NewzIntel.com

Category: Universities

  • MIL-OSI USA: LaMalfa, California GOP Delegation Call on Newsom to Halt New Gas Price Hikes

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Doug LaMalfa 1st District of California

    Washington, D.C.—Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) joined the entire California Republican congressional delegation in sending a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom urging him to immediately suspend a scheduled increase to the state’s gasoline excise tax and pause the implementation of new California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations projected to significantly raise fuel costs for California drivers.

    Starting July 1, 2025, California is set to raise its gas tax to 61.2 cents per gallon. On the same day, new CARB regulations under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) are set to take effect—regulations estimated by University of Pennsylvania economists to drive fuel prices up by as much as 65 cents per gallon. Combined, these changes will further strain California’s already fragile fuel supply and add more costs for families and businesses across the state.

    “At a time when Californians are already paying $1.44 more per gallon than the national average, the last thing they need is another gas tax hike and a costly new mandate from unelected CARB officials,” said Rep. LaMalfa. “The Phillips 66 refinery is set to close this fall, and Valero’s Benicia facility will follow next spring. Together, those shutdowns will cut California’s refining capacity by over 20 percent. Resulting in less fuel available on the market, higher prices, and more pain for everyone. Instead of addressing this looming supply crisis, the Governor is adding 1.6 cents to the gas tax and letting CARB push through a regulation that is estimated to raise prices by up to 65 cents per gallon. These policies are not just tone-deaf, they’re dangerous to California’s economy. The Governor continues to ignore this reality. Refusing to change course will only make things worse.”

    These price increases come as California faces a looming supply crisis due to the scheduled closures of two major in-state refineries. According to a May 2025 report from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, the combined shutdown of the Phillips 66 refinery in Los Angeles and the Valero refinery in Benicia could result in a 21% drop in California’s refining capacity. This shortfall is expected to create a gasoline supply deficit of up to 13.1 million gallons per day and push prices as high as $8.43 per gallon by the end of 2026, especially when combined with the effects of new state mandates like the LCFS, Cap-and-Trade expansion, and excise tax increases.

    The USC study also warns that these disruptions will ripple across the economy, impacting air travel, food delivery, agriculture, manufacturing, and healthcare, while placing further pressure on household budgets and reducing state tax revenues at a time when California faces a projected $73 billion budget deficit.

    The California Republican congressional delegation has consistently urged the Governor to suspend the gas tax, address in-state supply constraints, and reject policies that deepen the cost-of-living crisis, but to date continue to be ignored.

    The full text of the letter is available here.

    Congressman Doug LaMalfa is Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus and a lifelong farmer representing California’s First Congressional District, including Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama and Yuba Counties.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grattan on Friday: Jim Chalmers juggles expectations and ambition in pursuing tax reform

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    Next week will be the 40th anniversary of the Hawke government’s tax summit. Dominated by then treasurer Paul Keating’s unsuccessful bid to win support for a consumption tax, it was the public centrepiece of an extraordinary political and policy story.

    That story was about the possibilities for, but constraints on, bold reform; how a determined treasurer can muster a formidable department to push for change, and the way the ambitions of a minister can clash with the pragmatism of a prime minister.

    Ken Henry, later secretary of the treasury, was then part of what they dubbed the “treasury tax reform bunker”. He kept a timesheet, averaging 100 hours work a week for a three-month period. Officials brought sleeping bags and their small children (Henry’s were aged three and five) into the office.

    Before the summit, the government produced a comprehensive draft white paper. Keating battled to keep the conflicting interests “in the cart” for his blueprint. But the four-day summit, attended by business, unions, premiers and community groups, was inevitably divided by stakeholders’ self-interests. In particular, the unions couldn’t wear Keating’s consumption tax, and Bob Hawke kyboshed it unceremoniously. Keating, who had to settle for a more limited but still very significant set of reforms, was furious with Hawke, and it left a fracture in their relationship.

    Jim Chalmers was aged seven in 1985. But he’s a student of Keating (he did his PhD on his prime ministership) and you can be sure he’s boned up on what went right and wrong in that tax reform exercise. Now he is preparing for the government’s August 19-21 “roundtable” and his own bid at major tax reform.

    The roundtable, as first announced, focused on “productivity”, and that will be central. But Chalmers has taken to calling it an “economic reform” roundtable – its brief also includes budget sustainability and resilience – and he is effectively putting tax reform close to its heart, or at least letting others do so. After all, a fit-for-purpose tax system is one key to improving productivity.

    The roundtable (for which invitations to business and the union movement are now going out, with more to follow) is nothing like on the scale, in size (the 1985 summit had about 160 attendees, the roundtable will have about 25) or preparation, of the elaborate 1985 conference.

    And crucially, while that summit was the culmination of a process, Chalmers is using the roundtable to kick off a process.

    Chalmers is lowering expectations in regard to specific outcomes from the summit on tax. While those might be obtainable on some productivity issues, on tax he is likely to look for broad support for a direction of reform. For instance, is there a general appetite for reshaping the tax system towards lower personal and company tax, offset by higher taxes on certain investments and savings? `

    Most tax experts argue Australia’s system is too skewed towards taxing income rather than spending. This leads to calls to increase or broaden the GST, financing cuts to personal income tax.

    Chalmers has been a long-term opponent of changing the GST, but he says he is not ruling the GST out for discussion at the roundtable. (That’s a contrast to when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, commissioning Henry to lead a major tax review, excluded the GST from its terms of reference.)

    Almost certainly, however, it would not be possible to get “consensus” from business and unions for GST changes. Not least of the constraints is that compensating the losers in such a change is very expensive and there is not the money to do so these days.

    That immediately limits the extent of reform.

    Henry tells The Conversation’s podcast that if he were designing a tax reform package “I’d be looking at opportunities to broaden the GST and maybe to increase the rate as well”.

    But “I do think it is possible to achieve major tax reform […] without necessarily increasing the [GST] rate or extending the base”.

    Henry’s (non-GST) wish list includes getting rid of the remaining state transaction taxes, such as stamp duty on property conveyancing.

    Notably, he argues for extracting more revenue from taxing natural resources and land, and also from taxing pollution from various sources. “We’re going to need to tax those things more heavily if we’re going to relieve the tax burden on young workers through lower personal income tax and introducing tax indexation.”

    Henry is particularly focused on the unfair burden at present put on these younger taxpayers. He has come around to the idea of income tax indexation as one means of assisting them.

    A system more geared to younger workers raises immediate questions about the present generous treatment of superannuants. Chalmers is already caught in that hornets’ nest with his proposed changes for those with balances more than $3 million.

    To what extent will the roundtable tax debate revive the issues of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount? The government hosed down before the election the prospect of any changes to negative gearing this term. Chalmers, however, had work done on this last term and he would likely favour reining it in. But would this be a bridge too far for the prime minister?

    Indeed, where will Anthony Albanese’s limits be when it comes to reform? Would he only support changes that had strong consensus? And how far would he feel constrained in going beyond what he considers he has a mandate for?

    If Chalmers stays serious about the tax push, it is going to take many months of intense work. It can’t be rushed, but nor can it be delayed. If it ran for much over a year it would likely find the government’s political capital had been eroded. The size of its capital store can appear deceptive because so much of it is thanks to Peter Dutton and Donald Trump.

    In 2022, the Liberals boycotted Labor’s jobs and skills summit (although Nationals leader David Littlepround attended). This time, shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien has accepted Chalmers’ invitation and will participate in the roundtable.

    It will be a tricky gig for O’Brien, new to this shadow portfolio. He has to avoid being too negative, but nor can he endorse things the opposition might later reject. The Coalition will not have a tax policy against which to judge what’s said.

    The occasion will be a chance for O’Brien to make contacts and get more insight into stakeholders’ views on the key economic debates, much wider than just tax.

    Importantly, however, O’Brien will need to remember judgements will be being made about him by other participants in the room. Business in particular will be seeking to get a fix on whether opposition leader Sussan Ley’s declarations about wanting to be constructive where possible are fair dinkum.

    Michelle Grattan 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. Grattan on Friday: Jim Chalmers juggles expectations and ambition in pursuing tax reform – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-jim-chalmers-juggles-expectations-and-ambition-in-pursuing-tax-reform-258971

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grattan on Friday: Jim Chalmers juggles expectations and ambition in pursuing tax reform

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    Next week will be the 40th anniversary of the Hawke government’s tax summit. Dominated by then treasurer Paul Keating’s unsuccessful bid to win support for a consumption tax, it was the public centrepiece of an extraordinary political and policy story.

    That story was about the possibilities for, but constraints on, bold reform; how a determined treasurer can muster a formidable department to push for change, and the way the ambitions of a minister can clash with the pragmatism of a prime minister.

    Ken Henry, later secretary of the treasury, was then part of what they dubbed the “treasury tax reform bunker”. He kept a timesheet, averaging 100 hours work a week for a three-month period. Officials brought sleeping bags and their small children (Henry’s were aged three and five) into the office.

    Before the summit, the government produced a comprehensive draft white paper. Keating battled to keep the conflicting interests “in the cart” for his blueprint. But the four-day summit, attended by business, unions, premiers and community groups, was inevitably divided by stakeholders’ self-interests. In particular, the unions couldn’t wear Keating’s consumption tax, and Bob Hawke kyboshed it unceremoniously. Keating, who had to settle for a more limited but still very significant set of reforms, was furious with Hawke, and it left a fracture in their relationship.

    Jim Chalmers was aged seven in 1985. But he’s a student of Keating (he did his PhD on his prime ministership) and you can be sure he’s boned up on what went right and wrong in that tax reform exercise. Now he is preparing for the government’s August 19-21 “roundtable” and his own bid at major tax reform.

    The roundtable, as first announced, focused on “productivity”, and that will be central. But Chalmers has taken to calling it an “economic reform” roundtable – its brief also includes budget sustainability and resilience – and he is effectively putting tax reform close to its heart, or at least letting others do so. After all, a fit-for-purpose tax system is one key to improving productivity.

    The roundtable (for which invitations to business and the union movement are now going out, with more to follow) is nothing like on the scale, in size (the 1985 summit had about 160 attendees, the roundtable will have about 25) or preparation, of the elaborate 1985 conference.

    And crucially, while that summit was the culmination of a process, Chalmers is using the roundtable to kick off a process.

    Chalmers is lowering expectations in regard to specific outcomes from the summit on tax. While those might be obtainable on some productivity issues, on tax he is likely to look for broad support for a direction of reform. For instance, is there a general appetite for reshaping the tax system towards lower personal and company tax, offset by higher taxes on certain investments and savings? `

    Most tax experts argue Australia’s system is too skewed towards taxing income rather than spending. This leads to calls to increase or broaden the GST, financing cuts to personal income tax.

    Chalmers has been a long-term opponent of changing the GST, but he says he is not ruling the GST out for discussion at the roundtable. (That’s a contrast to when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, commissioning Henry to lead a major tax review, excluded the GST from its terms of reference.)

    Almost certainly, however, it would not be possible to get “consensus” from business and unions for GST changes. Not least of the constraints is that compensating the losers in such a change is very expensive and there is not the money to do so these days.

    That immediately limits the extent of reform.

    Henry tells The Conversation’s podcast that if he were designing a tax reform package “I’d be looking at opportunities to broaden the GST and maybe to increase the rate as well”.

    But “I do think it is possible to achieve major tax reform […] without necessarily increasing the [GST] rate or extending the base”.

    Henry’s (non-GST) wish list includes getting rid of the remaining state transaction taxes, such as stamp duty on property conveyancing.

    Notably, he argues for extracting more revenue from taxing natural resources and land, and also from taxing pollution from various sources. “We’re going to need to tax those things more heavily if we’re going to relieve the tax burden on young workers through lower personal income tax and introducing tax indexation.”

    Henry is particularly focused on the unfair burden at present put on these younger taxpayers. He has come around to the idea of income tax indexation as one means of assisting them.

    A system more geared to younger workers raises immediate questions about the present generous treatment of superannuants. Chalmers is already caught in that hornets’ nest with his proposed changes for those with balances more than $3 million.

    To what extent will the roundtable tax debate revive the issues of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount? The government hosed down before the election the prospect of any changes to negative gearing this term. Chalmers, however, had work done on this last term and he would likely favour reining it in. But would this be a bridge too far for the prime minister?

    Indeed, where will Anthony Albanese’s limits be when it comes to reform? Would he only support changes that had strong consensus? And how far would he feel constrained in going beyond what he considers he has a mandate for?

    If Chalmers stays serious about the tax push, it is going to take many months of intense work. It can’t be rushed, but nor can it be delayed. If it ran for much over a year it would likely find the government’s political capital had been eroded. The size of its capital store can appear deceptive because so much of it is thanks to Peter Dutton and Donald Trump.

    In 2022, the Liberals boycotted Labor’s jobs and skills summit (although Nationals leader David Littlepround attended). This time, shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien has accepted Chalmers’ invitation and will participate in the roundtable.

    It will be a tricky gig for O’Brien, new to this shadow portfolio. He has to avoid being too negative, but nor can he endorse things the opposition might later reject. The Coalition will not have a tax policy against which to judge what’s said.

    The occasion will be a chance for O’Brien to make contacts and get more insight into stakeholders’ views on the key economic debates, much wider than just tax.

    Importantly, however, O’Brien will need to remember judgements will be being made about him by other participants in the room. Business in particular will be seeking to get a fix on whether opposition leader Sussan Ley’s declarations about wanting to be constructive where possible are fair dinkum.

    Michelle Grattan 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. Grattan on Friday: Jim Chalmers juggles expectations and ambition in pursuing tax reform – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-jim-chalmers-juggles-expectations-and-ambition-in-pursuing-tax-reform-258971

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Give your view on the future of local government in Norwich

    Source: City of Norwich

    Norwich City Council is inviting residents to take part in a series of local engagement events this summer, as councils seek views on the future of local government in Norfolk.

    The Government is reducing the number of councils and bring services together to be provided by new ‘unitary councils’ (also known as unitary authorities), instead of by existing borough, city, district and county councils. 

    All Norfolk councils have been asked to send in their proposals for what the future of service delivery could look like. If areas can’t agree a proposal for the future, the Government has said it will pass a law to proceed with its own proposal. 

    Engagement events in Norwich

    The Norwich events, running from 1 to 19 July in all wards of the city, are part of a collaborative effort between six local authorities to explore how local services can be delivered more effectively, efficiently, and closer to the communities they serve.

    Residents are encouraged to attend their local ward event to learn more, ask questions, and share their views. Each event will be hosted by council representatives and will offer an opportunity to discuss what matters most to local people—from housing and transport to community services and the environment.

    Event details:

    Events will take place in locations across Norwich.

    Tuesday 1 July – Crome Ward
    Witard Road shops, Heartsease, NR7 9XD
    2 to 5pm

    Wednesday 2 July – Town Close Ward
    Outside Bread and Roses Café, Vauxhall Street, NR2 2AA
    10am to midday

    Thursday 3 July – University Ward
    Enfield Road playground, NR5 8LE
    2:30 to 4:30pm

    Friday 4 July – Mancroft Ward

    Outside the Forum, Millennium Plain, NR2 1TF
    11:30am to 4pm

    Monday 7 July – Lakenham Ward
    Jubilee Park, Long John Hill, NR1 2EX
    3 to 6pm

    Tuesday 8 July – Nelson Ward
    Heigham Park, The Avenues, NR2 3JF
    1:30 to 4:30pm

    Wednesday 9 July – Bowthorpe Ward
    Outside Roys of Bowthorpe, Wendene, NR5 9HA
    11am to 1:30pm

    Thursday 10 July – Thorpe Hamlet Ward
    St. Matthew’s Church, Telegraph Lane West, NR1 4JA
    3:30 to 6pm

    Monday 14 July – Wensum Ward
    West End Street Gardens, NR2 4NA
    3pm to 5:30pm

    Tuesday 15 July – Sewell Ward
    Sewell Park, St. Clement’s Hill, NR3 4BX
    3 to 6pm

    Wednesday 16 July – Eaton Ward
    Waitrose, Church Lane, NR4 6NU
    2 to 4pm

    Thursday 17 July – Catton Grove Ward
    Catton Grove Community Centre, Jewson Road, NR3 3RQ
    11am to 2pm

    Saturday 19 July – Mile Cross Ward
    The Phoenix Centre, Mile Cross Road, NR3 2LD
    11:am to 4pm

    Have your say:

    Residents can also read more about the proposals and take part in the consultation online at: https://futurenorfolk.com

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Exclusive: Commitment to the spirit of mutual respect, trust, benefit and support is the driving force behind the development of cooperation between China and Central Asia – expert from Uzbekistan

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Tashkent, June 26 (Xinhua) — The driving force behind the sustainable development of cooperation between China and Central Asian countries is the two sides’ commitment to the spirit of “mutual respect, trust, benefit and support,” Professor Nodira Murodova, head of department at Navoi State University, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

    According to her, for Uzbekistan these principles are not just diplomatic slogans, but a real basis for a long-term and stable partnership with China, as well as for the entire region. She emphasized that it is on this foundation that strong and trusting interaction between the two countries is built.

    Mutual respect, according to N. Murodova, is the basis of deepening Uzbek-Chinese relations. China, as the expert noted, consistently demonstrates respect for the sovereignty, social structure and development strategy of Uzbekistan. “Such a sincere attitude on equal terms allows us to more confidently and independently build external relations, forming a truly equal partnership,” she said.

    Particular importance is also attached to mutual trust, which the expert called a guarantee of the strength of cooperation. “Thanks to regular high-level contacts, intergovernmental dialogues and projects implemented in practice, strong political trust has been formed between our countries,” N. Murodova noted. She also added that in such strategic areas as regional security and infrastructure development, Uzbekistan and China maintain close coordination and dialogue.

    As for the principle of mutual benefit, the professor emphasized that it is reflected in concrete results. “In key areas such as infrastructure, energy, agriculture and the digital economy, Chinese companies have brought advanced technologies and management experience to Uzbekistan, creating many jobs,” the expert said. China’s participation in the construction of roads, railways and energy facilities, according to her, helps strengthen production chains and accelerates the country’s modernization process.

    N. Murodova also particularly noted the importance of mutual support, which is especially evident at critical moments. “Whether it is the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic or today’s efforts on environmental transformation and development of education, Uzbekistan and China always act together. Such support at key moments is a manifestation of the true spirit of a community with a common destiny,” she said.

    In conclusion, the professor expressed confidence that, based on the principles of “mutual respect, trust, benefit and support,” cooperation between China and Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, will continue to deepen and expand, serving the interests of the peoples and strengthening peace, development and cooperation in the broader regional and international context. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: It’s smooth-sailing thanks to Kyle’s handy Tall Ships guide Hundreds of Aberdeen sail trainees embarking on the adventure of a lifetime as part in the Tall Ships Races 2025 don’t know it but they are successfully navigating the event thanks to a helping hand from University student Kyle Buchan.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    Over the course of seven weeks, Kyle put himself in the shoes of a trainee in order to understand the diverse range of information they might need.

    Hundreds of Aberdeen sail trainees embarking on the adventure of a lifetime as part in the Tall Ships Races 2025 don’t know it but they are successfully navigating the event thanks to a helping hand from University student Kyle Buchan.
    The third year Business Management and Geography student was tasked with collating the official Sail Trainee Handbook when he took on the job of Tall Ships Project Intern with Aberdeen City Council earlier this year.
    Over the course of seven weeks, Kyle put himself in the shoes of a trainee in order to understand the diverse range of information they might need.
    “It has been a great project to work on,” said the 20-year-old. “The opportunity to be a sail trainee was open to people of all backgrounds aged between 15 and 25 living in the AB postcode.
    “That meant across the 230-strong group of trainees there was a really wide range of experience, confidence and, for some, the need to also provide information and reassurance for parents too.”
    The resulting 3,500-word handbook being issued to the trainees contains a list of frequently asked questions, travel arrangements for those arriving from France or taking part in the Norwegian leg, information on the ships they will be sailing on, the itinerary for the days at sea, what to expect when they dock in each port, events in each host city – and much, much more.

    This is such a big event for the city and I wanted to play a part in it. I’m really proud to have been involved in producing the handbook and hope the trainees find it as useful as we designed it to be.” Kyle Buchan, third year Business Management and Geography student

    “We wanted to make sure we’d answered all the questions people might have so they could focus on enjoying the experience,” said Kyle.
    “That meant not just working with people across the Council, I had to liaise with teams in Kristiansand and Dunkirk to find out what would be happening when the Ships arrived in their ports, the arrangements in place for the trainees and activities they can take part in while there.
    “This is such a big event for the city and I wanted to play a part in it. I’m really proud to have been involved in producing the handbook and hope the trainees find it as useful as we designed it to be.”
    Since completing his internship Kyle also volunteered his time at several of the supporting events taking place in the run up to the Tall Ships arrival.
    “There’s a real buzz around the city and I’m looking forward to seeing the ships arrive and enjoying all the activities at the quayside knowing I’ve played a small part in making it happen.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Leia swaps scrubs for sails to support Tall Ships Locum Emergency Medicine consultant Dr Leia Kane will be part of a crack team of medics on stand-by to deal with any mishaps involving the 400,000 plus visitors attending this summer’s Tall Ships Races Aberdeen.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    On top of her day job with NHS Grampian and undertaking a PhD at the University looking at stress and recovery in doctors, Leia (right) works with Enhanced Care Services, a leading provider of event medical services at events across the UK

    Locum Emergency Medicine consultant Dr Leia Kane will be part of a crack team of medics on stand-by to deal with any mishaps involving the 400,000 plus visitors attending this summer’s Tall Ships Races Aberdeen.
    On top of her day job with NHS Grampian and undertaking a PhD at the University looking at stress and recovery in doctors, Leia works with Enhanced Care Services, a leading provider of event medical services which provides medical and first aid staff at a wide range of events across the UK.
    She will be part of the team manning a quayside field hospital during the Tall Ships, offering on-site medical assistance for everything from cuts and blisters through to resuscitation and critical care.
    “We’ve provided support at all sorts of events, from Wimbledon to the Hackney Half Marathon,” explained Leia. “The team includes senior doctors, emergency medicine nurses, paramedics and many other health care professionals from all over the country – people who offer the skills they have in their day jobs to help at big public events.
    “We only work together like this for maybe half a dozen days across the year but everyone is a specialist in what they do and, once we’re on an event site together, the professional bonds kick in and we’re absolutely ready for anything.”

    We only work together like this for maybe half a dozen days across the year but everyone is a specialist in what they do and, once we’re on an event site together, the professional bonds kick in and we’re absolutely ready for anything.” Locum emergency medicine consultant Dr Leia Kane

    With more than 400,000 visitors expected to attend the events across its duration, organisers are expecting an additional requirement for medical care across the local population and are prepped to deal with all eventualities.
    “Different events come with different requirements but we are equipped to deal with almost anything,” added Leia. “The Half Marathon saw us dealing with a lot of people who were struggling with the warm weather, they were over-heating and collapsing.
    “Ironman Wales in comparison was totally different, with lots of people in the water or experiencing bike crashes. From a professional perspective, it’s an opportunity to test out different skills while remaining on alert to deal with the unexpected.
    “Should we need to, we also have dedicated pathways to get people to the right place within the NHS Grampian system without delay.”
    While technically on duty, Leia and her teammates still hope to be able to enjoy being part of the once in a generation event for the city: “The Tall Ships is an incredible event and I can’t wait to be part of it. The buzz of all these people coming to Aberdeen just to have a really good time is fantastic. There’ll be so much going on and we’ll be there for the full four days so I’m looking forward to soaking up the atmosphere.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Rodney navigates the unknown by charting Tall Ships carbon footprint A student intern is making waves in the maritime sustainability sector by helping calculate the carbon footprint of the Tall Ships Races Aberdeen.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    It is believed that the project might mark the first ever carbon footprint report for a Tall Ships event, and the output by the team could even set the benchmark for future events.

    A student intern is making waves in the maritime sustainability sector by helping calculate the carbon footprint of the Tall Ships Races Aberdeen.
    MSc Sustainability Transitions student Rodney Ekow Keelson is part of a team tasked with figuring out the impact of the Tall Ships Races when the event sails into Aberdeen in July.
    Working with the Tall Ships team, the 23-year-old is currently assessing different methods of gathering data to determine which will deliver the greatest depth of results.
    “The challenge lies in determining the most effective way to gather a large volume of data during the event setup, throughout the four days of the Tall Ships event, and during the post-event breakdown.
    “We need to take a range of factors into account, including energy consumption, ship emissions, and the impact of quayside concerts. The most complex and potentially most significant area is understanding how people will travel to the event. We will also need to carefully assess which data we can feasibly collect within the limited time available.
    “Visitors will be making their way to Aberdeen from neighbouring towns, cities and further afield in cars, buses, trains, planes – and ships.
    “A lot of work will go into evaluating the best channels for us to get the information we need.”

    I’ve never been involved in anything like the Tall Ships or an event of this scale but carbon accounting is a really interesting field and this is great experience.” MSc Sustainability Transitions student Rodney Ekow Keelson

    Rodney is currently on the MSc Sustainability Transitions programme, designed to train the future generation of innovators and thinkers who have the passion and ambition to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and become true sustainability leaders which the world needs.
    It is believed that the project might mark the first ever carbon footprint report for a Tall Ships event, and the output by the team could even set the benchmark for future events.
    “Aberdeen has lots of pioneering green projects and the city’s port wants to become the UK’s first net zero port by 2040. This project really demonstrates the city’s commitment to sustainability and I’m excited to be part of it,” added Rodney, who studied Economics as an undergraduate.
    “I’ve never been involved in anything like the Tall Ships or an event of this scale but carbon accounting is a really interesting field and this is great experience.”
    Dr Piotr Niewiadomski, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and MSc Sustainability Transitions Programme Director, said: “I’m truly delighted that one of our MSc Sustainability Transitions students has a chance to work with the Tall Ships team and make an important contribution to such a challenging task. Not only does it reflect Rodney’s individual ambitions and capabilities, but it also demonstrates the value of our MSc degree which trains future sustainability experts who will be in a position to lead the sustainability and net zero agenda in many different sectors.”
    The project will run until September 2025.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Morven sets sail – for a second time! Postgraduate psychological studies student Morven Reddy is no stranger to the Tall Ships Races. This summer she’ll be setting sail as a sail trainee, racing from Dunkirk in France to her home city of Aberdeen.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    Six years ago Morven journeyed from Aalborg, Denmark to Fredrikstad in Norway on the Lord Nelson

    Postgraduate psychological studies student Morven Reddy is no stranger to the Tall Ships Races. This summer she’ll be setting sail as a sail trainee, racing from Dunkirk in France to her home city of Aberdeen.
    But it’s not the first time at sea for Morven, who first took part in the Tall Ships Races in 2019 at just 17 years old.
    Six years ago she journeyed from Aalborg, Denmark to Fredrikstad in Norway on the Lord Nelson.
    Morven explains: “I loved doing Tall Ships in 2019. It was an experience like no other with people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds coming together to race a variety of unique vessels.
    “I originally found out about the Tall Ships Races when I was seeking sailing experience as it was a childhood dream of mine to join the Royal Navy. I knew from the moment I disembarked the Lord Nelson that it was something I would love to do again if I ever had the chance.
    “In 2021, when I was finishing my sixth year exams I was diagnosed with a blood cancer, which prevents me from joining the Royal Navy, but I promised myself that when I finished chemotherapy I would find other ways to get out onto the ocean and hopefully do the Tall Ships Race again.
    “When I first saw the Aberdeenshire Council adverts for applying to become a sail trainee this year, I applied without a second thought and I am so grateful I was one of the 200 odd that were chosen to participate.”
    This summer Morven will be onboard the 54 metre A Class Gulden Leeuw in a race expected to take six days, a prospect about which she says she is “beyond excited”.
    She continues: “I am looking forward to sailing on the Gulden Leeuw as she is one of the world’s largest three-mast-topsail schooners and was used as training ship for a Danish nautical college which means she will be a great vessel for racing on.
    “I am very excited and proud to be sailing into my hometown of Aberdeen. I am looking forward to being able to wave at my family and friends in the crowd as we sail in.

    The opportunity to participate in the Tall Ships Race 2025 is so unique that I know will help develop skills that I can use in every aspect of my life.” Postgraduate psychological studies student Morven Reddy

    “The training has gone well so far. I am lucky, having previously experienced a Tall Ships Race and have previous sailing experience, that I know what to expect which has been good to reassure some of my crewmates as many have never sailed before.
    “When we dock in Aberdeen I am looking forward to participating in the crew parade and competitions as they are always really fun and a great way to end such a special adventure. There will also be the prize giving ceremony as this event is a race to see who can go from Dunkirk to Aberdeen the fastest within each size category.”
    Having competed in the races before, Morven has a bit of a head start and knows what to expect. And while there was time to take in the unique setting on her last journey, Morven says it certainly wasn’t a pleasure cruise.
    “We do four-hour watches, so you’re on for four hours and then off for four hours which takes some getting used to. The worst one was midnight to 4am. You are assigned to a group and you have a Watch Master who oversees you.
    “Some watches you could be prepping food and setting tables for mealtimes, or you could be up on deck tidying ropes and putting stuff away. There might be things happening with the sails – it really depended what watches you’re on.
    “You might be on deck with whoever is at the helm, steering the boat and you’re basically watching all angles to make sure there aren’t any hazards around about you – such as other vessels or fishing lines. The weirdest story I heard was when someone came across a sofa floating in the middle of the ocean that they had to avoid!
    “At one point we were alongside submarines. They weren’t on the radar and we didn’t even know what country they belonged to!”
    With the countdown on, Morven is raring to go and make her second Tall Ships race another unforgettable experience.
    “The opportunity to participate in the Tall Ships Race 2025 is so unique that I know will help develop skills that I can use in every aspect of my life. Sailing in a race on any vessel, but even more so on a big ship like the Gulden Leeuw, requires discipline, teamwork, open and effective communication, constant problem-solving skills, comradery and organisation.
    “As I discovered in 2019, this is truly a life changing experience which will allow people to see their true potential whilst building some amazing friendships. I met some amazing people in 2019 from all sorts of different backgrounds and I am still in touch with some of them today. It’s so unique it’s hard to put into words, but I am incredibly excited and grateful that I get the opportunity to do it again.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI: Ambow and University of the West Partner to Expand Global Access to U.S. Higher Education Through the HybriU Phygital Innovation Platform

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CUPERTINO, Calif., June 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ambow Education Holding Ltd. (NYSE American: AMBO), a global leader in EdTech and AI-driven phygital innovation, today announced a new partnership with University of the West (“UWest”) to expand access to U.S.-based higher education for international students through HybriU Education, Ambow’s comprehensive phygital (physical + digital) learning solution.

    Through this partnership, UWest will utilize Ambow’s all-in-one HybriU technology platform to deliver real-time courses directly from its U.S. campus. The platform enables seamless interaction and collaboration between faculty, on-site classroom learners, and remote students around the world. The partnership enhances UWest’s ability to serve a broad global student base and continue to enroll international students who may be unable to travel to the U.S. due to travel or visa-related challenges, while maintaining academic continuity and student support standards. 

    “UWest shares our vision of inclusive, borderless education,” said Dr. Jin Huang, CEO of Ambow Education. “Together, we’re empowering students worldwide to begin their academic journey without delays caused by visa restrictions—offering the same rigorous curriculum and fully accredited outcomes as their peers on campus.”

    HybriU goes beyond traditional video classrooms by combining lecture capture, connectivity, AI, 3D immersive technology, and teaching evaluation into one plug-and-play platform. This allows instructors to focus on teaching, while AI manages the technology in the background.

    With HybriU, physical classrooms are transformed into connected spaces that seamlessly integrate on-site and remote learners. The platform replaces outdated e-learning tools and smart classrooms, offering remote students an experience that closely mirrors being physically present. Features such as real-time multilingual interaction, AI-powered adaptive instruction, and learning analytics enhance engagement and make education more flexible, personalized, and scalable.

    University of the West, located in Rosemead, California, is a private, nonprofit university recognized for its values-driven approach to whole-person education. With a commitment to intercultural understanding and global engagement, UWest prepares students for success in today’s dynamic and interconnected world.

    International students make up a significant part of UWest’s student population. By integrating the HybriU platform into its instructional model, the university can better support remote learners and expand its global reach.

    About Ambow

    Ambow Education Holding Ltd. is a U.S.-based, AI-driven technology company offering phygital (physical + digital) innovation for education, corporate conferencing and live events. Through its flagship platform, HybriU, Ambow is shaping the future of learning, collaboration and communication—delivering immersive, intelligent, real-time experiences across industries. For more information, visit Ambow’s corporate website at https://www.ambow.com/.

    Follow us on X: @Ambow_Education
    Follow us on LinkedIn: Ambow-education-group

    Safe Harbor Statement

    This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “estimates” and similar statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about Ambow and the industry. All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof, and Ambow undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although Ambow believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that its expectations will turn out to be correct, and investors are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.

    For more information, please contact:

    Ambow Education Holding Ltd.
    E-mail: ir@ambow.com
    or
    Piacente Financial Communications
    Tel: +1 212 481 2050
    E-mail: ambow@tpg-ir.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Ambow and University of the West Partner to Expand Global Access to U.S. Higher Education Through the HybriU Phygital Innovation Platform

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CUPERTINO, Calif., June 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ambow Education Holding Ltd. (NYSE American: AMBO), a global leader in EdTech and AI-driven phygital innovation, today announced a new partnership with University of the West (“UWest”) to expand access to U.S.-based higher education for international students through HybriU Education, Ambow’s comprehensive phygital (physical + digital) learning solution.

    Through this partnership, UWest will utilize Ambow’s all-in-one HybriU technology platform to deliver real-time courses directly from its U.S. campus. The platform enables seamless interaction and collaboration between faculty, on-site classroom learners, and remote students around the world. The partnership enhances UWest’s ability to serve a broad global student base and continue to enroll international students who may be unable to travel to the U.S. due to travel or visa-related challenges, while maintaining academic continuity and student support standards. 

    “UWest shares our vision of inclusive, borderless education,” said Dr. Jin Huang, CEO of Ambow Education. “Together, we’re empowering students worldwide to begin their academic journey without delays caused by visa restrictions—offering the same rigorous curriculum and fully accredited outcomes as their peers on campus.”

    HybriU goes beyond traditional video classrooms by combining lecture capture, connectivity, AI, 3D immersive technology, and teaching evaluation into one plug-and-play platform. This allows instructors to focus on teaching, while AI manages the technology in the background.

    With HybriU, physical classrooms are transformed into connected spaces that seamlessly integrate on-site and remote learners. The platform replaces outdated e-learning tools and smart classrooms, offering remote students an experience that closely mirrors being physically present. Features such as real-time multilingual interaction, AI-powered adaptive instruction, and learning analytics enhance engagement and make education more flexible, personalized, and scalable.

    University of the West, located in Rosemead, California, is a private, nonprofit university recognized for its values-driven approach to whole-person education. With a commitment to intercultural understanding and global engagement, UWest prepares students for success in today’s dynamic and interconnected world.

    International students make up a significant part of UWest’s student population. By integrating the HybriU platform into its instructional model, the university can better support remote learners and expand its global reach.

    About Ambow

    Ambow Education Holding Ltd. is a U.S.-based, AI-driven technology company offering phygital (physical + digital) innovation for education, corporate conferencing and live events. Through its flagship platform, HybriU, Ambow is shaping the future of learning, collaboration and communication—delivering immersive, intelligent, real-time experiences across industries. For more information, visit Ambow’s corporate website at https://www.ambow.com/.

    Follow us on X: @Ambow_Education
    Follow us on LinkedIn: Ambow-education-group

    Safe Harbor Statement

    This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “estimates” and similar statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about Ambow and the industry. All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof, and Ambow undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although Ambow believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that its expectations will turn out to be correct, and investors are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.

    For more information, please contact:

    Ambow Education Holding Ltd.
    E-mail: ir@ambow.com
    or
    Piacente Financial Communications
    Tel: +1 212 481 2050
    E-mail: ambow@tpg-ir.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: African Economic Outlook: African Development Bank to Launch 2025 Country Focus Reports in 13 Southern African countries

    Source: African Development Bank Group

    What?      2025 Country Focus Reports for Southern African countries

    Who?       The African Development Bank Group

    When?     Starting 27 June, with Eswatini

    Where?    State capitals across 13 countries

    The African Development Bank Group will launch the Country Focus Reports (CFRs) across 13 Southern African countries from June 27, 2025. These annual reports reflect the theme and analysis of the Bank’s flagship African Economic Outlook (AEO) at the country level, delivering critical economic analysis and policy options tailored to each of Africa’s 54 nations. The Theme of the AEO 2025 is: Making Africa’s Capital Work Better for Africa’s Development.

    The CFRs provide insights that contextualize continental economic trends within national frameworks, integrating country-specific priorities, challenges, and policy perspectives. In the context of 2025, marked by geopolitical tensions, post-crisis resilience, and climate urgency, these launches mark a strategic step to strengthen the Bank’s role in supporting Africa’s economic growth and dialogue with decision-makers.

    The Southern Africa launch series aims to maximize access to and the impact of these knowledge products by engaging directly with government officials, business leaders, and development stakeholders at the national level. Each launch will stimulate strategic discussions on leveraging report findings to inform critical policy decisions.

    Country Launch schedule

    The launch series featuring panel discussions on “Making Africa’s Capital Work Better for Africa’s Development” with a country-specific focus, will kick off on June 27, in Eswatini.

    S/N

    Country

    Date

    Time

    Venue

    1.

    Sao Tome and Principe

    20 June

    10am GMT

    University of Sao Tome and Principe

    2.

    Mozambique

    24 June

    10am (GMT +1)

    Banco Africano de Desenvolvimento
    Avenida Tenente Osvaldo Tazama e Marginal Torres Rani, 4o Andar, Maputo

    Zoom link: https://afdb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UZW43w-hQFGpLBvcYxiBvg

    3.

    Zambia

    25 June

    10 am (GMT +2)

    African Development Bank Group
    Banc ABC House, 746 Church Road
    Cathedral Hill,
    Ridgeway, Lusaka

    Zoom link: https://afdb.zoom.us/j/98084860790?pwd=n56ub8L1bZoINa4GdOroqFZnMeiSPX.1

    4

    Angola

    27 June

    9am (GMT+1

    University of Agostinho Neto, Faculty of Economics Auditorium

    5.

    Eswatini

    27 June

    9am

    The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel

    6.

    South Africa

    2 July

    10am (GMT+2)

    The Centurion Hotel- Trent Bridge Conference Room

    7.

    Zimbabwe

    2 July

    08am (GMT+2)

    African Development Bank                                                                      Block 5, Ground Floor, Arundel Office Park,Harare

    8.

    Malawi

    2 July

    10am (GMT+2)

    African Development Bank Group
    2nd Floor, Kang’ombe House, City Centre, Lilongwe

    9.

    Mauritius

    9 July

    10am (GMT+2)

    United Docks Conference Room, The Docks 1, United Docks Business Park,

    10.

    Botswana

    11 July

    TBC

    11.

    Lesotho

    14 July

    TBC

    12

    Namibia

    18 July

    9:30(GMT+2)

    13.

    Madagascar

    TBC

    TBC  

    Launch ceremonies will feature speeches by the African Development Bank’s Chief Economist and Vice President, Prof. Kevin Urama, as well as other senior Bank officials and ministers from the respective countries.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: African Economic Outlook: African Development Bank to Launch 2025 Country Focus Reports in 13 Southern African countries

    Source: African Development Bank Group

    What?      2025 Country Focus Reports for Southern African countries

    Who?       The African Development Bank Group

    When?     Starting 27 June, with Eswatini

    Where?    State capitals across 13 countries

    The African Development Bank Group will launch the Country Focus Reports (CFRs) across 13 Southern African countries from June 27, 2025. These annual reports reflect the theme and analysis of the Bank’s flagship African Economic Outlook (AEO) at the country level, delivering critical economic analysis and policy options tailored to each of Africa’s 54 nations. The Theme of the AEO 2025 is: Making Africa’s Capital Work Better for Africa’s Development.

    The CFRs provide insights that contextualize continental economic trends within national frameworks, integrating country-specific priorities, challenges, and policy perspectives. In the context of 2025, marked by geopolitical tensions, post-crisis resilience, and climate urgency, these launches mark a strategic step to strengthen the Bank’s role in supporting Africa’s economic growth and dialogue with decision-makers.

    The Southern Africa launch series aims to maximize access to and the impact of these knowledge products by engaging directly with government officials, business leaders, and development stakeholders at the national level. Each launch will stimulate strategic discussions on leveraging report findings to inform critical policy decisions.

    Country Launch schedule

    The launch series featuring panel discussions on “Making Africa’s Capital Work Better for Africa’s Development” with a country-specific focus, will kick off on June 27, in Eswatini.

    S/N

    Country

    Date

    Time

    Venue

    1.

    Sao Tome and Principe

    20 June

    10am GMT

    University of Sao Tome and Principe

    2.

    Mozambique

    24 June

    10am (GMT +1)

    Banco Africano de Desenvolvimento
    Avenida Tenente Osvaldo Tazama e Marginal Torres Rani, 4o Andar, Maputo

    Zoom link: https://afdb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UZW43w-hQFGpLBvcYxiBvg

    3.

    Zambia

    25 June

    10 am (GMT +2)

    African Development Bank Group
    Banc ABC House, 746 Church Road
    Cathedral Hill,
    Ridgeway, Lusaka

    Zoom link: https://afdb.zoom.us/j/98084860790?pwd=n56ub8L1bZoINa4GdOroqFZnMeiSPX.1

    4

    Angola

    27 June

    9am (GMT+1

    University of Agostinho Neto, Faculty of Economics Auditorium

    5.

    Eswatini

    27 June

    9am

    The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel

    6.

    South Africa

    2 July

    10am (GMT+2)

    The Centurion Hotel- Trent Bridge Conference Room

    7.

    Zimbabwe

    2 July

    08am (GMT+2)

    African Development Bank                                                                      Block 5, Ground Floor, Arundel Office Park,Harare

    8.

    Malawi

    2 July

    10am (GMT+2)

    African Development Bank Group
    2nd Floor, Kang’ombe House, City Centre, Lilongwe

    9.

    Mauritius

    9 July

    10am (GMT+2)

    United Docks Conference Room, The Docks 1, United Docks Business Park,

    10.

    Botswana

    11 July

    TBC

    11.

    Lesotho

    14 July

    TBC

    12

    Namibia

    18 July

    9:30(GMT+2)

    13.

    Madagascar

    TBC

    TBC  

    Launch ceremonies will feature speeches by the African Development Bank’s Chief Economist and Vice President, Prof. Kevin Urama, as well as other senior Bank officials and ministers from the respective countries.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Amid alarm over a US ‘autism registry’, people are using these tactics to avoid disability surveillance – podcast

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. caused controversy in April by promising to find the cause for autism by September. Claims by the new US secretary for health and human services that autism is a “preventable disease” with an environmental cause,  contradict a body of research that suggests autism is caused by a combination of genetic and external factors.

    The US government announced that to support the research effort into autism, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), would partner with Medicare and Medicaid to build a “data platform” involving data on claims, medical records and consumer wearables.

    When first announced this plan was dubbed an autism registry, though the government later denied that’s what it was creating, instead calling it a “ real-world platform” to allow researchers to study comprehensive data on people with autism.

    While the NIH defended the decision as “fully compliant with privacy and security laws”, autistic people and disability advocates are alarmed at the potential violations such a data platform could enable.

     In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to Amy Gaeta, a  research associate at the University of Cambridge in the UK who studies disability surveillance.

    Gaeta, who is American, explains that for over a century, disabled people have often been denied the right to privacy and been subjected to a sinister history of forced medical testing, forced sterilisation and various laws that criminalise mental illness. She says:

     I think this is why a lot of these everyday actions that disabled people do to resist surveillance don’t even come across as anti-surveillance. To them it just comes across as this is how I exist in the world.

    Gaeta talks us through some of the strategies people are using to avoid potential surveillance, from self-diagnosis, to withholding information or being careful with the language they use to describe themselves. Listen to our conversation with Gaeta on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

    This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Mixing and sound design by Eloise Stevens and theme music by Neeta Sarl.

    Newsclips in this episode from ABC News.

    Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. A transcript of this episode is available on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

    Amy Gaeta receives research funding from UKRI, a grant that is hosted at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence.

    – ref. Amid alarm over a US ‘autism registry’, people are using these tactics to avoid disability surveillance – podcast – https://theconversation.com/amid-alarm-over-a-us-autism-registry-people-are-using-these-tactics-to-avoid-disability-surveillance-podcast-259818

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Corporate Library Systems: Technologies and Innovations

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    On June 23-24, the Polytechnic University hosted the XXIII conference “Corporate Library Systems: Technologies and Innovations” – KorFor-2025. Participants included library managers and employees, IT specialists, suppliers of electronic databases and equipment for automating institutions.

    The conference has been held since 2001, with a break in 2020. This year, more than 250 people participated in person and 500 specialists online from Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Italy. Experts discussed the activities of university, public and departmental libraries. The work took place in the format of discussion panels, strategic and thematic sections.

    At the plenary session, the Director of the Information and Library Complex of SPbPU Alexander Plemnek spoke with a report “AI as a driver of the transformation of libraries and librarianship on the horizon until 2035.” He compared the development forecasts that he made at conferences five and ten years ago, showing that many have come true, and earlier than predicted. Alexander Plemnek paid attention to one of the innovations of AI in 2025 – autonomous agents that are able to act independently, without direct human control, to achieve their goals. They resemble digital employees.

    The integration of GenAI and autonomous agents doesn’t just add new tools to a librarian’s toolbox; it fundamentally redefines what a library is and what librarians do. The profession is at a crossroads, facing extraordinary opportunities for growth and innovation, said Alexander Plemnek.

    Professor Fabio Di Bello, Wiley Client Training Manager, spoke online with a report entitled “Expanding the Possibilities of Academic Librarianship: Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models, and the Future of Knowledge Management.” The expert demonstrated the capabilities of AI in translation. On the screen, a digital double of the speaker, who does not speak Russian, not only recited the text in literate Russian, but also reproduced facial expressions and phonetics of the language.

    The expert panel “From the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation to the implementation of the Concept of the federal project “Development of scientific and technical libraries”” became the most important event of the conference. It was attended by the acting Director General of the Russian State Public Library for Science and Technology Natalia Mikhalchenkova, Director of the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University Marina Karpova, Vice President of the Russian Library Association, Director of the Fundamental Library of the Herzen State Pedagogical University Natela Kvelidze-Kuznetsova, as well as representatives of other universities.

    Natalia Mikhalchenkova revealed the goals of the federal project aimed at transforming the state system of scientific and technical information to achieve technological leadership of the country. She focused on the project’s tasks in 2025 related to the creation of an up-to-date register of scientific and technical libraries subordinate to various ministries and departments, as well as the development of programs for improving the qualifications of librarians. Representatives of the universities of St. Petersburg and Kazan showed a variety of areas of development of university libraries dedicated to the collection, distribution and recording of scientific resources.

    Experts of the section “More than a library” presented a project for promoting and supporting the results of intellectual activity, new digital platforms for interaction with library services in 24/7/365 mode, spoke about events for creating educational video content, organizing a literary club and open lectures.

    The strategic session “Vectors of Development of Russian Discovery Systems: What Users Really Need” brought together developers of a modern domestic information search service that has replaced foreign systems, and representatives of universities that use it. A fruitful dialogue allowed us to see the progress over the first year of the system’s existence and discuss development directions based on the results of surveys of service users.

    Leading providers of scientific and educational databases shared their vision for the development of online resources and services for integration with university libraries.

    At the section “Electronic libraries, repositories, sites and applications” experts presented various options for electronic storage. For example, in the National Electronic Library of the Udmurt Republic – preservation of cultural heritage, in the repository of scientific data of SPbPU – various results of scientific research, including unpublished ones.

    The section “New library environment: developing vs. breaking traditions” showed different approaches to transforming libraries, from changing physical premises to introducing new virtual services, using AI assistants for readers and employees. Of particular interest was the report on projects for digital transformation of departmental library activities (using the Bank of Russia library as an example).

    At the round table “Practice of using the services of the SuperStat and FEDURUS projects in libraries,” a discussion was held on new forms of access to subscription resources based on a login and password, and the organization of collection and analysis of statistics on the use of online resources in an automated mode.

    The expert discussion “Acquisition and new regulatory documents: monitoring the situation, adapting to practice” concluded the conference program. Specialists from the National Library of Russia considered current issues related to the introduction of new regulatory documents that cause difficulties.

    On June 25, excursions were organized to the libraries of St. Petersburg, after which the participants became acquainted with the features of digital transformation in the libraries of the Republic of Karelia.

    An exhibition was held in the reading room of the IBC SPbPU, where one could get acquainted with the latest generation of book scanners from ELAR, which have improved the digitization and recognition of texts in many languages due to the introduction of AI, and test RFID equipment from various suppliers to optimize reader service.

    All speeches and presentations will be made publicly available. The conference materials will be posted in the Electronic Library of SPbPU and indexed in the Russian Science Citation Index.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: S for Housing attends Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research 2025 Conference at Tsinghua University (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    S for Housing attends Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research 2025 Conference at Tsinghua University  
         The APNHR is an international organisation focusing on housing issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference was held at Tsinghua University this year with the theme “Towards Resilience and Inclusivity: Adapting to Multifaceted Challenges in the Asia-Pacific Region”. The conference convened experts and scholars in the fields of architecture, urban planning, sociology, environmental studies, and others from the Asia-Pacific region to have in-depth exchanges on the housing development and challenges in the region, and to jointly explore ways to promote innovative housing construction and development directions. Participants included professors and students from Tsinghua University and relevant trade representatives.
    ???
         Ms Ho attended the roundtable session of the conference in the morning. She shared the opportunities and challenges in housing development faced by the Housing Bureau (HB) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA). She said that the current-term HKSAR Government has actively addressed Hong Kong’s housing problems since taking office, overcoming livelihood issues and addressing people’s concerns by identifying sites and enhancing the quantity, speed, efficiency and quality of public housing construction. The HB is working full steam ahead on implementing groundbreaking innovative policy initiatives, such as Light Public Housing (LPH) and Basic Housing Units, to tackle the “long-standing, big and difficult” issue that has plagued Hong Kong for many years and to provide the grassroots with options to improve their living environment and quality of life. The HKHA, established over 50 years ago, has long been providing affordable rental housing to low-income families with housing needs. It continuously enhances the housing ladder to help low- to middle-income families gain access to subsidised home ownership, encouraging them to move up the housing ladder and thus enhance people’s sense of contentment and happiness.
     
         Ms Ho said that Hong Kong, with its distinctive advantages of enjoying strong support from the motherland and being closely connected to the world, has leveraged the strengths of the Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in smart construction. The HB and the HKHA have been making use of various innovative construction technologies, such as Modular Integrated Construction (MiC), construction robots and smart project management platforms, to enhance construction efficiency and build LPH expeditiously, so as to improve the living conditions of those who are inadequately housed as soon as possible.
     
         She also introduced at the conference the “Well-being design” guide launched by the HB and the HKHA last year. It covers eight well-being concepts, namely “Health & Vitality”, “Green Living and Sustainability”, “Age-Friendliness”, “Intergenerational & Inclusive Living”, “Family & Community Connection”, “Urban Integration”, “Upward Mobility” and “Perception & Image”. The guide serves as a reference for the future design of new public housing and the improvement works of existing public rental housing estates, with a view to creating a more comfortable and vibrant living environment for public housing tenants. Apart from housing construction, the HKHA has also continued to enhance management efficiency and service quality of its nearly 200 public rental housing estates by actively promoting smart estate management and introducing new technologies to optimise estate management and building maintenance services, to provide a better living environment for its residents.
     
         In the afternoon, Ms Ho visited the Qingtangwan public rental housing project in Beijing. This project is a green residential area that adopted the use of prefabricated components and environmental monitoring platforms, among others, that facilitate energy saving and decarbonisation and promote a low-carbon lifestyle. It also implements smart community management through community apps. This is in line with the HKHA’s direction of promoting smart estate management through innovative technologies, which is of reference value to Hong Kong.
     
         Afterwards, Ms Ho met with the Deputy Director-General of the Bureau of International Cooperation of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, Mr Xie Hui, to exchange views on housing design and planning. She also shared the adoption of advanced construction technologies from the Mainland in Hong Kong and the outcomes. She mentioned that this year, under the Housing•I&T initiative, the HB will organise a series of activities and visits, including an international symposium to be held in Hong Kong in November, to showcase to the world the latest developments of construction technologies in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The HB will fully capitalise on Hong Kong’s unique advantages of connecting with both the Mainland and the rest of the world and play the role of a “super connector” and a “super value-adder”. She expressed hope that friends from around the world could attend the symposium to be hosted by Hong Kong at the end of this year.
     
         Yesterday (June 25), Ms Ho visited the Better House Living Tech Lab and was briefed on the practice of combining housing design concepts of quality homes and technologies on the Mainland. Some examples are the installation of age-friendly facilities such as handrails and sensor lights, and the External Wall Three-Axis Surveillance System for monitoring the old exterior walls’ stability, to create a safe and eco-friendly smart living environment.
     
         Ms Ho will continue her visit to Beijing tomorrow (June 27) before returning to Hong Kong.
    Issued at HKT 18:09

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Hearings – Hearing on the ICJ and ICC decisions on Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the EU role – 15-07-2025 – Committee on Foreign Affairs

    Source: European Parliament

    AFET hearing on the ICJ and ICC.jpeg © Image used under license from Adobe Stock

    On Tuesday, 15 July 2025, from 11:00 to 12:30 in Brussels (room Antall 2Q2), the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) will hold a public hearing on the implications of the decisions of the ICJ and ICC on the EU’s role in supporting a peaceful solution for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This hearing intends to clarify the overall situation and to provide both legal and political insights in the search for constructive EU positions on the matter.

    The experts invited are Gleider Hernández, Professor of Public International Law, KU Leuven and Michael Meier, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) and Associate Fellow. Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: HSE neurolinguists have found out which apps are best for helping to restore speech

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

    Scientists Center of Language and Brain HSE University has identified factors that make digital rehabilitation applications for patients with aphasia more effective. Feedback, a variety of game tasks, a long period of rehabilitation and constant contact with the attending physician were found to be the most important for restoring speech function. Articlepublishedin the journal NeuroRehabilitation.

    Aphasia is a disorder in which there is a complete or partial loss of the ability to speak and perceive the speech of others, which is associated with damage to the areas of the brain responsible for speech functions. The main causes of aphasia are stroke, traumatic brain injury, inflammatory diseases of the brain, brain tumors, dementia.

    Aphasia significantly reduces the quality of human life, so scientists have long been looking for effective methods to restore speech function. With the spread of smartphones and tablets, another promising and rapidly developing area of rehabilitation has emerged – “serious games” (SG) in applications.

    This is a special type of digital games that are created not only for entertainment, but also to achieve specific educational, training or research goals. In the field of education, they help in the professional training of specialists, teaching students, and learning foreign languages. In healthcare, such games are used in the rehabilitation of patients.

    With the help of applications, a person with aphasia can perform speech training tasks and gradually restore the lost ability. The effectiveness of such applications has already been proven, but it remained unclear what tasks and functions should be included in the applications and how long to work with them in order to achieve maximum success.

    Scientists from the HSE Center for Language and Brain studied the PubMed and ScienceDirect databases and selected 18 articles devoted to testing mobile and computer applications for rehabilitation in aphasia.

    The researchers paid special attention to situations where training led to greater results. For example, a patient trained in naming 100 words, but improved in naming 150 words, or was able to use the learned words not only in oral speech, but also in writing. Sometimes the use of smart games led to the development of related skills: for example, a person trained speech, but improved attention.

    Fourteen out of 18 articles (78%) noted that patients’ use of the app had a positive effect. Most studies proved the app’s effectiveness by the primary criteria: exactly what was trained improved. And eight articles (44%) reported that the results exceeded expectations. Most often, the person could use the trained word in other contexts, such as in writing. In addition, two articles described improvements in other higher mental functions.

    As the analysis showed, the efficiency of the applications was influenced by such factors as automatic feedback, variety of game tasks used in training, long periods of treatment, and patient-doctor interaction. The last point is especially important, since rehabilitation therapists additionally motivate the person and evaluate intermediate results.

    “In our center, we are working on creating a game for the rehabilitation of patients with aphasia. A review of the research will help test it in the most effective mode, implement the functions necessary for successful operation. Existing applications often have few gamification elements; in fact, they are electronic collections of exercises. We will try to correct this shortcoming in order to increase user engagement,” said Georgy Gorshkov, a junior research fellow at the HSE Center for Language and Brain.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Wang Yi met with Harvard University professor G. Allison

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) — Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, met with Harvard University professor Graham Allison in Beijing on Wednesday.

    During the meeting, Wang Yi noted that the Chinese adhere to the concept of “harmony without uniformity,” which is fundamentally different from Western thinking in the spirit of “zero-sum games” and implies harmonious coexistence based on recognition and respect for mutual differences, the formation and expansion of common interests between countries.

    What China and the United States need to do now is build a new narrative that will govern future interactions between the two major powers, he said.

    Wang Yi said the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation proposed by President Xi Jinping serve as the fundamental guideline for China in its relations with the United States. He hoped that the U.S. side would work with China to resolve the fundamental issue of mutual perception, so as to set the tone for bilateral relations and find the right path of coexistence under the guidance of the three principles.

    “We hope that clear-minded people in American society will play an active role in shaping an objective and positive perception of China in the country and promoting normal exchanges between the two countries,” Wang added.

    G. Allison, in turn, noted that the concept of “harmony without uniformity” has in common with respect for diversity, which is valued in the United States, and both sides must find strategic positioning for coexistence in order to avoid falling into the “Thucydides trap.”

    The United States and China should establish a new principled framework for the future development of bilateral relations, taking mutual respect as a possible primary principle, the professor said. He expressed his willingness to make new contributions to promoting contacts and exchanges between the two sides and ensuring the stable development of interstate relations. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Superjob Rating: GUU Among the Best in Graduates’ Salaries in the Field of Economics

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

    Superjob has published a ranking of the best Russian universities by the salary level of graduates from 2019 to 2024. The State University of Management retained its 8th place in the ranking, sharing it with RUDN University.

    According to the rating, the average salary of a graduate of our university is 130,000 rubles per month, which is 5,000 rubles higher than last year’s figure.

    We also retained our leadership in the number of graduates who found employment in Moscow after completing their studies: this figure was 90%.

    Let us recall that earlier GUU took 11th and 13th places in the first National Ranking of Graduate Employment for employment of bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates, respectively, in the field of “Sciences about Society”, and also entered the top 10 best economic universities in Moscow according to RIA Novosti and the top 100 best universities in Russia according to RAEX.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: There’s gold trapped in your iPhone – and chemists have found a safe new way to extract it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin M. Chalker, Professor of Chemistry, Flinders University

    A sample of refined gold recovered from mining and e-waste recycling trials. Justin Chalker

    In 2022, humans produced an estimated 62 million tonnes of electronic waste – enough to fill more than 1.5 million garbage trucks. This was up 82% from 2010 and is expected to rise to 82 million tonnes in 2030.

    This e-waste includes old laptops and phones, which contain precious materials such as gold. Less than one quarter of it is properly collected and recycled. But a new technique colleagues and I have developed to safely and sustainably extract gold from e-waste could help change that.

    Our new gold-extraction technique, which we describe in a new paper published today in Nature Sustainability, could also make small-scale gold mining less poisonous for people – and the planet.

    Soaring global demand

    Gold has long played a crucial role in human life. It has been a form of currency and a medium for art and fashion for centuries. Gold is also essential in modern industries including the electronics, chemical manufacture and aerospace sectors.

    But while global demand for this precious metal is soaring, mining it is harmful to the environment.

    Deforestation and use of toxic chemicals are two such problems. In formal, large-scale mining, highly toxic cyanide is widely used to extract gold from ore. While cyanide can be degraded, its use can cause harm to wildlife, and tailings dams which store the toxic byproducts of mining operations pose a risk to the wider environment.

    In small-scale and artisanal mining, mercury is used extensively to extract gold. In this practice, the gold reacts with mercury to form a dense amalgam that can be easily isolated. The gold is then recovered by heating the amalgam to vaporise the mercury.

    Small-scale and artisanal mining is the largest source of mercury pollution on Earth, and the mercury emissions are dangerous to the miners and pollute the environment. New methods are required to reduce the impacts of gold mining.

    In 2022, humans produced an estimated 62 million tonnes of electronic waste.
    DAMRONG RATTANAPONG/Shutterstock

    A safer alternative

    Our interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers has developed a new technique to extract gold from ore and e-waste. The aim was to provide a safer alternative to mercury and cyanide and reduce the health and environmental impacts of gold mining.

    Many techniques have previously been reported for extracting gold from ore or e-waste, including mercury- and cyanide-free methods. However, many of these methods are limited in rate, yield, scale and cost. Often these methods also consider only one step in the entire gold recovery process, and recycling and waste management is often neglected.

    In contrast, our approach considered sustainability throughout the whole process of gold extraction, recovery and refining. Our new leaching technology uses a chemical commonly used in water sanitation and pool chlorination: trichloroisocyanuric acid.

    When this widely available and low-cost chemical is activated with salt water, it can react with gold and convert it into a water-soluble form.

    To recover the gold from the solution, we invented a sulphur-rich polymer sorbent. Polymer sorbents isolate a certain substance from a liquid or gas, and ours is made by joining a key building block (a monomer) together through a chain reaction.

    Our polymer sorbent is interesting because it is derived from elemental sulphur: a low-cost and highly abundant feedstock. The petroleum sector generates more sulphur than it can use or sell, so our polymer synthesis is a new use for this underused resource.

    Our polymer could selectively bind and remove gold from the solution, even when many other types of metals were present in the mixture.

    The simple leaching and recovery methods were demonstrated on ore, circuit boards from obsolete computers and scientific waste. Importantly, we also developed methods to regenerate and recycle both the leaching chemical and the polymer sorbent. We also established methods to purify and recycle the water used in the process.

    In developing the recyclable polymer sorbent, we invented some exciting new chemistry to make the polymer using light, and then “un-make” the sorbent after it bound gold. This recycling method converted the polymer back to its original monomer building block and separated it from the gold.

    The recovered monomer could then be re-made into the gold-binding polymer: an important demonstration of how the process is aligned with a circular economy.

    A long and complex road ahead

    In future work, we plan to collaborate with industry, government and not-for-profit groups to test our method in small-scale mining operations. Our long-term aim is to provide a robust and safe method for extracting gold, eliminating the need for highly toxic chemicals such as cyanide and mercury.

    There will be many challenges to overcome including scaling up the production of the polymer sorbent and the chemical recycling processes. For uptake, we also need to ensure that the rate, yield and cost are competitive with more traditional methods of gold mining. Our preliminary results are encouraging. But there is still a long and complex road ahead before our new techniques replace cyanide and mercury.

    Our broader motivation is to support the livelihood of the millions of artisanal and small-scale miners that rely on mercury to recover gold.

    They typically operate in remote and rural regions with few other economic opportunities. Our goal is to support these miners economically while offering safer alternatives to mercury. Likewise, the rise of “urban mining” and e-waste recycling would benefit from safer and operationally simple methods for precious metal recovery.

    Success in recovering gold from e-waste will also reduce the need for primary mining and therefore lessen its environmental impact.

    Justin M. Chalker is an inventor on patents associated with the gold leaching and recovery technology. Both patents are wholly owned by Flinders University. This research was supported financially by the Australian Research Council and Flinders University. He has an ongoing collaboration with Mercury Free Mining and Adelaide Control Engineering: organisations that supported the developments and trials reported in this study.

    – ref. There’s gold trapped in your iPhone – and chemists have found a safe new way to extract it – https://theconversation.com/theres-gold-trapped-in-your-iphone-and-chemists-have-found-a-safe-new-way-to-extract-it-259817

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: New Development Bank appoints Tshepiso Moahloli as regional DG

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    The New Development Bank (NDB) has appointed Tshepiso Moahloli as the new Africa Regional Centre (ARC) Director-General, following an international competitive recruitment process. 

    Moahloli’s appointment took effect on 20 June 2025. 

    Moahloli’s role will entail managing the Bank’s African regional operations and leading the African continent, with a focus on project origination, preparation, and implementation supervision. She will also serve as a primary interface between the NDB and key project stakeholders in the region.

    The NDB is celebrating 10 years of operations this year. Since its inception in 2015, the Bank has approved 15 infrastructure projects in South Africa, valued at a total of US$7.3 billion. 

    These projects focus on addressing crucial infrastructure needs in sectors sincluding water, energy, transport and logistics networks.

    “Moahloli is a former National Treasury Deputy Director-General (DDG) for Asset and Liability Management and has amassed more than a decade of experience in the National Treasury providing operational and strategic leadership in Debt Management, Risk Management and Stakeholder Relations.

    “Prior to this appointment, Moahloli provided consulting services on various projects related to public debt, climate financing and broad infrastructure development. Moahloli provided strategic expertise at the newly formed Oman Debt Management Office,” National Treasury said.

    In partnership with the World Bank, she has also provided consulting support for the NDB in mapping out requisite reforms in infrastructure delivery for the National Treasury.

    Moahloli holds a Master of Business Administration in Executive Management from the University of Cape Town, and a Master of Commerce Economic Science (with Distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand.

    National Treasury Director-General, Dr Duncan Pieterse, who is also South Africa’s representative on the NDB Board of Directors, wishes Moahloli well in her new role as she leads the expansion of the NDB Project Portfolio in South Africa and the broader African region for greater development impact. –SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – Golden opportunity to remove toxic waste and recover precious metal

    Source: Flinders University

    Jackpot! Gold from e-waste opens a rich vein for miners and the environment – An interdisciplinary team of experts in green chemistry, engineering and physics at Flinders University has developed a safer and more sustainable approach to extract and recover gold from ore and electronic waste.

    Explained in the leading journal Nature Sustainability, the gold-extraction technique promises to reduce levels of toxic waste from mining and shows that high purity gold can be recovered from recycling valuable components in printed circuit boards in discarded computers.

    The project team, led by Matthew Flinders Professor Justin Chalker, applied this integrated method for high-yield gold extraction from many sources – even recovering trace gold found in scientific waste streams.

    The progress toward safer and more sustainable gold recovery was demonstrated for electronic waste, mixed-metal waste, and ore concentrates.

    “The study featured many innovations including a new and recyclable leaching reagent derived from a compound used to disinfect water,” says Professor of Chemistry Justin Chalker, who leads the Chalker Lab at Flinders University’s College of Science and Engineering.

    “The team also developed an entirely new way to make the polymer sorbent, or the material that binds the gold after extraction into water, using light to initiate the key reaction.”

    Extensive investigation into the mechanisms, scope and limitations of the methods are reported in the new study, and the team now plans to work with mining and e-waste recycling operations to trial the method on a larger scale.

    “The aim is to provide effective gold recovery methods that support the many uses of gold, while lessening the impact on the environment and human health,” says Professor Chalker.

    The new process uses a low-cost and benign compound to extract the gold. This reagent (trichloroisocyanuric acid) is widely used in water sanitation and disinfection. When activated by salt water, the reagent can dissolve gold.

    Next, the gold can be selectively bound to a novel sulfur-rich polymer developed by the Flinders team. The selectivity of the polymer allows gold recovery even in highly complex mixtures.

    The gold can then be recovered by triggering the polymer to “un-make” itself and convert back to monomer. This allows the gold to be recovered and the polymer to be recycled and re-used.

    Global demand for gold is driven by its high economic and monetary value but is also a vital element in electronics, medicine, aerospace technologies and other products and industries. However, mining the previous metal can involve the use of highly toxic substances such as cyanide and mercury for gold extraction – and other negative environmental impacts on water, air and land including CO2 emissions and deforestation.

    The aim of the Flinders-led project was to provide alternative methods that are safer than mercury or cyanide in gold extraction and recovery.

    The team also collaborated with experts in the US and Peru to validate the method on ore, in an effort to support small-scale mines that otherwise rely on toxic mercury to amalgamate gold.

    Gold mining typically uses highly toxic cyanide to extract gold from ore, with risks to the wildlife and the broader environment if it is not contained properly. Artisanal and small-scale gold mines still use mercury to amalgamate gold. Unfortunately, the use of mercury in gold mining is one of the largest sources of mercury pollution on Earth.

    Professor Chalker says interdisciplinary research collaborations with industry and environmental groups will help to address highly complex problems that support the economy and the environment.

    “We are especially grateful to our engineering, mining, and philanthropic partners for supporting translation of laboratory discoveries to larger scale demonstrations of the gold recovery techniques.”

    Lead authors of the major new study – Flinders University postdoctoral research associates Dr Max Mann, Dr Thomas Nicholls, Dr Harshal Patel and Dr Lynn Lisboa – extensively tested the new technique on piles of electronic waste, with the aim of finding more sustainable, circular economy solutions to make better use of ever-more-scarce resources in the world. Many components of electronic waste, such as computer processing units and RAM cards, contain valuable metals such as gold and copper.

    Dr Mann says: “This paper shows that interdisciplinary collaborations are needed to address the world’s big problems managing the growing stockpiles of e-waste.”

    ARC DECRA Fellow Dr Nicholls, adds: “The newly developed gold sorbent is made using a sustainable approach in which UV light is used to make the sulfur-rich polymer. Then, recycling the polymer after the gold has been recovered further increases the green credentials of this method.”

    Dr Patel says: “We dived into a mound of e-waste and climbed out with a block of gold! I hope this research inspires impactful solutions to pressing global challenges.”

    “With the ever-growing technological and societal demand for gold, it is increasingly important to develop safe and versatile methods to purify gold from varying sources,” Dr Lisboa concludes.

     

    The article, Sustainable gold extraction from ore and electronic waste (2025) by Maximilian Mann, Thomas P Nicholls, Harshal D Patel, Lynn S Lisboa, Jasmine MM Pople, Le Nhan Pham, Max JH Worthington, Matthew R Smith, Yanting Yin, Gunther G Andersson, Christopher T Gibson, Louisa J Esdaile, Claire E Lenehan, Michelle L Coote, Zhongfan Jia and Justin M Chalker has been published in Nature Sustainability. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01586-w


    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01586-w

     

    Funding: The project was supported by generous funding from the Australian Research Council including Fellowships, Discovery Grants and Linkage Projects spanning 2015 to 2025 (DE150101863, DP200100090, DP21010002, DP230100587, LP200301660, LP200301661, FT220100054, and DE250100525). Additional funding was provided by a 2024 Flinders University High Impact Collaboration Grant.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: World Solar Challenge 2025: Gebrüder Weiss and ETH Zurich students team up again

    Source: Gebrüder Weiss 

    Gebrüder Weiss is once again the a Centauri Solar Racing Team’s logistics partner / Branches in Zurich, Wolfurt, and Adelaide ensure seamless transport of the custom-built solar-powered racing car.

    Wolfurt, June 26, 2025. Logistics company Gebrüder Weiss is once again supporting the students of the a Centauri Solar Racing Team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich as they travel to Australia for the World Solar Challenge 2025. At this year’s international solar vehicle race, the Swiss students are aiming to improve on their 12th place debut result from 2023, having developed a vehicle with improved aerodynamics and a larger solar surface area. To ensure that everything runs smoothly before the race begins in Darwin on August 24, the team has once again entrusted Gebrüder Weiss with the complex transport.

    “We are delighted to be accompanying the aCentauri team from ETH Zurich again this year. Such collaborations are in line with our understanding of partnership: long-term, trusting, and focused on a sustainable future for mobility,” explains Frank Haas, Head of Communications at Gebrüder Weiss. “The students already demonstrated in 2023 that solar mobility works, and we wish them every success in reaching the top ten.”

    The technical equipment was shipped to Australia by sea freight back in May. Now, the vehicle itself is embarking on its journey by air freight, after a live presentation at the Gebrüder Weiss location in Wolfurt. After completing a final test drive in front of press representatives, the vehicle was prepared for air transport at the IATA-certified terminal.

    Certification from the IATA (International Air Transport Association) means that the Air & Sea Terminal at Wolfurt is an officially recognized air freight terminal where shipments can be prepared for air transport in accordance with IATA standards – including special packaging, security checks, and all required inspection processes. The flight will then depart for Australia via Frankfurt Airport without any intermediate steps.

    Upon arrival in Australia, the logistics experts at the new Gebrüder Weiss location in Adelaide will take charge of the next stage of the process: They will coordinate the import formalities and transport to the University of Adelaide.

    The World Solar Challenge starts on August 24, 2025, and covers 3,000 kilometers across the Australian outback. First held in 1987, the race promotes innovation in the areas of sustainable mobility and renewable energies.

    As a company with a history spanning over 500 years, Gebrüder Weiss is eager to play an active role in shaping the future of mobility. Since 2021, the company has been involved in relevant projects, working closely with universities, research teams, and start-ups. In addition to logistics, Gebrüder Weiss promotes exchange between project partners and raises the profile of forward-thinking ideas. The aim is to implement new technologies at an early stage.

    Further background information on the projects can be found at: https://www.gw-world.com/company/sustainability/future-of-mobility, or via the logistics company’s social media channels.

    About Gebrüder Weiss

    Gebrüder Weiss Holding AG, based in Lauterach, Austria, is a globally operative full-service logistics provider with about 8,600 employees at 180 company-owned locations. The company generated revenues of 2.71 billion euros in 2024. Its portfolio encompasses transport and logistics solutions, digital services, and supply chain management. The twin strengths of digital and physical competence enable Gebrüder Weiss to respond swiftly and flexibly to customers’ needs. The family-run organization – with a history going back more than half a millennium – has implemented a wide variety of environmental, economic, and social initiatives. Today, it is also considered a pioneer in sustainable business practices. www.gw-world.com

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Universities – Study offers hope for healing from spinal cord injuries – UoA
    Source: University of Auckland (UoA)

    Spinal cord injuries are currently incurable, with devastating effects on people’s lives, but now a trial at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland offers hope for an effective treatment.

    Spinal cord injuries are currently incurable with devastating effects on people’s lives, but now a trial at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland offers hope for an effective treatment.

    Spinal cord injuries shatter the signal between the brain and body, often resulting in a loss of function.
    “Unlike a cut on the skin, which typically heals on its own, the spinal cord does not regenerate effectively, making these injuries devastating and currently incurable,” says lead researcher Dr Bruce Harland, a senior research fellow in the School of Pharmacy at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

    Before birth, and to a lesser extent afterwards, naturally occurring electric fields play a vital role in early nervous system development, encouraging and guiding the growth of nerve tissue along the spinal cord.

    Scientists are now harnessing this same electrical guidance system in the lab.

    An implantable electronic device has restored movement following spinal cord injury in an animal study, raising hopes for an effective treatment for humans and even their pets.

    “We developed an ultra-thin implant designed to sit directly on the spinal cord, precisely positioned over the injury site in rats,” Dr Harland says.

    The device delivers a carefully controlled electrical current across the injury site.

    “The aim is to stimulate healing so people can recover functions lost through spinal-cord injury,” Professor Darren Svirskis, director of the CatWalk Cure Programme at the University’s School of Pharmacy says, “Unlike humans, rats have a greater capacity for spontaneous recovery after spinal cord injury, which allowed researchers to compare natural healing with healing supported by electrical stimulation.

    After four weeks, animals that received daily electric field treatment showed improved movement compared with those who did not.

    Throughout the 12-week study, they responded more quickly to gentle touch.

    “This indicates that the treatment supported recovery of both movement and sensation,” Harland says.

    “Just as importantly, our analysis confirmed that the treatment did not cause inflammation or other damage to the spinal cord, demonstrating that it was not only effective but also safe.”

    This new study, published in a leading journal, has come out of a partnership between the University of Auckland and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. See Nature Communications [live 9pm 26 June].

    “Long term, the goal is to transform this technology into a medical device that could benefit people living with these life-changing spinal-cord injuries,” says Professor Maria Asplund of Chalmers University of Technology.

    “This study offers an exciting proof of concept showing that electric field treatment can support recovery after spinal cord injury,” says doctoral student Lukas Matter, also from Chalmers University.
    The next step is to explore how different doses, including the strength, frequency, and duration of the treatment, affect recovery, to discover the most effective recipe for spinal-cord repair.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China’s green energy solution powers sustainability while combating desertification

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    China’s green energy solution powers sustainability while combating desertification

    This photo shows the Tiger Neo N-type solar panels with a capacity of 100 MW provided by JinkoSolar for the photovoltaic sand control project in Alashan League, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Photo provided by JinkoSolar)

    China is leveraging its vast desert regions to develop large-scale solar and wind power bases that not only generate clean energy but also play a vital role in reversing desertification, offering a replicable model for global sustainable development.

    At the 2025 Summer Davos Forum held in Tianjin, Qian Jing, global vice president of JinkoSolar, a global leading PV supplier, shared insights into how China’s photovoltaic (PV) projects are transforming arid zones into renewable energy hubs. The presentation drew strong interest from international delegates.

    Known collectively as “Shagehuang,” a Chinese term referring to deserts, gobi, and barren lands, these regions feature abundant sunlight and minimal rainfall — conditions ideal for solar power. However, they are also among the most severely desertified regions in the world.

    China has undertaken extensive ecological restoration projects in these areas. Over 53 percent of treatable desertified land is now under effective control, thanks to integrated efforts such as afforestation, rotational grazing, and PV-driven land rehabilitation.

    By 2030, the total installed capacity of these projects is expected to reach 455 GW — equivalent to the output of 20 Three Gorges Hydropower Station.

    Integrating massive renewables into the grid will transmit clean energy from Gobi Desert bases to remote consumption centers 2,000-3,000 km away, said Pang Xiaogang, general manager of State Grid Corporation of China at the Summer Davos.

    “In these regions, solar plants are being integrated with water-saving solutions like PV-powered pumps and desalination systems,” said Qian. “This helps tackle both energy and water shortages in harsh desert environments.”

    “Mongolia, with its vast underutilized solar potential, could benefit greatly from China’s experience,” said Battushig Myanganbayar, founder and CEO of Implicit AI Inc., after attending the forum. “Partnering with China could help transform the desert in Mongolia into a clean energy hub.”

    Hu Min, executive director of the Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress, noted that China’s systemic model — combining PV deployment with infrastructure, land use, and energy storage — offers valuable insights for other countries pursuing green development.

    Professor Xue Yongji of Beijing Forestry University added that building large-scale renewable energy projects in desert areas promotes synergy among green power generation, ecological restoration, and sustainable agriculture.

    “These efforts support China’s carbon goals while creating new green growth engines in arid regions,” Xue said. “It is a practical and scalable model for countries seeking both environmental resilience and sustainable economic development.”

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    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Synergy of Practice and Science: IPMET at the Main Economic Forum of the Country

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    Teachers, scientists, postgraduates and students of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade took an active part in the work of the XXVIII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Polytechnic representatives conducted professional examinations, spoke at panel sessions, attended open lectures, master classes and platforms of industrial partners.

    IPMEiT employees worked as accredited experts of the Roscongress Foundation. Dmitry Rodionov, Director of the Higher School of Engineering and Economics, acted as an expert in two sections that were in the sphere of professional and scientific interests of VIES: “Development of Russian Regions: Partnership between the State and Business to Achieve National Goals?” and “Universities on the Path to a New Model of Higher Education”. Analytical expertise of discussions related to strengthening the financial culture in terms of long-term savings, as well as ensuring the development of technological leadership in cooperation between universities and industry, was carried out by VIES Associate Professor Daria Krasnova. Olga Kalinina, Director of the Higher School of Industrial Management, worked as an expert in the specialized sections “Cooperation of Universities and Industries to Achieve Technological Leadership Goals” and “Modern Labor Market: Search for Answers to Global Challenges”.

    SPIEF gives the university a key advantage – an exit from the academic environment into the real sector. Collaborations are born here that translate theoretical research into the practical plane, – notes VIES Director Dmitry Rodionov.

    A regular participant of the SPIEF, director of the Scientific and Educational Center for Information Technologies and Business Analysis of Gazprom Neft, and professor at VIESH Irina Rudskaya noted that participation in the forum for the university is not just a status event, but a strategic opportunity.

    The forum allows us not only to evaluate our competencies, but also to integrate into the global expert-business agenda, find practical application for scientific developments and form long-term partnerships with industry leaders, says Irina Andreevna.

    Head of the System Dynamics Research Laboratory Angi Skhvediani conducted expert work in the sections “Bioeconomics in the global agenda” and “Artificial intelligence: from discussion to implementation”. Professor Tatyana Kudryavtseva carried out expertise in sections devoted to the digitalization of the contract system of Russia and discussion of forms of financing infrastructure projects necessary to maintain economic growth. Senior researcher of the laboratory Valeria Arteyeva acted as an expert in sections where the current state of the labor market and prospects for the emergence of new professions were discussed.

    During the work at the forum, we identified relevant and promising areas for conducting fundamental and applied research in areas such as the implementation of AI, analysis and forecasting of the labor market, and the development of the public procurement system. This knowledge will make the results of the laboratory’s work more in demand both in the academic and business environments, – comments the head of the Scientific Research Laboratory “System Dynamics” Angi Skhvediani.

    Professor of the Higher School of Service and Trade Sergey Barykin worked as an expert in two sections: “Cross-border electronic trade: launching new rules” and “Cyclic industries in the Russian economy and its development”.

    The results of the examinations will be published in the Roscongress Information and Analytical System, as well as on other information resources of the Roscongress Foundation and public publications.

    Director of the Higher School of Political Science Olga Kalinina and Associate Professor of the Higher School of Economics Daria Krasnova took part in the panel discussion as experts from the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) with the aim of collecting feedback on the main substantive and organizational aspects of the forum, where they shared their experience of conducting examinations, and also conducted an analysis of the activity and demand for visiting youth sections.

    Professor of the Higher School of Service and Trade Sergey Barykin took part in the session of the section “Neoethics in the era of neurotechnology” with the aim of developing theoretical approaches for socio-economic development based on neural network technologies for the development of the scientific school of the Higher School of Service and Trade “Socio-economic forecasting and improving the quality of life of the population”. He took part in the discussion about the importance of robotics for improving the quality of life of the population at the stand of the Association of Data Processing Centers, and also took part in the meeting with the delegation of Turkmenistan on the issue of expanding international cooperation of the scientific and pedagogical school of the Higher School of Service and Trade.

    Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics and Technology for work with students, Associate Professor of the Higher School of Economics and Technology Maxim Ivanov took part in several events of the SPIEF as part of the development of cooperation between the university and the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SPbCCI) and the city’s executive authorities.

    For the forum, the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry prepared a special issue of the magazine “Guide to Russian Business in St. Petersburg”, which was distributed throughout the event at the St. Petersburg stand. In the special issue “St. Petersburg: City of Meanings, Solutions and the Future”, the authors of the Polytechnic University, including Vice-Rector for Educational Activities Lyudmila Pankova, Director of the Higher School of Management Olga Kalinina, Deputy Director of the Institute of Mechanics and Technology Maxim Ivanov, Associate Professor of the Higher School of Management Tamara Selentyeva and Professor of the UNESCO Department “Quality Management in Education for Sustainable Development”, Chairman of the Human Resources Committee of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladislav Raskovalov prepared a publication “The Role of Mentoring at the University for the Development of the Region’s Human Resource Potential”, which revealed the main trends in the formation of the mentoring institution at the university level and its impact on the sustainable socio-economic development of the region.

    IPMEiT also actively participated in the International Youth Economic Forum “Day of the Future”, held as part of SPIEF-2025. The delegation of the Higher School of Industrial Management, consisting of Director Olga Kalinina, teachers Victoria Vilken, Anton Shaban, Anna Timofeeva, Artem Ivaschenko and twenty students and postgraduates, visited the exhibition stands of the largest companies, got acquainted with new technologies and initiatives in the field of digital economy, sustainable development and regional entrepreneurship. Of particular interest were the discussion sessions: “Marketplaces as a factor in sustainable economic development of regions” and “Hype Economy: Trends vs. Strategies”, where students not only broadened their horizons, but were also able to ask questions to market experts.

    Such events are more than just a forum. They are an environment in which the thinking of future managers is formed. We see how quickly the economic agenda is changing, and it is important that our students are not observers, but active participants in these changes. We are confident that each member of our team took away from the forum new ideas, contacts and motivation for development, – comment GSPM teachers Victoria Vilken and Anton Shaban.

    The Higher School of Business Engineering was represented by Master’s students in the Business Informatics program, Zhasurbek Toshkanov and Alexander Shtern. The students passed the competitive selection at Roscogress and got to the SPIEF as part of the business program “EAEU Model”, the sessions “Dialogue without Borders: Youth Cooperation for the Future” and “Formation of Personal Brand Value: New Tools with the Support of RWB”.

    The forum atmosphere charged us with motivation and inspired us to develop further, opening up new perspectives on personal growth and opportunities! We can confidently say that such events provide a unique opportunity to exchange experiences, make new contacts and get a fresh look at current issues of business development and international cooperation, – note Zhasurbek and Alexander.

    Bachelors of the Higher School of Business Engineering in the Business Informatics program also took part in various events of the forum: Ivan Golikov became a participant of the SPIEF and a resident of the SPIEF Academy, Elena Novokhatskaya took part in the youth day, including the session “Business does not sleep: 360 reviews”, Andrey Shestopalov was a forum employee, and Daria Dolgushina took part in the youth day as part of the Severstal delegation.

    Students of the Higher School of Public Administration also took part in the Youth Day of the forum.

    Participation in SPIEF has become an invaluable experience for me and a real driver of development! This is a unique platform where I was able to immerse myself in the atmosphere of large-scale discussions, meet leading experts and top managers, representatives of business and government, – Arina Shikhova, a master’s student in the direction of “State and Municipal Administration”, shares her impressions.

    Students of the Higher School of Service and Trade, majoring in Trade: Alexander Goncharenko participated in the work of the negotiation rooms, and Alexander Dronov participated in open dialogues at youth meetings.

    The organizers of the SPbPU Case Club, students of the “State and Municipal Administration” and “Management” programs Daria Tomishinetz and Tatyana Izidorova, worked in the sections “Industrial City of the Future: How the Young Can Change Reality” and “Youth Communities as a Tool of HR Policy”. Activists of the “Keen On” conversation club, led by the head of the club, a student of the “Management” program Elina Goricheva, attended the events “Lessons Learned: Successes and Failures in the Business Environment”, “Business Doesn’t Sleep: 360 Analysis” and others.

    Students of IPMEiT also took part for the first time in the SPIEF Academy project, a special platform for students aimed at developing professional skills and leadership potential, as well as creating a dialogue between young professionals and representatives of government, business, culture, sports and other areas.

    For our students, participation in the events of the SPIEF Youth Day becomes an important event every year. This is not just an opportunity to see large-scale business processes from the inside, but also a chance to prove yourself, to communicate with professionals from all over the country and the world. It is important to note that the participation of final-year students opens up additional prospects for employment and professional growth for them, – emphasizes Tamerlan Tuganov, responsible for work with youth and graduates of IPMET.

    Our institute annually takes part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. We approach this event systematically in order to conduct high-quality expert assessment work, speak at panel discussions, and prepare our students and postgraduates for the Youth Day. Students’ interest in the forum is growing from year to year. The forum events have truly become a point of attraction for proactive and talented young people who strive to realize themselves in economics, management, technology, sustainable development, and international cooperation. I would also like to note that the active participation of all Higher Schools indicates high professional interest and demand for the events held at SPIEF-2025. For our institute, the forum has also become a platform for establishing contacts with representatives of business, specialized communities, and government bodies, — Vladimir Shchepinin, Director of the IPMEiT, summed up the results of the institute’s participation in the forum.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: New Graduation of the Presidential Program: Polytechnic University Trained 60 Top Managers for Russian Industry

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    A ceremony of awarding diplomas to graduates of the Presidential Program for training management personnel for organizations of the national economy of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg was held in Smolny. This program is implemented by Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University on the basis of the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship of SPbPU, which is part of the Advanced Engineering School of SPbPU “Digital Engineering” (AES).

    The program is conducted in leading Russian universities on the terms of co-financing from the state budget and is aimed at achieving the key goals of the national project of the Russian Federation “Digital Economy” to ensure technological independence in the field of end-to-end digital technologies that are competitive at the global level, and national security. Students are enrolled based on the results of a competitive selection within the framework of regional quotas. The customer of the program on the part of the state is the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the executor is the Federal Resource Center subordinate to it.

    This year, the program’s graduates included 60 heads of research centers and large companies from St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region and Samara, such as Sberbank, Fuel and Energy Complex of St. Petersburg, Rosseti Lenenergo, Gazprom Transgaz Samara, Concern TsNII Elektropribor, Central Marine Design Bureau Almaz, Gazstroyproekt, Central Research Institute Electron, National Research Center Kurchatov Institute – PNPI, Krylov State Research Center, Central Research and Experimental Design Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics, Corporate University of St. Petersburg, etc.

    Training at SPbPU within the framework of the Presidential program is conducted in two areas: “Enterprise Management in the Context of Digital Transformation” for senior and middle managers implementing large-scale projects, and “Innovation Management in the Context of the Digital Economy” for specialists and managers implementing operational management of enterprise activities.

    The main objectives of the program: development of skills for implementing innovations in the context of the digital economy and managing the digital transformation of a company, their adaptation to the requirements of the digital industry and digital production, the formation of a system of knowledge on the use of end-to-end digital technologies, a relevant individual leadership style, and management thinking of the 21st century.

    Throughout training period Since September 2024, students have been acquiring new knowledge through lectures and practical classes, trainings, and also participated in meetings with representatives of the real business sector, completed practical training in the laboratories of the SPbPU PISh and at leading enterprises in St. Petersburg. The educational process widely used modern hardware and software, interactive technologies, including the use of computer business simulators “New Industrial Challenge” and “Lean Manufacturing”. Classes were held in modern classrooms, fully equipped for video conferencing and training.

    These digital simulators are included ina range of innovative tools for training and assessment of competencies, developed by the SPbPU PISh on the CML-Bench®.EDU Digital Platform, which represents a separate educational direction Digital platform for the development and application of digital twins CML-Bench®. Since its launch, the developed digital simulators have been highly appreciated by experts and have received a number of awards and prizes. Thus, on December 12, 2024, the computer business simulator “New Industrial Challenge” won the All-Russian competition of best practices in management education among business schools. The jury members noted the digital simulator in the nomination “Development of Leaders” under the Presidential Program.

    The educational process took place in a convenient percentage ratio of three formats for the students: in-person, distance and mixed. The program participants also improved their skills in configuring management and project teams, developed projects relevant to specific organizations aimed at solving business problems.

    Graduates received diplomas of professional retraining of the established form, which give the right to engage in management activities regardless of basic education, and badges of SPbPU graduates. The best graduates were awarded memorable gifts from the Advanced Engineering School of SPbPU “Digital Engineering”. After training in the Presidential Program, managers can undergo an internship at leading enterprises in Russia and in foreign companies of the EAEU, SCO and BRICS countries. This is an opportunity to apply new competencies in practice, study best practices and establish new business contacts.

    The head of the Presidential Program at the Polytechnic University, professor of the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship of the SPbPU PISh Olga Kolosova summed up the results of the training:

    This academic year, a new mandatory requirement was introduced for the participants of the Presidential Program: their individual projects must be related to the main priorities of the development of the Russian Federation. The students had to create socially significant projects aimed at achieving technological leadership of our country. I would like to emphasize that SPbPU graduates successfully coped with this difficult task. In addition, I thank our graduates for their active life position, responsibility towards the business, society and themselves personally. This year, despite being scattered across the regions, you managed to unite into a team of like-minded people, professionals in their field. On behalf of the entire team, we wish you further success!

    The students thanked the teachers and developers of the Presidential Program for the Training of Management Personnel at the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship of the SPbPU PISh and shared their impressions.

    “The main result of the program was the formation of a systemic approach to management activities,” said Alexander Yazhuk, Head of the Interplant Cooperation Department of the Central Research and Experimental Design Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics. “No less valuable were the new professional contacts and friendly connections acquired at lectures, seminars and practical classes. The presidential program became for me not only a source of knowledge and skills, but also a platform for forming a professional community. It taught me to think strategically, manage effectively, build communication and use modern tools. I would recommend this program to anyone who strives for professional growth and is ready to actively develop. The program gives a powerful boost to a career, expands horizons and opens up new opportunities, and also allows you to find like-minded people and make valuable acquaintances, which was very important for me personally. This is an investment in yourself, which pays off not only in knowledge, but also in new connections and opportunities.”

    The program was also mastered by representatives of the departments of the Ecosystem of Technological Development of SPbPU. Head of the Intellectual Property Management Department SPbPU Technology Transfer Center Ismail Kadiev spoke about his training under the Presidential Program in the direction of “Innovation Management in the Digital Economy”, during which he worked on a project to develop a digital mechanism for managing intellectual property:

    The project is a step-by-step substantiated plan for the implementation of a digital platform for intellectual property management in higher education institutions. The main objective of the project is to digitalize the processes of ensuring legal protection of the results of intellectual activity and commercialization of rights to intellectual property of SPbPU. The implementation of the platform will speed up the process of ensuring legal protection of the results of intellectual activity and increase the receipt of funds for the commercialization of rights to intellectual property. I would like to express my gratitude to the head of the implementation of the Presidential Program at SPbPU and my academic supervisor, SPbPU professor Olga Vladimirovna Kolosova, for her mentoring and professionalism, and to the entire teaching staff for their assistance in preparing the project and their attention and support throughout the training.

    Letters of gratitude for active participation in the implementation of the Presidential Program from the Committee on Labor and Employment of the Population of the Leningrad Region were received by the employees of the Higher School of Technological Entrepreneurship of the SPbPU PISh: the head of the implementation of the Presidential Program at SPbPU, Professor Olga Kolosova, Acting Director Artur Kireev, as well as the leading manager, associate professor of the Higher School of Advanced Digital Technologies of the SPbPU PISh Olesya Leonova. In addition, Olga Kolosova received gratitude from the Federal Resource Center. The Administration of the Governor of St. Petersburg noted with a letter of gratitude the contribution of the senior lecturer of the Higher School of Advanced Digital Technologies of the SPbPU PISh Vladislav Tereshchenko to the training of students of the Presidential Program.

    Specialists from other Polytechnic departments also received awards for their participation in the implementation of the Presidential Program. Associate Professor of the Higher School of Public Administration of SPbPU Tamara Selentyeva was awarded a letter of thanks from the Administration of the Governor of St. Petersburg. The Corporate University of St. Petersburg awarded the Director of the Center for Corporate and Network Additional Professional Programs of SPbPU Tatyana Savekina and the Head of the Directorate of Basic Educational Programs of SPbPU Nadezhda Grashchenko.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: /China Focus/ 2025 Summer Davos Discusses Interaction of Sustainable Development and AI in Global Cooperation

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    TIANJIN, June 26 (Xinhua) — Summer Davos 2025, a leading barometer of global economic trends and industrial transformation, has attracted a record number of participants in recent years, with more than 1,700 representatives from around the world.

    Its popularity is a testament to both the influence of the forum, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, and the unprecedented appeal of China’s mega-market.

    The forum, also known as the 16th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) of emerging global leaders, is being held this year under the theme “Entrepreneurial Spirit for a New Era”.

    “This theme, which has been at the core of the meeting’s DNA since its inception, places particular emphasis on how innovation, entrepreneurship and technological advancement can unlock the potential for growth, competitiveness and productivity,” WEF Managing Director Mirek Dušek said at the forum’s opening press conference on Tuesday.

    This year’s event focuses on five key areas: interpreting the global economy, China’s prospects, industries in a changing world, investing in people and the planet, and new energy and materials.

    Unlike the WEF’s annual meeting in January in Davos, Switzerland, “Summer Davos” focuses more on the future of business and technological progress. This year’s forum not only showcases China’s achievements in high-quality economic development and its strong commitment to high-level opening up to the outside world, but also serves as a platform for actively sharing the opportunities and dividends of its development with the rest of the world.

    GREEN TRANSFORMATION

    On the roof of the Tianjin National Exhibition and Convention Center, where Summer Davos is being held for the first time, solar panels provide a continuous supply of clean energy to power the event site.

    According to State Grid Corporation of China, the forum achieved 100 percent green power supply for its facilities, using a total of 800,000 kWh of renewable electricity, equivalent to saving about 300 tons of standard fuel and reducing carbon emissions by about 600 tons.

    The event venue uses photovoltaic energy generation and sponge city technologies to replace traditional energy sources with renewable ones, reduce the carbon footprint of infrastructure and significantly improve the efficiency of energy, water and materials use.

    Sustainability is at the heart of WEF events, said Severin Podolak, Head of Event Management at WEF, adding that sofas and other furniture at venues are made from materials recycled in 2023, and some of the paint used in decoration comes from renewable resources such as fishing nets.

    In addition, a fleet of hundreds of electric vehicles from six leading car manufacturers, including Audi FAW, provides clean and low-carbon transportation for forum participants, contributing to the event’s carbon neutrality goals.

    The concept of green development was carefully and comprehensively integrated everywhere: from the design of the venues to the brochure with the forum agenda, where key topics such as Asian carbon markets and further steps in climate change adaptation became central points of discussions directly related to sustainable development.

    Green nitrogen fixation has been included in the WEF’s “Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025” list, alongside innovations such as participatory sensing and autonomous biosensing, further highlighting the trend towards sustainable development becoming a global priority.

    Today, China is the world leader in renewable energy investment and has pioneered transformative technologies in batteries and electric vehicles, creating millions of quality jobs in these promising sectors, said WEF Managing Director Jim Hui Neo.

    “I think there is huge potential in this area to learn from the Chinese experience, where constructive partnerships can be formed between China and other parts of the world to support the global energy transition,” she said, adding that “the climate emergency and the planetary crisis cannot be resolved unless everyone is united in this journey.”

    AI REVOLUTION

    The futuristic exhibition area has become a major attraction, where cutting-edge AI products such as humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, and fully autonomous drone inspection systems attract numerous visitors. These innovations vividly showcase the technological breakthroughs of Chinese enterprises and the pioneering application of AI.

    “China may have found the key to restarting global economic growth – its ‘AI Plus’ strategy,” said Liu Gang, chief economist at the China Institute of Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies.

    He explained that the integration of artificial intelligence with the real sector of the economy provides remarkable economic advantages. For example, his team’s research shows that the use of AI in the development of new materials can increase efficiency by 100-1000 times.

    Discussions on AI are unfolding with unusual intensity across the various sessions at Summer Davos 2025, mirroring the heated debates at other leading global forums. Notably, a special session on “Understanding China’s Approach to AI” will be convened, highlighting the growing international recognition of China’s key role in global AI development.

    “It will be like an industrial revolution,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, speaking about new technologies at the forum. Countries that embrace it go up, and countries that don’t go down, he said.

    “I think understanding, harnessing and using the technological revolution is the greatest government challenge of the 21st century,” he said.

    GLOBAL SYNERGY

    Global growth forecasts are at their lowest in decades, according to the WEF. Reviving the spirit of cooperation will require unprecedented commitment and creativity.

    Nankai University Professor Tong Jiadong, who has long led the China Agenda Research Team for the Tianjin Summer Davos, noted that the event has evolved from a leading global summit of thought leaders into a dynamic platform for promoting international exchange and cooperation.

    Zhao Yan, Chairman and CEO of China’s Bloomage Biotech, is a regular participant in Summer Davos. Over the years, the company has built a global supply network in more than 70 countries and regions around the world.

    “Despite complex uncertainties, the enterprise has never resorted to isolationism, but instead strives to reformat the global rules of competition through open innovation,” Zhao Yan said.

    In the first five months of this year, China’s total import and export volume of goods grew by 2.5 percent year on year, and the consumption enthusiasm of foreign visitors to China increased significantly.

    “We value our cooperation with China very much. We are seeing increasing interest and engagement here,” said WEF President Borge Brende. “I am relatively optimistic about the Chinese economy in both the medium and long term,” he added. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Russian woman becomes famous on social media after saving drowning elderly Chinese woman in eastern China

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    HANGZHOU, June 26 (Xinhua) — Russian citizen Shahnaz Gubaidullina saved an elderly Chinese woman from drowning in the city of Shaoxing in east China’s Zhejiang Province on Monday morning.

    According to local media, Shahnaz was walking on a bridge in Yuecheng District when she saw an elderly woman who had fallen into a river. Without hesitation, she jumped into the water to save the drowning woman. “I have been able to swim since I was a child, so I jumped into the river without thinking twice,” she said.

    According to Shahnaz’s recollections, the elderly woman was choking on a large amount of water and was already unconscious when the Russian woman grabbed her. The girl tightly grabbed the elderly woman from behind with her arms and tried with great difficulty to reach the shore.

    At this time, passers-by noticed them and extended a long rescue pole to them. With the help of passers-by, the woman was successfully rescued.

    Shahnaz, who came to China in 2016 and recently graduated from Huzhou University in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, was traveling in Shaoxing when the incident occurred.

    After the incident, the relatives of the rescued woman invited the girl to their place so that she could rest and change into new clean clothes that they bought for her.

    “They still kept my contacts and invited me to visit them the next time I come to Shaoxing,” the Russian woman said.

    The rescue process was filmed on video, which immediately went viral on social media. After that, many locals met Shahnaz.

    “Kindness knows no national borders! What a responsive and brave girl,” one Internet user wrote in the comments under the post about the incident.

    “Well done, Russian girl!”, “Cool!” – read the most frequent comments praising the girl and her feat.

    By Monday evening, Shahnaz, who had completed her heroic deed, entered a store in the city of Shaoxing, where the shop assistants immediately recognized her. “They gave me free fruit as a token of gratitude,” the Russian woman told Xinhua News Agency.

    According to Shahnaz, this is a trivial matter for her and she does not consider herself a heroine at all. “This is an event in life that can happen to anyone. I could not leave my grandmother without help… This is a natural human reaction,” the girl said.

    “People in Russia are very kind and responsive. They are always ready to help,” Shahnaz emphasized.

    The girl has already entered the master’s program at Huzhou University. “After graduating, I would like to find a job in China and continue my life here,” the Russian summed up. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –