so they can access services quicker, we’re freeing up more time for doctors and nurses to focus on treating people and getting waiting lists down.

    This government is doing things differently. Every missed appointment and wasted staff hour saved means another patient getting the care they need as we drive a digital NHS revolution through our Plan for Change.”  

    Since July, the increased use of existing app features have saved almost 5.7 million hours of staff time including 1.26 million clinical hours across care settings – together with the 1.5 million missed appointments avoided, the NHS App has helped save the equivalent of £622 million.

    The app has spared staff from tasks such as managing appointments, completing questionnaires, ordering repeat prescriptions and taking patient details, freeing up frontline staff to focus directly on patient care and treatment.

    And new analysis shows patients are getting faster treatment, with trusts that offer services through the app and patient online systems cutting waiting times for more elective care patients than those who do not.  

    Trusts who use the app’s key features saw a 3-percentage point increase in the number waiting less than 18 weeks in November 2024. This would equate to up to 211,000 more treatments meeting the 18 week target over the same time period if expanded to all hospitals across the country. 

    With more patients able to access correspondence digitally through the App, almost 12 million fewer paper letters have been sent by hospitals since July – saving £5.2million in postage costs. Forecasts for this year show the use of in-app notifications for planned care will prevent the need for 15.7million SMS messages – saving the NHS a further £985,000.     

    To assist elderly and more vulnerable patients, the NHS is now offering the public support in how to access online health services including the NHS App at 1,400 libraries across England. 

    Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS national clinical transformation director, said:

    The NHS App is leading the way in switching from analogue to digital services, empowering over 37 million users with faster access to information and slashing waiting times.

    With services now live in 87% of hospitals it is also boosting NHS productivity, cutting the number of missed appointments and freeing up almost 5.7 million staff hours since July alone.

    Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said:

    Any innovations that give patients more control over their care, reduce the risk of missed appointments and free up valuable staff time so that they can focus on patients are a step in the right direction.

    While it’s really positive that even more hospitals are now offering services through the NHS App, trust leaders know that not everyone has access to or feels comfortable using technology. That’s why it’s welcome that alongside paper letters and phone calls, the NHS is offering more support to help elderly and more vulnerable patients access online health services including via the NHS App.

    Planned NHS App upgrades are set to include the ability for patients to choose from a wide range of providers through the app; book tests at convenient locations, such as their local community diagnostic centre; and receive test results quickly through the app before choosing the next step. 

    The app drive is part of the government’s wider ambitions to shift NHS services from analogue to digital and cut waiting lists under its Plan for Change. With a total of three million additional appointments already delivered six months early, the government is exceeding its own targets and driving down waiting lists at pace, which have fallen for six months in a row and by 219,000 since July.   

    The milestone follows the government’s announcement that 4.5 million tests, checks and scans were carried out in Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) between July and February, a 50% increase on the previous year. Alongside this, NHS waiting lists in the areas with the highest economic inactivity have been slashed by almost 50,000 between October and February – a number larger than Stamford Bridge stadium.

    Dr John Dean, Clinical Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians, said:

    We welcome the continued rollout and improvements to the NHS app with the aim of putting patients in control of their own health. A focus on incrementally building functionality in the NHS App to support patients to manage their own healthcare will lead to better more connected digital systems that work better for staff and patients, freeing up time and increasing productivity.

    We are keen to work closely with NHS England and the government to ensure that the NHS App is rolled out and improved in ways that most benefit patients and clinicians. It is also vital that we ensure sufficient mitigations are put in place so that those without access to the app are not excluded from accessing the same quality of patient care.

    Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said:

    It’s very encouraging to see how digital tools like the NHS App are giving patients greater power over their healthcare, from managing appointments to accessing important health information. The NHS figures showing 1.5 million prevented missed appointments and 1.7 million staff hours saved demonstrate just how transformative this innovation can be.

    While this digital progress is vital and the 20% increase in hospital participation is welcome, we must also ensure no one is left behind. Digital access remains a barrier for many, so we welcome the initiative providing support for online health services at 1,400 libraries across England. This kind of practical support needs to remain a key priority as services continue to modernise.

    Updates to this page

    Published 28 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Greater protection for domestic abuse victims in North Wales

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 3

    Press release

    Greater protection for domestic abuse victims in North Wales

    Survivors of domestic abuse across North Wales will be better protected due to the further expansion of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders.

    • Clamp down on domestic abuse extended to North Wales
    • Hundreds more victims to benefit from stronger protections from cowardly abusers
    • Government reiterates commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade as part of its Plan for Change

    From today, victims in North Wales – as well as their friends, families or support workers – can apply for Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPO) in the family court at Caernarfon, Prestatyn or Wrexham. Police can also apply on their behalf in the magistrates’ court for protection against abusers. This comes as the Government reiterates its commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade as part of its Plan for Change.

    Domestic Abuse Protection Orders build on existing police powers, providing stronger protection for victims including forcing perpetrators to stick to strict exclusion zones wearing GPS tags and attending substance misuse or mental health interventions. 

    Unlike current schemes, these orders cover all types of domestic abuse – including physical, controlling, or coercive behaviour, economic abuse and stalking – and can be issued by all courts. There will also be no maximum duration for these orders, compared to the 28-days current protection orders offer.

    In the year to March 2024, North Wales Police granted 462 Domestic Violence Protection Notices and made over 350 applications under Clare’s Law to help protect victims of domestic abuse. These figures show why more flexible, streamlined tools like Domestic Abuse Protection Orders will further help victims.

    Today marks the second expansion after the successful launch in Greater Manchester, three London boroughs (Croydon, Bromley and Sutton) and with the British Transport Police in November 2024 – with orders also rolled out across Cleveland in March. Between 27 November and 31 March, over 100 Domestic Abuse Protection Orders have been secured in Greater Manchester alone, with the police dealing with 45 breaches and jail time handed down to some of those who breached the order.

    Since then, there have been multiple convictions for breach of an order with some perpetrators already behind bars. A maximum sentence for a breach of a Domestic Abuse Protection Orders is five years in prison.

    Minister for Victims and Violence Against Women and Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, said:

    The pilot of DAPOs is already helping a number of victims across England, ending the cycle of abuse trapping them in their own homes. I am now pleased to be expanding this to selected areas in my home country of Wales.

    Launching initially in North Wales, the rollout will continue to protect even more victims, and this helps to contribute to our Plan for Change.

    These orders work, and it’s imperative that victims – predominantly women – in pilot areas know where and how to access them. If you’re experiencing abuse, contact your local family court, police, or your support worker today to help access a DAPO for the safety you deserve.

    Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, said:

    Time and time again, victims of domestic abuse tell me their safety has been compromised by a system that fails to protect them properly. That’s why these new domestic abuse protection orders are not paper promises – they are real, practical tools that track abusers through electronic tagging, creating exclusion zones, and mandating attendance at behaviour change programmes.

    Rolling out these orders to North Wales marks an important step in gathering more valuable insight as we work towards wider expansion across the country. This is how we’ll deliver on our mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade – through concrete actions that truly protect victims and hold perpetrators to account.

    Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens said:

    The UK Government is working to make our communities safer, and it is vital that we reduce violence against women and girls to achieve this goal.

    These new orders provide stronger protection for victims of domestic abuse, simplify their access to help and ensure court powers are more stringent than ever before.

    We are delivering change for people across the country and victims of appalling violence across North Wales will now have the protection they deserve.

    Jenny Hopkins, Chief Crown Prosecutor for Cymru-Wales, said:

    Domestic Abuse Protection Orders are another vital way for our prosecutors to protect victims of these terrible crimes.

    We can ask the court for an order if someone is convicted, or if they are acquitted, and will be looking to prosecute anybody who breaches that order.

    Background information

    • Domestic Abuse Protection Orders were launched in November 2024 across Greater Manchester, three London boroughs (Croydon, Bromley and Sutton) and with the British Transport Police.
    • In March 2025 they were extended to Cleveland.
    • The DAPO is a joint policy shared between the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office and was legislated for in Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
    • Tagging can be imposed for up to 12 months at a time.

    Updates to this page

    Published 28 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What will the UK Supreme Court gender ruling mean in practice? A legal expert explains

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Maine, Senior Lecturer in Law, City St George’s, University of London

    jeep2499/Shutterstock

    The Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers will mean changes in how trans people in the UK access services and single-sex spaces.

    In the highly anticipated judgment announced April 17, the court ruled that the definition of “sex”, “man” and “woman” in the Equality Act refers to “biological sex”. It found that this does not include those who hold a gender recognition certificate (trans people who have had their chosen gender legally recognised). In simple terms, “women” does not include transgender women.

    It is important to note that the court’s remit was focused on interpretation of existing laws, not creating policy. The court affirmed that trans people should not be discriminated against, nor did they intend to provide a definition of sex or gender outside of the application of the Equality Act.

    The prime minister has said he welcomes the “real clarity” brought by the ruling. But while it may bring some legal clarity, questions remain about the practical implementation. The judgment also raises new questions about the operation of the Gender Recognition Act, and what it now means to hold a gender recognition certificate.

    What was the court case?

    The gender-critical feminist group For Women Scotland challenged the Scottish government’s guidance on the operation of the Equality Act in relation to a Scottish law that sets targets for increasing the proportion of women on public boards.

    The definition of a “woman” for the purposes of that law included trans women who had undergone, or were proposing to undergo, gender reassignment.

    The issue that the court had to address was whether a person with a full gender recognition certificate (GRC) which recognises that their gender is female, is a “woman” for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. The act gives protection to people who are at risk of unlawful discrimination.

    The court’s decision was that the meaning of “sex” was biological and so references in the act to “women” and “men” did not, therefore, apply to trans women or trans men who hold GRCs.

    What has changed with this ruling?

    Prior to the ruling, there were contested views as to whether trans people could access certain single-sex spaces – some of the most contentious being prisons, bathrooms and domestic abuse shelters.

    The ruling does not require services to exclude trans people from all single-sex spaces. It does, however, clarify that if a service operates a single-sex space, for example a gym changing room, then exclusion is based on biological sex and not legal sex. Neither the court nor the government has said how “biological sex” would be defined or proven.

    A service provider may operate a single-sex space on the basis of privacy or safety of users. To base this on biological sex must be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim – for example, the safety of women in a group for abuse survivors. This means that service providers may still operate trans-inclusive policies, but they may open themselves to legal challenge.



    Read more:
    What does the UK Supreme Court’s gender ruling mean for trans men?

    What does this mean for the Gender Recognition Act?

    The Gender Recognition Act 2004 introduced gender recognition certificates (GRCs), which certify that a person’s legal gender is different from their assigned gender at birth. A trans person can apply for a GRC in order to change their gender on their birth certificate. For legal purposes, they are then recognised as their acquired gender.

    The ruling does not strike down or affect the operation of the Gender Recognition Act. But it does give the impression that the GRA – and holding a GRC – is now less effective.

    The ruling clarifies that a trans woman who has a GRC and is recognised legally in her acquired gender can be excluded from single-sex spaces on the ground of biological sex, as would a trans woman without a GRC. Before the ruling, a trans person with a GRC would have been able to access many single-sex spaces and services that match the gender on their GRC.

    In order to be granted a GRC, a person must show that they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years and that they intend to live in that gender until death. Their application must be approved by two doctors, but – in what was a world-first at the time it was introduced – does not require any medical transition.

    The Supreme Court states that trans people (with or without a GRC) will still be protected from discrimination. Sex and gender reassignment are both protected characteristics under the Equality Act. This means that trans people may still rely on the law to protect them from direct or indirect discrimination levelled at them on the basis of being trans, or because of their perceived sex.

    The court uses the example that a trans woman applying for a job being denied that job on the basis of being trans would still be entitled to sue for discrimination.

    How will single-sex services operate?

    The key question now, both for service providers and trans people, is what spaces trans people will be able to use. It is not the Supreme Court’s job to issue guidance on this – and the judgment is notably silent on the practical implementation of the ruling.

    Service providers may choose to offer unisex spaces, for example gender neutral bathrooms. British Transport Police have already confirmed that strip searches of those arrested on the network would be conducted based on biological sex, and other services will likely follow.

    It is up to service providers, employers and healthcare providers to interpret the ruling and decide how to apply it. The government has said that further guidance will be issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. But how the ruling is implemented in practice, and what it means for other laws like the Gender Recognition Act, will likely be debated for some time.

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

    – ref. What will the UK Supreme Court gender ruling mean in practice? A legal expert explains – https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-uk-supreme-court-gender-ruling-mean-in-practice-a-legal-expert-explains-255043

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘I were but little happy, if I could say how much’: Shakespeare’s insights on happiness have held up for more than 400 years

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cora Fox, Associate Professor of English and Health Humanities, Arizona State University

    Joanna Vanderham as Desdemona and Hugh Quarshie as the title character in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of ‘Othello.’ Robbie Jack/Corbis via Getty Images

    What is “happiness” – and who gets to be happy?

    Since 2012, the World Happiness Report has measured and compared data from 167 countries. The United States currently ranks 24th, between the U.K. and Belize – its lowest position since the report was first issued. But the 2025 edition – released on March 20, the United Nations’ annual “International Day of Happiness” – starts off not with numbers, but with Shakespeare.

    “In this year’s issue, we focus on the impact of caring and sharing on people’s happiness,” the authors explain. “Like ‘mercy’ in Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice,’ caring is ‘twice-blessed’ – it blesses those who give and those who receive.”

    Shakespeare’s plays offer many reflections on happiness itself. They are a record of how people in early modern England experienced and thought about joy and satisfaction, and they offer a complex look at just how happiness, like mercy, lives in relationships and the caring exchanges between people.

    Contrary to how we might think about happiness in our everyday lives, it is more than the surge of positive feelings after a great meal, or a workout, or even a great date. The experience of emotions is grounded in both the body and the mind, influenced by human physiology and culture in ways that change depending on time and place. What makes a person happy, therefore, depends on who that person is, as well as where and when they belong – or don’t belong.

    Happiness has a history. I study emotions and early modern literature, so I spend a lot of my time thinking about what Shakespeare has to say about what makes people happy, in his own time and in our own. And also, of course, what makes people unhappy.

    From fortune to joy

    Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
    Tony Hisgett/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    “Happiness” derives from the Old Norse word “hap,” which meant “fortune” or “luck,” as historians Phil Withington and Darrin McMahon explain. This earlier sense is found throughout Shakespeare’s works. Today, it survives in the modern word “happenstance” and the expression that something is a “happy accident.”

    But in modern English usage, “happy” as “fortunate” has been almost entirely replaced by a notion of happiness as “joy,” or the more long-term sense of life satisfaction called “well-being.” The term “well-being,” in fact, was introduced into English from the Italian “benessere” around the time of Shakespeare’s birth.

    The word and the concept of happiness were transforming during Shakespeare’s lifetime, and his use of the word in his plays mingles both senses: “fortunate” and “joyful.” That transitional ambiguity emphasizes happiness’ origins in ideas about luck and fate, and it reminds readers and playgoers that happiness is a contingent, fragile thing – something not just individuals, but societies need to carefully cultivate and support.

    For instance, early in “Othello,” the Venetian senator Brabantio describes his daughter Desdemona as “tender, fair, and happy / So opposite to marriage that she shunned / The wealthy, curled darlings of our nation.” Before she elopes with Othello she is “happy” in the sense of “fortunate,” due to her privileged position on the marriage market.

    Later in the same play, though, Othello reunites with his new wife in Cyprus and describes his feelings of joy using this same term:

    …If it were now to die,
    ‘Twere now to be most happy, for I fear
    My soul hath her content so absolute
    That not another comfort like to this
    Succeeds in unknown fate.

    Desdemona responds,

    The heavens forbid
    But that our loves and comforts should increase
    Even as our days do grow!

    They both understand “happy” to mean not just lucky, but “content” and “comfortable,” a more modern understanding. But they also recognize that their comforts depend on “the heavens,” and that happiness is enabled by being fortunate.

    “Othello” is a tragedy, so in the end, the couple will not prove “happy” in either sense. The foreign general is tricked into believing his young wife has been unfaithful. He murders her, then takes his own life.

    The seeds of jealousy are planted and expertly exploited by Othello’s subordinate, Iago, who catalyzes the racial prejudice and misogyny underlying Venetian values to enact his sinister and cruel revenge.

    James Earl Jones playing the title role and Jill Clayburgh as Desdemona in a 1971 production of ‘Othello.’
    Kathleen Ballard/Los Angeles Times/UCLA Library via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    Happy insiders and outsiders

    “Othello” sheds light on happiness’s history – but also on its politics.

    While happiness is often upheld as a common good, it is also dependent on cultural forces that make it harder for some individuals to experience. Shared cultural fantasies about happiness tend to create what theorist Sara Ahmed calls “affect aliens”: individuals who, by nature of who they are and how they are treated, experience a disconnect between what their culture conditions them to think should make them happy and their disappointment or exclusion from those positive feelings. Othello, for example, rightly worries that he is somehow foreign to the domestic happiness Desdemona describes, excluded from the joy of Venetian marriage. It turns out he is right.

    Because Othello is foreign and Black and Desdemona is Venetian and white, their marriage does not conform to their society’s expectations for happiness, and that makes them vulnerable to Iago’s deceit.

    Similarly, “The Merchant of Venice” examines the potential for happiness to include or exclude, to build or break communities. Take the quote about mercy that opens the World Happiness Report.

    The phrase appears in a famous courtroom scene, as Portia attempts to persuade a Jewish lender, Shylock, to take pity on Antonio, a Christian man who cannot pay his debts. In their contract, Shylock has stipulated that if Antonio defaults on the loan, the fee will be a “pound of flesh.”

    “The quality of mercy is not strained,” Portia lectures him; it is “twice-blessed,” benefiting both giver and receiver.

    It’s a powerful attempt to save Antonio’s life. But it is also hypocritical: Those cultural norms of caring and mercy seem to apply only to other Christians in the play, and not the Jewish people living alongside them in Venice. In that same scene, Shylock reminds his audience that Antonio and the other Venetians in the room have spit on him and called him a dog. He famously asks why Jewish Venetians are not treated as equal human beings: “If you prick us, do we not bleed?”

    Actor Henry Irving as Shylock in a late 19th-century performance of ‘The Merchant of Venice.’
    Lock & Whitfield/Folger Shakespeare Library via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    Shakespeare’s plays repeatedly make the point that the unjust distribution of rights and care among various social groups – Christians and Jews, men and women, citizens and foreigners – challenges the happy effects of benevolence.

    Those social factors are sometimes overlooked in cultures like the U.S., where contemporary notions of happiness are marketed by wellness gurus, influencers and cosmetic companies. Shakespeare’s plays reveal both how happiness is built through communities of care and how it can be weaponized to destroy individuals and the fabric of the community.

    There are obvious victims of prejudice and abuse in Shakespeare’s plays, but he does not just emphasize their individual tragedies. Instead, the plays record how certain values that promote inequality poison relationships that could otherwise support happy networks of family and friends.

    Systems of support

    Pretty much all objective research points to the fact that long-term happiness depends on community, connections and social support: having systems in place to weather what life throws at us.

    And according to both the World Happiness Report and Shakespeare, contentment isn’t just about the actual support you receive but your expectations about people’s willingness to help you. Societies with high levels of trust, like Finland and the Netherlands, tend to be happier – and to have more evenly distributed levels of happiness in their populations.

    Shakespeare’s plays offer blueprints for trust in happy communities. They also offer warnings about the costs of cultural fantasies about happiness that make it more possible for some, but not for all.

    Cora Fox has received funding from an NEH grant for activities not directly related to this research.

    – ref. ‘I were but little happy, if I could say how much’: Shakespeare’s insights on happiness have held up for more than 400 years – https://theconversation.com/i-were-but-little-happy-if-i-could-say-how-much-shakespeares-insights-on-happiness-have-held-up-for-more-than-400-years-198583

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Independents may build on Australia’s history of hung parliaments, if they can survive the campaign blues

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University

    Major parties used to easily dismiss the rare politician who stood alone in parliament. These MPs could be written off as isolated idealists, and the press could condescend to them as noble, naïve and unlikely to succeed.

    In November 1930, when independent country MP Harold Glowrey chose to sit on the crossbench of the Victorian parliament while his few peers joined the new United Country Party, the local newspapers emphasised that he could not “become a cabinet minister” or “have a say” in making policy from the sidelines. (As if he wasn’t aware.) Australia was a place where, according to the scribes at The Ouyen Mail, “very few constituencies were prepared to elect independent men”.

    Things are rather different now. Lifelong loyalty to a single party has become a rarer thing among voters, with the Australian Election Study showing fewer than four in ten voters give their first preference vote to the same party at each election. It was more than seven in ten back in 1967.

    Voters have gravitated towards alternatives to the two major parties. A new interactive data tool from the ABC shows just how much more competitive federal elections have become. Australians are now world leaders in sending independents to represent them in state and federal parliaments.

    And who could call the independents of the recent past naïve? Independent MPs held the balance of power in New South Wales in the early 1990s, and in Victoria later that decade. Both parliaments saw substantive reforms and improved parliamentary processes.

    A strong track record

    At the federal level, a lineage of independents such as Ted Mack, Peter Andren, Zali Steggall, Cathy McGowan and her successor in Indi Helen Haines have all found new ways to give voice to their community in parliament. Voters, especially in rural electorates and formerly “safe” seats, have been attracted to candidates who promise to “do politics differently”, as McGowan so often puts it.

    There are dozens of candidates making that promise at this election. At least 129 candidates are listed on House of Representatives ballot papers as independent or unaffiliated candidates in 88 seats. That’s almost twice as many independent candidates than in the 2013 election for the lower house. Around 35 of these are community independent candidates. A further 28 people are running as independents or ungrouped candidates in Senate races.

    So who are the independent candidates, and what role might they play after May 3?

    Who are the independent candidates?

    For a start, around a third of all independent candidates for House of Representatives seats are women. Among the “community independent” candidates (commonly referred to as “teals”), it’s closer to four out of five.

    This is entirely in keeping with the role daring women have played as the strongest custodians of non-party politics in Australia over the past 120-odd years.

    Most of the women on ballot papers this year are professionals and public figures. Nicolette Boele, candidate for Bradfield, NSW, is a former consultant and clean energy financier who came close to unseating cabinet minister Paul Fletcher in 2022. In the seat of Calare, also in NSW, candidate Kate Hook describes herself as “a professional working mum” and “small farmer” with an interest in regional development and renewable energy. Caz Heise, candidate for Cowper (NSW) is a healthcare expert who carved a sizeable chunk out of the National Party vote in 2022. Independent candidate for Groom (Queensland) Suzie Holt is a social worker by training who finished second at the last election. Berowra’s Tina Brown is a local magazine publisher with deep roots in Sydney’s Hills District.

    Who are the dozens on men putting themselves forward? Many are former mayors and councillors running for parliament while the opportunity presents itself. There are a small but noteworthy coterie of men running on a specifically Muslim platform, some of whom are running with the support of the Muslim Votes Matter organisation.

    Of the few “teal” men, the most competitive by far is Alex Dyson, a third-time candidate in the western Victorian seat of Wannon, currently held by Dan Tehan, shadow minister for immigration and citizenship.

    A former Triple-J presenter and comedian with a “side-hustle” as an Uber driver, Dyson will hope to benefit from his positioning at the top of the ballot paper for Wannon.

    Crossbench contenders

    Most of the women who swept into parliament in 2022 are campaigning to retain their seats. Dai Le in Fowler, Sophie Scamps in Mackellar, Allegra Spender in Wentworth, Zoe Daniel in Goldstein, Monique Ryan in Kooyong and Kate Chaney in Curtin all fit that category. Kylea Tink, who won the division of North Sydney in 2022, was inadvertently knocked out of the race by the Australian Electoral Commission, which abolished her seat last year.

    Andrew Gee, Russell Broadbent and Ian Goodenough are all incumbent MPs running as independents in seats where they were previously elected as Coalition candidates. Tasmania’s Andrew Wilkie, a long-serving independent with first-hand experience of a federal hung parliament, is seeking his sixth successive victory.

    Bob Katter and the Centre Alliance’s Rebekah Sharkie also seeking re-election to the lower house, while in the Senate, crossbenchers such as David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie are all looking to retain their places. So is Coalition defector Gerard Rennick, who quit the Liberal National Party in Queensland over a preselection loss.

    Rennick’s is perhaps the tallest order of that bunch, but none of them can take anything for granted. Even Katter, with his half-century of parliamentary experience and huge local popularity, is almost 80 and is facing a large field of younger challengers, all of whom will appear above him on the ballot paper.

    Campaign blues?

    Plenty of people have been watching national opinion polls during this campaign. But the polls are not terribly insightful for seat-by-seat contests involving large numbers of independent contenders. Even experienced pollsters are saying it has “never been harder to get pre-election polling right”.

    Months out from the election, polls conducted on behalf of Climate 200 were showing possible wins for Heise in Cowper and Boele in Bradfield. Both could win. Heise has reportedly amassed a formidable team of 3,500 volunteers in support of her grassroots campaign.

    But the pressure and scrutiny of an election campaign can quickly put frontrunners under pressure. This is certainly true of Boele, whose campaign momentum stalled with a surprising scandal involving an inappropriate comment in a hair salon, as well as distancing herself from allegedly antisemitic posts on her social media posts in 2022, saying a former volunteer was responsible for them.

    Multi-cornered contests between defector MPs, the major parties and community independents will also make for interesting viewing on election night. Broadbent and Goodenough both seemed quietly confident about their prospects when asked by the Australian Financial Review last week. The same cannot be said for Calare’s Andrew Gee, who began the election with a “Facebook fail” and has since endured a stressful few weeks of bitter campaigning.

    When it comes to winning back the seats that independents won last time, Liberal feelings range from bullishness to bluster. Daniel faces a well-resourced campaign from her predecessor Tim Wilson in Goldstein and nothing is being spared in the contest against Chaney in Curtin.

    In Kooyong, Ryan’s campaign has been hampered by the occasional error, such as her husband’s removal of an opponent’s corflutes and an awkward exchange with Sky News reporter Laura Jayes. In an election dominated by the housing affordability crisis, voters are less likely to remember these moments than the revelations that Ryan’s Liberal opponent, Amelia Hamer, a self-identified renter, happens to own two investment properties.

    The biggest drama has been in the affluent Sydney seat of Wentworth, where Spender has weathered attacks about her political donations disclosures and approach to tackling antisemitism.

    An anonymous person circulated 47,000 leaflets through the electorate criticising Spender’s “weakness” on antisemitism, flagrantly breaching electoral laws that require campaign material to be authorised. The Australian Electoral Commission has identified the culprit (said to have “acted alone”), but has been less forthcoming about whether it intends to litigate the issue after the election.

    Making minority work

    It seems premature to start talking, as some pollsters have, about a Labor majority after May 3. It remains entirely possible crossbenchers may hold the balance of power, and in doing so, exert significant influence on the next government.

    In the third leaders’ debate, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, normally pragmatic, refused to countenance sharing power with other parties or MPs. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton made the surprising admission he would willingly make agreements with independent MPs in order to win.

    He certainly wasn’t thinking of the “teals”, whom he so often berates as “Greens in disguise”. But there are others with whom he could easily work. Katter, Spender and Le are among Dutton’s preferred negotiating partners. Sharkie has already declared that in a hung parliament scenario, she would call Dutton first.

    There is no rulebook for making a hung parliament work. In the past, new political configurations and coalitions have been born from hung parliaments, including the forerunners of the Liberal-National coalition.

    Agreements can be limited to assurances of support on budget bills and confidence motions, or more expansive undertakings including policy commitments and institutional reform. In the event of a parliamentary impasse, crossbenchers can withdraw their support and allow a new minority government to be formed. The Australia Institute’s Frank Yuan recently pointed out seven changes of government have been triggered by the withdrawal of crossbench support. Indeed, during the second world war, two independent MPs effectively changed the government mid-term.

    Much depends on the relationships forged at the start of a hung parliament. In his memoir, former New England MP Tony Windsor recounts the seventeen days of negotiations that followed the 2010 election. One of the factors that led him, along with follow independent Rob Oakeshott, to support the Labor Party was the “professionalism” and “respect” its leaders showed them. Former Coalition leader Tony Abbott, by way of contrast, gave Windsor the impression he was unlikely to endure minority government long enough to honour any of his commitments.

    An especially aspirational crossbencher may even take on the role of Speaker. Wilkie and Sharkie have been recently touted as contenders for the role in a hung parliament scenario.

    Reform hangs in the balance

    Independents MPs would be likely to bring particular policy priorities to any minority government negotiation. Given the heated contests in independent electorates, truth in political advertising laws would probably be high on the agenda. Steggall has previously promoted reforms to Stop the Lies, but when the Albanese government chose not to progress its own version of this reform, independents signalled it would be high on their priority list in a hung parliament.

    Crossbenchers – in both houses – might also treat recent changes to Australia’s electoral laws as a bargaining chip. Those changes, agreed between Labor and the Coalition in secret, promised to get big money out of politics by imposing donation and spending caps on everyone but with special caveats for major parties. Haines has declared these are “in her sights” if a hung parliament arises.

    The menu of reform options gets wider from there. Spender has called for labour market and tax reforms that may not be palatable to all of her peers.

    In the Senate (where “every day is minority government”), Pocock has outlined his firm demands for greater royalties from resources rents and reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. Energy and climate policy, as well as support for rural Australia, would likely figure in a larger negotiation.

    The crossbenchers would be hard-pressed to agree on everything, but there is strength and wisdom in numbers. Albanese and Dutton are both very experienced parliamentarians. Crossbenchers would likely need to put their heads together to exert maximum leverage.

    If there is a hung parliament after May 3, history shows us it can be put to good use. The 43rd parliament, in which the Gillard government was in minority, was one of the most productive in recent history. It passed 561 bills including landmark measures such as the Clean Energy Future package and its centrepiece, a carbon price. It also passed needs-based funding for Australian schools, the National Disability Insurance Scheme and plenty more.

    That seems a decent enough model for the next parliament to emulate. After all, as Harold Glowrey seemed to appreciate nearly a century ago, not everyone needs to be a cabinet minister to play their part in shaping the future.

    Joshua Black is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.

    – ref. Independents may build on Australia’s history of hung parliaments, if they can survive the campaign blues – https://theconversation.com/independents-may-build-on-australias-history-of-hung-parliaments-if-they-can-survive-the-campaign-blues-255313

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australia once had ‘immigration amnesties’ to grant legal status to undocumented people. Could we again?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior Lecturer, International Migration and Refugee Law, University of Technology Sydney

    The year is 1972. The Whitlam Labor government has just been swept into power and major changes to Australia’s immigration system are underway. Many people remember this time for the formal end of the racist White Australia Policy.

    A lesser-known legacy of this period was the introduction of Australia’s first immigration amnesty. This amnesty, implemented later in 1974 with bilateral support, provided humane pathways to permanency or citizenship for undocumented people in Australia.

    In other words, people living without lawful immigration status could “legalise” their status without risk of punishment or deportation.

    More immigration amnesties were promised during later election campaigns and then implemented in 1976 and 1980.

    These amnesties occurred under successive Labor and Liberal federal governments, and each enjoyed enthusiastic bipartisan support.

    So, how did these amnesties work – and could they happen again?

    Started by Whitlam

    Australia’s first amnesty was announced in January 1974, as part of the Whitlam government’s official policy of multiculturalism.

    Its purpose was to grant permanency to people who had been living in Australia “illegally” and at risk of labour exploitation.

    The amnesty was open for five months, from late January until the end of June 1974.

    The main eligibility criteria was that the person:

    • had to have been living in Australia for three years or more and
    • be of “good character”.

    This program had only a modest uptake. However, it set the path for more successful initiatives in the future.

    Continued by Fraser

    During the 1975 election campaign, then caretaker Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser promised another amnesty if his government won the election.

    He committed to “do everything we can” to allow undocumented people

    to stay here and make Australia their permanent home.

    After the election, Fraser’s Liberal government implemented a broad amnesty for “overstayed visitors” in January 1976.

    Departmental figures show 8,614 people sought legal status in the amnesty period.

    The vast majority (63%) lived in New South Wales. The main nationalities of these applicants were:

    • Greek (1,283 applicants)
    • UK (911 applicants)
    • Indonesian (748 applicants)
    • Chinese (643 applicants).

    Australia’s third broad immigration amnesty came in 1980, again as a result of a bipartisan election promise.

    Immigration Minister Ian Macphee announced a six-month Regularisation of Status Program. It aimed, he said, to deal “humanely with the problem of illegal immigration” while also seeking to curb such unauthorised migration in the future.

    Not a trick

    Many migrants worried these amnesties were a government “trick” to facilitate deportations.

    In an attempt to reassure the public, Prime Minister Fraser insisted in 1980 that the program was

    not a trap to lure people into the open so that they can be seized, jailed and deported.

    By the end of the amnesty period in December 1980, it was reported that more than 11,000 applications had been received. This covered more than 14,000 people.

    What made the past amnesties successful?

    Our research looked at what motivated the amnesties and how they worked.

    We found several key factors that drove success, including the need for:

    • simple and inclusive criteria for eligibility
    • a clear application process
    • a careful campaign for promotion, to build trust with migrant communities, and
    • durable outcomes that offer of clear pathways to citizenship.

    The 1980 amnesty program involved an effective campaign to publicise successful cases.

    A 21-year-old Greek waitress working in her aunt’s Goulburn restaurant was widely publicised as the first person to be granted immigration amnesty status in July 1980. A Uruguayan refugee was profiled as the 1,000th.

    The Department of Immigration also translated amnesty information into 48 languages, publicised in non-English language press and radio.

    Of the three amnesties, the 1974 one was the least successful, due to:

    • stringent eligibility criteria
    • limited media publicity, and
    • no official outreach strategy to build trust with migrant communities.

    Precarious lives

    Recent calls for an immigration amnesty has focused on two groups in Australia:

    The Department of Home Affairs estimates more than 70,000 people live in Australia today without immigration status.

    Undocumented workers are highly vulnerable to exploitation and deportation.

    Yet, these workers often fulfil crucial labour market shortages. Many have been living in Australia for years or even decades.

    Asylum seekers and refugees on temporary or no visas cannot return “home” for fear of persecution. They risk lapsing into irregular status with no rights or entitlements.

    Lessons from past amnesties

    Amnesties are a humane and cost-effective response to unauthorised migration.

    Australia currently spends millions, if not billions of dollars, on the detention and deportation of people without visas.

    In the lead up to both the 1976 and 1980 amnesties, successive governments acknowledged such a “detection and deportation” approach would be unnecessarily costly. It would require “increased resources in manpower”.

    An amnesty, instead, was in the words of then Immigration Minister Macphee a chance to:

    clean the slate, to acknowledge that no matter how people got here they are part of the community.

    These historical precedents show Australia’s migration system and politicians could, if they wanted, accommodate initiatives and reforms that fundamentally value migrants and prioritise migrant access to permanency.

    Our research also shows Australian election campaigns can be opportunities for advancing policies that embrace the reality of immigration and offer hope, not fear.

    Sara Dehm receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a co-convenor of the interdisciplinary academic network, Academics for Refugees.

    Anthea Vogl receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Commonwealth Departure of Health and Aged Care. She is a Board Member of the Forcibly Displaced People Network and co-convenor of the interdisciplinary academic network, Academics for Refugees.

    – ref. Australia once had ‘immigration amnesties’ to grant legal status to undocumented people. Could we again? – https://theconversation.com/australia-once-had-immigration-amnesties-to-grant-legal-status-to-undocumented-people-could-we-again-252294

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Latest health data reveals thousands of patients now seen quicker

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Press release

    Latest health data reveals thousands of patients now seen quicker

    Thousands of patients are securing appointments quicker every day as part of the government’s drive to build an NHS fit for the future.

    Thousands of patients are seeing tangible benefits from the government’s Plan for Change, with the latest health data showing significant improvements in access to care.

    Tens of thousands of patients up and down the country are already getting their appointments more quickly thanks to the government’s Plan for Change to reform the NHS and drive forward national renewal. 

    By slashing waiting lists and delivering improvements across the NHS in record time—including delivering three million additional appointments six months early—the government is exceeding its own targets and driving down waiting lists at a rapid pace. This has resulted in a six-month decline and a 219,000 reduction since July.

    Around 4.5 million tests, checks and scans were carried out in Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs)—many of which are conveniently located on local high streets—between July and February, a 50% increase on the previous year. 

    This equates to 18,000 more checks being delivered every day for patients to diagnose some of the biggest killers, including cancer and heart disease. 

    As well as opening more CDCs to bring care closer to people’s homes, the government is going further and faster by significantly expanding the number of CDCs open 12 hours a day, seven days a week—making it easier for people to get their tests and appointments done at a time that suits them.

    Backed by almost £26 billion investment at the Budget, the Plan for Change is driving forward reform of the NHS to put an end to the misery for many people who have had to put their lives on hold while stuck on waiting lists, delivering the change people voted for. 

    Alongside action to rebuild the NHS, the Plan for Change is also focused on growing the economy to improve living standards across the country. 

    The government is already putting more pounds in people’s pockets by freezing fuel duty, boosting the minimum wage by up to £1,400 a year, and protecting working people with no rise in their national insurance, income tax, or VAT. Living standards are growing at their fastest rate in two years, and the Spring Statement showed people will be, on average, over £500 a year better off. 

    Earlier this month, we outlined plans for a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which aims to put 13,000 more officers into neighbourhood policing roles by 2029—an increase of more than 50%. This will help restore people’s trust in local policing. 

    To ensure that working people can benefit from clean, secure, homegrown energy, we have set up Great British Energy in Aberdeen to catalyse private investment and announced its first major project: installing solar panels on 200 schools and 200 NHS sites, which will cut energy bills.

    Through the Plan for Change, we are working to give every child the best start in life and break down barriers to opportunity. This week, thousands of children started attending the first 750 free breakfast clubs, providing them with a healthy start to the day, giving parents 30 minutes of free childcare, and helping them save up to £450 a year.

    Restoring economic stability and driving growth is fundamental to the Plan for Change. The OBR has confirmed that the economy will grow every year from 2026 and that our planning reforms will lead to a 0.2% increase in GDP, worth £6.8 billion. 

    Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said:

    Through our Plan for Change, we are getting on with the job of rebuilding our country and improving the public services we all rely on.

    It’s already making a difference in people’s lives as we put police back on the beat, get more teachers in classrooms, and this week launched free breakfast clubs in hundreds of schools.

    The latest data shows our approach is delivering real change, with tens of thousands more patients getting the right care and waiting lists falling faster in areas where there are higher numbers of people out of work. And this is just the start.

    The government is also working at pace to slash NHS waiting lists in areas with the highest economic inactivity. The scheme, known as the Further Faster 20 programme, is part of plans to reduce the number of people unable to work due to long-term sickness, which is at its highest level since the 1990s.

    The programme sees teams made up of clinical leads from across trusts, as well as national specialists, driving innovative practices. It has resulted in a total of almost 50,000 cases being removed from waiting lists in these areas since October. 35% of the national reduction in the overall waiting list has come from the 20 hospitals involved in the scheme, which has fallen faster than the national average.

    Minister for Elective Care Karin Smyth said:

    This government made a promise to the British public to reverse more than a decade of soaring waiting times and poor access to patient care—and through our Plan for Change, we are starting to turn the tide across every part of the country—with our crack teams already having a transformative impact.

    This is a long road, but with tens of thousands more patients getting care that works for them and waiting lists falling faster in areas of high joblessness, we are getting the NHS back on its feet so it delivers for patients once again.

    This is only the start. From bringing patient care closer to home, to ending the 8 am scramble for a GP appointment, this government is determined to transform our NHS to make it fit for the future.

    One example of the Future Faster 20 programme is the Trafford Elective Hub, where the team have been running super-charged theatre lists that see almost twice the number of patients seen as standard theatre lists.

    The hub also runs super clinics at weekends, providing one-stop shops to treat 100 patients at a time. The hub also has employment advisers on hand to help patients get back to work faster.

    Miss Toli Onon, Joint Chief Medical Officer at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust said:

    The Trafford Elective Hub exemplifies innovative approaches to reducing waiting lists, such as High Performance theatre lists which are designed to optimise surgical productivity by refining the surgical pathway and minimising inefficiencies. 

    By enhancing the productivity and efficiency of our elective services, we are demonstrating a sustainable and effective model for the future that benefits more patients.

    Other initiatives include Super Clinics. These Super Clinics, which can serve up to 100 patients over weekends, streamline care by providing multiple services in one visit and include employment advisors to help patients return to work faster.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Newspoll shows Labor’s lead steady at 52–48

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

    While last week’s Morgan and YouGov polls had Labor continuing its surge, Newspoll is steady for the fourth successive week at 52–48 to Labor. A Redbridge poll of the marginal seats was again very strong for Labor, while YouGov and KJC seat polls were respectively good and bad for Labor.

    A national Newspoll, conducted April 21–24 from a sample of 1,254, gave Labor a 52–48 lead, unchanged from the April 14–17 Newspoll.

    Primary votes were 35% Coalition (steady), 34% Labor (steady), 11% Greens (down one), 8% One Nation (up one) and 12% for all Others (steady). The drop for the Greens and gain for One Nation mean this poll was probably better for the Coalition before rounding than the previous Newspoll.

    Here is the graph of Labor’s two-party preferred vote in national polls. The fieldwork midpoint date of Newspoll was April 23, three days ahead of the next most recent poll (YouGov). Perhaps Labor has peaked too early.

    Analyst Peter Brent wrote for Inside Story that he thought Anthony Albanese performed poorly in the April 22 debate with Peter Dutton. This may explain some shift to the Coalition. But with just five full days left until the May 3 election and early voting in progress, Labor remains the heavy favourite to win.

    Albanese’s net approval was steady at -9, while Dutton’s net approval was down two points to -24, a new record low. Albanese led Dutton by 51–35 as better PM (52–36 previously). Here is the graph of Albanese’s net approval in Newspoll, with the plus signs marking data points and a smoothed line fitted.

    In this poll, 48% thought it was time to give someone else a go (down five since February), while 39% (up five) thought the government deserved to be re-elected. Meanwhile, 62% (up seven) said the Dutton-led Coalition was not ready to govern.

    Labor retains 54.5–45.5 lead in Redbridge marginal seats poll

    A poll of 20 marginal seats by Redbridge and Accent Research for the News Corp tabloids was conducted April 15–22 from a sample of 1,000. It gave Labor a 54.5–45.5 lead, unchanged since the April 9–15 marginal seats poll. Primary votes were 35% Labor (steady), 34% Coalition (steady), 14% Greens (up one) and 17% for all Others (down one).

    The overall 2022 vote in these 20 seats was 51–49 to Labor, so this poll implies a 3.5-point swing to Labor from the 2022 election. If applied to the national 2022 result of 52.1–47.9 to Labor, Labor would lead by about 55.5–44.5. Since the first wave of this marginal seats tracker in early February, Labor has gained 6.5 points. If this poll is accurate, Labor is likely to win a thumping majority.

    Over the five waves of this marginal seats tracker, the Liberals have gone from +1 net favourable to -8, while Labor has moved from -9 to -3. Albanese has gone from -16 to -4 (up one since last week), while Dutton has gone from -11 to -20 (up two since last week).

    By 22–14, voters preferred Labor’s housing policy to the Coalition’s, with 38% for neither and 12% for both the same.

    YouGov and KJC seat polls

    The Canberra Times had YouGov polls of ten regional seats, conducted April 17–24 from an overall sample of 3,000 (so 300 per seat). The primary votes suggest the Coalition would lose the Tasmanian seat of Braddon to Labor, and the NSW and Victorian seats of Calare and Wannon to independents, leaving them with only Dutton’s Dickson out of the ten surveyed.

    Labor would be likely to hold all its regional seats, although in the NSW seat of Hunter One Nation would be their final opponent instead of the Coalition. Seat polls are unreliable.

    The Poll Bludger reported Saturday that KJC Research had taken seat polls on April 24 from a sample of 600 per seat for an industry group. These polls went against the trend, with the Liberals ahead of Labor by 49–45 including undecided in the Western Australian Labor-held seat of Tangney and 46–41 in the Queensland Labor-held seat of Blair.

    In the New South Wales Labor-held seat of Richmond, the Greens led Labor by 39–34. In the NSW Labor-hels seat of Hunter, Labor led the Liberals by 45–41.

    Gap narrows, but Liberals still likely to win majority at Canadian election

    The Canadian election is on Monday, with the large majority of polls closing at 11:30am AEST Tuesday. The CBC Poll Tracker has the centre-left governing Liberals leading the Conservatives by 42.5–38.7 in national vote share and by 189–125 in seat point estimates (172 needed for a majority). I covered Canada and other upcoming and past international elections for The Poll Bludger on Saturday.

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

    – ref. Newspoll shows Labor’s lead steady at 52–48 – https://theconversation.com/newspoll-shows-labors-lead-steady-at-52-48-255381

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Statement on Serco asylum accommodation list

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Statement on Serco asylum accommodation list

    The list of local authorities Serco shared on its website for landlords is not a Home Office list and is not a list of existing or future asylum accommodation.

    A Home Office spokesperson said:

    The list of local authorities Serco shared on its website for landlords is not a Home Office list, nor is it a list of any existing or future asylum accommodation.

    Serco is one of several companies contracted by the previous government 6 years ago to provide dispersal asylum accommodation in different regions and this list simply appears to reflect the geographical list of local authorities covered by the Serco contracts at that time.

    We are restoring order to the asylum system and cutting costs to taxpayers by reducing the number of people we are required to accommodate through a rapid increase in asylum decision-making and the removal of more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK.

    Background information:

    • we have no role in Serco communications and understand the page has now been removed

    • the Home Office has a statutory obligation under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to ensure asylum seekers are not left destitute while their claims are processed

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New powers to root out fake ‘lawyers’ giving rogue asylum advice

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    New powers to root out fake ‘lawyers’ giving rogue asylum advice

    People illegally posing as immigration lawyers and advisers will face fines of up to £15,000 through new measures in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

    Fake immigration lawyers offering rogue ‘advice’ to migrants on how to lodge fraudulent asylum claims will be weeded out through tough new powers in the government’s milestone Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill. 

    Currently, giving immigration advice without proper registration with the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA), or recognised legal regulatory body, is a criminal offence which can lead to jail time, but the IAA will be given new powers to also hit these fraudulent firms and individuals posing as immigration advisers with fines of up to £15,000.

    Growing evidence has shown how these fake lawyers are acting as middlemen for those trying to abuse the immigration system in a bid to stay in the UK, or trying to cash in on people’s desperation, providing poor quality or outright fraudulent immigration advice.

    The new laws will also close a loophole that allows someone currently banned from giving immigration advice to continue giving advice under “supervision” – ensuring people banned from providing immigration advice cannot set up shop elsewhere. 

    The crackdown on fake immigration advisers is part of this government’s action to create an asylum system where the rules are respected and strictly enforced. It builds on a surge in illegal working enforcement activity and targets those exploiting vulnerable migrants who undermine the security of our immigration system.

    These changes will be tabled as amendments to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which will tackle criminality across the spectrum by empowering law enforcement with counter-terror style powers to go after vile people smuggling gangs who continue to put lives at risk for cash.

    Minister for Border Security, Dame Angela Eagle, said:

    Shameless individuals offering immigration advice completely illegally must be held to account.

    That is why we are introducing these tough financial penalties for rogue firms and advisers, better protecting the integrity of our immigration system as well as vulnerable people in genuine need of advice, as we restore order to our asylum system through the Plan for Change.

    This will build on the vital work of the Immigration Advice Authority in regulating the immigration advice sector.

    These fake lawyers and advisers are finding new ways to target victims. The IAA has found cases where individuals are using social media to trick people. For example, a case in October 2024 saw Sukhwinder Singh Kang sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after posing as a registered Level 3 immigration adviser with fake qualifications.

    Kang targeted people using Facebook support groups for migration advice, despite having little to no immigration knowledge. He claimed he could sort visa applications with his ‘special access’ to the Home Office, scamming his victims out of thousands of pounds in advance fees and taking personal identity documents. Kang even went so far as to set up weekly payments, make up fictional staff that were supposedly handling these applications and give out a fake professional premises address. 

    When each of the victims realised that their applications were going nowhere, Kang gave a range of excuses from family emergencies to delivery issues and offered full refunds that never arrived. 

    The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will give the IAA brand new powers to hold their registered advisers and organisations to account. 

    Similar to legal regulators, the watchdog will be able to immediately suspend advisers suspected of carrying out the most flagrant abuse of the immigration system or harming vulnerable people seeking advice. These faster and earlier interventions aim to stop rogue advisers in their tracks. 

    The IAA will also be able to compel former advisers to take part in complaint investigations about their past conduct if they are no longer registered. This move will prevent rogue operators from attempting to avoid investigation through simply leaving their role. 

    These powers will bolster work already taking place by the Home Office’s expert Professional Enabler Disruptions team (PED) which helps root out this sort of criminality. For example, in November 2024, the team uncovered a London-based rogue lawyer was directly submitting hundreds of immigration applications with zero knowledge of the law firm that was meant to be ‘supervising’ them. These applications were bound to fail, wasting caseworkers’ time, and impacting people’s legitimate applications. Thanks to PED’s work, legal regulatory bodies have now launched an investigation.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Gamechanging AI doctors’ assistant to speed up appointments

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Gamechanging AI doctors’ assistant to speed up appointments

    Government drives forward use of innovative artificial intelligence in hospitals as trials show dramatic reduction in admin with more time for patient care.

    • Government drives forward use of innovative artificial intelligence in hospitals to improve patient care
    • New government guidance set out today will encourage its use across health service while protecting patient data and privacy 
    • Trials show dramatic reduction in admin and more time for direct patient care, as Plan for Change delivers seismic shift in care to digital 

    NHS clinicians will be supported to use groundbreaking artificial intelligence tools that bulldoze bureaucracy and take notes to free up staff time and deliver better care to patients thanks to guidance published today.

    Interim trial data shows that the revolutionary tech has dramatically reduced admin, and meant more people could be seen in A&E, clinicians could spend more time during an appointment focusing on the patient, and appointments were shorter.

    Through its Plan for Change the government is getting the NHS back on its feet and slashing waiting lists. Guidance published today will encourage the use of these products – which use speech technologies and generative AI to convert spoken words into structured medical notes and letters – across a range of primary and secondary care settings, including hospitals and GP surgeries.

    The government’s mission-led approach is driving forward the use of innovative tech and new approaches to reform the health system and improve care for patients – offering them quicker and smarter care.

    One of the tools – ambient voice technologies (AVTs) – can transcribe patient-clinician conversations, create structured medical notes, and even draft patient letters.

    Patient safety and privacy will be paramount. This is why the guidance will focus on data compliance and security, risk identification and assessment, while ensuring that staff are properly trained before using the technology. 

    Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: 

    “AI is the catalyst that will revolutionise healthcare and drive efficiencies across the NHS, as we deliver our Plan for Change and shift care from analogue to digital. 

    “I am determined we embrace this kind of technology, so clinicians don’t have to spend so much time pushing pens and can focus on their patients. 

    “This government made the difficult but necessary decision at the Budget to put a record £26 billion into our NHS and social care including cash to roll out more pioneering tech.” 

    The NHS England funded, London-wide AVT work, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, has evaluated AVT capabilities across a range of clinical settings – Adult Outpatients, Primary Care, Paediatrics, Mental Health, Community care, A+E and across London Ambulance Service.

    This multi-site evaluation involving over 7000 patients has demonstrated widespread benefits. Interim data shows:

    • Increase in direct care – clinicians spending more time spent with patients rather than typing on a computer
    • Increase in productivity in A&E – the technology has supported more patients to be seen in emergency departments by carrying out admin for A&E staff

    Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:

    “This technology has the power to free up doctors to do the thing they all want to – spend more time treating their patients. That is good for them, good for anyone receiving healthcare, and a shot in the arm for our efforts to overhaul the NHS as part of the Plan for Change.

    “It’s a prime example of why we are embracing the benefits of AI, to make our public services fit for the 21st century and fire up our economy.”

    At GOSH, AVTs have listened to consultations and drafted clinic notes and letters. These were then edited and authorised by the clinician before being uploaded to the secure electronic health record system and sent on to patients and their families. Clinicians agreed the AI helped them offer more attention to their patients without affecting the quality of the clinic note or letter. 

    Dr Maaike Kusters, Paediatric Immunology Consultant at GOSH, says: 

    “The patients I see in my clinics have very complex medical conditions and it’s so important to make sure I capture what we discuss in our appointments accurately, but often this means I am typing rather than looking directly at my patient and their family.

    “Using the AI tool during the trial meant I could sit closer to them face-to-face and really focus on what they were sharing with me, without compromising on the quality of documentation.”

    As it stands, clinicians in hospitals and GP surgeries are forced to spend much of their consultations recording information into a computer instead of focusing on the patient in front of them. 

    Once the patient has left, they are often required to take that information and summarise it in documents like referral letters. The government is determined to reform these outdated ways of working and revolutionise care, and this innovative tech will do that work for them, so they can see their next patient. 

    The Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre in East Hull (part of City Health Care Partnership) has introduced an ambient scribing product to make their documentation process faster and better support their work to care for people living with frailty. 

    By converting a conversation with a patient into a clinical note, the ambient scribing product is freeing up time for a range of staff including GPs, consultants, nurses, and physiotherapists.

    Thanks to government action, GP surgeries delivered 31.4 million appointments last month– a 6.1% increase on the previous year – and waiting lists have fallen by 219,000 patients. This technology will help consolidate this progress. 

    The government is already using AI to speed up diagnosis and treatment for a range of health issues – spotting pain levels for people who can’t speak, diagnosing breast cancer quicker, and getting people discharged quicker. 

    Notes to editors

    Dr Andrew Noble, a doctor working at a care centre in Hull, says: 

    “By embracing this innovative technology, we’ve optimised our resources and empowered our clinicians and entire multidisciplinary team. 

    “The positive feedback from both staff and patients shows just how valuable this project has been.

    “We’re excited to keep exploring what AI can do for us and to continue enhancing patient care and clinical efficiency.”

    Dr Vin Diwakar, National Director of Transformation at NHS England, said:
    “This exciting technology can reduce the burden of administration, allowing patients more quality time with their clinician, and our new guidance shows the NHS’s ability to rapidly and safely harness the very latest innovations to transform healthcare and bring benefits for our hardworking staff and our patients.”

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Greens respond to interim EHRC guidance

    Source: Green Party of England and Wales

    by Green Party

    Co-leaders Carla Denyer MP and Adrian Ramsay MP said: 

    “This guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is ill-considered and impractical, and leaves many unanswered questions about how services will be provided in a way that meets trans people’s needs (1). 

    “As it stands the guidance is likely to cause both distress to the trans community and further confusion to employers, businesses and service providers who are trying to understand what the Supreme Court ruling means for them.

    “In particular, this guidance could put trans people at risk of discrimination in the workplace, and is overly prescriptive in a way that seems to fly in the face of the tolerance that we value in this country. 

    “For example, it doesn’t seem right that a lesbian organisation or space that wants to include trans women should be prevented from doing so.

    “It’s crucial that a wide diversity of women, trans and not, as well as the wider trans and non-binary community are listened to as this work is done on the detail of how services are provided in a way that meets everyone’s needs and protects everyone’s dignity. 

    “This guidance should be withdrawn until the EHRC can produce something more thought-through which takes into account the voices of all those affected.”

    (1) An interim update on the practical implications of the UK Supreme Court judgment | EHRC

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Coke shipment keeps British Steel’s blast furnaces burning

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Coke shipment keeps British Steel’s blast furnaces burning

    The Government has confirmed the arrival of a new raw materials shipment for use in British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces.

    Steelmaking in Scunthorpe will continue as the Government confirmed the arrival of a new shipment of raw materials today this weekend – bolstering the UK’s national security by protecting the vital capability of domestic steel production.

    A shipment of over 55,000 tonnes of blast furnace coke – more than four times the weight of the Shard – from Bluescope Steel’s plant in Australia arrived at Immingham Bulk Terminal today on the MV (merchant vessel) Navios Alegria. It will now be transferred by rail to Scunthorpe.

    The coke is crucial to helping ensure both blast furnaces at British Steel can keep running for the coming months and a vital part of efforts to provide a steady pipeline of materials for continued steelmaking.

    Another shipment of more than 66,000 tonnes of iron ore pellets and 27,000 tonnes of iron ore fines is due to arrive from Sweden next week, and has been paid for directly by government using existing DBT budgets – as part of this government’s commitment to backing UK industry to succeed.

    In further efforts to shore up the company, British Steel has confirmed two more crucial appointments to its leadership team with a new interim Chief Operating Officer and HR Director, both of whom have more than 30 years’ experience in the steel industry.

    Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:

    This government is on the side of British workers and British industry. The action we’ve taken to secure primary steelmaking at Scunthorpe will not only support our national security but help our steel sector supply the construction of the homes and infrastructure of the future, as part of our Plan for Change.

    By securing the raw materials we need to keep Scunthorpe going for the foreseeable future we’ve helped protect thousands of crucial steel jobs. Now, British Steel workers and their families can breathe a sigh of relief and know that we are on their side.

    Allan Bell, Interim CEO of British Steel said:

    We’ve successfully secured the raw materials we need to keep the blast furnaces running, meaning our production of steel can continue. We would not be here today without the hard work and dedication of our specialist procurement, technical and operational teams who have worked tirelessly on short timescales to secure the required raw materials.

    Over the coming months our focus will be on stabilising our operations for the long-term, cementing British Steel as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of steel.

    Community Assistant General Secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said:

    The imminent shipments of coke and other raw materials needed to keep the blast furnaces running over the months ahead provide much-needed assurance for our members on site in Scunthorpe. We are grateful to British Steel and the government for the decisive work they have undertaken to secure a future for the business – we have seen their commitment and dedication first-hand.

    After years of neglect, we now have a UK Government which understands the vital strategic importance of steel, and is backing this up with action.

    The latest delivery of vital raw materials reinforces the UK’s primary steelmaking capacity by ensuring both blast furnaces at Scunthorpe can remain operational and gives certainty to the workforce of around 3,000 employed at the steelworks.

    It also comes after British Steel announced earlier this week that it has ended a consultation on staff redundancies launched in March by its owners Jingye, and confirmed it would keep both blast furnaces running, securing thousands of jobs thanks to the Government’s decisive action to step in and save the company.

    Now that the necessary supplies of raw materials for the blast furnaces have been confirmed, the Government is continuing to focus on securing the long-term future of British Steel with private sector investment, working closely with a range of third parties on potential options.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How to fight Trump’s cyber dystopia with community, self-determination, care and truth

    COMMENTARY: By Mandy Henk

    When the US Embassy knocked on my door in late 2024, I was both pleased and more than a little suspicious.

    I’d worked with them before, but the organisation where I did that work, Tohatoha, had closed its doors. My new project, Dark Times Academy, was specifically an attempt to pull myself out of the grant cycle, to explore ways of funding the work of counter-disinformation education without dependence on unreliable governments and philanthropic funders more concerned with their own objectives than the work I believed then — and still believe — is crucial to the future of human freedom.

    But despite my efforts to turn them away, they kept knocking, and Dark Times Academy certainly needed the money. I’m warning you all now: There is a sense in which everything I have to say about counter-disinformation comes down to conversations about how to fund the work.

    DARK TIMES ACADEMY

    There is nothing I would like more than to talk about literally anything other than funding this work. I don’t love money, but I do like eating, having a home, and being able to give my kids cash.

    I have also repeatedly found myself in roles where other people look to me for their livelihoods; a responsibility that I carry heavily and with more than a little clumsiness and reluctance.

    But if we are to talk about President Donald Trump and disinformation, we have to talk about money. As it is said, the love of money is the root of all evil. And the lack of it is the manifestation of that evil.

    Trump and his attack on all of us — on truth, on peace, on human freedom and dignity — is, at its core, an attack that uses money as a weapon. It is an attack rooted in greed and in avarice.

    In his world, money is power
    But in that greed lies his weakness. In his world, money is power. He and those who serve him and his fascist agenda cannot see beyond the world that money built. Their power comes in the form of control over that world and the people forced to live in it.

    Of course, money is just paper. It is digital bits in a database sitting on a server in a data centre relying on electricity and water taken from our earth. The ephemeral nature of their money speaks volumes about their lack of strength and their vulnerability to more powerful forces.

    They know this. Trump and all men like him know their weaknesses — and that’s why they use their money to gather power and control. When you have more money than you and your whānau can spend in several generations, you suddenly have a different kind of  relationship to money.

    It’s one where money itself — and the structures that allow money to be used for control of people and the material world — becomes your biggest vulnerability. If your power and identity are built entirely on the power of money, your commitment to preserving the power of money in the world becomes an all-consuming drive.

    Capitalism rests on many “logics” — commodification, individualism, eternal growth, the alienation of labour. Marx and others have tried this ground well already.

    In a sense, we are past the time when more analysis is useful to us. Rather, we have reached a point where action is becoming a practical necessity. After all, Trump isn’t going to stop with the media or with counter-disinformation organisations. He is ultimately coming for us all.

    What form that action must take is a complicated matter. But, first we must think about money and about how money works, because only through lessening the power of money can we hope to lessen the power of those who wield it as their primary weapon.

    Beliefs about poor people
    If you have been so unfortunate to be subject to engagement with anti-poverty programmes during the neoliberal era either as a client or a worker, you will know that one of the motivations used for denying direct cash aid to those in need of money is a belief on the part of government and policy experts that poor people will use their money in unwise ways, be it drugs or alcohol, or status purchases like sneakers or manicures.

    But over and over again, there’s another concern raised: cash benefits will be spent on others in the community, but outside of those targeted with the cash aid.

    You see this less now that ideas like a universal basic income (UBI) and direct cash transfers have taken hold of the policy and donor classes, but it is one of those rightwing concerns that turned out to be empirically accurate.

    Poor people are more generous with their money and all of their other resources as well. The stereotype of the stingy Scrooge is one based on a pretty solid mountain of evidence.

    The poor turn out to understand far better than the rich how to defeat the power that money gives those who hoard it — and that is community. The logic of money and capital can most effectively be defeated through the creation and strengthening of our community ties.

    Donald Trump and those who follow him revel in creating a world of atomised individuals focused on themselves; the kind of world where, rather than relying on each other, people depend on the market and the dollar to meet their material needs — dollars. of course, being the source of control and power for their class.

    Our ability to fund our work, feed our families, and keep a roof over our heads has not always been subject to the whims of capitalists and those with money to pay us. Around the world, the grand multicentury project known as colonialism has impoverished us all and created our dependency.

    Colonial projects and ‘enclosures’
    I cannot speak as a direct victim of the colonial project. Those are not my stories to tell. There are so many of you in this room who can speak to that with far more eloquence and direct experience than I. But the colonial project wasn’t only an overseas project for my ancestors.

    In England, the project was called “enclosure”.

    Enclosure is one of the core colonial logics. Enclosure takes resources (land in particular) that were held in common and managed collectively using traditional customs and hands them over to private control to be used for private rather than communal benefit. This process, repeated over and over around the globe, created the world we live in today — the world built on money.

    As we lose control over our access to what we need to live as the land that holds our communities together, that binds us to one another, is co-opted or stolen from us, we lose our power of self-determination. Self-governance, freedom, liberty — these are what colonisation and enclosure take from us when they steal our livelihoods.

    As part of my work, I keep a close eye on the approaches to counter-disinformation that those whose relationship to power is smoother than my own take. Also, in this the year of our Lord 2025, it is mandatory to devote at least some portion of each public talk to AI.

    I am also profoundly sorry to have to report that as far as I can tell, the only work on counter-disinformation still getting funding is work that claims to be able to use AI to detect and counter disinformation. It will not surprise you that I am extremely dubious about these claims.

    AI has been created through what has been called “data colonialism”, in that it relies on stolen data, just as traditional forms of colonialism rely on stolen land.

    Risks and dangers of AI
    AI itself — and I am speaking here specifically of generative AI — is being used as a tool of oppression. Other forms of AI have their own risks and dangers, but in this context, generative AI is quite simply a tool of power consolidation, of hollowing out of human skill and care, and of profanity, in the sense of being the opposite of sacred.

    Words, art, conversation, companionship — these are fiercely human things. For a machine to mimic these things is to transgress against all of our communities — all the more so when the machine is being wielded by people who speak openly of genocide and white supremacy.

    However, just as capitalism can be fought through community, colonialism can and has been fought through our own commitment to living our lives in freedom. It is fought by refusing their demands and denying their power, whether through the traditional tools of street protest and nonviolent resistance, or through simply walking away from the structures of violence and control that they have implemented.

    In the current moment, that particularly includes the technological tools that are being used to destroy our communities and create the data being used to enact their oppression. Each of us is free to deny them access to our lives, our hopes, and dreams.

    This version of colonisation has a unique weakness, in that the cyber dystopia they have created can be unplugged and turned off. And yet, we can still retain the parts of it that serve us well by building our own technological infrastructure and helping people use that instead of the kind owned and controlled by oligarchs.

    By living our lives with the freedom we all possess as human beings, we can deny these systems the symbolic power they rely on to continue.

    That said, this has limitations. This process of theft that underlies both traditional colonialism and contemporary data colonialism, rather than that of land or data, destroys our material base of support — ie. places to grow food, the education of our children, control over our intellectual property.

    Power consolidated upwards
    The outcome is to create ever more dependence on systems outside of our control that serve to consolidate power upwards and create classes of disposable people through the logic of dehumanisation.

    Disposable people have been a feature across many human societies. We see it in slaves, in cultures that use banishment and exile, and in places where imprisonment is used to enforce laws.

    Right now we see it in the United States being directed at scale towards those from Central and Latin America and around the world. The men being sent to the El Salvadorian gulag, the toddlers sent to immigration court without a lawyer, the federal workers tossed from their jobs — these are disposable people to Trump.

    The logic of colonialism relies on the process of dehumanisation; of denying the moral relevance of people’s identity and position within their communities and families. When they take a father from his family, they are dehumanising him and his family. They are denying the moral relevance of his role as a father and of his children and wife.

    When they require a child to appear alone before an immigration judge, they are dehumanising her by denying her the right to be recognised as a child with moral claims on the adults around her. When they say they want to transition federal workers from unproductive government jobs to the private sector, they are denying those workers their life’s work and identity as labourers whose work supports the common good.

    There was a time when I would point out that we all know where this leads, but we are there now. It has led there, although given the US incarceration rate for Black men, it isn’t unreasonable to argue that in fact for some people, the US has always been there. Fascism is not an aberration, it is a continuation. But the quickening is here. The expansion of dehumanisation and hate have escalated under Trump.

    Dehumanisaton always starts with words and  language. And Trump is genuinely — and terribly — gifted with language. His speeches are compelling, glittering, and persuasive to his audiences. With his words and gestures, he creates an alternate reality. When Trump says, “They’re eating the cats! They’re eating the dogs!”, he is using language to dehumanise Haitian immigrants.

    An alternate reality for migrants
    When he calls immigrants “aliens” he is creating an alternate reality where migrants are no longer human, no longer part of our communities, but rather outside of them, not fully human.

    When he tells lies and spews bullshit into our shared information system, those lies are virtually always aimed at creating a permission structure to deny some group of people their full humanity. Outrageous lie after outrageous lie told over and over again crumbles society in ways that we have seen over and over again throughout history.

    In Europe, the claims that women were consorting with the devil led to the witch trials and the burning of thousands of women across central and northern Europe. In Myanmar, claims that Rohinga Muslims were commiting rape, led to mass slaughter.

    Just as we fight the logics of capitalism with community and colonialism with a fierce commitment to our freedom, the power to resist dehumanisation is also ours. Through empathy and care — which is simply the material manifestation of empathy — we can defeat attempts to dehumanise.

    Empathy and care are inherent to all functioning societies — and they are tools we all have available to us. By refusing to be drawn into their hateful premises, by putting morality and compassion first, we can draw attention to the ridiculousness of their ideas and help support those targeted.

    Disinformation is the tool used to dehumanise. It always has been. During the COVID-19 pandemic when disinformation as a concept gained popularity over the rather older concept of propaganda, there was a real moment where there was a drive to focus on misinformation, or people who were genuinely wrong about usually public health facts. This is a way to talk about misinformation that elides the truth about it.

    There is an empirical reality underlying the tsunami of COVID disinformation and it is that the information was spread intentionally by bad actors with the goal of destroying the social bonds that hold us all together. State actors, including the United States under the first Trump administration, spread lies about COVID intentionally for their own benefit and at the cost of thousands if not millions of lives.

    Lies and disinformation at scale
    This tactic was not new then. Those seeking political power or to destroy communities for their own financial gain have always used lies and disinformation. But what is different this time, what has created unique risks, is the scale.

    Networked disinformation — the power to spread bullshit and lies across the globe within seconds and within a context where traditional media and sources of both moral and factual authority have been systematically weakened over decades of neoliberal attack — has created a situation where disinformation has more power and those who wield it can do so with precision.

    But just as we have the means to fight capitalism, colonialism, and dehumanisation, so too do we — you and I — have the tools to fight disinformation: truth, and accurate and timely reporting from trustworthy sources of information shared with the communities impacted in their own language and from their own people.

    If words and images are the chosen tools of dehumanisation and disinformation, then we are lucky because they are fighting with swords that we forged and that we know how to wield. You, the media, are the front lines right now. Trump will take all of our money and all of our resources, but our work must continue.

    Times like this call for fearlessness and courage. But more than that, they call on us to use all of the tools in our toolboxes — community, self-determination, care, and truth. Fighting disinformation isn’t something we can do in a vacuum. It isn’t something that we can depersonalise and mechanise. It requires us to work together to build a very human movement.

    I can’t deny that Trump’s attacks have exhausted me and left me depressed. I’m a librarian by training. I love sharing stories with people, not telling them myself. I love building communities of learning and of sharing, not taking to the streets in protest.

    More than anything else, I just want a nice cup of tea and a novel. But we are here in what I’ve seen others call “a coyote moment”. Like Wile E. Coyote, we are over the cliff with our legs spinning in the air.

    We can use this time to focus on what really matters and figure out how we will keep going and keep working. We can look at the blue sky above us and revel in what beauty and joy we can.

    Building community, exercising our self-determination, caring for each other, and telling the truth fearlessly and as though our very lives depend on it will leave us all the stronger and ready to fight Trump and his tidal wave of disinformation.

    Mandy Henk, co-founder of Dark Times Academy, has been teaching and learning on the margins of the academy for her whole career. As an academic librarian, she has worked closely with academics, students, and university administrations for decades. She taught her own courses, led her own research work, and fought for a vision of the liberal arts that supports learning and teaching as the things that actually matter. This article was originally presented as an invited address at the annual general meeting of the Asia Pacific Media Network on 24 April 2025.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: AI doctors’ assistant to speed up appointments a ‘gamechanger’

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    AI doctors’ assistant to speed up appointments a ‘gamechanger’

    Interim trial data shows that the revolutionary tech has dramatically reduced admin

    • Government drives forward use of innovative artificial intelligence in hospitals to improve patient care
    • New government guidance set out today will encourage its use across health service while protecting patient data and privacy 
    • Trials show dramatic reduction in admin and more time for direct patient care, as Plan for Change delivers seismic shift in care to digital

    NHS clinicians will be supported to use groundbreaking artificial intelligence tools that bulldoze bureaucracy and take notes to free up staff time and deliver better care to patients thanks to guidance published today.

    Interim trial data shows that the revolutionary tech has dramatically reduced admin, and meant more people could be seen in A&E, clinicians could spend more time during an appointment focusing on the patient, and appointments were shorter.

    Through its Plan for Change the government is getting the NHS back on its feet and slashing waiting lists. Guidance published today will encourage the use of these products – which use speech technologies and generative AI to convert spoken words into structured medical notes and letters – across a range of primary and secondary care settings, including hospitals and GP surgeries.

    The government’s mission-led approach is driving forward the use of innovative tech and new approaches to reform the health system and improve care for patients – offering them quicker and smarter care.

    One of the tools – ambient voice technologies (AVTs) – can transcribe patient-clinician conversations, create structured medical notes, and even draft patient letters.

    Patient safety and privacy will be paramount. This is why the guidance will focus on data compliance and security, risk identification and assessment, while ensuring that staff are properly trained before using the technology. 

    Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:

    AI is the catalyst that will revolutionise healthcare and drive efficiencies across the NHS, as we deliver our Plan for Change and shift care from analogue to digital.

    I am determined we embrace this kind of technology, so clinicians don’t have to spend so much time pushing pens and can focus on their patients.

    This government made the difficult but necessary decision at the Budget to put a record £26 billion into our NHS and social care including cash to roll out more pioneering tech.

    The NHS England funded, London-wide AVT work, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, has evaluated AVT capabilities across a range of clinical settings – Adult Outpatients, Primary Care, Paediatrics, Mental Health, Community care, A+E and across London Ambulance Service.

    This multi-site evaluation involving over 7000 patients has demonstrated widespread benefits. Interim data shows:

    • Increase in direct care – clinicians spending more time spent with patients rather than typing on a computer
    • Increase in productivity in A&E – the technology has supported more patients to be seen in emergency departments by carrying out admin for A&E staff

    At GOSH, AVTs have listened to consultations and drafted clinic notes and letters. These were then edited and authorised by the clinician before being uploaded to the secure electronic health record system and sent on to patients and their families. Clinicians agreed the AI helped them offer more attention to their patients without affecting the quality of the clinic note or letter. 

    Dr Maaike Kusters, Paediatric Immunology Consultant at GOSH, says:

    The patients I see in my clinics have very complex medical conditions and it’s so important to make sure I capture what we discuss in our appointments accurately, but often this means I am typing rather than looking directly at my patient and their family.

    Using the AI tool during the trial meant I could sit closer to them face-to-face and really focus on what they were sharing with me, without compromising on the quality of documentation.

    As it stands, clinicians in hospitals and GP surgeries are forced to spend much of their consultations recording information into a computer instead of focusing on the patient in front of them. 

    Once the patient has left, they are often required to take that information and summarise it in documents like referral letters. The government is determined to reform these outdated ways of working and revolutionise care, and this innovative tech will do that work for them, so they can see their next patient. 

    The Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre in East Hull (part of City Health Care Partnership) has introduced an ambient scribing product to make their documentation process faster and better support their work to care for people living with frailty. 

    By converting a conversation with a patient into a clinical note, the ambient scribing product is freeing up time for a range of staff including GPs, consultants, nurses, and physiotherapists.

    Thanks to government action, GP surgeries delivered 31.4 million appointments last month– a 6.1% increase on the previous year – and waiting lists have fallen by 219,000 patients. This technology will help consolidate this progress. 

    The government is already using AI to speed up diagnosis and treatment for a range of health issues – spotting pain levels for people who can’t speak, diagnosing breast cancer quicker, and getting people discharged quicker. 

    Notes to editors

    Dr Andrew Noble, a doctor working at a care centre in Hull, says:

    By embracing this innovative technology, we’ve optimised our resources and empowered our clinicians and entire multidisciplinary team. 

    The positive feedback from both staff and patients shows just how valuable this project has been.

    We’re excited to keep exploring what AI can do for us and to continue enhancing patient care and clinical efficiency.

    Dr Vin Diwakar, National Director of Transformation at NHS England, said:

    This exciting technology can reduce the burden of administration, allowing patients more quality time with their clinician, and our new guidance shows the NHS’s ability to rapidly and safely harness the very latest innovations to transform healthcare and bring benefits for our hardworking staff and our patients.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: PM meeting with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine: 26 April 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    PM meeting with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine: 26 April 2025

    The Prime Minister met President Zelenskyy in Rome.

    The Prime Minister met President Zelenskyy in Rome this afternoon.

    They discussed positive progress made in recent days to secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. 

    They agreed to maintain momentum and continue working intensively with international partners to drive forward the next stages of planning. 

    The leaders agreed to speak again at the earliest opportunity.

    Updates to this page

    Published 26 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: EHRC guidance deeply troubling

    Source: Scottish Greens

    26 Apr 2025 Equality Human Rights LGBTQ+ Trans Rights are Human Rights

    Trans people just want to live their lives like anybody else.

    More in Equality

    Commenting on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s interim update on the practical implications of the UK Supreme Court judgment, Scottish Greens Co-Leader Patrick Harvie MSP said:

    “This guidance is harsh, authoritarian and cruel. It is the polar opposite of what an equality and human rights body should be doing, and it’s deeply troubling to see the rights of some of the most marginalised people in our society being rolled back so easily.

    “This guidance raises far more questions than answers, for trans people, for anyone who doesn’t fit with widespread gender norms, and for people who run businesses, social groups and workplaces.

    “But the people most immediately frightened about how they can go about their lives today will be trans people and their loved ones, who have already endured an onslaught of prejudice.

    “Trans people just want to be able to live their lives like anybody else, without the fear of prejudice, discrimination or violence.

    “The EHRC appears to be going even further than the Supreme Court judgement did and is introducing new uncertainties rather than providing clarity.

    “We must not allow the UK government or anyone else to take a wrecking ball to longstanding rights or to remove all protections from a community that is already under fire.

    “The demonisation of trans people by politicians and large parts of the media echoes the homophobic rhetoric we heard in the 1980s and ‘90s.

    “It is a very worrying time and a lot of people are scared. But I want to remind everyone that the forces of prejudice were defeated before, and they can be defeated again.

    “The Scottish Greens will continue to stand up for trans and non-binary people’s rights today, tomorrow and always.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UK Gulf visit to enhance regional security and boost UK growth

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    UK Gulf visit to enhance regional security and boost UK growth

    The Foreign Secretary visits Oman and Qatar to commit to expand cooperation with Gulf countries on trade, defence, and security.

    • Visit to Oman and Qatar will commit to expand cooperation with Gulf countries on trade, defence, and security
    • Foreign Secretary to use visit to underscore need for de-escalation and security within region including countering the threat posed by Iran
    • Builds on mission to kickstart the economy and protect national security as part of Government’s Plan for Change

    The UK is set to strengthen ties with key partners in the Gulf as the Foreign Secretary travels to Oman and Qatar to unlock new opportunities and push the need for greater security and stability in the region.

    The Foreign Secretary’s first visit to Oman is an opportunity to celebrate 225 years of government to government relations, discuss how best to consolidate our shared efforts for green, sustainable growth and our cooperation on regional security challenges.

    The Foreign Secretary will also discuss the recent US – Iran talks held in Oman. Alongside international partners we are clear that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon which threatens international peace and security. We remain committed to seeking a negotiated solution to the issue and will use all diplomatic levers to make this happen.

    He will discuss UK-Omani joint work on wider regional security, including the Israel-Gaza conflict and Houthi threats to international shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade route for UK exports to the rest of the world with over a $1 trillion worth of global goods passing through each year.

    In Qatar, the Foreign Secretary will build on the Government’s commitment to boosting the economy by overseeing the UK-Qatar Strategic Dialogue, a key forum which has assisted in fuelling previous investment into the UK in priority growth sectors including energy, real-estate and defence. This partnership builds on the success of the existing multi-billion pound Strategic Investment Partnership, helping to deliver on the Government’s growth mission and supporting Qatar’s own economic ambitions.

    Foreign Secretary, David Lammy said:

    The UK’s relationship with the Gulf continues to go from strength to strength. Our partnerships are unlocking huge investment opportunities in the UK and creating jobs in the industries of the future which is at the very heart of our Plan for Change.

    But boosting growth is reliant on building stability. It’s vital we engage closely with partners like Qatar and Oman to strengthen security in the region, this includes countering Iran’s malign activity in the region and bringing the war in Gaza to end.

    The Foreign Secretary will also discuss progress on the Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which could increase bilateral trade by up to 16%, adding an extra £8.6 billion a year to trade between the UK and GCC countries in the long run, as well as supporting job creation across Britain.

    As the impact of the devastating conflict in Gaza continues to be felt across the region,  the Foreign Secretary will use his visit to highlight that more bloodshed is in no-one’s interest, and the need for all parties in the conflict to return to a ceasefire. In meetings with counterparts, he will stress the need to build lasting peace in the region which is vital for security and prosperity in the Gulf and at home in the UK.

    The visit to Qatar will also be an opportunity to further cooperation on defence and security matters. This includes discussing the close partnership between the RAF and Qatar Amiri Joint Squadron which helps train the next generation of pilots who will patrol the skies and maintain UK security interests in the Middle East.

    Media enquiries

    Email newsdesk@fcdo.gov.uk

    Telephone 020 7008 3100

    Contact the FCDO Communication Team via email (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.

    Updates to this page

    Published 26 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Green MSP calls for review of buffer zone size in Glasgow

    Source: Scottish Greens

    26 Apr 2025 Health Buffer Zones

    Gillian Mackay MSP calls for review at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital

    More in Health

    Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay is calling for the government to review the size of the safe access zone, or ‘buffer zone’ around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow with a view to extending it.

    This follows complaints from patients that dozens of anti-choice protestors have been gathering on the edge of the buffer zone, and on one of the main routes to the hospital.

    Ms Mackay introduced the bill that secured 200 metre wide safe access zones, or buffer zones, around clinical settings that offer abortion services to prevent intimidation from anti-choice protests across Scotland. The Act includes a provision to extend the zones if it is considered proportionate to do so.

    Ms Mackay has written to the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, Jenni Minto, asking for Ministers to consider extending the zone in order to offer greater dignity, protection and privacy for people attending the QEUH for abortion and maternity services.

    Ms Mackay said: 

    “Safe access zones were introduced to protect patients and staff at our hospitals, and, for the most part, that is what they are doing. But at QEUH we have seen protests continuing on one of the main entry routes to the hospital.

    “The QEUH in Glasgow has quite unique challenges due to its location compared to other hospitals. From the correspondence that I and others have received, there are concerns about the patients and staff having no choice but to pass the protests.

    “My Act includes powers to extend buffer zones where necessary to offer better protections to patients and staff, and that is what I am asking our Government to look into around the QEUH.

    “Abortion services are vital healthcare. Nobody should have to pass graphic placards and intimidating groups on their way to hospital for any type of medical appointment.

    “I urge the dozens of protestors who have gathered over recent weeks to read the testimony of the many women who have felt intimidated by their presence and reconsider their actions going forward.

    “To anyone who has been impacted by recent anti-choice protests, please get in touch with myself or the Scottish Government, so that we can consider how to make these spaces even safer moving forward.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Funeral of Pope Francis

    Source: Scottish Government

    First Minister to attend service in Rome.

    First Minister John Swinney will meet Bishop Keenan, the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, to reflect on the life of His Holiness Pope Francis and discuss the role of faith communities in Scotland and abroad, as they both attend the funeral of His Holiness in Rome today.

    The First Minister will be in Rome alongside mourners including world leaders and heads of state. He is expected to arrive at St Peter’s Square around 9am where he will take his seat ahead of the service commencing.

    Following the service, he will attend a reception at the residence of the UK Ambassador to the Holy See and will then meet with Bishop Keenan.

    First Minister John Swinney said:

    “On behalf of the people of Scotland, I am deeply honoured to attend the funeral of His Holiness Pope Francis in Rome to express sorrow, thanks and my respect for the compassion, assurance and hope that he brought to so many. People around the world greatly valued the peacefulness, the focus on reconciliation and the spiritual leadership that he gave.

    “I am attending to express the respect of the people of Scotland for the leadership that Pope Francis has given, particularly regarding justice, standing in solidarity with the poor, working for peace and reconciliation in the world.”

    Background

    In line with Scottish Government flag protocol, flags will fly at half-mast on the main Scottish Government buildings on Saturday 26 April 2025 to mark the funeral of the late Pope Francis.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Windham Man Sentenced to 36 Months in Federal Prison for Scheme to Defraud the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    CONCORD – A Windham man was sentenced today in federal court in connection with his ownership of an international technology (IT) company that contracted with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley (United Way) while being employed by United Way, Acting U.S. Attorney Jay McCormack announces.

    Imran Alrai, age 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph N. Laplante to 36 months in federal prison and 1 year of supervised release. Alrai was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2.3 million. In October 2024, Alrai was convicted by a federal jury of 12 counts of wire fraud and 6 counts of money laundering.

    “For six years, the defendant carried out a calculated and sophisticated scheme to steal millions from a non-profit dedicated to uplifting our most vulnerable communities,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jay McCormack. “He exploited the organization’s trust, fabricating companies, employees, and invoices– all to line his own pockets at the expense of those the non-profit was meant to serve.”

    “The usual reward of nonprofit work is personal fulfillment, not financial enrichment,” said James Crowley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “Imran Alrai, however, treated the United Way of Massachusetts and Merrimack Valley like his very own ATM, stealing millions of dollars and shortchanging their efforts and the community in the process. To anyone else engaged in a scheme like this, know that the FBI will work to shut you down and ensure you are held accountable for your actions.”

    “Alrai’s ploy to enrich himself with millions of dollars stolen from an organization focused on improving the lives of those in need ended today. He used his technical expertise to craft an elaborate fraud scheme that went undetected for years, allowing him to siphon millions to fulfill his own greed,” said Homeland Security Investigations New England Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol. “After today’s sentence, he’s finally facing the consequences of his crimes— a long term in federal prison.”

    Between 2012 and June 2018, Alrai, an IT professional at the United Way, obtained approximately $6.7 million in payments for IT services supposedly provided to United Way by an independent outside contractor, DigitalNet Technology Solutions, Inc. Alrai misrepresented material facts about DigitalNet and fraudulently concealed that he owned and controlled DigitalNet. Through DigitalNet, Alrai overcharged United Way for the services he provided.  In early 2013, Alrai rigged the bidding process for a major contract to provide managed IT services at the United Way so that DigitalNet was chosen. Alrai then gave fake references and false information about DigitalNet to United Way.

    For the next five years, while serving as United Way’s Vice President for IT Services, Alrai steered additional IT work to DigitalNet, so that his company soon became United Way’s second largest outside vendor, receiving more than $1 million annually. Alrai concealed his connection with DigitalNet from his colleagues. He routinely sent emails with attached invoices from a fictitious person to himself at United Way.

    After the fraud came to light, in June 2018, officials at the United Way confronted Alrai and terminated him. Federal agents executed search and seizure warrants and seized incriminating documents and data from Alrai’s home office in Windham, as well as approximately $2.2 million in fraud proceeds in bank and investment accounts.

    Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation led the investigation. The Internal Revenue Service provided valuable assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles L. Rombeau and John J. Kennedy prosecuted the case.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Keynote Speech – Canning House Mexico-UK Summit

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    Keynote Speech – Canning House Mexico-UK Summit

    During the Canning House’s Mexico-UK Summit, His Majesty’s Ambassador to Mexico, Susannah Goshko, highlight the bilateral opportunity between our countries.

    The UK-Mexico Partnership in 2025 

    Good morning everyone.  It’s great to be here at Canning House’s inaugural Mexico-UK Summit.  Canning House plays a hugely important role in bringing the UK and Mexico closer together.

    I would therefore like to begin by thanking Jeremy Browne and his team for organising this Summit and fostering the valuable exchange of ideas between business, government and academia.

    As many of you will know, I arrived in Mexico at the end of last year: so I am now just a few months into my posting as British Ambassador to Mexico. And what a time to arrive.  A new government in Mexico and a new government in the UK.  A world that is changing more rapidly than any of us could have predicted.  Let me start therefore by talking about the bilateral opportunity, before coming on to how the UK and Mexico can work together on the global stage.

    The relationship between the UK and Mexico dates back over 200 years.  One of the first things I did in my role here was accompany the High Sheriff of Cornwall to Hidalgo where British miners – from Cornwall – first arrived in the 19th century, drawn by the opportunities that Mexico offered.  They brought with them football and Cornish pasties – both of which live on to this day, although the pasties turn out to be a little more picante than we are used to them in Cornwall.

    The first record of a football match being played in Mexico was between those Cornish miners and the Mexicans who lived in Hidalgo.  On that occasion – for perhaps the first and last time – the Brits beat the Mexicans.  And this is a nice anecdote but actually, it’s more than that.  It’s evidence of the culture and history that continue to bind us today.

    In fact, our rich cultural and people-to-people links are one of the most important aspects of this relationship: whether it’s the numerous Mexicans who play in the English Premier League, the more than 3000 Mexican students have been awarded Chevening scholarships since 1983, or the fact that the largest number of Beatlemaniacs in the world are not in fact in the UK but are right here in Mexico.

    But the policy agenda is – perhaps – even more exciting.  When the new government in the UK was elected last summer, it was on the basis of a number of very clear priorities – or missions as the PM has described them.  These include:

    • Reducing barriers to opportunity for all
    • Building a health system fit for the future
    • Making the UK a green energy super power by 2030
    • And kickstarting economic growth.

    I have been struck in my first few months here, how much of that agenda resonates with what the government in Mexico is trying to achieve. In the language we use and in the priorities we choose, there is much alignment between our approaches.

    The growth agenda

    Let me start by talking about economic growth. Growth is at the heart of the UK government’s agenda because – like Mexico – the British government has made important commitments around addressing social inequality.  To meet these ambitious commitments, it will be essential for us both to have thriving economies.

    So all British diplomats have been given clear marching orders: we must do all we can to build economic prosperity for the UK but also for the countries in which we are working. And what does that mean here? Well, trade between the UK and Mexico is good: Our markets are complementary, so we are not in competition with each other, and we have an more or less equally balanced trading relationship.

    But we can afford to be much more ambitious: two way trade is currently worth around £6.1bn a year – as two G20 countries, both committed to open and free trade – this should and could be much higher.  It is in both of our interests to ensure that it is, if we are to build the equitable and prosperous societies we are both seeking.

    The first step on this journey will be Mexican ratification of the UK’s accession to CPTPP which we hope will happen shortly.   This will accelerate growth by deepening British and Mexican participation in our respective supply chains. It will diversify our trade in innovative sectors such as electromobility, health-tech and advanced manufacturing and will provide greater certainty to UK investors in Mexico and Mexican investors wanting to set up and grow their business in the UK.

    At the same time, a new industrial strategy in the UK and Plan Mexico here will drive growth in both our countries in sectors of mutual interest and expertise, among them healthcare and life sciences, financial services, and education. We must grasp this opportunity.

    There is much success to build upon: last year we saw innovative British bank Revolut secure their banking licence in Mexico. Astrazeneca opened their second largest global research plant in Jalisco. Orbia expanded their presence in the UK with an additional £75m investment, creating 100 new jobs.

    These are just a small selection of success stories from the last twelve months.  I am confident that there will be many more to come driven by a determination from both our governments to put sustainable growth at the heart of our plans.

    Climate

    The second area where I see enormous potential is on climate and energy.  I am delighted that Minister for Environment, Alicia Barcena will speak later in the day. Minister Barcena has been a great friend of the UK as well as a champion of our shared commitment to tackling the climate and nature emergency.

    This is one of the most profound threats to face us and future generations. We must work together to ensure a liveable planet for all. Our future prosperity and security depends on what we do now.

    For the British government, combatting climate change and biodiversity loss must be done alongside eradicating social inequality. We believe firmly that this can be achieved without compromising economic growth. In fact, done right, we believe that the energy transition can be an economic advantage.  As testament to this, I offer the fact that in the UK we have reduced emissions by 54% whilst also growing our GDP by 84% on 1990 levels.

    Under the leadership of President Sheinbaum and Prime Minister Starmer we have an unparalleled opportunity to deepen our cooperation in this area.

    When I presented my credentials to the President some two weeks ago, I congratulated her for her leadership on Mexico’s NDC commitment and the newly announced Net Zero goal. The UK stands ready to offer any support that we can in their development and implementation.

    Our vision to do this is one where there’s space for every part of society to contribute and benefit from ambitious climate action. We have, for instance, worked with local communities and civil society in Sonora to pilot solar energy projects, increasing access to electricity and diversifying sources of income for families.

    And our scientific and academic links are also a fundamental asset to tackle climate change. Mexican and British research institutions are working together to deploy solutions to manage sargassum proliferation, which has greatly impacted the tourism industry in Mexico and many Caribbean nations.

    And there’s, of course, the role of private sector. No climate target will ever be met without industries and financiers actively playing a part in addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis. Private investment in innovative technologies such as offshore wind energy will be essential to boost renewable energy generation in Mexico whilst ensuring the protection of energy sovereignty. Many British companies are keen to be part of this journey.

    While the task might feel unsurmountable at times, I am convinced that by working together, Mexico and the UK can bring us closer to building a liveable, more equitable planet for all.

    The Global Context

    Now let me come on and talk a bit about the global context.  Of course, to ensure that prosperous democracies like ours can thrive we need geopolitical stability. Across the world we are living in uncertain times with brutal conflicts still waging in Sudan, the Middle East and Ukraine.

    Mexico’s historic bridging role in multilateral fora means it is uniquely placed to bring countries together in support of our shared values of democracy, sovereignty and a commitment to human rights.

    During my career, I have observed the vast experience and talent of Mexican diplomats in multilateral fora, sharing our concern to protect the institutions that ensure world peace. Their ability to bring together different points of view and chart a path forward that everyone can agree is part of Mexico’s USP: one of my formative memories is of watching a Mexican diplomat rescue a biodiversity negotiation from the brink of collapse at the eleventh hour and find an almost impossible consensus.

    In this increasingly complex world, we need this more than ever. Those countries that share our commitment to the rules based international order must continue working together to ensure that multilateral institutions remain strong and relevant.

    For example, in February, the UK and Mexico united with other nations in the UN to mark the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    The security threats we face have been transformed in the last decade. We are all confronting the unprecedented rate at which threats to information integrity are growing.  Misinformation and disinformation are both more common than ever and increasingly difficult to distinguish from the truth.

    As democratic governments, the UK and Mexico must be proactive about countering this threat. We also have a responsibility to uphold the principles of an open civil society and free media to take on this challenge. I’m proud therefore that here in Mexico we support a vibrant Civil Society Group ‘Las Linternas’ to strengthen their fact checking, identify false stories and build media literacy. Our resilience to these threats domestically depends – like so much else – on our ability to work together.

    Conclusion

    So there is much to do. Perhaps I’ll end where I began: Lord Canning – after whom Canning House is named – was the first British foreign secretary, some 200 years ago, to devote a large proportion of his time and energies to Latin America and to foresee the important political and economic role the region would one day play.

    We are once again at a moment of enormous geopolitical change.  We too should choose to strengthen and trust in this bilateral relationship.  Together I am confident that the UK and Mexico can do brilliant things.

    Thank you.

    Updates to this page

    Published 25 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –