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Category: Universities

  • MIL-OSI Global: How rising wages for construction workers are shifting the foundations of the housing market

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Bahaa Chammout, Kummer I&E PhD Fellow in Civil Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology

    Construction costs have surged in recent years, pushing homeownership further out of reach for many Americans. But this isn’t a new concern: In 1978, the U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that rising costs were threatening the American dream – at a time when the median home price was just US$44,300, less than three times the median household income. Today, that figure has climbed past $419,000, more than five times what the median American makes.

    One often-overlooked factor behind this surge? Labor costs.

    We are engineering experts, and in our latest study, we analyzed wages and workforce trends across more than 20 occupations in construction from 1999 to 2023. Interestingly, we found that unskilled workers — those in the lowest-paid roles – saw the largest wage gains. And the effects of these gains have rippled across the entire construction industry.

    A changing construction landscape

    A lot can change in 25 years, which is the last time researchers analyzed construction labor trends at this scale. Back then, construction wages were declining, driven in part by the rise of affordable trade schools and in part by falling union membership.

    Today, the landscape looks very different. The construction industry is grappling with a persistent labor shortage, facing an annual shortfall of more than a half-million workers. At the same time, wage dynamics have shifted greatly.

    The biggest gains go to the lowest-paid roles

    Construction projects rely on a wide range of roles – from highly skilled professionals like engineers and electricians to lower-skilled or unskilled workers. Unskilled workers handle physically demanding tasks like trench digging, concrete mixing and site preparation, and earn lower wages. As a result, contractors often hire more of them.

    While contractors tend to focus on expensive skilled labor when estimating project costs, our recent study found that unskilled workers have seen the largest wage gains in recent decades. Their wages rose by 2.75% to 3.5% per year — compared with under 2.5% for most skilled roles.

    The size of the construction workforce is also changing, with 88% of U.S. construction firms reporting difficulty finding workers. The shortage is especially severe among unskilled labor. For example, half as many people work as unskilled helpers now than in 1999.

    Given these trends, to avoid budgeting shortfalls and project risks, we encourage contractors to plan for higher costs for low-skilled workers. Our study also offers a simple method to help forecast wage trends, which contractors can use to estimate future labor costs.

    Wage hikes have a ripple effect

    Interestingly, not only did unskilled occupations see the biggest wage jumps, but they also influenced wage changes in other trades.

    Using econometric models, we analyzed these occupations as part of an interconnected system. We found that trades typically involved early in a project tend to influence wages for trades that come later. In particular, unskilled construction laborers – who handle tasks like site preparation and material handling – emerged as the leading drivers of wage trends across the industry. When their wages rise, others’ tend to follow.

    These insights suggest that contractors should monitor early-stage wage trends closely. When wages start rising among early-trade or unskilled workers, that is often a signal that broader labor costs are about to rise too. Planning ahead can help firms manage costs more effectively.

    Recent world events — such as COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war and the 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs — brought major challenges to the construction industry, which is still dealing with their aftermath. On top of that, worsening labor shortages, new tariffs and global supply chain disruptions mean the industry will continue to face significant challenges.

    However, tracking market data offers a valuable opportunity to understand emerging trends and develop strategies to respond effectively. Our research team – working closely with major U.S. contractors through the Missouri Consortium for Construction Innovation – is exploring solutions across a range of issues, including construction material costs, cross-border material trade with Canada and Mexico, and persistent labor shortages, among other critical topics.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How rising wages for construction workers are shifting the foundations of the housing market – https://theconversation.com/how-rising-wages-for-construction-workers-are-shifting-the-foundations-of-the-housing-market-255087

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump seeks to reshape how schools discipline students

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By F. Chris Curran, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Florida

    School discipline has evolved over the years. Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    The Trump administration is trying to reshape how schools discipline students – and alter the federal government’s role in the process.

    On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suggesting schools have been using racially discriminatory discipline policies. It sets in motion new federal guidance that would reverse policies supported by the Obama and Biden administrations aimed at reducing racial disparities in how Black children and other students of color are disciplined in school.

    I believe the order could have far-reaching consequences and is likely to prompt pushback and legal challenges. As a researcher who studies school discipline, I can explain why this is happening and what it means for schools and students.

    Local control, federal influence

    School discipline has historically been locally controlled, though federal law does mandate a few disciplinary responses, such as expulsion for possessing firearms. School boards create codes of conduct. School principals and teachers make and enforce rules.

    However, federal guidance over the past decade has increasingly shaped these local decisions.

    In 2014, for example, the U.S. departments of Education and Justice issued guidance to reduce racial disparities in school discipline. This Obama-era letter suggested that higher rates of discipline for racial minorities could be evidence of discrimination. The guidance signaled how the U.S. Department of Education would interpret federal law and what might be cause for federal investigation.

    In the following years, schools reduced suspensions and adopted alternatives such as restorative practices, which focus on talking through and repairing harm instead of removing students from the classroom. But some people saw this as a weakening of school discipline. Politicians and policy advocates even claimed that these changes in discipline contributed to school shootings.

    Even though the guidance was rescinded during the first Trump administration, the federal government continued to investigate disparities in discipline. And without alternative guidance, many schools continued practices guided by the Obama-era policies.

    These efforts to reduce disparities in school discipline continued under President Joe Biden, though without reinstating the Obama-era guidance.

    In the return to schooling after COVID-19 shutdowns, however, schools grappled with reports of increasing student misbehavior. Nationally, almost 9 in 10 principals reported negative effects of the pandemic on student behavior.

    At the same time, there were reports that some schools were not properly documenting serious misbehavior – hiding high or disparate rates of discipline. These problems created an opportunity for the Trump administration to push new federal guidance.

    What Trump’s executive order does

    Trump’s new executive order sets the stage for further federal influence over discipline policy and practices. Here’s a breakdown of what it contains.

    First, the executive order states that schools should no longer focus on differences in rates of discipline across subgroups. It contends that doing so has led to schools failing to report incidents and making decisions based on students’ race rather than objective facts.

    Next, the executive order calls on the secretary of education to develop new school discipline guidance for states and schools. It also calls for the secretary of education and attorney general to work with state leaders to reshape how their states can prevent racial discrimination in discipline.

    Finally, the executive order requires a report on “the status of discriminatory-equity-ideology-based” school discipline. The order does not explicitly say what such discipline is, but it presumably includes alternatives to suspension and approaches that focus on considering race in disciplinary decisions.

    The report is to provide model policies that the order claims will uphold “American values and traditional virtues” and provide examples of discipline not based on “equity ideology.”

    Part of the report will also include an evaluation of past federal civil rights investigations and federal funding supporting organizations that promote discipline approaches deemed problematic under the new order. This addresses concerns that the threat of federal investigation over discipline disparities was used to influence schools’ discipline policies.

    In short, the order suggests expanded federal involvement in school discipline. It does so despite noting that it is an “obvious conclusion” that “disciplinary decisions are best left in the hands of classroom teachers and administrators.”

    Meaning of ‘discrimination’ in anti-DEI era

    The executive order claims to provide “protections against racial discrimination” in school discipline. Interestingly, the policies Trump is seeking to undo were similarly intended to reduce racial disparities.

    This seeming contradiction can be understood when the executive order is viewed against the backdrop of current education policy debates. A wide set of policies grounded in efforts of diversity, equity and inclusion and related topics have been at the forefront of debates over schooling in the past five years. From debates around “critical race theory” – the idea that racism is embedded in our social systems – to the content of school libraries, the “culture wars” are at the schoolhouse door.

    It is no coincidence, then, that the executive order uses the term “discriminatory equity ideology” to describe discipline policies it prohibits.

    I argue this reframing of DEI from diversity, equity and inclusion to discrimination illustrates that the new executive order is not just about school discipline. It is part of a bigger debate on the value and impacts of DEI and politicized contention over public schooling.

    What order means for schools and students

    In the short term, I believe educators will face much uncertainty. The executive order is vague. It does not name specific discipline policies that should be avoided or used.

    But in the coming months, the executive order promises increased federal influence over school discipline. The full scope or impact of this is not yet clear. However, it is reasonable to expect that, just like other contested issues in education, there will be legal challenges and pushback in some locales.

    In short, the “common sense” discipline reforms called for in the executive order are unlikely to be seen as common sense for everyone.

    F. Chris Curran has received funding from the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Educational Research Association for research on school discipline and safety.

    – ref. Trump seeks to reshape how schools discipline students – https://theconversation.com/trump-seeks-to-reshape-how-schools-discipline-students-255377

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in 2 key ways

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Courtney McGinnis, Professor of Biology, Medical Sciences and Environmental Sciences, Quinnipiac University

    A bee enjoys lunch on a flower in Hillsboro, Ore. HIllsboro Parks & Rec, CC BY-NC-ND

    The problem with climate change isn’t just the temperature – it’s also how fast the climate is changing today.

    Historically, Earth’s climate changes have generally happened over thousands to millions of years. Today, global temperatures are increasing by about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade.

    Imagine a car speeding up. Over time, human activities such as burning fossil fuels have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the Sun. This is like pressing the gas pedal. The faster the driver adds gas, the faster the car goes.

    The 21st century has seen a dramatic acceleration in the rate of climate change, with global temperatures rising more than three times faster than in the previous century.

    The faster pace and higher temperatures are changing habitat ranges for plants and animals. In some regions, the pace of change is also throwing off the delicate timing of pollination, putting plants and pollinators such as bees at risk.

    Some species are already migrating

    Most plant and animal species can tolerate or at least recover from short-term changes in climate, such as a heat wave. When the changes last longer, however, organisms may need to migrate into new areas to adapt for survival.

    Some species are already moving toward higher latitudes and altitudes with cooler temperatures, altering their geographic territory to stay within their optimal climate. Fish populations, for example, have shifted toward the poles as ocean temperatures have risen.

    Pollinators such as bees can also shift their ranges.

    Bumblebees, for example, are adapted for cooler regions because of their fuzzy bodies. Some bumblebee populations have been disappearing from the southern parts of their geographic range and have been found in cooler regions to the north and in more mountainous areas. That could increase competition with existing bumblebee populations.

    Plants and pollinators can get out of sync

    Plants and their pollinators face another problem as the rate of climate change increases: Many plants rely on insects and other animals for seed and pollen dispersal.

    Much of that pollen dispersal is accomplished by native pollinators. About 75% of plant species in North America require an insect pollinator – bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, birds and bats. In fact, 1 in 3 bites of food you eat depend on a pollinator, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    So, even if a species successfully migrates into a new territory, it can face a mismatch of pollination timing. This is known as phenological mismatch.

    Monarch butterflies migrate each year and rely on plants blooming along their path to provide food.
    Clint Wirick/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

    During the winter, insects go into a hibernation known as diapause, migrate or take up shelter underground, under rocks or in leaf litter. These insect pollinators use temperature and daylight length as cues for when to emerge or when to migrate to their spring and summer habitats.

    As the rate of climate change increases, the chances of a timing mismatch between pollinators and the plants they pollinate rise.

    With an increase in temperature, many plants are blooming earlier in the spring. If bees or other pollinators emerge at their “normal” time, flowers may already be blooming, reducing their chance for pollination.

    If pollinators emerge too early, they may struggle to survive if their normal food sources are not yet available. Native bees, for example, rely on pollen for much of the protein they need for growing and thriving.

    Wild bees are emerging earlier

    This kind of shift in timing is already happening with bees in the U.S.

    Studies have shown that the date wild bees emerge in the U.S. has shifted by 10.4 days earlier over the past 130 years, and the pace is accelerating.

    One study found wild bees across species have been changing their phenology, or timing of seasonal activities, and over the past 50 years the emergence date is four times faster. That means wild bees were emerging roughly eight days earlier in 2020 than they did in 1970.

    A bee pollinates an almond tree in an orchard.
    David Kosling/U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC BY

    This trend of earlier emergence is generally consistent across organisms with the accelerating rate of climate change. If the timing mismatches continue to worsen, it could exacerbate the decline of pollinator populations and result in inadequate pollination for plants that rely on them.

    Pollinator decline and inadequate pollination already account for a 3% to 5% decline in global fruit, vegetable, spice and nut production annually, a recent study found.

    Without pollinators, ecosystems are less resilient − they are unable to absorb disturbances such as wildfires, adapt to changes, and recover from environmental stressors such as pollution, drought or floods.

    Managing climate change

    Pollinators face many other risks from human activities, including habitat loss from development and harm from pesticide use. Climate change adds to that list.

    Taking steps to reduce the activities driving global warming can help keep these species thriving and carrying out their roles in nature into the future.

    Courtney McGinnis is affiliated with You Got This Kid Leadership Foundation. She receives funding from Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

    – ref. Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in 2 key ways – https://theconversation.com/bees-fish-and-plants-show-how-climate-changes-accelerating-pace-is-disrupting-nature-in-2-key-ways-255384

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Amal Elawady, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University

    A downburst blasts Bangkok, Thailand, in 2017. Natapat Ariyamongkol/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    From a distance, a downburst can look like a torrent of heavy rain. But at ground level, its behavior can be far more destructive.

    When a downburst’s winds hit the ground, they shoot out horizontally in all directions, sometimes with enough force to shatter windows and overturn vehicles.

    These winds behave in complicated ways, particularly in cities, as our latest research shows. Downburst winds can deflect off tall buildings, increasing the pressure on neighboring buildings’ windows and walls. The result can blow out glass and chip off facade. Even buildings designed to survive hurricanes can suffer major damage in a downburst.

    As engineers, we study downbursts with the goal of designing buildings, components such as solar panels and windows, and infrastructure such as power lines that can stand up to that powerful force. To do this, informed by field measurements, we create our own powerful downbursts using a hurricane simulator known as the Wall of Wind at Florida International University.

    An illustration of how the winds of a downburst fan out in open space. In a city with tall buildings, the wind can deflect off buildings, causing damage in unexpected ways.
    NASA/Wikimedia Commons

    What is a downburst?

    Downbursts can be as destructive as tornadoes, but their winds develop in a very different way.

    A downburst forms when a thunderstorm pulls cooler, heavier air down from high in the atmosphere. As this rain-cooled air rushes downward, it gains speed. Once it slams into the ground, it has nowhere to go but outward, sending strong winds in all horizontal directions.

    Dust in the air shows the curling rotation of a downburst’s winds.
    NOAA

    The wind speed in a downburst can reach over 150 miles per hour. That’s the strength of a Category 4 hurricane and strong enough to knock down trees and power lines, damage buildings and flip vehicles.

    These winds also rotate, but not in the same way tornadoes do. Downburst winds are typically considered straight-line winds, but they rotate around a horizontal axis as the wind curls upward after hitting the ground. Tornadoes, in contrast, spin around a vertical axis.

    Powerful storm systems known as derechos are often made up of multiple downburst clusters, each containing many smaller downbursts, sometimes called microbursts.

    Recreating Houston’s downburst in a warehouse

    On May 16, 2024, a derecho hit Houston with a downburst that was so strong, it blew out windows in several high-rise buildings that had been built to survive Category 4 hurricanes. The winds also pried off chunks of buildings’ facades.

    Two months later, Hurricane Beryl hit Houston with similar wind speeds, yet it left minimal damage to the downtown buildings.

    When a downburst hit downtown Houston on May 16, 2024, it shattered windows on some sides of buildings but not others, and not always in the line of the storm. The damage offered clues to how downbursts interact with tall buildings.
    Cécile Clocheret/AFP via Getty Images

    To understand how a downburst like this can be so much more destructive – and what cities and building designers can do about it – we simulated both the Houston downburst winds and Hurricane Beryl’s winds in the Wall of Wind.

    The test facility is equipped with a dozen jet fans, each almost as tall as the workers who run them and powerful enough to simulate a Category 5 hurricane. Our team used these fans to recreate powerful downburst winds that hit horizontally with the maximum wind speeds near ground level. Then, we put several models of buildings to the test to see how roofs, windows, facades and the structures of power lines reacted under that force.

    How the Wall of Wind’s fans mimic a downburst’s horizontal force.

    In the Houston derecho, a downburst hit downtown with 100 mph winds. It cracked some lower windows, likely with blowing debris, but it also caused widespread unexpected damage midway up some of the buildings.

    The Chevron Building Auditorium actually suffered the most damage on a side that wasn’t directly in the line of the storm but was facing another tall building. That left some intriguing questions. It suggested that the way the buildings channel the wind may have created a strong suction that blew out windows midway up the tower. Another burning question is whether building design codes are outdated when it comes to how well their cladding can stand up to these localized winds.

    Using the Wall of Wind, we were able to test those pressures on models of the Houston buildings and see how downburst winds increased the pressured on a tall building model with excessive forces near the ground level.

    The ability to simulate these winds is important for improving engineers’ understanding of the differences in how downbursts and other wind events exert force on buildings. The results ultimately inform building standards to help create more resilient and better-protected communities.

    Building better power lines

    Big storms, like downbursts, can also take down power lines.

    Power lines extend hundreds of miles between cities and states, making them more susceptible to a hit from a localized severe storm, such as a downburst. If one of the towers falls, it can cause a chain reaction, like dominoes falling one after another. That can knock out power for large numbers of people.

    The derecho that hit Houston with a downburst also crumpled transmission towers in Texas.
    AP Photo/David J. Phillip

    With colleagues, we have been testing transmission towers and multispan power-line systems under downburst and hurricane winds to understand how these structures respond, with the goal of developing better construction techniques. That work has helped to update the American manual for the design of power lines, which engineers use for designing safer, more storm-resilient transmission towers.

    What’s next

    Low-rise and mid-rise buildings are also vulnerable to downbursts, but the effects are less well understood. Downburst winds are most intense between 10 and 300 feet above the ground, meaning the roofs and walls of some low-rises can be hit with intense horizontal wind.

    Recent building codes have offered design guidelines to help ensure these buildings can withstand tornadoes. However, the way downbursts rotate in a short time around a building or a community of buildings puts pressure on the walls and the roof in different ways. Similar to straight-line winds, we expect high suction on the roof. Due to their short duration, varying wind direction and intense wind speed, downbursts may also cause excessive vibrations and varying pressure distribution on the roof components.

    How microbursts form.

    We’re now testing downburst damage to low- and mid-rise buildings to better understand the risks and help highlight changes that can make buildings more resilient.

    As populations grow, cities are adding more buildings. At the same time, powerful storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. Understanding the effects of different types of storms will help engineers construct high-rises, low-rises and power lines that are better able to withstand extreme weather.

    Amal Elawady receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Fahim Ahmed, Mohamed Eissa, and Omar Metwally do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-downburst-these-winds-can-be-as-destructive-as-tornadoes-we-recreate-them-to-test-building-designs-254931

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: How a reading group helped young German students defy the Nazis and find their faith

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Peter Nguyen, SJ, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

    A copy of the sentences against, left to right, Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst is displayed at the White Rose Memorial in Munich. Johannes Simon/Getty Images

    For three weeks in April 2025, my “Theology of Christian Martyrdom” class studied how a group of German students and professors from Munich and Hamburg formed a resistance movement from 1942 to 1943 known as the “White Rose.” These individuals defied Nazi tyranny, they were imprisoned, and many were executed.

    At the movement’s center were Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst and Willi Graf, who were all in their 20s, and Professor Kurt Huber. The Scholl siblings, their friends and their professor were beheaded for urging students at the University of Munich to oppose the Nazi regime.

    On the surface, the White Rose’s “crime” was the writings, printings and distribution of six anti-Nazi pamphlets urging Germans to resist Adolf Hitler and work to end World War II. However, a closer examination of their pamphlets, along with excerpts from their diaries and letters, reveals that their resistance was rooted in something deeper – a faith anchored in friendship and a humanistic learning. Their time together reading and discussing theological texts deepened their Christian faith.

    Teaching this class taught me that teachers can inspire students to improve their country’s social and political landscape through the study of literature, history and theology. Teachers can help students form their consciences and empower them to act against falsehood and injustice.

    The White Rose movement

    These young people came from a variety of Christian backgrounds, including Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox traditions. Some had been members of the Hitler Youth as teenagers, while others had served as medical assistants in the German army. They formed strong bonds and underwent personal transformations as students at the University of Munich, where they were mentored by a couple of philosophers, especially Kurt Huber, who was a devout Catholic.

    The students met regularly and secretly with their professors to study literature, philosophy and theology from the Catholic intellectual tradition, banned by the Nazi regime as part of Hitler’s strategy to first stifle and then strangle the Catholic Church in Germany. Based on the students’ correspondence and diaries, their covert engagement with Catholic thought became a cornerstone of the White Rose’s rejection of Nazi tyranny.

    In the works of the fifth-century North African theologian Augustine, the 20th-century novelist and playwright Georges Bernanos, and the 20th-century philosopher Jacques Maritain, these students encountered a Catholic intellectual tradition that was responsive to the urgent questions of their time.

    From Augustine they learned the importance of cultivating an interior life grounded in prayer. Bernanos stressed the importance of embracing one’s humanity to confront evil. Maritain emphasized the need to strive for a free democratic society.

    Importance of prayer

    The White Rose movement was concerned not only with the present state of humanity but also with its future, and not only with the individual but also with the communal. In their clandestine meetings and correspondence, they wrestled with the relationship between faith and reason, goodness in the face of evil, the meaning of tyranny, the nature of a just state, and the foundations of genuine liberty. Addressing these serious issues not only matured their intellects but also deepened their hearts; it taught them the importance of prayer.

    Hans Scholl, left, and his sister Sophie in 1940.
    Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Image

    “Better to suffer intolerable pain than to vegetate insensibly. Better to be parched with thirst, better to pray for pain, pain, and more pain, than to feel empty, and to feel so without truly feeling at all. That I mean to resist,” Sophie wrote in her diary in the early summer of 1942.

    The personal writings of the White Rose reflect a religious passion, akin to the prayers of saints.

    For example, in his imprisonment, Graf stated: “I know my Redeemer liveth. This faith alone strengthens and sustains me.” The impact of Christianity on the inner lives of these young people is a crucial part of their narrative and resistance.

    Their circle of friendship became a haven in a totalitarian state that sought to isolate individuals, instill fear and transform these estranged and fearful people into part of a mass society. “We negated the many, and built on the few, and believed ourselves strong,” Traute Lafrenz, the last surviving member of the White Rose and a member of the Hamburg circle, later stated.

    The most significant intellectual influence on the group may have been John Henry Newman, a 19th-century Catholic convert and theologian who emphasized the primacy of a “well-formed” conscience. His writings helped them recognize what Catholics like myself see as a moral truth that transcended Nazi propaganda – that each person bears within them the voice of the living God. This voice could not be silenced by state power.

    Newman’s philosophy

    Newman insisted that conscience is not merely intuitive but is shaped through learning – from conversations, books and lived experience. With their professors’ guidance, the White Rose students were able to cultivate their conscience.

    The annual 2023 Newman lecture while commemmorating the 80th anniversary of the White Rose.

    If Newman were addressing college students today, I like to believe he would emphasize the significance of their conversations with friends on campus, the discussions held with classmates and professors in the classroom, the newspapers they read, the retreats they participated in, the novels they savored during the holidays, their road trips across the country, and their studies abroad. All of these experiences contribute to shaping their conscience.

    Newman’s defense of broad, active and serious learning offered an appealing counterpoint to Nazi ideology, which sought not only to deprive individuals of their civil rights but also to crush their inner lives and capacity to form meaningful relationships through terror and fear.

    The power of a well-formed conscience is perhaps best illustrated by Sophie Scholl, who shared Newman’s sermons with her boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, a Wehrmacht officer who fought for Germany during World War II.

    In the summer of 1942, horrified by the brutality he witnessed, Hartnagel wrote to Scholl that Newman’s words were like “drops of precious wine.” In another letter, he wrote: “But we know by whom we are created, and that we stand in a relationship of moral obligation to our Creator. Conscience gives us the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.” After the war, Hartnagel became active in the peace movement and supported conscientious objectors. To the members of the White Rose, conscience was a spiritual stronghold – one the state could not breach.

    Truth-seeking and challenges today

    I believe that while my students today face different challenges – a society shaped by what I regard as the nihilistic presence of technological power and populism, rather than full-blown totalitarianism – they also aspire to act with clarity and conviction. Newman’s view on the formation of conscience resonated with my students as well.

    What my students share with those young dissidents from over 80 years ago is a commitment to cultivating an inner life, fostering a community of friends and engaging in a vibrant intellectual tradition.

    They are drawn to the writings that animated Hans Scholl, who, drawing inspiration from the Catholic playwright Paul Claudel, wrote the following just two days before his arrest.

    “Chasms yawn and darkest night envelops my questing heart, but I press on regardless. As Claudel so splendidly puts it: Life is one great adventure into the light.”

    As a teacher, I believe that young people want to engage with an intellectual tradition that helps them discover their vocation and live with integrity, similar to Scholl.

    They seek to act with a clear conscience amid the uncertainties of their own times. This approach serves as a powerful contrast to any hollow, anti-intellectual and culturally bankrupt tyranny.

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

    – ref. How a reading group helped young German students defy the Nazis and find their faith – https://theconversation.com/how-a-reading-group-helped-young-german-students-defy-the-nazis-and-find-their-faith-254774

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Agreeing to disagree’ is hurting your relationships – here’s what to do instead

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Lisa Pavia-Higel, Assistant Teaching Professor of English and Technical Communication, Missouri University of Science and Technology

    Conversational tools like ‘looping’ and ‘reframing’ can help move a conversation away from confrontation. Candra Ritonga/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    As Americans become more polarized, even family dinners can feel fraught, surfacing differences that could spark out-and-out conflict. Tense conversations often end with a familiar refrain: “Let’s just drop it.”

    As a communications educator and trainer, I am frequently asked how to handle these conversations, especially when they involve social and political issues. One piece of advice I give is that “agree to disagree,” or any other phrase that politely stands in for “stop talking,” will not restore harmony. Not only that, but it could also do permanent harm to those important family bonds.

    ‘No-go’ topics

    Conversation is the currency of relationships. When families talk about anything – from “What are your top five favorite movies?” to “What possessed you to load the dishwasher like that?” – they are not just exchanging information. They are building trust and creating a shared story that deepens the relationships within the family unit.

    According to communication researcher Mark L. Knapp’s model of relationship development, all relationships have a life cycle. People come together and solidify their connection through five stages, from “initiation” to “bonding.” But many relationships eventually come apart, going through five stages of breakdown.

    Mark L. Knapp’s model breaks relationships into 10 stages.

    No relationship is as linear as the model assumes, but it can help pinpoint potential danger zones – moments when a bond is at risk of coming apart. One stage, in particular, illustrates why avoiding these hard conversations is so dangerous: “circumscribing.”

    Imagine circumscribing topics of conservation with yellow police tape around them – topics that almost instantly trigger conflict. Having a few of these “no-go” topics in a relationship probably will not doom a marriage or cause family estrangement. However, marking too many ideas as off-limits makes it easier for people to avoid conversation altogether.

    Circumscribing is one of the “coming apart” stages in Knapp’s model. If problems aren’t addressed, a relationship can keep sliding down the slope toward the last stage: termination.

    We need to talk

    Sadly, this estrangement from loved ones is not a theoretical problem. In a 2022 poll of 11,000 Americans, more than 1 in 4 people reported that they were now estranged from close family.

    What’s more, these relationships are not always replaced by other close ties. About half of Americans say they only have three or fewer close friends. In 2023, then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared widespread loneliness and isolation an “epidemic.”

    Social connection is a basic human need. Relationships do more than provide support; they play a key role in how people define themselves. According to psychology’s “social penetration theory,” conversation with close family and loved ones deepens relationships while helping people learn to articulate their deepest values.

    So if “agree to disagree” is not the answer, what is?

    There is no one-time process that will fix all conflict over the course of a family dinner. These techniques take time, patience and compassion – all things that can be in short supply amid conflict. However, there are two techniques I not only recommend to others, but I use in my own conflicts: “looping for understanding” and “reframe and pivot.”

    Getting in the loop

    Looping, which was originally developed for legal mediation, helps both people in a conversation understand each other. Feeling misunderstood tends to escalate conflict, so this is a great starting place.

    During a “loop,” each person uses active listening, meaning they pay careful attention to what their partner is saying without judgment or interruptions. Then the listener shows their understanding by using what’s called “empathic paraphrase”: restating what they heard from the speaker, but also what emotions they perceived. Finally, they ask the original speaker for confirmation.

    That might sound something like this:

    So if I understand what you are saying, you think that people should not have to get a flu shot at your office because you are not sure if it’s effective, and you’re frustrated that you are being told what to do by your company. Do I have that right?

    If the speaker says no, then the listener “loops” by asking them to explain what they got wrong, and tries to paraphrase again. The participants keep looping until the answer to “Did I get that right?” is an emphatic “yes.” This practice ensures that both people are sure of the actual issue at hand.

    Looping has other benefits, too. In one study, emphatic paraphrasing not only made participants less anxious but also made the speaker see the paraphraser in a more positive light. Feeling fully heard and understood can go a long way to turning down the heat on difficult conversations.

    The goal of ‘looping’ is to make sure you understand the other person’s perspective – and the real issue at stake.
    FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images

    Framing common ground

    However, that understanding may not be enough. Once both parties understand each other, another technique, “reframing,” can help pivot the conversation away from confrontation and move toward resolution.

    In reframing, the speakers find and discuss a single point of agreement. By emphasizing what they agree about, instead of what they disagree about, they look for a starting place to tackle the problem together, instead of facing off.

    For example:

    I think you and I can both agree that we want to keep the family safe. However, I think we disagree about what role having a gun in the house would play in that safety. Is that right?

    Finding a point of agreement is not always possible. However, this reframing presents both communicators as having a key shared value – a starting place for a more constructive discussion. Reframing also moves the conversation away from inflammatory language that could automatically reignite the fight. `

    No magic bullet

    No technique will ever be a perfect, one-size-fits-all solution for every relationship – or a quick fix. Careful communication can be mentally exhausting, and pressing pause is always OK:

    I don’t think we are going to solve our nation’s financial issues tonight, but thank you for talking about it. Let’s keep doing it. But for now, I think there’s pie. Want some?

    It’s also important to accept that not all relationships can or should be saved. However, it is always good to know that the relationship ended for a clear reason, and not over a misunderstanding that was never addressed.

    Hopefully, though, these tactics will help keep communication open and relationships healthy, no matter what topic is brought up at dinner.

    Lisa Pavia-Higel is affiliated with Braver Angels, a non-profit organization that facilitates conversations across the political divide. She is no longer active in the organization but was trained as a workshop facilitator.

    – ref. ‘Agreeing to disagree’ is hurting your relationships – here’s what to do instead – https://theconversation.com/agreeing-to-disagree-is-hurting-your-relationships-heres-what-to-do-instead-252687

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: From the Chinese Exclusion Act to pro-Palestinian activists: The evolution of politically motivated deportations

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rick Baldoz, Associate Professor of American Studies, Brown University

    New York Tribune of Jan. 3, 1920, announcing massive roundups of ‘aliens’ deemed to be ‘Reds.’ Library of Congress

    The recent deportation orders targeting foreign students in the U.S. have prompted a heated debate about the legality of these actions. The Trump administration made no secret that many individuals were facing removal because of their pro-Palestinian advocacy.

    In recent months, the State Department has revoked hundreds of visas of foreign students with little explanation. On April 25, 2025, the administration restored the legal status of many of those students, but warned that the reprieve was only temporary.

    Because of their tenuous legal status in the U.S., immigrant activists are vulnerable to a government seeking to stifle dissent.

    Critics of the Trump administration have challenged the legality of these removal orders, arguing that they violate constitutionally protected rights, including freedom of speech and due process.

    The administration asserts that the executive branch has nearly absolute authority to remove immigrants. The White House has cited legislation passed during the peak of the nation’s Cold War hysteria, like the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, which expanded the government’s deportation powers.

    I’m a historian of immigration, U.S. empire and Asian American studies. The current removal orders targeting student activists echo America’s long and lamentable past of jailing and expelling immigrants because of their race or what they say or believe – or all three.

    The arrest of Turkish graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk by Department of Homeland Security agents in Somerville, Mass., on March 25, 2025.

    Where it began

    The United States’ current deportation process traces its roots to the late 19th century as the nation moved to exercise federal control of immigration.

    The impetus for this shift was anti-Chinese racism, which reached a fever pitch during this period, culminating in the passage of laws that restricted Chinese immigration.

    The influx of Chinese immigrants to the West Coast during the mid-to-late 19th century, initially fueled by the California Gold Rush, spurred the rise of an influential nativist movement that accused Chinese immigrants of stealing jobs. It also claimed that they posed a cultural threat to American society due to their racial otherness.

    The Geary Act of 1892 required Chinese living in the U.S to register with the federal government or face deportation.

    The Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of these statutes in 1893 in the case of Fong Yue Ting v. United States. Three plaintiffs claimed that anti-Chinese legislation was discriminatory, violated constitutional protections prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure, and contravened due process and equal protection guarantees.

    The Supreme Court affirmed the Geary Act’s deportation procedures, formulating a novel legal precept known as the plenary power doctrine that remains a key tenet of U.S. immigration law today.

    Court confirms the law

    The doctrine included two key assertions.

    First, the federal government’s authority to exclude and deport aliens was an inherent and unqualified feature of American sovereignty. Second, immigration enforcement was the exclusive domain of the congressional and executive branches that were charged with protecting the nation from foreign threats.

    The court also ruled that the deportation of immigrants in the country lawfully was a civil, rather than criminal matter, which meant that constitutional protections like due process did not apply.

    The government ramped up deportations in the aftermath of World War I, fueled by wartime xenophobia. American officials singled out foreign-born radicals for deportation, accusing them of fomenting disloyalty.

    The front page of the Ogden Standard, from Ogden City, Utah, on Nov. 8, 1919, announcing the arrest and planned deportation of ‘alien Reds.’
    Library of Congress

    Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, who ordered mass arrests of alleged communists, pledged to “tear out the radical seeds that have entangled Americans in their poisonous theories” and remove “alien criminals in this country who are directly responsible for spreading the unclean doctrines of Bolshevism.”

    This period marked a new era of removals carried out primarily on ideological grounds. Jews and other immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were disproportionately targeted, highlighting the cultural affinities between anti-radicalism and racial and ethnic chauvinism.

    ‘Foreign’ agitators

    The campaign to root out so-called subversives living in the United States reached its apex during the 1940s and 1950s, supercharged by figures like anti-communist crusader Sen. Joseph McCarthy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

    The specter of foreign agitators contaminating American political culture loomed large in these debates. Attorney General Tom Clark testified before Congress in 1950 that 91.4% of the Communist Party USA’s leadership were “either foreign stock or married to persons of foreign stock.”

    Congress passed a series of laws during this period requiring that subversive organizations register with the government. They also expanded the executive branch’s power to deport individuals whose views were deemed “prejudicial to national security,” blurring the lines between punishing people for unlawful acts – such as espionage and bombings – and what the government considered unlawful beliefs, such as Communist Party membership.

    While deporting foreign-born radicals had popular support, the banishment of immigrants for their political beliefs raised important constitutional questions.

    Harry Bridges, a West Coast labor leader, and his daughter, Jacqueline, 14, as they listen to proceedings during Bridges’ deportation hearing in San Francisco in July 1939.
    Underwood Archives/Getty Images

    Prosecution or persecution?

    In a landmark case in 1945, Wixon v. Bridges, the Supreme Court did assert a check on the power of the executive branch to deport someone without a fair hearing.

    The case involved Harry Bridges, Australian-born president of the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union. Bridges was a left-wing union leader who orchestrated a number of successful strikes on the West Coast. Under his leadership, the union also took progressive positions on civil rights and U.S. militarism.

    The decision in the case hinged on whether the government could prove that Bridges had been a member of the Communist Party, which would have made him deportable under the Smith Act, which proscribed membership in the Communist Party.

    Since no proof of Bridges’ membership existed, the government relied on dodgy witnesses and assertions that Bridges was aligned with the party because he shared some of its political positions. Accusations of “alignment” with controversial political organizations are similar to the charges made against foreign students currently at risk of deportation by the Trump administration.

    The Supreme Court vacated Bridges’ deportation order, declaring that the government’s claim of “affiliation” with the Communist Party was too vaguely defined and amounted to guilt by association.

    As the excesses and abuses of the McCarthy era came to light, they invited greater scrutiny about the dangers of unchecked executive power. Some of the more draconian statutes enacted during the Cold War, like the Smith Act, have been overhauled. The federal courts have toggled back and forth between narrow and liberal interpretations of the Constitution’s applicability to immigrants facing deportation – shifts that reflect competing visions of American nationhood and the boundaries of liberal democracy.

    From union leaders to foreign students

    There are some striking parallels between the throttling of civil liberties during the Cold War and President Donald Trump’s crusade against foreign students exercising venerated democratic freedoms.

    Foreign students appear to have replaced the immigrant union leaders of the 1950s as the targets of government repression. Presumptions of guilt based on hyperbolic claims of affiliation with the Communist Party have been replaced by allegations of alignment with Hamas.

    As in the past, these invocations of national security offer the pretext for the government’s efforts to stifle dissent and to mandate political conformity.

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

    – ref. From the Chinese Exclusion Act to pro-Palestinian activists: The evolution of politically motivated deportations – https://theconversation.com/from-the-chinese-exclusion-act-to-pro-palestinian-activists-the-evolution-of-politically-motivated-deportations-254683

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Country of migrants: the role of migration in regional development

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    Major socio-political events, such as collectivization, caused mass internal migration in the USSR. Tens of thousands of people moved to new places to establish their daily lives and find work. These processes significantly changed the social, national and religious composition of the population of the regions, influenced economic development and the formation of healthcare and education infrastructure. Common features and characteristics of migration in the Perm region and Tuva were discussed at the round table of the “Mirror Laboratories” of the Yasinsky scientific conference.

    Internal migration in the USSR

    At the anniversary XXV Yasinsky (April) Conference The HSE hosted a round table discussion entitled “The History of Migration in the USSR: Regional Aspect.” It was organized as part of the Mirror Laboratories project, which brings together scientists from the HSE Perm campus and Tuva State University. The round table was moderated by Professor Faculty of Social, Economic and Computer Sciences, National Research University Higher School of Economics in Perm Sergey Kornienko.

    Vera Damdynchap, Head of the Department of General History, Archaeology and Documentation of the Faculty of History of Tuva State University, and Arzhana Nurzat, Senior Lecturer of the Department, presented a report entitled “Migration, Urbanization and Collectivization: Key Aspects of Social Transformation in Tuva (1944–1959).” Vera Damdynchap noted that Tuva’s accession to the USSR in 1944 accelerated the transformation of the economic structure.

    She said that by 1944 collectivization was not completed, and a significant part of the population was engaged in personal nomadic farming. Collectivization became an important element in the formation of the social structure of the population: by its end in 1955, the share of collective farmers reached 61.5% of the rural population of Tuva.

    At the same time, coal mining began in the autonomous region and enterprises in other industries began operating. This also changed the settlement structure of the population: the share of the urban population in 1944-58 increased from 6% to 33%. A particularly significant influx was recorded in the capital of the region, Kyzyl, as well as in the new cities and workers’ settlements of Chadan, Turan and Shagonar. It is significant that the total urban population increased by 1.4 times over 15 years, while its part from migrants increased by 7.6 times due to the relocation of rural residents and the arrival in Tuva of engineering and technical personnel and workers of new enterprises.

    The rapid growth of the urban population exacerbated the housing problem, which they tried to solve through temporary housing and rapid construction. It is curious that about 30% of collective farmers were involved in construction, having built 1,660 houses and cultural and household facilities.

    At the same time, the development of virgin and fallow lands began, which increased the role of farming in agriculture and the economy as a whole.

    In the post-war years, the number of Russians and Ukrainians who came to Tuva increased approximately 4 times, and their share in the population increased to 41%.

    Vera Damdynchap noted that in the autonomous region, collectivization was less dramatic than in neighboring Russian regions or, for example, in Buryatia.

    The role of forced migrants

    Associate Professor Departments of Humanities Anna Kimerling, a professor at the Faculty of Social, Economic and Computer Sciences at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Perm, presented a report entitled “Social Technologies of Integrating Forced Migrants into the Territorial Community of the Molotov Region in the 1940s and 1950s,” prepared jointly with Sergei Kornienko.

    She said that the study is based on archival documents and interviews, including those recorded by the German society “Renaissance”. The number of residents of the Molotov (Perm) region between the censuses of 1939 and 1959 increased by 37.5%, and the regional center – by two times. For comparison: during this period, the population of the USSR increased by 9.5%.

    Among the forced migrants were about 40,000 Soviet Germans – special settlers and labor army soldiers. Until the Decree “On the lifting of restrictions on the legal status of Germans and their family members in special settlements” was adopted on December 13, 1955, they could not leave their places of residence and work.

    Economic adaptation played an important role. By the early 1950s, 11% of forced migrants had built their own homes, half had vegetable gardens, and a third had small cattle. Social and cultural factors also played a significant role. The chances of adaptation were increased by the marriage of a forced migrant to a local resident or a deportee, as well as the birth of children in the new family. This and joint work at an enterprise increased the chances of receiving housing and rations, which were used not only by workers, but also by older family members.

    Former forced migrants recalled that the attitude towards “Russian Germans” was wary. The local population was not always ready to help them, but in places of special settlements, where most of the residents were repressed, rapprochement was faster.

    The speaker named another adaptation factor as education, cultural and human capital, or a skill valued at the place of work. A labor army soldier who knew how to operate a tractor received a good ration at the logging sites. Another exile drove the head of the settlement and, thanks to personal communication, received the position of manager of a bread store, which dramatically improved the living conditions of his family.

    Over time, forced migrants played a significant role in the development of the region. For example, one of the exiled Germans later became the chief architect of the Solikamsk region, Yevgeny Wagner became the rector of the regional medical institute, and Anatoly Bartolomey became the rector of the polytechnic.

    Professor of the Department of Documentation and Information Support of the Department of History of the Ural Federal University Oleg Gorbachev asked whether individual examples of successful careers of exiled settlers can be considered a reflection of the liberalization of the regime in relation to them. According to Anna Kimerling, cases of transfer to a responsible position are few and they occurred mainly in the post-Stalin period, which reflected a certain evolution of the authorities’ attitude towards the repressed.

    Ethnic and religious aspects

    Head of the Department of Russian History at Tuva University Zoya Dorzhu and Associate Professor of the Department Alena Storozhenko presented a report on “Migration Processes in Tuva in the 1920s-50s. Ethno-confessional Aspect”. State sovereignty and autonomy formed a special state-political context of relations with neighboring regions, which also influenced migration.

    The speakers highlighted several periods of the authorities’ attitude to migration. With the establishment of the independent Tuvan People’s Republic in 1921, the authorities sought to limit the influx of Russians into its territory. Thus, checkpoints were established on the border, which, however, did not stop migration. As the country drew closer to the USSR in the 1930s, migration controls on the border were relaxed. Migration was also accelerated by the TPR authorities’ request to Moscow to send specialists. Often, the resettlements of the 1920s and 1930s were caused by the desire of some residents of nearby regions of the USSR to avoid repression and, at the same time, the desire to find a place for productive agriculture. After joining the USSR in 1944, the restrictions were lifted.

    Tuvans remained in the majority, but their share in the total population of the republic and the region fluctuated significantly. In 1921 and 1931 it was about 80%, in 1945 – 85%, and by 1959 due to mass migration it had dropped to 57%.

    Migration had a significant impact on the ethnic and religious composition of the population. Buddhists, shamanists, Orthodox Christians and pagans were represented in the republic. Moreover, the Old Believers, who appeared in Tuva back in the 19th century, integrated into its territory, and at the time of the creation of the TNR they constituted a third of the Russian-speaking residents of the republic.

    Sergey Kornienko wondered whether it was possible to find common themes in studying the migration processes of Tuva and the Perm (Molotov) region. According to Alena Storozhenko, the Uralians made up a significant portion of the Old Believers who moved to Tuva, but it is still difficult to accurately determine their share in the number of migrants.

    Organized labor migration

    Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities of the Faculty of Social, Economic and Computer Sciences of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Perm Alexander Glushkov and Master’s student of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow Kristina Kozlova presented a report “Attracting Labor Migrant Workers to the USSR in the Late 1940s – 1950s: A Comparative Analysis of Agitation (Based on the Example of Enterprises in the Molotov Region of the RSFSR).” Alexander Glushkov recalled that in 1947, organized labor migrations resumed in the USSR. In the Molotov Region, workers were attracted to work in the coal industry, in logging enterprises and collective farms.

    Kristina Kozlova said that regional and republican authorities were engaged in agitation. In 1952, the regional executive committee issued a resolution defining the rules for selecting recruiters for resettlement and preparing agitation and reference materials.

    Among them, visual (posters) and written materials and oral propaganda can be singled out. Films were another form of propaganda. An important role was also played by materials in newspapers and magazines, including special issues of large-circulation newspapers, as well as brochures about the region, which included information about the region, as well as letters and stories from settlers.

    The recruiters’ lectures were devoted to the state and prospects of the region’s economy, as well as the international position of the USSR. Aleksandr Glushkov reported that the agitation did not cease even after the resettlement: the new residents of the region were explained the labor tasks facing them, and the authors of articles and posters also sought to reduce the number of resettlers returning home.

    The speakers compared the newspapers of two large enterprises of the region — the KamGESstroy and Molotovles trusts — before and after Stalin’s death, the forms of agitation and key narratives. The analysis showed that in the late Stalin period, non-material motives stood out: prestige, the call of the party and the desire to be useful to the Motherland. After Stalin’s death, material motivation increased: workers were offered to earn money, quickly improve their living conditions, including by acquiring a new profession. Agitation aimed at securing the settlers was focused on money and privileges.

    Kristina Kozlova summed up: a comparative analysis of the agitation of the late 1940s and mid-1950s allows us to identify common motives and a gradual transition to the prevalence of material incentives over ideological ones, although the latter did not disappear. This reflected the gradual transformation of Soviet society during the thaw.

    AI to the rescue

    Sergey Kornienko presented the report “Studying the History of Migration in the Digital Environment: Regional Aspect” (based on the materials of the joint project of HSE Perm and Tuva State University “Migration in the Socio-Economic, Demographic, Cultural and Human Dimensions”. HSE Mirror Laboratories Program, 2024-26).

    He identified three areas of digital scientific humanities research: creation and organization of digital versions of historical and historiographic sources; development and adaptation of methods, technologies and tools for digital research; representation of data and research results.

    During the project, its participants create digital versions of historical sources on the history of migration, including in the form of tables and data sets, information systems and databases.

    The professor said that rather complex types of sources have to be converted into digital format, in particular, lists of settlers, echelon lists, as well as household books describing the dwellings, livestock and inventory of settlers. Despite the development of technology, it is often necessary to resort to manual or semi-automatic digitization. Students are involved in this work, acquiring useful skills in digitizing documents. Digitized sources are convenient for conversion into tabular and matrix forms.

    Digital processing of document complexes allows us to eliminate gaps in some points of individual materials (for example, the absence of the year of birth or previous place of residence of a migrant), and to create metadata.

    To study propaganda materials for settlers of the 1940s and 50s, full-text resources were created, prepared for processing by computer methods and tools. In particular, this form of processing was used for the corpus of memoirs of settlers who moved to the Kaliningrad and Molotov regions.

    In addition, scientists conduct corpus studies using linguistic methods.

    Sergey Kornienko emphasized that digital methods allow increasing the reliability of research, introducing elements of novelty, introducing new sources more fully and processing old ones more effectively. This helps to better understand the impact of migration processes on the social structure and other components of migrants’ lives.

    The project participants will continue to use Data Science methods and apply neural network modeling – variants of artificial intelligence, the professor concluded.

    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 –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: In the $250B influencer industry, being a hater can be the only way to rein in bad behavior

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jessica Maddox, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Creative Media, University of Alabama

    Influencer Alix Earle, a self-described ‘hot mess,’ has legions of online haters. Greg Doherty/Getty Images for Revolve

    Since 2020, content creator Remi Bader had accumulated millions of TikTok followers by offering her opinions on the fits of popular clothing brands as a plus-size woman.

    In 2023, however, Bader appeared noticeably thinner. When some fans asked her whether she’d undergone a procedure, she blocked them. Later that year, she announced that she would no longer be posting about her body.

    Enter snark subreddits. On Reddit, these forums exist for the sole purpose of calling out internet celebrities, whether they’re devoted to dinging the late-night antics of self-described “hot mess” Alix Earle or venting over Savannah and Cole LaBrant, a family vlogging couple who misleadingly implied that their daughter had cancer.

    While the internet is synonymous with fan culture, snark subreddits aren’t for enthusiasts. Instead, snarkers are anti-fans who hone the art of hating.

    Remi Bader attends New York Fashion Week on Feb. 10, 2025.
    Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tory Burch

    After Bader’s refusal to talk about her weight loss, the Remi Bader snark subreddit blew up. Posters weren’t upset that Bader had lost weight or had stopped posting about her body size. Instead, they believed Bader the influencer, who’d built her brand on plus-size inclusion in fashion, wasn’t being straight with her fans and needed to be taken to account.

    It worked. During a March 2025 appearance on Khloe Kardashian’s podcast, Bader finally revealed that she had, in fact, had weight-loss surgery.

    Some critics see snarkers as a big problem and understandably denounce their tendency to harass, body shame and try to cancel influencers.

    But completely dismissing snark glosses over the fact that it can serve a purpose. In our work as social media researchers, we’ve written about how snark can actually be thought of as a way to call out bad actors in the largely unregulated world of influencing and content creation.

    Grassroots policing

    Before there were influencers, there were bloggers. While bloggers covered topics that ranged from entertainment to politics to travel, parenting and fashion bloggers probably have the closest connection to today’s influencers.

    After Google introduced AdSense in 2003, bloggers were easily able to run advertising on their websites. Then brands saw an opportunity. Parenting and fashion bloggers had large, loyal followings. Many readers felt an intimate connection to their favorite bloggers, who seemed more like friends than out-of-touch celebrity spokespersons.

    Brands realized they could send bloggers their products in exchange for a write-up or a feature. Furthermore, advertisers understood that parenting and fashion bloggers didn’t have to adhere to the same industry regulations or code of ethics as most news media outlets, such as disclosing payments or conflicts of interest.

    This changed the dynamic between bloggers and their fans, who wondered whether bloggers could be trusted if they were sometimes being paid to promote certain products.

    In response, websites emerged in 2009 to critique bloggers. “Get Off My Internets,” for example, fashioned itself as a “quality control watchdog” to provide constructive criticism and call out deceptive practices. As Instagram and YouTube became more popular, the subreddit “r/Blogsnark” launched in 2015 to critique early influencers, in addition to bloggers.

    Few guardrails in place

    Today the influencer industry has a valuation of over US$250 billion in the U.S. alone, and it’s on track to be worth over $500 billion by 2027.

    Yet there are few regulations in place for influencers. A few laws have emerged to protect child influencers, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has established legal guidelines for sponsored content.

    That said, the influencing industry remains rife with exploitation.

    It goes both ways: Corporations can exploit influencers. For example, a 2021 study found that Black influencers receive below-market offers compared with white influencers.

    Savannah and Cole LaBrant came under fire for implying that their daughter had cancer, in what their critics called a ploy for attention.
    Danielle Del Valle/Getty Images for Lionsgate

    Likewise, influencers can deceive or exploit their followers. They might use unrealistic body filters to appear thinner than they are. They could hide who’s paying them. They may promote health misinformation such as the controversial ParaGuard cleanse, a fake treatment pushed by wellness influencers that claimed to rid its users of parasites.

    Or, in the case of Remi Bader, they might gain a huge following by promoting body positivity, only to conceal a weight-loss procedure from their fans.

    For disappointed fans or followers who feel burned, snark can seem like the only regulatory guardrail in an industry that has gone largely unchecked. Think of snark as a Better Business Bureau for the untamable world of influencing – a form of accountability that brings attention to the scammers and hustlers.

    Keeping it real

    Todays’s snark exists at the intersection of gossip and cancel culture.

    Though cancel culture certainly has its faults, we approach cancel culture in our writing as a worthy tool that allows audiences to hold the powerful accountable. For example, communities of color have joined forces to call out racists, as they did in 2024 when they exposed lifestyle influencer Brooke Schofield’s anti-Black tweets.

    Influencers build trust with their audiences based on being “real” and relatable. But there’s nothing preventing them from breaking that trust, and snarkers can swoop in to point out bad behavior or hypocrisy.

    Within the competitive world of family vlogging, snarkers see themselves as doing more than stirring the pot. They’re truth-tellers who bring injustices to light, such as abuse and child labor exploitation. Some of this exposure is paying off, with more and more states introducing and passing family vlogger laws that require children to one day receive a portion of their parents’ earnings or restrict how often children can appear in their parents’ videos.

    Yes, snark can veer into cyberbullying. But that shouldn’t discount its value as a tool for transparency. Influencers are ultimately brands. They sell audiences ideas, lifestyles and products.

    When people feel as if they’ve been misled, we think they have every right to call it out.

    Jess Rauchberg receives funding from Microsoft Research.

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

    – ref. In the $250B influencer industry, being a hater can be the only way to rein in bad behavior – https://theconversation.com/in-the-250b-influencer-industry-being-a-hater-can-be-the-only-way-to-rein-in-bad-behavior-253010

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI China: China revises law to strengthen infectious disease prevention, control

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

    BEIJING, April 30 — China on Wednesday adopted a revised Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, aiming to improve its prevention of epidemics and protect the life and health of its people.

    The revised law, passed at a session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, will take effect on Sept. 1, 2025.

    Liu Xia, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, said that the new law provides a strong legal safeguard for the development of a disease control system led by medical and health institutions, integrating prevention and treatment, and supported by cooperation across all sectors of society.

    The new law will significantly strengthen China’s core capabilities in the fields of infectious disease monitoring and early warnings, emergency response, testing and diagnostics, and medical treatment, Liu said.

    “The new law further clarifies the rights, obligations and responsibilities of various parties — including government departments, disease control agencies, medical institutions, businesses and individuals — in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, and strengthens cross-departmental coordination mechanisms,” said Shen Weixing, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Law.

    This revised version effectively enhances the authority and enforceability of the law, Shen added

    MIL OSI China News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Local elections: what would a good night look like for Nigel Farage’s Reform?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Hannah Bunting, Senior Lecturer in Quantitative British Politics and Co-director of The Elections Centre, University of Exeter

    English local elections on May 1 mark the first time widespread voting has happened in the UK since last year’s general election. They are therefore the first big test for the Labour government – but also for Reform’s Nigel Farage. Farage has led his party into elections before but not since becoming an MP.

    Reform achieved 14.3% of the vote in July 2024 and opinion polls put them at around 25% now. Farage has declared his party is therefore the “opposition to the Labour government”.

    These elections in 23 English local authorities are about selecting the representatives that will serve communities, both in day-to-day essential operations, and during council reorganisations amid plans for decentralisation of British democracy. Yet attention is also being paid to the challenge Reform have set themselves – can they continue the transition from anti-establishment outsiders to a winning party engine?

    There are 1,641 local councillor vacancies up for election this week, in 1,401 wards. Reform are contesting more seats than any other party. In fact, there’s only a handful without their candidate on the ballot, amounting to 99.3% coverage. This is a major step forward for the party. Ukip contested 80% of this set of seats near the height of its popularity 12 years ago.

    The Conservatives are contesting 97.2%, Labour 94%, the Liberal Democrats 85.1% and the Greens 72.2%. There are candidates from others and independents, including local parties, also standing in every local authority.

    This year’s elections see the Conservative heartlands up for grabs. Known as the shire counties, some of these local authorities, such as Devon and Leicestershire, have been solidly Conservative for over 20 years. So if Reform see themselves as replacing the Tories, then these are the contests Farage’s party should be winning.

    Notably, these seats also have the lowest female representation, which has partly been driven by the Conservative dominance. Analysis of this year’s candidates shows that Reform is fielding the fewest women, meaning this gender disparity could be about to get worse.

    The gender distribution of candidates per party, with women represented in the lighter shades and men in the darker.
    H Bunting, CC BY-ND

    Recent successes

    There have been 241 vacancies in council byelections across Britain since the general election. Reform has won 15 of them. Where it fielded candidates, they’ve generally received significant vote shares, taking seats from both the Conservatives and Labour and gaining momentum. In the six-month period between October and March, Reform contested 64 of 78 council byelections (82%) and either won or came second in half of them.

    This shows that Reform can be successful – and usually on the low turnouts generally seen in byelections. With turnout being less than a third at the last two local election cycles, followed by the second lowest ever general election turnout, it’s these dedicated voters who will be affecting change this week.

    The seats up for election now were last contested in 2021 – when a “vaccine bounce” for Boris Johnson delivered the Conservatives their best local results since 2008. Now they are bracing for a bad night. If Reform and the Liberal Democrats wipe out the Tories in different areas but to the same degree, there may be no Conservative heartlands left in the country.

    Want more politics coverage from academic experts? Every week, we bring you informed analysis of developments in government and fact check the claims being made.

    Sign up for our weekly politics newsletter, delivered every Friday.

    Labour, meanwhile, did so badly in 2021 that it could even make gains due to the areas up for election. In council byelections, Reform has taken seats from Labour in some of the areas that are up now (Lancashire and Kent) but overall these locals are in Tory heartlands. Labour is defending 287 of the seats up this time – and at least 25 are vulnerable.

    How will Reform fare?

    However, local elections are often fought on local issues, which puts Reform in a difficult spot. On one hand, they could position the new faces they are putting forward for councils as members of the community.

    On the other, the party is often seen as a national entity whose main messages are on immigration and the economy, which councils don’t control. And while Farage has set his sights on damaging the two main parties in a continuation of anti-establishment sentiment, he is now trying to do so as a semi-establishment figure.

    In similar local elections in 2013, Ukip received more than a fifth of votes but only ended up with a tenth of the seats. Therein lies the biggest hurdle for new entrants to the British voting system.

    Farage’s parties have often polled well but failed to gain the concentrated pockets of support needed to win representatives. This was most recently in evidence at the general election, where Reform received a higher vote share than the Liberal Democrats but only came away with five seats, compared to Ed Davey’s 72.

    This is a particularly difficult set of elections to call for a number of reasons. Boundary changes in more than 42% of seats are confusing the picture, for one thing, and the fact that such a small number of areas are voting makes projections more difficult. Reform is also so new to these races that there aren’t past comparisons to draw on.

    But as an indicator, there are around 200 seats with no boundary changes that are particularly vulnerable to a challenger win. Of these, 60% are defended by the Conservatives, and it’s feasible that Reform could take a chunk of them. More than 900 seats are considered a Tory defence (when boundary changes are taken into consideration), but at least 400 of them are relatively safe.

    Some local authorities sit in areas that returned a Reform MP in July, such as Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, and many of them house constituencies that saw Reform come in second place. However, there are also areas like Cornwall where the Liberal Democrats are a strong challenger.

    What it may come down to is the strength of the party engine. Reform has found the candidates, but the test is whether its campaign has built on a growing base of support. If Reform wins are in the hundreds, they’ll be able to claim they’re on track.

    But Reform candidates then have to start the hard work of being councillors. They’ll need to adapt their “Britain is broken” slogan to start evidencing that they’re fixing it. That takes more than words.

    Hannah Bunting receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

    – ref. Local elections: what would a good night look like for Nigel Farage’s Reform? – https://theconversation.com/local-elections-what-would-a-good-night-look-like-for-nigel-farages-reform-255641

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Video: Debating Education

    Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

    From integrating next-generation technologies into curricula to addressing national perceptions of cultural issues, education is at a pivotal moment in ensuring that it adequately trains and teaches future generations.

    In this town hall, leaders debate what success can look like for education globally.

    This is the full audio from a session at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting on 22 January, 2025. Watch it here: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/sessions/debating-education/

    Speakers:

    Sian L. Beilock, President, Dartmouth

    Michael Spence, President and Provost, University College London (UCL)

    Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

    Raquel Bernal, President, Universidad de los Andes

     

    Check out all our podcasts on wef.ch/podcasts (http://wef.ch/podcasts) : 

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    Radio Davos (https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos) – subscribe (https://pod.link/1504682164) : https://pod.link/1504682164

    Meet the Leader (https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader) – subscribe (https://pod.link/1534915560) : https://pod.link/1534915560

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    Join the World Economic Forum Podcast Club (https://www.facebook.com/groups/wefpodcastclub) : https://www.facebook.com/groups/wefpodcastclub

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMKRsKBmrXQ

    MIL OSI Video –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Financial News: Saint Petersburg to Host Economic Research Seminar on Monetary Policy

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Central Bank of Russia –

    On July 1, the Bank of Russia, the New Economic School and the regulator’s basic department at the National Research University Higher School of Economics will hold the 15th seminar on economic research in St. Petersburg on the topic “Monetary policy and inflation: the effects of asymmetry and behavioral aspects.”

    The participants will discuss what information influences household inflation expectations, how stock prices and inflation are related, and the role of the money flow channel. Research on the conditions for the effectiveness of monetary policy communication and the Phillips curve in a network economy will also be presented.

    To participate offline or online you must: register.

    Preview photo: Gorbacheva_jul / Shutterstock / Fotodom

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

    Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

    HTTPS: //vv. KBR.ru/Press/Event/? ID = 23587

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: We will teach you how to build the “Architecture of Relationships”

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    The educational and enlightening course for students “Architecture of Relationships”, held at the State University of Management, is in full swing. 7 out of 13 lessons have already been completed – and there is even more useful stuff to come!

    Second half program:

    May 6 “Breaking is not building” How to overcome crises in relationships. May 13 “Effective communication” Rules for environmentally friendly communication without conflicts. May 16 Screening and discussion of the film May 20 “PROlove” What is true intimacy. May 23 Screening and discussion of the film May 27 “Like in a fairy tale” How to cope with the reality of relationships and marriage.

    This course is for you if:

    You are in a relationship and want to strengthen it; You dream of meeting your “other half” and building a strong relationship; You want to better understand yourself, work through your fears, and break down the barriers that prevent you from building a relationship.

    The course is absolutely free and is available to students of all universities. Venue: State University of Management

    Registration is available at the link.

    For more detailed information about the course content, see the cards below.

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 04/30/2025

    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 –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Dmitry Chernyshenko visited the Donetsk People’s Republic on a working visit

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    The Deputy Prime Minister assessed the educational infrastructure of the region and spoke with students.

    At the Mariupol State University named after A.I. Kuindzhi (MSU named after A.I. Kuindzhi), Dmitry Chernyshenko talked to the participants of the project “University Shifts”, which allows the younger generation to consciously choose a profession and a university at an early age. Over three years, the project has involved more than 44 thousand children from the regions of Russia. The children told about their personal experience of participating in the project.

    “It’s great that you communicate with your peers, broaden your horizons. At the same time, you have a very clearly structured method of thinking and values. And you can, like Danko with a burning heart, follow your mission, lead and inspire,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.

    Dmitry Chernyshenko assessed the progress of restoration work and the university infrastructure. In particular, the university has a youth laboratory – the Laboratory of Media Literacy and Media Research. The Deputy Prime Minister handed over a certificate for the purchase of a video studio to its representatives.

    Also, a multifunctional sports ground was opened at Kuindzhi Moscow State University. It was built in six months and, along with other sports grounds of the university, became part of the sports cluster – they are being created on the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science as part of the program for the socio-economic development of the reunited entities.

    The new site has four locations: a mini-football field, a volleyball and basketball court, an area for passing the standards of the All-Russian physical education and sports complex “Ready for Labor and Defense”, and an area with multifunctional exercise machines.

    The Azov Marine Institute (AMI), a branch of the Sevastopol State University, trains specialists for the maritime industry. Currently, it is the only specialized higher education institution on the shores of the Azov Sea. In the future, it is planned to launch secondary specialized education programs and advanced training courses for already working maritime specialists. To ensure that the training is as practice-oriented as possible, several thematic classrooms were equipped with mock-ups, models, and other training elements during the recently completed repairs.

    The Deputy Prime Minister handed over a certificate for the acquisition of a vehicle to the institute’s management and assessed the university’s infrastructure and equipment, including training and sports simulators – AMI is now one of the most modern training bases for future sailors in Russia. Among the professional simulators are bridge and engine room simulators, a separate large-scale complex for practicing actions in emergency situations on ships.

    During the visit, Dmitry Chernyshenko visited the Mariupol Construction Specialized College, one of the flagships of secondary vocational education in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The educational institution is part of the educational and production cluster “Construction Industry”. As part of the federal project “Professionalism” of the national project “Youth and Children”, students master promising specialties and gain practical experience, which they demonstrated to the Deputy Prime Minister.

    “The most important thing is that the working specialties that you teach are based on the most modern technologies that you actually use in technological processes. For this, you need materials and teachers,” he told the college staff.

    In the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in Mariupol, Dmitry Chernyshenko discussed work issues with Metropolitan Vladimir of Donetsk and Mariupol. The main topic was the key areas of upcoming construction and restoration work. In addition, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, the pupils of the children’s Sunday school read poems and performed Easter hymns.

    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 –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Tesla sales fall while its stock rallies – what this tells us about perceptions of Elon Musk

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Akhil Bhardwaj, Associate Professor (Strategy and Organisation), School of Management, University of Bath

    bluestork/Shutterstock

    Electric vehicle maker Tesla recently shared the news of disappointing first-quarter results when its earnings report was weaker than most Wall Street analysts had expected. Tesla’s revenue had tumbled 9% and its profit was down 71%.

    Typically, this would result in a sharp decline in investor confidence and share prices. Tesla’s share prices have indeed dropped over 40% this year. But after the earnings report, Tesla’s stock rallied when CEO Elon Musk vowed to scale back his involvement with the US Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and focus on Tesla instead.

    He said that he would spend a day or two a week on government matters at president Donald Trump’s request. In any case, Musk is a “special government employee”, which means he can work in that role for 130 days in a year. Assuming his role started on January 20 – Trump’s inauguration day – it would need to be terminated by the end of May had he continued to work five days a week.

    Tesla maintains that the slump in its earnings can be attributed to many factors, including concerns about supply chains and tariffs, as well as energy prices.

    But Musk’s unpopularity has probably affected sales, with his approval among consumers souring. There will be a multitude of factors at play that can explain Tesla’s decline. What is less ambiguous is the response of the market to Musk – just the fact that he said that he would devote time to Tesla rallied the investors.

    Apparently, the boss’s attention is highly valuable. To some extent, this is not surprising – what a CEO (or leader) chooses to focus on and what they ignore sets the tone within a firm.

    That said, it hardly seems to be the case that this is about setting a tone. Rather, the market (or the investors) seems to trust Musk. This is no mean feat for a CEO prone to engage in bluster. This investor trust contrasts with consumer trust and goodwill, which seem to be eroding at the same time.

    Musk has been called an absent CEO and analysts have noted that the demands on his time imply that he cannot be very active in running Tesla. Perhaps that is true.

    Or perhaps Musk thinks that Tesla is too big to fail and will be protected by the US government. Short-term bumps are less relevant for a firm that is pivoting away from its core business, as Tesla now appears to be doing.

    The future for Tesla

    Musk has stated that Tesla is increasingly an AI and robotics company, saying this is where the firm believes the “future lies”.

    Setting aside energy, data is one of the most important resources powering AI. It is the key input for training large language models (LLMs) and machine algorithms.

    The quality of an AI algorithm is directly correlated with the data it trains on. The larger and more diverse the data set, the better (and more lucrative) the AI agent is likely to be. There seems to be substaintial overlap in the data that AI has been trained on, although details are closely guarded.

    In addition, there is a possibility of training data running out, which makes it an even more precious resource.

    Companies from OpenAI to Meta seem to be scraping the internet for the same publicly available information (while apparently ignoring copyright issues). Now Musk seems to have access to an unprecedented amount of data that is not available to his competitors.

    His department at Doge has reportedly pushed for access to sensitive social security information, for example, that includes dates of birth, citizenship status, income, addresses, other tax-related information.

    Musk-owned company xAI launched chatbot Grok in 2023.
    bella1105/Shutterstock

    Musk-owned interests have also developed an LLM chatbot called Grok. And while Musk and his spokespeople deny that they have siphoned data for training AI models, there seems to be some indicators that this could potentially be done.

    It appears that Musk has manoeuvred himself into a position where, despite his unpopularity among car buyers, he can still ensure that his companies will thrive.

    But what does Trump get in return? After all, the president of the US considers himself a dealmaker. At least one analyst has suggested that Musk is the “fall guy” to take the hit when the Doge cuts begin to bite ordinary Americans.

    Regardless, it does appear that some sort of bargain has been struck between Musk and Trump. And it seems to be paying off for Musk – regulations around self-driving cars have been slashed, leading to another surge in the price of Tesla stock.

    Trump has also signed an executive order for AI education in primary and secondary schools. This is sure to increase the size of the market, which is clearly good news for companies in the AI sector.

    It would be foolish to underestimate the world’s richest man or to bet against him. But it’s important not to lionise CEOs to the extent that they become cult figures.

    In the Wealth of Nations, 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith made the point that the butcher, brewer and baker do not act from altruism. Instead, it is their own self-interest that puts food and drink on people’s tables. We are far better served keeping that in mind to make sense of the actions of Musk – or the investors in Tesla.

    Akhil Bhardwaj 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. Tesla sales fall while its stock rallies – what this tells us about perceptions of Elon Musk – https://theconversation.com/tesla-sales-fall-while-its-stock-rallies-what-this-tells-us-about-perceptions-of-elon-musk-255469

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why losing belly fat with PCOS can be difficult – and what helps

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University

    ivan_kislitsin/Shutterstock

    Tried a dozen different ways to shift that stubborn belly and still no luck? You’re not alone. For some women, losing belly fat can be especially difficult – and there may be a medical reason why.

    Search the term “PCOS belly” on TikTok and you’ll find a flood of content promising ways to get rid of it. From low to high intensity workouts, eating more protein, apple cider vinegar and natural supplements, the list of so-called solutions is endless. But what actually is a PCOS belly – and are these TikTok tips grounded in science?

    Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common hormonal disorder that affects around one in ten women of childbearing age, according to the NHS. However, more than half of these women may show no obvious symptoms.

    Women with PCOS produce abnormally high levels of androgens – male hormones like testosterone that are usually present in small amounts. This hormonal imbalance can lead to symptoms such as irregular periods, infertility, acne, excess facial and body hair, and in some cases, multiple cysts on the ovaries.

    The exact cause of PCOS is still unknown, but it’s believed to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors – it often runs in families.

    ‘PCOS belly’

    While not a clinical term, “PCOS belly” is commonly used on social media to describe the accumulation of fat around the abdominal area, which is often seen in women with PCOS. This is frequently linked to insulin resistance, a condition where the body’s cells don’t respond properly to insulin – a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. When insulin isn’t used effectively, excess glucose is stored as fat, particularly around the midsection.

    In response, the body may produce even more insulin, which can stimulate the production of testosterone, further exacerbating PCOS symptoms. Women with PCOS often store more visceral fat – the deeper, more dangerous fat that wraps around internal organs – compared to women without the condition. One study found that women with PCOS had significantly more visceral fat, even if their weight was in the normal range. Up to 80% of PCOS cases show evidence of insulin resistance, but not all women have a PCOS belly or are overweight.

    Women with PCOS are also more likely to experience chronic low-grade inflammation, which can contribute to weight gain and insulin resistance. Additionally, elevated cortisol levels – the body’s main stress hormone – are often found in PCOS and are linked to abdominal fat.

    Some research also suggests that women with PCOS may have imbalanced gut microbiomes, which can lead to bloating and digestive issues. A 2024 study confirmed that women with PCOS are more prone to gastrointestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with bloating as a key symptom.

    Challenging but not impossible

    PCOS belly isn’t just a cosmetic concern – it’s associated with higher risks of serious health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and metabolic syndrome (which includes high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated blood sugar).

    Increased abdominal fat also raises inflammatory markers, worsening insulin resistance and perpetuating a vicious cycle of hormonal imbalance.

    And it’s not just physical health. PCOS has a profound effect on mental health, with studies showing higher rates of anxiety, depression, and body image issues among women with the condition.

    Losing weight with PCOS is challenging, but not impossible. While you can’t spot-reduce belly fat, losing overall body fat can help shrink your midsection and reduce health risks.

    There’s no one-size-fits-all “PCOS diet”, but many women benefit from eating a balanced diet that focuses on whole foods, lean proteins, healthy fats and low-glycaemic index carbs that don’t spike blood sugar.

    A balanced diet can also reduce inflammation and help curb cravings between meals. Research shows that walking after meals can help lower blood glucose, making fat storage less likely.

    Despite TikTok warnings about cortisol and high-intensity workouts, studies show both Hiit (high-intensity interval training) and Mict (moderate-intensity continuous training) can improve insulin sensitivity and lower testosterone levels in women with PCOS. Exercise can also lift your mood and reduce stress. The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise weekly and strengthening activities at least two days a week.

    Chronic stress increases cortisol, which can worsen PCOS symptoms. Yoga, meditation and deep breathing can all help. Quality sleep is also crucial, both for hormone regulation and overall weight management. Women with PCOS are more prone to sleep issues like obstructive sleep apnoea.

    Some TikTok influencers recommend natural remedies – but always read the label and speak to a healthcare professional before starting taking any herbal medicines or alternative therapies.

    Supplements that show some promise include inositol, coenzyme Q10, vitamin D and curcumin. Berberine and L-carnitine may also be helpful. Research suggests these may improve insulin resistance or reduce inflammation, but more high-quality studies are needed to confirm their effectiveness and safety. Doctors may also prescribe metformin, to improve insulin sensitivity, or hormonal contraceptives to regulate periods and hormonal imbalances.

    PCOS belly is real, but so are the solutions. Every woman’s experience with PCOS is unique, and what works for one person might not work for another.

    Managing PCOS belly requires a holistic approach including diet and nutrition, regular exercise, stress management, sleep hygiene and possibly medication or supplements. If you’re struggling, speak with a GP or registered dietitian and always check with a pharmacist or doctor before starting any new supplements.

    You deserve support that’s based on science – not social media trends.

    Dipa Kamdar 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. Why losing belly fat with PCOS can be difficult – and what helps – https://theconversation.com/why-losing-belly-fat-with-pcos-can-be-difficult-and-what-helps-254519

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: William Morris: new exhibition reveals how Britain’s greatest designer went viral

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Marcus Waithe, Professor of Literature and the Applied Arts, University of Cambridge

    Hadrian Garrard, the curator of Morris Mania – an innovative exhibition now showing at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, east London – tells the story of being in King’s Cross Station and spotting someone wheeling a shopping trolley covered in a plasticised Morris pattern. It reminded me of the time when a student thanked me for my teaching with a pair of Morris-themed flip-flops.

    Mugs, tea towels, notepads, handbags and all manner of other incongruous objects make up this world of Morris merchandise. Much of it is made in China and remote from the purposes William Morris had in mind. How did this Victorian designer and socialist, known for championing craftsmanship and preferring substance over style, become an icon of consumer culture?

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    The exhibition’s tagline – How Britain’s Greatest Designer Went Viral – makes good sense. It’s not just that Morris stages an escape from the Victorian decorative world, but that his art proliferates in uncontrolled ways. The walk from Walthamstow station lays the groundwork in this regard: exhibition posters in shop windows, end-of-terrace murals and even the civic architecture, speak of something leaking from the gallery walls.

    The first display in the exhibition tell the story of how we got here. Morris began spreading thanks to the commissions he received from aristocratic and royal clients. They were drawn to the medieval ethos of his work, and its rejection of industrialism in the arts. An important early contract was for the interiors at St James’s Palace.

    But these establishment associations soon morphed and mutated, first among the English middle classes, who welcomed Morris’s designs into their suburban villas despite his new fondness for revolution, and then more remotely: one photograph shows Morris-patterned walls at St Peterburg’s Winter Palace, taken shortly after the Bolsheviks stormed the building. The socialism as it were, is turned inside out.

    The earliest Morris merchandise was printed for a centenary exhibition at the V&A Museum in 1934. One of its patterned postcards appears in a display case, the souvenir of Morris’s own daughter, May, whose handwriting is on the back. In 1966, Morris’s designs went out of copyright, marking a watershed. Pop Victoriana and Laura Ashley floral dresses depended on it for their reproductive freedoms.

    George Harrison’s “golden lily” jacket, from the Chelsea boutique Granny Takes a Trip, stands out as a poignant example of the ways in which Morris was recut and repurposed for the counterculture.

    Morris’s “rose” pattern proves a particularly intrepid traveller, as the design chosen for the officers’ cushions on HMS Valliant, an early nuclear-powered submarine. Its onboard domesticity blends curiously with the menace of its mission.

    Three turning points prepare us for the newest forms of Morris mania. The V&A’s 1996 exhibition repopularised Morris’s work, and thanks to new digital technology, its merchandise included printed mugs.

    Then, in 2001, the British government instructed public collections to open their doors for free. In search of new income streams, museums turned to selling themed objects through their shops. The rise of China as a manufacturing hub complemented this emphasis – less by revolutionising working conditions and democratising design, as Morris had hoped, than with a flood of cheaply produced goods.

    Beyond this revealing timeline, what really impresses is the exhibition’s care in preserving distinctions. It’s particularly careful to show that going viral need not mean selling out. From Nanjing – a major centre of Chinese manufacturing – comes a poster for the 2023 exhibition Beyond William Morris at the Nanjing Museum. It attracted over a million visitors, reminding us that behind the merchandise are new wells of love and respect.

    Something similar applies at the level of making. For every sweatshop Hello Kitty, the same character appears in a beautifully crafted yukata (a casual kimono) in Liberty fabrics made in Japan.

    A Brompton Bike hangs from the wall – manufactured in London, and sporting a handsome “willow bough” livery. Likewise, a neon “strawberry thief” motif, made at Walthamstow’s God’s Own Junk Yard, rekindles the embers of local production. This emphasis extends to the exhibition’s own making. A film documents the weaving of the Axminster carpet that furnishes the main room. Even the labels were dyed by hand with weld, a natural pigment whose use Morris revived.

    In these ways, the exhibition champions ethical and bespoke production, while confronting the darker currents that move objects around our world. It also stays curious enough to push further by exploring the kitsch new frontier of “Morris” patterns generated by AI, or by populating a Victorian dresser with “crowdsourced” Morris bric-a-brac.

    There might have been more space to consider why the surface effects of pattern travel so readily, and to quote Morris’s writings on the subject. But much of that is implicit and there for audiences to follow up.

    Morris Mania excels by nurturing the joy behind all this promiscuous growth. Most pleasingly, that trolley from King’s Cross makes a reappearance, dressed here in an AI-adapted “strawberry thief”, courtesy of Sholley Trolleys, Clacton-on-Sea. Just like Morris himself, it was made in Essex.

    Morris Mania: How Britain’s Greatest Designer Went Viral is at the William Morris Gallery until September 21 2025.

    Marcus Waithe 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. William Morris: new exhibition reveals how Britain’s greatest designer went viral – https://theconversation.com/william-morris-new-exhibition-reveals-how-britains-greatest-designer-went-viral-254761

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Three Trustees appointed to the Imperial War Museum

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Three Trustees appointed to the Imperial War Museum

    The Prime Minister has appointed Professor Dame Janet Beer, Emma Loxton and Sheena Wagstaff as Trustees of the Imperial War Museum for a four year term from 1 March 2025 to 31 October 2028.

    Professor Dame Janet Beer

    Professor Dame Janet Beer was the Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes 2007-2015 and at the University of Liverpool 2015-2022. She was President of Universities UK 2017-2019 and was awarded a Damehood in the New Years Honours list 2018 for services to higher education and equality and diversity. She is Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance; a Member of the Board of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle; an Independent Governor of Northumbria University; a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum; Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust and serves on the National Leadership Advisory Board, Cabinet Office. She is also Patron of the Mark Evison Foundation which exists to provide opportunities for young people to undertake personally designed challenges.

    Emma Loxton

    Emma Loxton is a partner at McKinsey & Company where she co-leads McKinsey’s work with defence, transport, and industrial companies in the UK. Emma has over 15 years’ experience advising institutions in the private sector on strategy and transformation. She has provided extensive pro bono support to arts institutions and homelessness charities in the UK on strategy and financial sustainability.

    Sheena Wagstaff

    Sheena Wagstaff is former Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, honored in 2022 as Chair Emerita. Her tenure was distinguished by leading The Met Breuer, establishing a transnational collection of modern and contemporary art, initiating an acclaimed exhibition program plus two series of artist commissions within the context of the museum’s global collections spanning 5,000 years. As Chief Curator of Tate Modern (2001-12), she commissioned artists for the Turbine Hall and devised the exhibition program. Working at leadership level for 30 years for institutions with strong civic values, she was previously Head of Exhibitions & Displays at Tate Britain, and Director of Collections, Exhibitions & Education at the Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh. Wagstaff has extensive experience collaborating with architects on capital design projects, including David Chipperfield Architects, Herzog & De Meuron, Selldorf Architects, and others. She serves on the Professional Fine Arts Committee of the Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies, Washington DC; the International Advisory Committee of Istanbul Modern; the Advisory Board of Delfina Foundation, London.

    Remuneration and Governance Code

    Trustees of the Imperial War Museum are not remunerated. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments.

    The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Dame Janet Beer declared that she canvassed on behalf of the Labour Party in 1997. Emma Loxton is married to Gareth Davies CB, who is the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business and Trade. Sheena Wagstaff has not declared any significant political activity.

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    Published 30 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI China: China’s National Health Commission answers questions on white paper from press

    Source: People’s Republic of China Ministry of Health

    BEIJING — China’s State Council Information Office on Wednesday released a white paper titled “Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China’s Actions and Stance.”

    The National Health Commission has responded to questions raised by the press regarding the white paper.

    Q1: What’s the background of issuing the white paper, Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins-Tracing: China’s Actions and Stance, and what information does it contain?

    A: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has been open and transparent in sharing information, and generous and selfless in providing aid. Its efforts in response and commitment to transparency have been highly acclaimed by the international community. However, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri accused China of “hoarding medical supplies” and ruled that China must pay Missouri 24.49 billion USD in compensation for COVID-related losses; and recently, an article published on the official website of the White House blamed the origin of the virus on China, where some US politicians made spurious allegations, accusing China of concealing pandemic information from the world and hoarding medical supplies.

    In such context, China released this white paper to present a systematic overview of China’s key achievement in tracing the origins of Covid-19, to attest to its contribution to international cooperation in the response to the global pandemic, and to advance scientific endeavors and foster global collaboration as a responsible major country in this critical domain. Despite being the world’s largest economy and most developed country, the US failed to make contributions commensurate with its capabilities; even worse, it blamed its own problems on others and sabotaged collaborative global efforts to address the crisis. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns such practice.

    The white paper contains a preface, the main body, and a conclusion, in total 14,000 Chinese characters. The main body has three chapters: “Contributing Chinese Wisdom to the Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2”, “China’s Contribution to the Global Fight against Covid-19”, and “The Mismanaged Response of the US to the Covid-19 Pandemic”.

    Q2: How is the origins study of SARS-CoV-2 going in China? Where should the next step be taken?

    A: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has consistently dedicated substantial resources to collaborative research into the origins of the virus participated by Chinese and international scientists. Upholding its commitment to international responsibilities and scientific soundness with openness and transparency, the country spearheaded research initiatives in critical fields such as clinical epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, and the identification of intermediate animal hosts. China closely cooperated with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the study of the virus origins with a strong sense of global responsibility and transparency, and in 2020 and 2021 invited WHO expert teams to China to carry out joint investigations. On March 30, 2021, the WHO organized a member state information session and press conference to present the findings about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and published the “WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part-Joint WHO-China Study” on its official website. To date, no findings have contradicted the conclusions of the “Joint WHO-China Study”.

    The next phase of the origins study should be conducted mainly in the US. A large number of studies have pinned the origin of the virus outside of China. A US CDC study reveals that out of 7,389 serological survey samples collected from nine states from December 13, 2019 to January 17, 2020, 106 were Covid-19 antibody positive. This suggests that the virus existed in the US before the first official case was identified. Similarly, the NIH “All of Us” Research Program tested 24,079 blood samples collected from participants across 50 states from January 2 to March 18, 2020, identifying nine containing Covid-19 antibodies. The earliest two were collected on January 7 and 8, respectively. These findings show that the virus was circulating in the US at a low level as early as December 2019, well before the first official cases were recorded. An expert associated with The Lancet suggested that SARS-CoV-2 might not have come from nature; instead, it probably came from an incident at a US bio-technology lab. Between 2006 and 2013, the US reported at least 1,500 serious laboratory incidents involving coronaviruses and other highly dangerous pathogens linked to diseases such as SARS, MERS, Ebola, anthrax, smallpox, and avian influenza.

    These questionable events all suggest that Covid-19 may have emerged earlier than the US official timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China. A thorough and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the US The US must not continue to turn a deaf ear to this call; rather, it should respond to the reasonable concern of the international community, share the data of earlier suspected cases with the WHO, and give a responsible answer to the world.

    Q3: How does China comment on the performance of the US in its response to Covid-19?

    A: The delayed and ineffective response to Covid-19 in the US made it the worst performing country in handling of the pandemic.

    In January 2020, the federal government of the US, choosing to downplay the severity of the transmission, labelled the novel coronavirus pneumonia as a case of “bad flu” which would “disappear” automatically one day, touted hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as “wonder drugs” without solid scientific evidence, and even advocated the use of detergents to control infections and transmissions, becoming a laughing stock in the scientific community. The US government also deprived its citizens of the right to be informed of updated pandemic information. From March 3, 2020, the US CDC stopped releasing key data on Covid-19, including tallying the people tested for the virus, on the grounds that its information might not be “accurate”. Over the next three years or so, people in the US could only find information about the pandemic from estimated data collected and reported by non-governmental institutions such as the Johns Hopkins University. By mid-April 2020, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US had exceeded 660,000. However, with an eye on the upcoming presidential elections, the Administration announced that the pandemic had “passed the peak,” and rushed to roll out plans to reopen the economy. Insisting that citizens should be “free to choose,” the government of Florida demanded schools across the state to reopen, leading to widespread infection among teachers and students.

    Covid-19 overwhelmed the costly and profit-driven US medical system, and vulnerable groups such as the impoverished, ethnic minorities, and senior citizens were the first to be abandoned in treatment. According to a report from the Associated Press in June 2020, of every 10 deaths in the US, eight were people over 65 years old. With a strained medical system, infected people could not receive timely care and death toll surged. The American people’s rights to life and health were in no way being guaranteed on an equal basis.

    Data from the US National Center for Health Statistics shows that the life expectancy in the country fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020, and further declined to 76.1 in 2021, a decrease of 2.7 years from 2019. For comparison, life expectancy in China rose from 77.3 years in 2019, to 77.93 in 2020, 78.2 in 2021, 78.3 in 2022, and 78.6 in 2023, signaling a steady improvement in population health.

    US CDC data released in May 2023 revealed that deaths due to Covid-19 in the US totaled 1.13 million, accounting for 16.4 percent of concurrent global deaths reported by the WHO. These figures were out of alignment with the overall population size, economic strength, and level of medical technology of the US, and were indicative of its ineffective and unscientific response policies.

    The US not only botched its own response to Covid-19, but also obstructed and sabotaged international cooperation in various ways. The deliberate concealment of information by the US government misled other countries and the WHO in the research and analysis of Covid-19 trends. The US government publicly announced that it would take an America First approach in vaccine supply and vaccination, keeping hoarding excess vaccines and agitating vaccine nationalism on the one hand, and waging a smear campaign to discredit China’s vaccines on the other. A US think tank criticized the US for its reluctance to provide foreign aid, saying this practice would expose the country as a “selfish isolationist when its help was most desperately needed.”

    Q4: The Missouri and other US state governments have initiated groundless lawsuits against China, holding China accountable for the pandemic. What is China’s comment on this?

    A: The groundless lawsuit of Missouri is a politically motivated farce orchestrated by state governments out of political self-interest that has ignored basic facts and violated fundamental legal norms. It is an affront to the sovereignty and dignity of all nations and to the international rule of law. China rejects such proceedings and will never accept a judgement delivered in absentia.

    The allegations in the judgement that China concealed pandemic information from the world and that China hoarded medical supplies are groundless. In the early stage of the outbreak, China provided clear information to the international community, adopting an open and transparent approach in releasing relevant information to the world. By May 31, 2020, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism and the Information Office of the State Council had held 161 press conferences, during which over 490 officials from more than 50 government departments answered over 1,400 questions from Chinese and foreign media.

    China tried every possible means to provide materials and assistance. From January 2020 to May 2022, China offered over 4.6 billion protective suits, 18 billion test kits, and 430 billion masks to 15 international organizations and 153 countries, including the US.

    In 2020, China sent 38 medical expert teams to 34 countries assisting in local pandemic control efforts, sharing China’s experience and practice in preventing and controlling the epidemic, and medical treatment plans.

    China made a significant contribution to the global fight against the pandemic, for which China deserves recognition and fair treatment, rather than blames and damage claims. In contrast, the incompetent responses of the Missouri state government led to a mortality rate ranking among the highest in the US Now the state government is trying to shift the blame for its failures, which is both irresponsible and unethical, a selfish and evading presence. China will never accede to demands for compensation claimed on baseless allegations, and will take resolute countermeasures in defense of its legitimate rights.

    Q5: How China played its roles as WHO member in global health governance?

    A: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China lost no time in sharing information on the epidemic updates and genome sequencing to the international community including the WHO. China invited multiple WHO international expert missions to conduct joint research on its territory. China provided tremendous supplies and aid to the international community to the best of its ability and shared the experience of pandemic prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment. Constantly sticking to the shared idea of a community with a shared future for mankind, China has made significant contributions to the global fight against pandemic by carrying out international cooperations.

    In early 2020, the WHO dispatched warnings to the international community including the US, reminding of “a possible pandemic on a larger scale”. On April 10, the US government, which up till then had dismissed the WHO admonitions as sensational, began to accuse the media, WHO officials and Democratic congressmen of incompetence in fighting against the pandemic. On April 14, the US government announced for the first time that it would suspend funding to the WHO on the ground that the organization had not performed its fundamental duties.

    On January 20, 2025, the current US government again announced its withdrawal from the WHO on the excuses that it had failed in responding to the pandemic and yielded to China’s influence. Far from reflecting on its own incompetence during the pandemic, the US government has gone too far in shifting the blame, which will further harm its competence in responding to new emergencies to the public health.

    China supports the United Nations and the WHO in playing and enhancing their mandatory roles and the capacity building of global health governance. China has been, and will be, active in participating in the WHO’s efforts in preventing and responding to emergencies in public health, in implementing and amending the “International Health Regulations,” and in reviewing a “pandemic treaty.” China will be active in participating in the IPPPR of the WHO and its SAGO mission by contributing advice and opinions. China has contributed and will continue to contribute Chinese perspectives, solutions and strengths to building an efficient and sustainable global public health system for the benefit of all humanity and fortifying defenses for the lives and health of all. 

    MIL OSI China News –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: An impeller was manufactured at the Polytechnic University using additive technologies

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    Scientists from the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have proposed a new approach to the production of centrifugal compressor wheels (impellers) using electric arc growing technology. Until now, no one in the world has used additive technologies to produce such large items. At the same time, the new method allows for the production of parts several times faster and cheaper than the traditional method.

    Impellers are a whole class of products that can be part of a centrifugal compressor, pumping unit or pump. Such devices are necessary for many industries, but are especially relevant in the energy sector – for moving gas through main gas pipelines. The traditional method of manufacturing impellers – mechanical processing of metal blanks – is quite long and expensive.

    The Polytechnic University proposed using electric arc growing from metal wire, which melts due to the energy of the electric arc, to manufacture the impeller. During the melting process, the metal is transferred layer by layer, forming the product blank. Its strength is affected by a verified combination of movement speed during growing, as well as the wire feed speed, arc power, wire metal composition, etc.

    With the traditional manufacturing method, the mass of the workpiece is seven times greater than the mass of the final part. Engineers mechanically process the metal like an artist who carves a sculpture from a piece of marble. In this case, most of the metal (86% of the mass of the original workpiece) turns into shavings, this is a long and expensive process. Our technology allows us to obtain a workpiece that is only 15% greater in mass than the final product, i.e. the material utilization factor (MUF) is 0.86. With the traditional method, the MUF is 0.14. We significantly save expensive material, and at the same time speed up the process of manufacturing the impeller several times, – said Oleg Panchenko, Head of the Laboratory of Light Materials and Structures of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport of SPbPU.

    The sample manufactured in the Polytechnic laboratory successfully passed a series of bench tests, the conditions of which were similar to operational ones. The impeller was spun up to 18 thousand revolutions per minute.

    After the tests, we scanned the impeller and compared it with the three-dimensional model that was used to prepare the control program for printing. The comparison did not reveal any deviations in the geometry of the tested impeller from the digital model. This means that the approach we proposed allows us to create a reliable product, explained Ivan Kladov, Lead Engineer at the Laboratory of Light Materials and Structures at IMMiT.

    Experts note that the technology developed at the Polytechnic University can be used to manufacture impellers on existing Russian production lines and will not require their significant restructuring.

    The study was conducted with the support of the Development Program of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University for 2025–2036 as part of the implementation of the Priority 2030 program (national project Youth and Children).

    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 –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Polytechnicians demonstrated flexible skills at the Soft Skills tournament

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    The third annual Soft Skills tournament was held at the Polytechnic University. Students demonstrated soft skills by participating in board games.

    At the current stage of transformation of the higher education system, the formation of flexible skills is an important component of training specialists capable of ensuring the achievement of technological leadership of our state, emphasized the Vice-Rector for Educational Activities of SPbPU Lyudmila Pankova.

    The organizing committee and jury included university teachers and activists of the SPbPU Students’ Trade Union, as well as representatives of the organizations and companies “Russia – Country of Opportunities”, “TGK-1”, “Gazprom Gazifikatsiya”, “Gazprom Pitanie”, “Lengidroproekt”, “VNIIG im. B. E. Vedeneyev”. Support was provided by well-known board game publishers GaGa.ru and “Lavka Igr”, their game masters helped the participants and the jury understand the rules and taught them how to get out of difficult situations.

    Seventeen student teams made it to the first round: six from the Institute of Power Engineering, five from the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade, one team each from the Humanitarian Institute, the Civil Engineering Institute and the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport, as well as three teams — IPMET, ISI, IKNK, IMMiT. A student from the St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation participated in the tournament for the first time.

    The students spent a whole month preparing for the tournament stages and fighting for victory at the gaming table. In the end, four teams reached the final. The awards were presented by the chairman of the jury, director of the Higher School of Software Engineering Pavel Drobintsev.

    In the team standings, the places were distributed as follows:

    1st place — team “Ь” (soft sign) (IPMET); 2nd place — team “Burryashchie Brazgi” (team of IPMET, IMMIT, ISI, GUAP); 3rd place — team “Successors of Peter” (IMMIT).

    The team “SOVpadenie” (IPMET) fell just short of victory and took 4th place.

    In the individual competition the following were awarded:

    1st place — Vlada Chernyaeva, IPMET; 2nd place — Alexander Shevchuk, ISI; 3rd place — Daniil Grevtsev, IMMIT.

    The members of the jury and the organizing committee highly appreciated the organization of the tournament, noted the involvement and good level of development of the participants’ cross-professional competencies.

    The Soft Skills tournament for students is a great tool for developing cross-professional competencies. During the game, the kids practice communication, learning to clearly express thoughts, formulate precise questions and negotiate with each other. They learn to analyze information, develop strategies and make decisions in conditions of limited resources. Team games improve both leadership qualities and the ability to work in partnership with other team members, because victory often depends on the coherence of actions and the distribution of roles. In addition, games create conditions for understanding one’s strengths and personal growth points. This training format is a safe environment for mistakes, live feedback from the environment and, most importantly, motivation to develop through pleasure. Young specialists get practice in a game form and can then transfer it to work, – noted the head of the Analytics and Diagnostic Tools Development Department of the Assessment and Methodology Department of ANO “Russia – Country of Opportunities” Ekaterina Stepashkina.

    I was greatly impressed by the ease with which the participants understood the complex rules and their prompt response to changes that arose during the game. The speed of change in the modern world is only growing, and the ability to quickly accept them is one of the most important “soft skills”. I wish the participants to apply this in real life, which throws up many more surprises than any game, – said Evgeniya Tyupanova, Head of the Labor and Wages Department at Gazprom Gazifikatsiya, who took part in the tournament for the first time as a member of the organizing committee and jury.

    Anna Lavrova, head of the personnel selection and assessment group at TGK-1, has been a permanent member of the jury since the tournament was founded. She emphasized that young specialists with the qualities that students demonstrate at the Soft Skills tournament will be in demand in any company, and confirmed that TGK-1 is always happy to welcome students from the Polytechnic University.

    Leading specialists of the social development department of Gazprom Pitanie Ilya Khudov and Anna Konevskaya, as well as leading specialist of the personnel department of VNIIG im. B. E. Vedeneyev Alla Larchina noted that gaming technologies helped the children to reveal a whole range of soft skills and allowed them to see their potential.

    The modern world requires not only professional knowledge, but also the ability to adapt, think critically and work in a team. The Soft Skills tournament is a mirror that reflects the future. Here, students learn to listen, make decisions in conditions of uncertainty and turn challenges into opportunities. I am amazed by their energy and willingness to grow. The participants did not just compete – they acquired skills that will become their superpower in their careers and lives, – says Ekaterina Toloshinova, chief specialist of Lenhydroproject.

    All partners of the Polytechnic University Competence Center expressed their desire to participate in the tournament next year.

    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 –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: War in Gaza: Sciences Po Mobilises…

    Source: Universities – Science Po in English

    Since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023, Sciences Po has fully played its role as a major international university, by taking actions in defence of academic freedom and offering a wide range of teaching formats to shed light on the situation in Gaza from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences.

    In doing so, Sciences Po is perfectly in line with the doctrine adopted earlier this year according to which positions taken by Sciences Po are considered legitimate if they are linked to the primary missions of the institution and to its activities as a research and educational academic institution.

    To protect students and researchers

    The ongoing war in Gaza has significantly disrupted the education of all 625,000 students in the region and deeply affected the lives and livelihoods of thousands of teachers. The lack of access to learning not only has immediate consequences but also long-term effects, especially given the widespread damage and destruction of most university buildings.

    As a university, Sciences Po’s priority has been the safety of our students impacted by the war. Sciences Po has supported tens of students whose families are directly affected by the conflicts in the region, providing material and financial assistance.

    In 2024, Sciences Po signed a partnership agreement with Birzeit University in the West Bank, which allowed 9 exchange students to be hosted this year with full scholarships provided by Sciences Po (flight and living allowance). This funding has been renewed for 2025-2026, with 5 mobility scholarships financed by Sciences Po again. From 2026-2027, the Erasmus MIC programme (international credit mobility) will be providing support to the exchange students.

    The partnership with Birzeit University brings to two the number of exchange agreements in place with Palestinian universities, Sciences Po having already signed with Al-Quds University, also located in the West Bank, several years ago. Five Erasmus + scholarships were granted in 2024-25 to students from Al Quds University, and five more are planned for 2025-26.

    In Gaza, 90,000 university students have lost access to education. Sciences Po decided last year to participate in the Technical Education Support for Higher Education Students Initiative – TESI. It aims at empowering Gaza students to complete their university education remotely as visiting students in West Bank Universities, with no financial burden on the students or their respective universities.

    Sciences Po also recruited Dr. Sanaa AlSarghali from An-Najah University-Nablus (on the West Bank) as a visiting professor to the Law School. Dr. Alsarghali is the first woman to ever earn a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law in Palestinen.  

    Finally, as part of the PAUSE programme which supports scientists and artists in exile by facilitating their hosting in higher education and research institutions or cultural institutions, Palestinian artist Maha Issa Al-Daya is jointly hosted by the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Columbia Paris Global Center, and Sciences Po for a year. Affiliated to Sciences Po Institute for the Arts & Creation, she already took part in an event titled “Art in times of war” in March. On 14 April, Maha Issa Al-Daya attended the exhibition opening about “the salvaged treasures of Gaza” set by the Institut du Monde Arabe, during which President Emmanuel Macron symbolically held a map of Palestine embroidered by the artist.

    To analyse the situation in Gaza and Palestine

    As a university, Sciences Po believes it is its role to share knowledge and context regarding the current situation in Gaza. To do so, the institution has been organising many events, classes, conferences, for its students but also for a larger audience, in Paris and on the Menton Campus mainly. A cycle of 12 lessons, designed by the Middle East North Africa Programme, was offered in Paris this year to shed light on the war using the tools of different social sciences: history, political science, sociology, and economics.

    Sciences Po Library published a selection of books, articles, reports by discipline (as well as a selection of films and novels), a selection of archival documents and an exhaustive and structured “Israel-Palestine Transverse Fund“, giving access to all the available resources (in French and/or English).

    • Series of 12 conferences on the Middle East conflict:

    – “The emergence of the Palestine question (1897-1947)” by Vincent Lemire, Professor of History at Gustave Eiffel University, 3 October 2024

    – “Zionism: why should Israel exist?” by Alain Dieckhoff, CNRS Research Professor at Sciences Po CERI, 17 October 2024

    – “Palestinian refugees in the Middle East” by Kemal Doraï, researcher at the CNRS and at the MIGRINTER laboratory of the University of Poitiers, 7 November 2024

    – “The making of a nation: Israel” by Denis Charbit, professor of political science at Israel’s Open University, 14 November 2024

    – “Palestinians facing Israel” by Laetitia Bucaille, professor of political sociology at INALCO, 28 November 2024

    – “Israel, what kind of democracy?’ by Samy Cohen, Emeritus Research Professor at Sciences Po CERI, 5 December 2024

    – “Living and taking action in the West Bank and Gaza” by Stéphanie Latte Abdallah, Director of Research at the CNRS, 6 February 2025

    – “Israel versus the Palestinians (1948-2025)” by Mark Tessler, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, 20 February 2025

    – “The political economy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by Sami Miaari, Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University and Yale University, 6 March 2025

    – “The Hizbullah and Israel, between tension and confrontation” by Joseph Bahout, Director of the Issam Farès Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, 20 March 2025

    – “US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by Camille Mansour, editor-in-chief of the Interactive Encyclopaedia of the Palestine Question, 3 April 2025

    – “The Gulf monarchies and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by Laurence Louër, Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs at Sciences Po CERI and Associate Professor, 17 April 2025

    • Two-day training organised by Sciences Po Law School and MENA Programme about “Navigating Uncertainty: The Case for Interim Constitutions in Syria and Palestine”, 15-16 May 2025.
    • Movie cycle on Gaza and Palestine: 

    – Gaza mon amour (December 2023), 

    – Voyage à Gaza (November 2024),

    – Bye Bye Tibériade (November 2024).

    • Organisation of a conference with Palestinian artist, photographer and painter Mohamed Abusal, from Gaza (November 2024).
    • Discussion autour de la guerre entre Israël et le Hamas with Gérard Araud et Ghassan Salamé, PSIA, 12 October,
    • Israël/ Palestine : le retour de la guerre, et après ? with Karim Bitar, Laetitia Bucaille, Alain Dieckhoff and Stéphane Lacroix, Collège universitaire, 26 October,
    • Israël/ Palestine : Building spaces for diplomacy with reserachers from CERI et UN representatives (Ariel Colonomos, Bernardino Leon, Julie Trottier, Bruno Stagno Ugarte) PSIA, 7 November,
    • Discussing the Israel-Hamas Conflict : challenge for political humanities, Cercle des humanités politiques (Ariel Colonomos, Astrid Von Busekist, Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi and Frederique Leichter-Flack), 13 November,
    • Religions et nationalismes en Israël/ Palestine with Alain Dieckhoff, Chaire d’étude du fait religieux, 14 November,
    • Hamas-Israël : quels buts de guerre dans quel contexte international ? Association française de Science Politique, 18 December,
    • Israël/ Hamas : la guerre, de quel droit ?, with Julia Grignon, Samy Cohen, Étienne Dignat, Sharon Weill, CERI, 7 February,
    • 60 minutes with Filippo Grandi, Haut commissaire aux réfugiés ONU, PSIA, 1 March,
    • Conflit Israël / Hamas : quel rôle du religieux ?, Mgr Pierre d’Ornellas, Frédéric Gros, Hélène Le Gal, Moshé Lewin, Tareq Oubrou, Emouna, 11 March,
    • Gaza and our world with Bertrand Badie, Dima Alsajdeya, Jean D’aspremont, Louise Bichet, Sbeih Sbeih, CERI, 30 April,
    • What is next for Palestinians ? Internal debates vs. external demandes, Sanaa Al Sarghali and Guillaume Tusseau, École de droit.
    • Crise israélo-palestinienne, tensions au Moyen-Orient : décryptage d’une actualité brûlante et de ses répercussions en France, Masterclass de Gilles Kepel, 4-6 December 2023,
    • Le processus de rédaction de la constitution palestinienne, conférence de Sanaa Alsarghali, constitutionnaliste palestinienne, 8 December 2023,
    • Conférence de Clothilde Mraffko, correspondante du journal Le Monde à Jérusalem, 16 février 2024,
    • Conférence de Denis Charbit, professeur franco-israélien de science politique, 18 avril 2024.
    •  Hamas-Israël : quels buts de guerre dans quel contexte international ? Association française de Science Politique, 18 décembre,
    • Israel/ Hamas : la guerre, de quel droit ?, avec Julia Grignon, Samy Cohen, Étienne Dignat, Sharon Weill, CERI, 7 février,
    • What is next for Palestinians ? Internal debates vs. external demandes, Sanaa Al Sarghali, et Guillaume Tusseau, École de droit.

    Cover image caption: Earth photo at night, City Lights of Europe, Middle East, Turkey, Italy, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea from space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. (credits: GizemG / Shutterstock)

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Musical victories: Polytechnic orchestra Ingenium conquers new heights

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    The fame of the orchestra of future engineers Ingenium is thundering. In April alone, it became a laureate of the first degree in two competitions, conquered applicants and their parents at the Open Day of the Polytechnic University and performed a big concert in the White Hall.

    The Variety Symphony Orchestra became the successor of the symphony orchestra created by the first director of the Polytechnic Institute, Prince Andrei Grigorievich Gagarin, in 1907. But if at the beginning of the 20th century professional musicians also played in it, today the orchestra unites only Polytechnic students, graduates and, sometimes, applicants. There is only one professional musician in the group – the artistic director and chief conductor Dmitry MisyuraThe second conductor is Pavel Zhukov, a graduate of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport of SPbPU.

    Despite the fact that music is a hobby of future engineers, their creative activity is growing exponentially. In early April, the orchestra became a first-degree laureate of the IV International Arts Competition and Prize “Embodiment of Mastery”. And in late April, the musicians presented Polytechnic University with first place in the Student Spring festival, the most significant annual creative competition of student groups from all universities in the North-West region of the country. The Polytechnicians won an unconditional victory among student orchestras and ensembles, leaving behind orchestras from ITMO, RSPU, SPbGIKiT, VKA Mozhaisky and other universities in the face-to-face competition.

    The victory of our orchestra in the “Student Spring-2025” is quite natural, because the guys study a lot, and their performance level is constantly growing. Their great desire to play as part of the orchestra is important. The zeal with which future engineers come to rehearsals causes sincere admiration and certainly affects the quality of concert performances, – Dmitry Misyura is sure.

    Today, the orchestra is capable of giving two concerts a day, as it did on April 27. During the day, Polytechnic students surprised potential Polytechnic students and their parents at the Open Day, and in the evening they gave a big solo concert in the White Hall. Moreover, all tickets were sold out two weeks before the event: getting to see the orchestra of future engineers is more luck, many want to hear this “oddity” in the scientific and musical world.

    The orchestra, which has been playing in the new history of the university for more than ten years, recently acquired a special name – Ingenium. This Latin word has two roots and two meanings: an engineer capable of inventing, and a genius. This name is justified by the members of the group – SPbPU students, musically gifted and creatively thinking future engineers.

    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 –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: From idea to tradition: the student physics olympiad was held at the Polytechnic for the tenth time

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    On the last Saturday of April, the Polytechnic University hosted the tenth anniversary student physics olympiad.

    The idea of holding a physics olympiad at SPbPU arose in 2015. By that time, experience had been accumulated in participating in such competitions – since the early 2000s, Polytechnic students had participated in the inter-university physics olympiad. It was held in September, and preparations began in advance – teachers from the physics and technology faculty (now the physics department) worked specifically with the students. As a result, the Polytechnic students confidently performed at each olympiad, taking prizes.

    Professor Yuri Mamaev, scientific director of the physics practical laboratory, associate professor Sergei Starovoitov, and associate professor Tatyana Vorobyeva made a great contribution to the Olympiad movement at the Physics Department, including the emergence of their own Olympiad at the Polytechnic University.

    In 2015, together with Mikhail Voronov, a research fellow at the Physics and Technology Institute, the team of organizers began organizing the Olympiad at the Polytechnic, selecting tasks and criteria for their evaluation. The preparation of student participants was carried out at an optional club. The head of the department, Vadim Ivanov, helped with the audience, and also provided other organizational assistance.

    And so, 10 years ago, on the last Saturday of April 2015, the first student Olympiad in Physics took place. More than a hundred people took part in the competition. The winners from the department were awarded books – dictionaries and encyclopedias on physics.

    According to the rules, the participants of the competition could only use reference books on physics and mathematics. This tradition has been preserved to this day: the use of textbooks or notes is not allowed. Although this will not help the participants much, since solving the Olympiad problems requires systematic knowledge and understanding of physical laws. To the question: “Is it possible to cheat at the Olympiad?” Sergey Starovoytov answers with a smile: All Olympiad problems are author’s, so it is impossible to find their solution on the Internet.

    The authors of the problems are a group of young teachers and postgraduate students of the Department of Physics, who develop unique problems from the physics course that require an original solution. A careful approach to the selection of tasks allows us to create conditions for equal and fair participation in the competition. A team is formed from among the SPbPU students who successfully performed at the Physics Olympiad for subsequent participation in the Interuniversity Physics Olympiad. It is prepared by a senior teacher of the Department of Physics Vadim Kozhevnikov.

    The solution to each problem is presented by the authors-developers after the end of the Olympiad. Not only participants, but also anyone who wishes can attend the event with the analysis of the problems.

    The Olympiad is open to everyone, so there is a special atmosphere here: not so much a rivalry as a celebration of knowledge and science! This idea is confirmed by the feedback from the participants of the tenth anniversary Olympiad.

    Danil, 2nd year, Physics and Mechanics Institute, winner of the 2024 Physics Olympiad: I have attended various Physics Olympiads. This is not my first time participating in this Olympiad and I am very pleased! First of all, I feel joy from solving interesting problems.

    Matvey, 1st year, Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications: For me, the Physics Olympiad is an opportunity to discover something new.

    Daria, 1st year, Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications: I believe that you need to strive for something more than just solving problems, so I am participating in this Olympiad.

    The results of the Olympiad will be announced very soon. Let us wish the participants great achievements. Could the teachers who were at the origins of the Olympiad have imagined that it would become a tradition of the Physics Department and would be held annually? However, that is exactly what happened! Students still wait for the last Saturday of April to test their knowledge of physics in a fair competition.

    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 –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Secret documents and precursors of AI: students of the State University of Management visited the Cryptography Museum

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    Students of the Institute of Marketing of the State University of Management visited the Cryptography Museum. The event was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory.

    Cryptography is a science of information protection methods, the evolution of which the museum tells through the history of communications development. The museum space includes the path from the era of the birth of the idea of written communication between people through alphabetic systems and signs through the industrial era, when radio, telephone, television and telegraph were created, to the modern digital era and computers.

    Under the guidance of Olga Vasilyeva, senior lecturer in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, students became acquainted with a unique collection of encryption equipment and archival documents, most of which were declassified specifically for display in the museum.

    The unique exhibition dedicated to encryption methods during the Great Patriotic War deserves special attention. The expression “intelligence enters the war first” exhaustively characterizes the role of intelligence agencies of any state in wars. The main task that the Soviet leadership set for foreign intelligence was to identify the military-political plans of Germany and its allies during the war. Another key task was the organization and use of special operational detachments in the enemy’s rear to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage activities, as well as to assist party and Soviet agencies in developing the partisan movement. Various means were used to solve intelligence and counterintelligence tasks, including radio games. In some periods, state security officers played up to seventy radio games with the enemy simultaneously.

    Many of the groundbreaking papers in artificial intelligence were written by people who worked in cryptography and cryptanalysis during World War II. Random sequences of numbers are used as encryption keys for one-time pads, an unbreakable encryption system. The names of people whose work involves protecting state secrets often remain classified for years, sometimes decades. Cryptographers, cryptanalysts, and encryption developers are among them.

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 04/30/2025

    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 –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Support for sports and academic infrastructure under PMJVK in Mizoram being explored by Ministry of Minority Affairs

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 30 APR 2025 11:51AM by PIB Delhi

    Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Shri Ram Singh visited Mizoram University to explore support for sports and  academic infrastructure under PMJVK.

    Given the hilly terrain, innovative ideas were discussed to develop a state of the art football stadium and an integrated sports complex despite the limited flat land resource availability in the State.

    PMJVK, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), is an area development programme under which community infrastructure and basic amenities are being created in identified areas.

    Joint Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Shri Ram Singh visited Mizoram University to explore support for sports & academic infrastructure under PMJVK. Given the hilly terrain, innovative ideas were discussed to develop a State of the Art football stadium and an integrated… pic.twitter.com/94I5azUmWN

    — Ministry of Minority Affairs (@MOMAIndia) April 29, 2025

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Dr. Sukanta Majumdar inaugurates two-day National Workshop on Multi-Disciplinary Education and Research Universities under PM-USHA

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 30 APR 2025 2:42PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Minister of State for Education and Development of the North Eastern Region, Dr. Sukanta Majumdar, inaugurated a two-day National Workshop on Multi-Disciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERU) under Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) today at ICAR, New Delhi. Secretary, Department of Higher education, GoI, Dr. Vineet Joshi; Additional Secretary, Ministry of Education, Shri Sunil Kumar Barnwal; Chairman, AICTE, Prof. T G Sitharam; Chair Person, NETF, Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe; Former Chairman, UGC, Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar; and other dignitaries and Vice chancellors of the Universities were present at the event. Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education, Shri Armstrong Pame, presented the Vote of Thanks.

    Dr. Sukanta Majumdar, while addressing the event, highlighted the importance of NEP 2020, which empowers the youth, modernizes institutions, and blends India’s ancient wisdom with modern innovation. Through focused efforts on research, innovation, and international collaboration, NEP 2020 aims to equip India’s students with the skills and knowledge needed to meet global challenges, he added.

    He noted that with the participation of over 64 Vice Chancellors from over 64 different universities, along with State officials represented by State Project Directors of Higher Education, the national workshop will provide essential guidance on how best to implement various elements of the NEP in collaboration with central and state government funding. Dr. Majumdar also said that for 35 universities, the Ministry is providing Rs. 100 crore each for implementing 44 mandatory activities under the Multidisciplinary Education and Research University (MERU) components. He urged everyone to move forward with commitment and collaboration to realize the dream of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, where every university becomes a hub of innovation, inclusion, and global excellence.

    Dr. Vineet Joshi, in his speech, emphasised the importance of NEP 2020 in preparing students for the 21st century. He also highlighted the significance of research in higher educational institutes and urged the participants to learn and adopt best practices from other institutions, replicating them in their specific context. This collaborative approach, he noted, will ensure the rapid improvement of the country. He also emphasised the need for teaching-learning material in the mother tongue to achieve better outcomes.

    During this two-day seminar twelve important sessions will be held on UGC Regulations for NEP Implementation (Status and Challenges); Clustering and Collaboration for Multidisciplinary Education; Holistic Education through Integration of Skilling and Industry Connect (NHEQF, NCrF); Employability through apprenticeship & internship and Future of Work and Courses in Emerging Areas; Digital Initiatives (SWAYAM, SWAYAM-Plus, SATHEE, APAAR, AI); Equity and Access to Higher Education; Indian Knowledge System; e-Governance (SAMARTH); Research, Innovation & Internationalization; Promoting Indian Languages in Higher Education; Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Program – Capacity Building of Faculty of Higher Education; and Providing Quality Education: Accreditation and Ranking (NAAC, NIRF, IQAC). Eminent academicians and officials will share their insight in these sessions.

    PM-USHA, or Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Indian Ministry of Education to improve the quality of higher education in state-run institutions. It aims to enhance accessibility, equity, and excellence in higher education while ensuring efficiency, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness.

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ12: Advance medical directives

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LCQ12: Advance medical directives 
    Question:
     
         The Advance Decision on Life-sustaining Treatment Ordinance (the Ordinance), which was passed by this Council on November 20 last year, aims to establish legislative frameworks for “advance medical directives” (AMDs) and “do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) orders” and provide legal protection to patients, medical professionals, as well as rescuers, where terminally-ill patients are empowered with a greater degree of autonomy. However, a survey has discovered that approximately 75 per cent of adult respondents have never heard of AMDs. There are views that given the complex medical ethics and legal issues involved in the Ordinance, the Government should enhance public awareness of the Ordinance and establish supporting systems in the long run. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
     
    (1) whether it knows the respective numbers of AMDs signed by and DNACPR orders issued to patients of the Hospital Authority each year since 2019;
     
    (2) whether the Government has currently provided necessary training for frontline staff of medical institutions and relevant organisations regarding the implementation of the Ordinance; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether it knows the progress made by relevant stakeholders in updating their protocols, records and systems in response to the implementation of the Ordinance;
     
    (3) given that the Ordinance will come into effect in May next year, whether the Government has formulated specific plans to publicise the importance and signing procedure of AMDs among the public; if so, of the details (including publicity channels); if not, the reasons for that;
     
    (4) whether the authorities will consider strengthening life and death education among the public, and incorporating the content of the Ordinance into such education (particularly by updating the existing curriculum framework for primary and secondary schools) to promote rational discussions in society over the right to a good death; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
     
    (5) given that the Government plans to progressively introduce the full electronic route of AMDs, with the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHealth) serving as the designated electronic system to support the making, storage, revocation and retrieval of electronic AMDs, of the authorities’ specific plans and implementation timetable for the relevant work?
     
    Reply:
     
    President,
     
         The Government’s policy objective is to provide quality and comprehensive end-of-life (EoL) care services to patients and their families. Advance decision instruments (i.e. advance medical directives (AMDs) and do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) orders) are integral components of EoL care, aiming to respect patients’ autonomy and shield them from enduring ineffective and unnecessary treatments in their final stages of life, thereby enhancing the quality of life of terminally-ill patients. Since 2010, the Hospital Authority (HA) has been allowing its patients to make or sign advance decision instruments when necessary according to common law practices. Passed by the Legislative Council in November 2024, the Advance Decision on Life-sustaining Treatment Ordinance (the Ordinance) establishes a corresponding legal framework for and provides clearer legal status for advance decision instruments, safeguarding the makers and subject patients of advance decision instruments, as well as providing legal protection for healthcare professionals in following the directives and orders. The Ordinance is planned to take effect 18 months after its passage (i.e. around mid-2026).
     
         In consultation with the Department of Health (DH), the HA, the Education Bureau and the Security Bureau, the reply to the question raised by Hon Edward Leung is as follows:
     
    (1) According to the Ordinance, pre-existing advance decision instruments made before the commencement of the Ordinance will remain valid and applicable after its commencement, provided that they meet the specific conditions set out in the Ordinance. The number of AMDs made within the HA from 2019 to 2024 is tabulated as follows:
     
     

    Year     The number of DNACPR orders made within the HA from 2019 to 2024 is tabulated as follows:
     

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    Year(2) To ensure smooth implementation of the Ordinance, the Health Bureau (HHB) is arranging briefing and training sessions for relevant organisations, such as disciplined services departments and other rescue teams, regarding the legal framework and protection provisions outlined in the Ordinance. The HHB is also co-ordinating with various stakeholders to update relevant guidelines. For instance, the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine released the “Best Practice Guidelines on Advance Medical Directives” (BPG) in April this year. The BPG offers practical advice on clinical decision-making, doctor-patient communication and ethical considerations for healthcare professionals’ reference, with a view to enhancing their professional capabilities in handling advance decision instruments while upholding patients’ autonomy and complying with the legal framework of the Ordinance. Moreover, relevant policy bureaux, departments, the HA and other related organisations are currently formulating services and operational guidelines in alignment with their specific operational needs. These guidelines will among other things encompass protocols and precautions for implementing DNACPR orders outside hospital settings. Training sessions will also be conducted for rescue personnel to ensure their readiness to make prompt and accurate decisions in accordance with the legal requirements during emergencies.
     
    (3) and (4) To enhance public understanding of the Ordinance, the HHB, in collaboration with the Jockey Club End-of-Life Community Care Project (JCECC) and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, co-organised a series of eight community talks to elucidate the provisions of the Ordinance. Additionally, the HHB further disseminated information about the Ordinance to the general public through promotional pamphlets, mobile van publicity campaigns and a designated website.
     
         In fact, advance decision instruments under the Ordinance form part of advance care planning (ACP), which is an overarching and preceding process for patients to communicate their preferences regarding medical and personal care. The scope of ACP includes not only the advance decisions concerning life-sustaining treatments documented in AMDs, but also the patient’s previously expressed wishes, personal goals to be accomplished, preferences for EoL care, and treatment expectations, among other aspects. The Ordinance presents an opportunity for patients and their families, as well as the society as a whole, to understand and engage in discussions about ACP, enabling carers to provide suitable EoL care according to patients’ wishes.
     
         By fostering collaboration across departments and sectors, the Government is proactively implementing a range of public education and promotional initiatives within the community and establishing collaborative networks with social service organisations to enhance public awareness and understanding of topics like ACP and life and death education, thereby facilitating rational discussions on life and death matters within society. The DH also disseminates public education on life and death issues through various channels including media interviews, websites, publications, and online videos. In the meantime, the HA actively organises seminars, events, and talks on life and death education, including the advocacy of ACP concept.
     
         Beyond promotional campaigns targeting the general public, the Government has also implemented other targeted promotional initiatives. Specifically tailored for the elderly population, the multidisciplinary Visiting Health Teams of the Elderly Health Service (EHS) of the DH deliver health education on ageing, life and death education, managing loss and grief, and psychological needs of patients needing EoL care. These health talks are conducted for the elderly and their carers at residential care homes for the elderly, elderly centres and elderly health centres. From 2008 to 2025, the EHS has organised over 2 600 relevant health talks.
     
         As for patients, the HA’s “Smart Patient Website” provides diverse information related to palliative care, such as symptom management, caregiving tips and community resources for patients and carers to reference. In mid-2025, the HA will launch a “Smart Patient” talk series on EoL care for patient groups and the general public.
     
         In the context of school education, life education (including life and death education) is an integral part of values education. The Values Education Curriculum Framework (Pilot Version) (2021) has identified “enhancing life education” as one of its major focuses and has included “understanding the course of life: birth, ageing, illness, and death” as one of the suggested proposed learning expectations for students. Relevant learning elements have been incorporated into the primary and secondary school curricula. Schools will align with students’ cognitive development and life experiences to help them understand topics related to ACP both within and beyond classroom.
     
    (5) The Ordinance provides that the Secretary for Health may designate an electronic system, enabling makers to electronically make, store and revoke AMDs. The HHB is currently enhancing eHealth, which will serve as the designated electronic system, to support the implementation of AMDs.
     
         We will introduce electronic AMDs in phases. In the first phase, paper AMDs and the electronic storage of such AMDs will be implemented. After making a paper AMD, the public can opt to electronically store an electronic image of the paper AMD, such as a scanned copy or a photo, on eHealth to serve as a validating copy of the paper directive. The electronic storage will allow both the makers and medical institutions to access the directives through eHealth whenever needed. We plan to launch the first phase with the commencement of the Ordinance in mid-2026. Once the relevant functions of eHealth, along with the electronic systems of medical institutions and related organisations, are in place, we will proceed to enable the electronic making and storing of AMDs directly within eHealth.
    Issued at HKT 16:00

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    April 30, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Judicial appointments

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:

    The Judiciary today (April 30) announced the appointment of one Recorder and the reappointment of two incumbent Recorders of the Court of First Instance of the High Court. All appointments are made by the Chief Executive on the recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission.

    Mr Eric Kwok Tung-ming, SC, is newly appointed as Recorder of the Court of First Instance of the High Court. The appointment will be effective from May 1, 2025, for a term of three years.
     
    Miss Maggie Wong Pui-kei, SC, and Mr Derek Chan Ching-lung, SC, are reappointed as Recorders of the Court of First Instance of the High Court. The reappointments will be for three years commencing on May 1, 2025, upon expiry of their current terms.
     
    The biographical notes of the appointees are as follows:

    Mr Eric Kwok Tung-ming, SC

    Mr Kwok, SC, was born in 1959 in Hong Kong. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Reading, United Kingdom, in 1983. He completed the Bar Final Examination of the Council of Legal Education in the United Kingdom in 1984. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar in 1985. He was appointed as Senior Counsel in 2004. He served in the then Attorney General’s Chambers between 1985 and 1988. He has been in private practice since 1988. He was appointed as Deputy Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court for periods from 2022 to 2025.
     
    Miss Maggie Wong Pui-kei, SC

    Miss Wong, SC, was born in 1973 in Hong Kong. She obtained her LL.B. from the University of Hong Kong in 1995. She further obtained her P.C.LL. from the University of Hong Kong in 1996. She was called to the Hong Kong Bar in 2000, and in Brunei Darussalam on an ad hoc basis in 2004 respectively. She has been in private practice in Hong Kong since 2001. She was appointed as Senior Counsel in 2018. She was appointed as Deputy Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court for periods from 2020 to 2022. She has been appointed as Recorder of the Court of First Instance of the High Court since 2022.

    Mr Derek Chan Ching-lung, SC

    Mr Chan, SC, was born in 1979 in Hong Kong. He obtained his LL.B. and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 2001. He further obtained his P.C.LL. from the City University of Hong Kong in 2003. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar in 2004. He has been in private practice in Hong Kong since 2004. He was appointed as Senior Counsel in 2018. He was appointed as Deputy Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court for periods in 2020 and 2021. He has been appointed as Recorder of the Court of First Instance of the High Court since 2022.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    April 30, 2025
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