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Category: Universities

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Polytechnic at the XV St. Petersburg International Educational Forum

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    From March 24 to 28, the 15th St. Petersburg International Educational Forum (SPIEF) is taking place in St. Petersburg — one of the leading professional events in the Russian education sector. The program includes more than 350 events of various formats at 200 venues in St. Petersburg on four tracks: “Personnel for the Economy and Technological Sovereignty”, “Teacher”, “Education of a Citizen”, “Children with Special Educational Needs”. The 2025 forum is held under the motto “Global Challenges — Local Solutions”, emphasizing the role of the teacher in a rapidly changing world.

    In 2025, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University will participate in 32 events of the forum and will also be the organizer of four events. The main objective of the Polytechnic University’s participation is to introduce school teachers, career guidance specialists, and college employees to the opportunities that the university provides for students. The University will also present programs and events that allow applicants to learn more about the Polytechnic University to make it easier for them to decide on their choice of higher education institution and their future career.

    The first event of the St. Petersburg International Educational Forum with the participation of the Polytechnic University was the practical conference “New Paradigm of Engineering and Technological Education of Schoolchildren”, organized by Gymnasium No. 642 “Earth and Universe”. Varvara Sotova, Director of the Center for the Formation of the Contingent of Students, took part in the panel discussion. The conference is dedicated to solving the issues of training engineering personnel and the role of general education organizations in achieving technological sovereignty through a system of career guidance, organization of targeted training and employment of graduates at industrial enterprises of the region.

    At the conference “Pre-professional training and creation of a comprehensive environment for professional self-determination of schoolchildren”, held in Lyceum No. 144, Artem Egupov, director of the Center for work with applicants, spoke, sharing his experience of conducting career guidance work and the specifics of organizing engineering education at the Polytechnic University.

    At the seminar “A New Generation of Engineers: Who and How Prepares Personnel?” Acting Director of the Center for Work with Educational Organizations Georgy Shkolnik presented advanced approaches and methods of working with educational institutions that have been successfully applied at the university. Particular attention was paid to additional education programs that allow students to delve deeper into their chosen field of activity even before entering the university.

    Senior teacher of additional education of the Higher Engineering School Maria Sinitsyna spoke at the seminar “Support for pre-professional self-determination of primary school students in the field of engineering professions and professions in the natural sciences.” She shared the successful experience of the Academy, aimed at developing the interest of schoolchildren in information technology and engineering. The programs allow children to gradually deepen their knowledge in the field of programming, robotics and other engineering disciplines, which helps them prepare for admission to in-demand IT and technical areas at the university.

    Nikolai Snegiryov, Head of the Directorate of Pre-University Education and Talent Attraction, took part in one of the sections of the discussion platform, “Personnel for a High-Tech Economy: Challenges and Solutions.” Nikolai emphasized the importance of a continuous process of education and training, which begins at school and continues at all subsequent stages of professional training. Particular attention was paid to the issues of early self-determination of schoolchildren and students. Strategies aimed at helping young people choose their professional trajectory were discussed, including holding career guidance events and implementing specialized classes jointly with enterprises in the country.

    Polytechnic also took part in the scientific and practical seminar “Formation of the inventive culture of students: from idea to implementation”, where the speaker was Andrey Shimchenko, senior lecturer of the Higher School of Advanced Digital Technologies of the Advanced Engineering School “Digital Engineering”.

    The final event of the first day of the forum was the interregional competition of project and research works of schoolchildren of grades 8–11 “Intelligence of the Future. I am a Researcher”, where students and teachers of the Polytechnic University served on the jury.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Federal Jury Convicts Arapahoe Man of Abusive Sexual Contact

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)

    Kendall Joseph Moss III, 35, of Arapahoe Wyoming, was convicted by a federal jury on March 20, of abusive sexual contact with a minor. The trial lasted four days and was held before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl in Casper. 

    According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, an investigation began in connection with a minor witness’s disclosure to a student advocate and school resource officer at her elementary school of sexual abuse by the defendant in 2021. Dr. Gail S. Goodman, PH.D., a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis testified at trial on the dynamics of child sexual abuse, including that victims often delay disclosing the sexual abuse or make piecemeal disclosures of the abuse over time. The victim was interviewed twice over two years and provided more details of the sexual abuse in her second interview. The defendant made statements to law enforcement indicating the victim was not lying in her allegations against him. The jury’s verdict found the defendant guilty of touching the minor victim in her genital area over her clothing with the intent of sexual gratification.

    Sentencing has been set for June 10, 2025. Moss faces a term of any number of years up to life in prison with no less than five years and no more than life of supervised release, up to a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment.

    The Bureau of Indian Affairs Wind River Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the crime. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kerry J. Jacobson prosecuted the case.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

    Case No. 24-CR-00165

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: 1.5 million-year-old bone tools discovered in Tanzania rewrite the history of human evolution

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jackson K Njau, Associate professor, Indiana University

    The ancestors of humans started making tools about 3.3 million years ago. First they made them out of stone, then they switched to bone as a raw material. Until recently, the earliest clear evidence of bone tool making was from sites in Europe, dated to 400,000 years ago. But archaeologists have now found and dated bone tools in Tanzania that are a million years older.

    The tools are made from the bones of large animals like hippos and elephants, and have been deliberately shaped to make them useful for butchering large carcasses.

    The discovery of bone implements that are the oldest ever found, by far, casts light on human evolution. It shows that our hominin ancestors were able to think about and make this technology a lot earlier than anyone realised.

    I am a scientist who co-directs a multidisciplinary research project team at the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, focusing on hominin evolution. Our project’s main goal has been to investigate the changes in hominin technology and behaviour that happened between 1.66 million and 1.4 million years ago.

    We’re interested in this time period because it marks a pivotal change in human technology, from the rudimentary stone knives and cores of the Oldowan culture to the more advanced crafted stone handaxes of the Acheulean culture.

    We found the Olduvai bone tools in 2018 and recently described them in the journal Nature. They show that by 1.5 million years ago, our ancestors (Homo erectus) had already developed the cognitive abilities required to transfer skills from making stone tools to making bone tools.

    This leap in human history was a game-changer because it allowed early hominins to overcome survival challenges in landscapes where suitable stone materials were scarce.

    Tools at Olduvai

    Olduvai Gorge is a Unesco World Heritage site. It became well known in 1959 through the pioneering work of palaeontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, whose discoveries of early human remains reshaped our understanding of human evolution. The site offers an unparalleled window into human history, spanning nearly 2 million years.

    Read more: Finds in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge reveal how ancient humans adapted to change

    Aside from fossilised bones, it has yielded the most detailed record of stone tool cultures in the world. It has documented the evolution from the simple chopping tools and stone knives of the Oldowan industry (about 2 million years ago) to the more advanced Acheulean tools (1.7 million years ago), such as handaxes, cleavers, picks and spheroids and then on – through arrowheads, points and blades (about 200,000 years ago) to the micro-blades of the Later Stone Age (about 17,000 years ago).

    All these tools provide a glimpse into the ingenuity and cultural advancements of our early ancestors.

    And now the picture has new detail.

    Our team uncovered 27 ancient bone tools during excavations at the T69 Complex, FLK West site at Olduvai. We know how old they are because we found them securely embedded underground where they had been left 1.5 million years ago, along with thousands of stone artefacts and fossilised bones. We dated them using geochronological techniques.

    Reopening of Trench 69 at Olduvai Gorge in 2020. After each field season, archaeological trenches are backfilled. Photo: J.K. Njau, Author provided (no reuse)

    Unlike stone, bone shafts crack and break in a way that allows the systematic production of elongated, well-shaped artifacts. Flaking them by hitting them with another object – a process called knapping – results in pointed tools that would be ideal for butchering, chopping and other tasks.

    The knapped tools we found were made from large shaft fragments that came from the limb bones of elephants and hippos, and were found at hippo butchery sites. Hominins likely brought elephant bones to the site on a regular basis, and obtained limb bones from butchered hippos at the site itself.

    What Homo erectus knew

    The find shows that 1.5 million years ago, Homo erectus could apply knapping skills to bone. Homo erectus, regarded as the evolutionary successor to the smaller-brained Homo habilis, left a lasting imprint on history. Its fossils, found at Olduvai, offer a glimpse into a span of about a million years, stretching from 1.5 million to roughly 500,000 years ago.

    Now we know that these hominins not only understood the physical properties of bones but also knew about skeletal anatomy. They could identify and select bones suitable for flaking. And they knew which animals had skeletons large enough to craft reliable tools after the animals’ death.

    Read more: Large mammals shaped the evolution of humans: here’s why it happened in Africa

    We don’t know exactly why they chose bones as a raw material. It may have been that suitable stone material was scarce, or they recognised that bones provided a better grip and were more durable.

    Fossil extraction and preparation is conducted at Olduvai Gorge field labs. Here, Naibo Mesi and Agustino Songita work on one of the bone tools from Trench 69 Complex. Photo: R. Peters., Author provided (no reuse)

    Why haven’t such old bone tools been found before? The answer is likely that they are destroyed by weathering, abrasion from water transport, trampling and scavenger activity. Organic materials don’t always get time to fossilise. Also, analysts were not used to looking for bone tools among fossils.

    This discovery will likely encourage researchers to pay closer attention to the subtle signs of bone knapping in fossil assemblages. This way we will learn more about the evolution of human technology and behaviour.

    – 1.5 million-year-old bone tools discovered in Tanzania rewrite the history of human evolution
    – https://theconversation.com/1-5-million-year-old-bone-tools-discovered-in-tanzania-rewrite-the-history-of-human-evolution-251826

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: As part of Career Day, university representatives and employers discussed how to improve the training of specialists

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Round table at SPbGASU

    As part of the SPbGASU Career Day, a round table “Employers and Universities. Trends and Prospects” was held on March 20. Its participants discussed what is needed to train specialists who best meet modern industry requirements.

    Opening the meeting, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy Marina Malyutina said that holding a round table has become a tradition: it is important for the university to receive feedback from partners.

    A Proven Partnership

    Marina Viktorovna presented a letter of thanks to Nanosoft LLC and personally to the director of programs for the development of interaction with educational organizations “Nanosoft Development” Oleg Egorychev. “We express our deep gratitude for your active participation in organizing the “Career Day of SPbGASU” and training personnel for the construction industry. We greatly appreciate your contribution to the development of professional competencies of students,” the letter says.

    In his response, Oleg Egorychev emphasized that SPbGASU is a long-standing, kind and informative partner of Nanosoft. Together with the university, the company recently held two free educational courses on “Digital Modeling in Construction”. The company plans to hold the next course, as well as organize retraining of teachers from other universities on the basis of SPbGASU.

    Oleg Olegovich said that Nanosoft contributes to solving the tasks set by the head of state – to achieve technological sovereignty, to transition all sectors of the economy to domestic software, including engineering. The company provides its software free of charge to universities, colleges and comprehensive schools; systematically and massively conducts training of the faculty of universities, teachers and mentors of colleges, teachers of comprehensive schools in the use of software. “Because the entry point to any educational process is not licenses at all. These are the teachers, teachers, mentors who lead this educational process,” he noted.

    Mutual benefit

    Marina Malyutina spoke in detail about the cooperation of SPbGASU with partners. The university practices traditional, well-proven forms of interaction: open lectures, seminars, master classes of specialists, excursions to enterprises, career days and job fairs. This also includes the work of company specialists as external part-time workers and members of the State Examination Commission, industrial practice, providing topics for course projects and final qualification works, access to knowledge bases.

    At the same time, innovative methods are being introduced: case championships, competitions with expert consultations. The most famous of them is the student TIM championship.

    Later, the university began to extend this format to secondary vocational education institutions, colleges, and schools, motivating students to enroll in SPbGASU by selecting a target applicant.

    Another new form introduced last year is mini-courses from partners. The university sees a certain gap between the competencies of graduates and those competencies that are in demand on the labor market. In order to reduce this gap, the university offers partners to conduct small special courses from specialists of companies that “grow” students. The courses are voluntary, the topic is a product approach, project activities.

    Marina Malyutina expressed confidence that technological sovereignty is achieved in various ways, including by cultivating innovative entrepreneurial thinking in young people. Since last year, the university has joined the Startup as a Diploma program and has become a participant in the TechnoPiter accelerator. Third place in this program was taken by a student of SPbGASU, who received 200 thousand rubles as a reward.

    SPbGASU expects mentors and experts from companies in the context of developing technological entrepreneurship. In addition, the university invites companies to place their symbols, information stands, and videos on how a future specialist can realize themselves in the university buildings.

    Targeted training

    The Vice-Rector for Youth Policy also focused on targeted training. The audience learned that targeted training comes in two forms: by quota – only for companies with state participation, and not by quota – for any companies, including individual entrepreneurs.

    Under the quota, the contract is concluded at the admission stage. There is a separate competition for such applicants. The training is conducted at the expense of the state budget. After admission, the company pays the students a stipend. But there are risks and difficulties here: the company cannot choose a specific student. In the event of the student being expelled or the employer refusing to employ him, the party that has not fulfilled its obligations pays a fine in the amount of the cost of training.

    A contract for non-quota training can be concluded at any stage of training. There are various options for paying for training – at the expense of the student, the company, at the expense of the state budget, if the contract is concluded with a student studying on a budget place. The positive effect for the company is that it is possible to choose a specific student: look at his academic performance, the topic of term papers and understand how suitable he is. The university is ready to help in this choice. There are fewer risks in this case: the student is already profiled, motivated, he is a target by definition, the probability of his expulsion is small. The company can provide him with support measures. Fines are paid in the same cases as with targeted training under a quota.

    At SPbGASU, quota-based targeted training is coordinated by the admissions committee, while non-quota-based training is coordinated by the student entrepreneurship and career center.

    Project-based learning

    First Vice-Rector Svetlana Golovina emphasized: SPbGASU is for practical orientation, but this entails some difficulties. Students start working from the third year and miss classes. The university makes every effort to ensure that they receive knowledge, including through the Moodle e-learning and testing system, where lectures and assignment texts are available at any time.

    Svetlana Gennadyevna reported on the development of curricula for project-based learning. Project-based learning is an approach in which students learn through independent planning and development of solutions to a problem or task. An expert council of employers has been created for this purpose under the educational and methodological council of SPbGASU. The transition to project-based learning is planned for 2027.

    The First Vice-Rector reported that the university is interested in systemic cooperation and invited employers to join in the development of project activities and student technological entrepreneurship. Partner support can be advisory: in the form of feedback on the quality of graduate training, participation in the development of programs. Expert: participation in the assessment of student projects, support for teams in competitions, olympiads, training. Informational: you can talk about projects on your resources. Organizational: you can take on some of the tasks of preparing and holding certain events. Material: you can provide software, equipment, premises. Financial: student bonuses, investments in the implementation of projects, startups.

    For partners, the value of cooperation lies in finding ideas for solving current problems, developing their scientific and technical base, and innovations. In addition, this supports the image of a socially responsible company and increases brand awareness, and forms a personnel reserve. The company gets the opportunity to form a demand for competencies and influence the content and results of education, which develops the potential of current employees through mentoring and tutoring, and reduces the time and resources for the adaptation of young specialists.

    The roundtable participants completed a survey on new formats of interaction, discussed the importance of mentoring and acquiring fundamental knowledge, and expressed their willingness to join forces to ensure that graduates meet the requirements of the labor market.

    The event was organized by the Center for Student Entrepreneurship and Career of SPbGASU.

    SPbGASU and Nanosoft company thank the representatives of Severnaya Kompaniya, Region LLC, TITAN-2 holding, Glavstroy-Saint Petersburg Specialized Developer LLC, Samolet Group PJSC, StroyKraft LLC, Setl Group, Design Institute No. 2 LLC, ZVSK Invest LLC, Gipronickel Institute LLC, Alfa-Bank, Atomenergoproekt JSC, VDC, ENITA LLC, and LSR Group for their participation in the round table.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: GUU reveals secrets of theatrical life to Moscow schoolchildren

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    As part of the project “Theatrical Backstage” implemented by the State University of Management together with the Department of Education and Science of the City of Moscow and the Moscow Center for Educational Practices, a tour of the Moscow Academic Theatre named after Vl. Mayakovsky was held for Moscow schoolchildren.

    The excursion participants included children from the school theaters “Antre” from school No. 641 named after S. Yesenin, “Novaya Skazka” from the Zelenograd Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity, “Litsedei” from school No. 656 named after A.S. Makarenko, and MART from school No. 2094.

    The tour guide was Roman Fomin, a theater employee with 16 years of experience. He shared interesting facts about the theater, its architecture and its importance in the cultural life of the city. The tour participants learned how the theater became a place where talents and creativity intersect.

    The schoolchildren were able to see what the theatre looks like from the inside and feel the atmosphere standing in the actors’ place. Roman Fomin told them about the work of lighting and sound, and also demonstrated various mechanisms used to change the scenery.

    Then, the tour moved to the backstage areas. The children visited the dressing rooms where the actors prepare for their performances.

    The behind-the-scenes tour not only expanded the children’s knowledge of theatrical art, but also inspired them to further develop in this area.

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 03/24/2025

    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 –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Will mummy make it better? The curious case of mummified remedies in early modern medicine

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol

    Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock

    The history of medicine is filled with remedies that, viewed through a modern lens, seem perplexing, misguided or downright macabre. Among these is “mumia” — a medicinal substance derived from mummified human remains.

    From the 12th to the 17th century, physicians across Europe prescribed powdered mummy as a cure-all for ailments ranging from internal bleeding and broken bones to epilepsy and melancholia.

    Once regarded as a potent elixir infused with the life force of the ancients, mumia was a staple in apothecaries, sought after by the wealthy and recommended by the learned. Yet, as medical knowledge evolved, so too did attitudes toward this unusual remedy, and by the 18th century, it had largely faded into obscurity.

    The belief in mumia’s healing power was deeply rooted in prevailing medical theories of the time. One such theory was the doctrine of signatures, which held that natural substances resembled the ailments they were meant to cure.

    Mummified flesh, preserved for centuries, seemed an obvious candidate for treating decay, wounds and internal deterioration. Another influential idea was vitalism, the notion that life force could be transferred from one body to another, particularly from a preserved human to a living patient.

    Adding to this was the European fascination with the medical traditions of the Islamic world. Arabic physicians such as Avicenna had described the therapeutic use of bitumen – a naturally occurring tar-like substance also called mūmiyā – that had medicinal applications in wound healing.

    When these texts were translated into Latin, European scholars mistakenly conflated mūmiyā with Egyptian mummies, assuming that the embalmed dead were imbued with similar restorative properties. The result was a booming trade in ground-up human remains, with mummies sourced from Egyptian tombs, grave robbers and even local execution sites.

    Grave robbers got in on the racket.
    David Leshem/Shutterstock

    Mumia was prescribed for an astonishing array of conditions. Physicians believed it could speed up healing, prevent infection and even cure epilepsy. Ingested in powdered form or mixed into tinctures, it was recommended for internal bleeding, strokes and tuberculosis. Some suggested it could ward off melancholy or restore youthful vitality, making it a popular remedy among the European elite.

    Apothecaries stocked mummy powder alongside other human-derived medicines such as powdered skull (cranium humanum) and distilled human fat (axungia hominis).

    The more ancient the remains, the more potent they were thought to be. However, as the demand for mumia outstripped the supply of genuine Egyptian mummies, opportunistic traders turned to more recent corpses – some even resorting to robbing the gallows to meet the market’s needs.

    Eventual decline

    Despite its widespread use, mumia was not without its detractors. By the 16th century, some physicians began to question both its efficacy and its ethical implications. The Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493–1541) argued that only fresh human remains – not ancient, embalmed flesh – had medicinal value, while others dismissed the practice as nothing more than superstition.

    The growing emphasis on empirical science in the 17th and 18th centuries further eroded faith in mumia. As anatomy and pathology advanced, the idea that centuries-old preserved tissue could heal the living seemed increasingly implausible. At the same time, public attitudes toward human remains began to shift.

    The rise of Egyptology and archaeological interest in mummies reframed them as historical artefacts rather than medical commodities, making their consumption distasteful even to those who had once sworn by their healing properties.

    By the early 18th century, mumia had largely disappeared from medical practice, relegated to the annals of history as an example of medicine’s sometimes gruesome past.

    Mumia’s decline serves as a reminder of how medical knowledge evolves, shedding once-revered treatments in favour of evidence-based approaches. Yet, while medicinal cannibalism may seem shocking today, the pursuit of miraculous cures continues. From stem cell therapies to longevity supplements, the desire to harness the essence of life itself persists – albeit with more scientific rigour.

    Looking back at the use of mummified medicine, we are reminded that the boundary between science and superstition is not always as clear as we might like to believe.

    Michelle Spear 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. Will mummy make it better? The curious case of mummified remedies in early modern medicine – https://theconversation.com/will-mummy-make-it-better-the-curious-case-of-mummified-remedies-in-early-modern-medicine-247727

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Time to stop blaming bats and newts for blocking development? A new fund could support nature and ease building delays

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Graham Haughton, Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Manchester

    Great news for the greater horseshoe bat? ATTILA Barsan/Shutterstock

    For years, nature has been blamed as a blocker of economic growth. After some ministerial bluster about not letting newts and bats get in the way of growth ambitions, the UK government released more details of its plans to get Britain building again.

    The centrepiece of its aspirations to balance both nature and economic growth is a nature restoration fund, to be set up in England through changes to habitat regulations. This should allow developers to stay within their legal obligations towards nature through a payment scheme without delaying their projects.

    The broad concept is that, as an alternative to relocating important species or improving habitats on the site of a proposed development, a developer could pay into the nature restoration fund. This would pay for larger, more strategically located schemes to protect the species in question.

    The fund simplifies and streamlines the regulations while collecting funds to promote more, bigger, better and increasingly joined-up sites for nature.

    Protecting nature is not just about bats and newts. According to trade association the Home Builders Federation (HBF), there are 160,000 homes being delayed by what are known as “nutrient neutrality” measures. These rules were a response to growing public concerns about land and water pollution caused by nutrient loads – pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus – associated with livestock farming and spillages from sewage works.

    Government agency Natural England advised 74 local authorities that they should not allow any more house building in their areas unless this pollution could be mitigated. But this has led to lengthy and expensive project-by-project reviews to identify potential damage.

    How will a fund help?

    The fund will build on some schemes that are already known to work. One such scheme works for the protection of great-crested newts. Another successful scheme is Thames Basin Heaths project, working to protect and enhance heathland sites where rare birds such as nightingales breed. Crucially, this scheme allows new development to go ahead in adjacent areas.

    The fund will be run by Natural England, which aims to draw on these experiences to unblock development at a large scale rather than at single-site level, pooling contributions from developers to pay for mitigation measures when there is a risk to nature.

    If a particular “blocking” issue is identified, experts from Natural England will produce a plan, which must be approved by the environment secretary. A levy on developers will then pay for mitigation measures “in perpetuity” (often 30 years), allowing the development to get under way.



    Read more:
    The government has revealed its plans to get Britain building again. Some of them might just work

    Environmental experts have cautiously welcomed the general principles and approach of the nature restoration fund. But there has also been concern about whether the plan is well enough thought through. There are also questions on how well it will integrate with other schemes.

    A widespread worry is for the future of biodiversity net gain – which includes measures for creating and improving habitat banks using biodiversity units, effectively a form of “nature market”. This approach sets a target of 10% for biodiversity improvement based upon the combined distinctness, condition and significance of affected habitats over the lifetime of the development. But these measures are only just getting started.

    The concern is that providers of sites for these habitat banks – which might be councils, landowners, charities or private businesses, for example – might get cold feet and pull out if they can’t be certain that their plans will be compatible with the nature restoration fund.

    The Thames Basin Heaths scheme has been protecting the breeding grounds of nightingales.
    Erni/Shutterstock

    There is concern, too, about how payments from the nature restoration fund would be calculated. These will need to be locally appropriate and not pit nature restoration and biodiversity net gain against each other if, for example, landowners are forced to choose a particular scheme for their land that they are then committed to for decades. With two parallel systems in play, the relationship between them must be crystal clear, otherwise shared goals could be missed.

    Another question is whether Natural England can be both regulator and financial beneficiary of the new scheme. There have been calls from some of those already involved in nature markets for some form of independent oversight.

    And it will also be vital that the new scheme respects what’s known as the “mitigation hierarchy”. This hierarchy aims to avoid, reduce and then mitigate any impacts on nature on-site in that order. Then developers should consider off-site measures in areas where there could be greater gains for biodiversity.

    But a danger here is that this could disconnect people from nature even further by mitigating ecological loss miles away from the site of the damage. This disconnection is considered to be a critical underlying cause of biodiversity loss.

    There is much to like about the nature restoration fund, but there is a risk that little will be achieved without the government showing genuine ambition and allocating enough money and staff to properly monitor and enforce it over the long term. Only time will tell whether it achieves the government’s goal of speeding up development.

    At the moment, it is not clear how the fund will complement similar schemes and there is a danger of creating a complex patchwork in nature restoration funding. But if it works well, it could provide a richer funding ecosystem for nature recovery – a much-needed boost for England’s nature-depleted landscape.

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

    – ref. Time to stop blaming bats and newts for blocking development? A new fund could support nature and ease building delays – https://theconversation.com/time-to-stop-blaming-bats-and-newts-for-blocking-development-a-new-fund-could-support-nature-and-ease-building-delays-252765

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How we revealed the life story of PG Tips chimp – written in her bones

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stuart Black, Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading

    Chimpanzees helped to make PG Tips tea famous with their iconic TV ads in the 1970s. But what happened to these animals afterwards? Our new study, using techniques previously used only on human remains, reveals the fascinating life story of Choppers, a celebrity chimpanzee, also known as Ada Lott from the PG Tips ads.

    Zoos have transformed over the last century. They once focused on entertainment, but in the UK zoos now have a greater emphasis on education, conservation, research and welfare. And our new study, led by experts at National Museums Scotland, shows how these changes are written on Choppers’ body.

    Choppers died aged 46 in 2016, which is close to the average age for a wild or captive chimpanzee. Following her death, Choppers was donated to the National Museums of Scotland, which enabled an analytical investigation into her life through her remains. Researchers from across the UK created the most comprehensive osteobiography of a zoo animal by bringing together archival, chemical and metric analyses.

    Osteobiography involves the analysis of bones and other tissue. It is more commonly used in archaeology to reconstruct the life stories of ancient human subjects, such as Richard III, identifying where and how they lived in remarkable detail.

    As a celebrity, Choppers’ life has been extensively documented. This combination of
    archival material and osteobiographical analysis provides one of the most complete
    assessments of the life of an animal in zoo care.

    The findings of our study paint a rich picture of Choppers’ key life events, including evidence of injuries sustained when she was poached from the wild at just six weeks old. Choppers had a broken right arm, which seemed to have healed badly. Her lower arm bones were bowed and much shorter than her left side. She seems to have not been able to bear much weight on this arm, which likely contributed to joint disease here and elsewhere in her skeleton.

    It is also likely that many, if not all, of her social group were killed in her capture. The physical trauma would impact her throughout her life, impairing her movement and exacerbating degenerative issues associated with old age.

    Analysis of Choppers’ tooth enamel indicates a geographical and dietary shift between the ages of three and four, coinciding with her relocation to the UK from Sierra Leone. In the following three years she played the grandmother character in the PG Tips adverts, which ran in the UK throughout the 70s and 80s and featured a family of tea drinking chimps.

    A collection of PG Tips adverts using chimpanzees.

    The long-running ads helped PG Tips become the market leader of tea in Britain for 35 years. Her performance career was short, ending before the onset of puberty, and Choppers probably retired at around the age of six or seven. In part this is due to behavioural change as adult chimpanzees become less predictable, but also as a result of human perceptions of the cuteness of adult chimpanzees compared to infants.

    Choppers transitioned from a relatively active life with high levels of direct interaction with humans, to a sedentary life with two companion chimpanzees, Noddy and Brooke, who were also retired from the entertainment industry. She was cared for by Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire for the rest of her life.

    Choppers’ upper jaw was significantly elongated compared with wild chimpanzees, reflecting an early diet of sugary soft fruit, but also of her performance diet that mimicked that of humans. The PG Tips advertisements followed on from a longstanding trope in the mid-20th century of chimpanzees participating in tea parties, eating cake, drinking “tea” and apeing human behaviour. The chimpanzees drank fruit juice or milk rather than tea during tea parties and advertisements.

    In recent years there has been a shift towards tougher, less sugary vegetables in the diets of zoo primates, which is leading to improvements in their health and behaviour.

    Later in life, Choppers was housed for a time with another chimpanzee, Bobby. Together they had one daughter, Holly.

    Across the world today, there is considerable variation in zoo regulation, management and welfare. Despite accreditation of zoos and improved regulation, the illegal trafficking of chimpanzees and other primates into private collections and disreputable zoos continues. Choppers’ story is testament to the many thousands of chimpanzees that were (and still are) forcibly extracted from the wild for zoos, circuses, laboratories and private collections.

    Choppers was not an unusual chimpanzee, but her story is an individual one, which resonates with human attitudes towards wildlife, zoos, entertainment, welfare and quality of life.

    Stuart Black receives funding from The Wellcome Trust, UKRI and other research councils.

    David Cooper has received funding from The Wellcome Trust.

    Juliette Waterman received funding from the Wellcome Trust while this research was carried out.

    – ref. How we revealed the life story of PG Tips chimp – written in her bones – https://theconversation.com/how-we-revealed-the-life-story-of-pg-tips-chimp-written-in-her-bones-252224

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Three graphic novels that address the history of slavery – and commemorate resistance

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dominic Davies, Senior Lecturer in English, City St George’s, University of London

    Millions of people were abducted from west Africa and forcibly trafficked to the Americas over the 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade, from the 15th to the 19th century.

    Slavery treated these people as forms of property. It forced them, with brutal violence, to work on plantations producing commodities such as cotton and coffee, sugar and tobacco. Their labour powered the world economy for several centuries.

    While common understanding of this history has improved, less frequently remembered are those who spearheaded resistance against slavery. Revolutionary uprisings led by enslaved people themselves, as well as actions by radical groups such as Quakers and mutinous pirates, challenged slavery long before William Wilberforce and Britain’s abolition movement.

    Now, an increasingly popular genre of the graphic novel is building public awareness and memory of these movements. Composing its stories of the past from framed documents, fragmented images and scraps of text, the form of the graphic novel resembles an archive. It is therefore well-placed to bring forgotten histories to life and to reflect on how those histories were recovered.

    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.

    Here are three recent graphic novels that can help us to remember resistance against slavery. They follow in the footsteps of historian Rebecca Hall’s collaboration with artist Hugo Martínez, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts (2021), which I would also strongly recommend.

    1. Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History

    By C.L.R. James, Nic Watts, and Sakina Karimjee (2023)

    In the early 1930s, the anti-colonial historian, C.L.R. James, wrote a play about the 1791 Haitian Revolution and its leader, Toussaint Louverture.

    It dramatised the story of the only successful slave revolt in history, when 100,000 slaves rose up against their white masters and eventually secured independence after almost 15 years of struggle.

    James’s play was performed only twice in 1936, with the great African American actor Paul Robeson in the title role. The script was then lost for several decades, until 2005, when the historian Christian Høgsberg discovered a copy in the archives at the University of Hull and published a new edition of the play.

    In 2012, graphic artist, Nic Watts and theatre practitioner, Sakina Karimjee, decided to bring James’s play back to life – not on the stage, but in the pages of a graphic novel.

    James, who died in 1989, might not have guessed that he would one day be a co-creator of a graphic novel. But he would surely have been impressed with Toussaint Louverture, which takes readers through the Haitian Revolution in almost 300 thrilling pages.

    The graphic novel uses its uniquely spatial medium to map the connections between the French Revolution, which proclaimed universal rights for all men, and the slave uprising in Haiti, which sought to realise those rights in France’s colonies. It is packed with powerful symbols and imagery that build a rich picture of the strategies and tactics that led to the uprising’s eventual victory.

    2. Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, A Graphic Novel

    By David Lester, edited by Paul Buhle and Marcus Rediker (2023)

    Historian Marcus Rediker has devoted his career to uncovering early histories of resistance against slavery and sharing them in compelling and accessible formats.

    In 2021 he teamed up with the illustrator, David Lester, and longtime graphic historian, Paul Buhle, to translate this work into graphic novels.

    The first, Prophet Against Slavery, takes readers back to a Quaker meeting house in the early 1700s. In its dramatic opening scene, Benjamin Lay disrupts the meeting with a piece of performance theatre. He appears to stab his own arm in protest against slavery, though we later learn that the spouting blood was in fact “red pokeberry juice”.

    Lay was an innovator of performance protest, and he developed the strategy of boycotting commodities produced by slave labour. As Prophet Against Slavery details, he was one of the earliest and most outspoken abolitionists, campaigning for the end of the transatlantic slave trade almost a century before Wilberforce.

    He was also a pioneer of veganism and an advocate for animal rights. Lay saw the parallels between early capitalism’s enclosure of common land in England and slavery’s enclosure of people’s bodies in the US. The claustrophobic borders of Lester’s graphic novel dramatise these acts of property making, even as they document Lay’s stubborn attempts to liberate the oppressed from bondage.

    The enslaved themselves do not have a voice in Prophet Against Slavery. But Lester uses powerful charcoal sketches and image-only panels to make sure their presence is never forgotten.

    These haunting images remind readers of the human cost of slavery without presuming to speak for those whose voices have been excluded from the written archive.

    3. Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, A Graphic Novel

    By David Lester and Marcus Rediker (2023)

    Rediker and Lester teamed up again for Under the Banner of King Death. The title refers to the skull and cross bones flag that flies on the masts of pirate ships.

    But this is not your conventional story of evil pirates drinking rum and hunting for gold (although there is some of that). It is rather a portrait of the pirate ship as a space of self-determination and political freedom at a time when, as Rediker puts it, “poor people had no democratic rights anywhere in the world”.

    The graphic novel tells the story of John Gwin, an African-American man who escaped from slavery in South Carolina. After being kidnapped by the Royal African Company to labour on a slaving ship, he decides to resist. He rallies his shipmates, liberates the Africans below deck, and leads a mutiny to overthrow Skinner, the tyrannical captain.

    With Skinner deposed, the pirates establish a commune at sea: “A world turned upside down,” as Gwin calls it. “All captains and officers elected. All tars [sailors] treated as brothers. No tyranny of the lash.” There is no hierarchy on this ship. Instead, they return to west Africa and begin breaking people out of slave castles along the coast.

    Lester’s pen-and-ink sketches and frantic page layouts capture the scattergun nature of pirate life in the 17th century. It was a dangerous existence. Such was the threat posed by pirates to the ruling order that the British Navy worked quickly to capture them and make an example. Under the Banner of King Death starts and ends with hanging scenes, where pirates were put to death in public.

    But while the British state could hang the pirates, it couldn’t kill their idea of freedom from slavery. Lester and Rediker recover this history and remind us of the revolutionary spirit that the skull and cross bones flag once represented.

    These graphic novels commemorate new histories of resistance to the slave trade, while also reminding us of the historiographic work that must be put into recovering and retelling them, now and in the future.

    Dominic Davies 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. Three graphic novels that address the history of slavery – and commemorate resistance – https://theconversation.com/three-graphic-novels-that-address-the-history-of-slavery-and-commemorate-resistance-251740

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Facing annexation threats, should Canadians lament for a nation — like George Grant did in 1963?

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By David Edward Tabachnick, Professor of Political Science, Nipissing University

    A decades-old lament for Canada is back on some Canadians’ minds as United States President Donald Trump makes repeated annexation threats.

    Canadian political philosopher George Grant’s Lament for a Nation was published in 1965 — the same year Canada’s iconic Maple Leaf flag was first unfurled on the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill — and unexpectedly inspired many Canadians to feel a sudden sense of pride and confidence that their country could and must stand up to its giant imperialistic neighbour to the south.

    Sixty years later, there are calls to “Bring Back Grumpy George” and renew his decades-old warning. There are also attempts to understand Grant’s continued relevance in the 21st century, as well as new volumes on his work.

    Canadian nationalist movement of 70s

    On the face of it, Grant’s slim volume may seem the perfect tonic for what ails Canada today. Consider that William Christian, Grant’s biographer, called its publication “one of the most significant factors in creating the Canadian nationalist movement of the 1970s” while esteemed journalist Charles P.B. Taylor dubbed it “a Bible for younger nationalists.”

    It “is the sun under which a generation of Canadian nationalists warm themselves,” Andrew Potter writes in his introduction to the 40th anniversary edition of Grant’s most famous work, “but it also casts the long dark shadows in which they must operate.”

    One need only wade a little into the volume to see those “the long dark shadows.” The subtitle to Grant’s book says it all: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism. So, far from being a call to arms, Lament for a Nation was, as Grant put it, a “cry out at the death or at the dying of something loved…[to mourn] the end of Canada as a sovereign state.”

    In other words, Lament was never intended to whip Canadians into a nationalist fervour, but to spell out Canada’s unfortunate and inevitable disappearance as a nation.

    ‘Blending into the (U.S.) empire’

    By this logic, the next six decades of failed strategies to diversify the Canadian economy and stillborn plans to grow its military are symptoms of a disease that had already killed the patient; Canada is the zombie nation, an apparently democratic electoral system without real substance. Grant wrote:

    “Canada has ceased to be a nation, but its formal political existence will not end quickly. Our social and economic blending into the empire will continue apace, but political union will probably be delayed. Some international catastrophe or great shift of power might speed up this process.”

    For Grant, Canada’s original death knell was acquiescence to American demands that it accept their nuclear weapons on its soil. While Canada had both the technical ability and practical capacity to build its own bombs after the Second World War, leaders decided against it.

    Jack Mackenzie, first president of Atomic Energy Control Board, explained in a 1953 address: “Canada is the only country in the world with sizeable atomic energy establishments where no bombs are being made, and where all the thinking and planning is focused on peacetime aspects.”

    But in the context of the Cold War, this principled choice was viewed as a sign of weakness by Americans, who worried about Soviet bombers travelling unrestricted over the Arctic.

    Defence crisis

    This worry led to the so-called defence crisis that dominated the federal 1963 election campaign, fought between Conservative Prime Minister Diefenbaker and Liberal Lester B. Pearson.

    A beleaguered Diefenbaker had cancelled the vaunted Avro Arrow program a few years earlier, hesitated to commit the Navy to participate in the blockade of Cuba and then balked at accepting American warheads for the BOMARC interceptor missiles designed to stop those bombers.

    The pugnacious Pearson was once a champion of non-proliferation and had shocked his supporters during his infamous Scarborough speech when he announced his surprising agreement that U.S. nukes had to be deployed on Canadian soil in the name of our “commitments for Canada in continental and collective defence,” including NORAD and NATO.

    For Grant, Diefenbaker’s defeat to Pearson was a stake through the heart of the Canada from which it would never recover. In 1963, the Royal Canadian Air Force delivered a shipment of nuclear warheads to the BOMARC missile site near RCAF Station North Bay, Ont., just up the road from where I write today.

    End of Canadian nationalism?

    A few years before his passing in 1988, Grant made it clear in a 1985 interview with Lawrence (Larry) Schmidt, a theologian and a scholar of Grant’s work, that “people have read a little book I wrote called Lament for a Nation wrongly. I was talking about the end of Canadian nationalism. I was saying that this is over and people read it as if I was making an appeal for Canadian nationalism. I think that is just nonsense. I think they just read it wrongly.”

    Today, Canadian economic well-being and security are no more in Canada’s control then they were in 1965. Trump is merely saying the quiet part out loud in his craven desire to make Canada the 51st state.

    Was Grant wrong?

    But, as it turns out, Grant was wrong. Canada is not the zombie nation. It may have been in a bit of daze for the last while, but Canadians have their elbows up again.



    Read more:
    Why Gordie Howe’s elbows are Canada’s answer to Donald Trump

    Now out of a stupor, Canadians are reviewing the wisdom of purchasing F-35s, buying new radar systems to assert our sovereignty over the Arctic and attempting to drop interprovincial trade barriers.

    Mind you, this is nothing new. In the face of American disapproval, Canada trades with Cuba, claims the Northwest Passage as its internal waters and negotiated a successful Acid Rain Treaty. Canada led the charge to ban the use of land mines and refused to participate in the American missile shield plan.

    Canada didn’t send its young men to die in the jungles of Vietnam and refused to participate in the ill-conceived Iraq War. And it still protects its fresh water and health care.

    New policy for common cause

    Still, rather than merely reacting to American insults and pressures, Canada is long overdue to develop contemporary and responsive policy, the very thing Grant thought would allow Canada to become and stay a sovereign country, at least for a while.

    As writer and historical researcher Mark Wegierski notes, this could unite conservatives and progressives in common cause.

    While Canadians may be divided at times, they need to use this moment of unity to make sure Canada stays alive and kicking.

    David Edward Tabachnick 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. Facing annexation threats, should Canadians lament for a nation — like George Grant did in 1963? – https://theconversation.com/facing-annexation-threats-should-canadians-lament-for-a-nation-like-george-grant-did-in-1963-252337

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The GUU hockey team received a call-up to the XI All-Russian Championship of Russia

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    For the third time in a row, the GUU hockey club received an invitation to participate in the Russian Student Hockey League championship, which will be held in St. Petersburg from April 21 to 27.

    This season, 16 of the strongest student hockey teams from 11 regions of the Russian Federation will compete for the title. Matches will be held every day, which guarantees spectators a lot of exciting moments and tense clashes on the ice.

    Last year, our team demonstrated impressive results and reached the top 4 best teams in the country, losing bronze medals to the Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture. Hockey fans and enthusiasts will be able to watch our team’s games and support it on its way to new victories both in person and online.

    We invite all hockey fans to cheer for our hockey team in St. Petersburg and support them on their way to new achievements!

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 03/24/2025

    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 –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The second stage of the Moscow Student Cheer League has ended at the State University of Management

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    On March 22, 2025, the second stage of the Moscow Student Cheer League, organized by the Phoenix Sports Club in cooperation with our university, was held at the Sports Complex of the State University of Management.

    This large-scale and fascinating cheerleading and cheer-sport competition brought together 11 teams from different Moscow universities: GUU, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, RANEPA, RGAU-MTAA, MSU and others.

    At this stage of the competition, participants competed in 10 disciplines, each of which required teams to be focused, coordinated, and professional. Our team showed excellent results and won second place in one of the disciplines.

    We thank the organizers, our fans and everyone who supported the team throughout this intense sports day.

    The Moscow Student Cheer League is an important platform for young talents, providing an opportunity for students not only to prove themselves, but also to strengthen ties between universities. We are looking forward to the next stage of the tournament and hope for new victories!

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 03/24/2025

    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 –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: HSE has launched a competitive selection process for the Russian Postdoc Program

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    The Higher School of Economics invites researchers to take part in Program for attracting Russian postdocsThis year, 106 vacancies are available for candidates at the university’s Moscow campuses, Saint Petersburg, Perm And Nizhny NovgorodApplications will be accepted until May 16.

    The Russian Postdocs Program is aimed at attracting colleagues who have received a candidate of science or PhD degree to HSE. The competition is open to researchers under 39 years of age who have not previously worked or studied in HSE postgraduate studies.

    The program is aimed at retaining personnel in science and strengthening the practice of inter-university exchange. Winners of the competitive selection are employed as HSE research fellows for one year with the possibility of extending for a second year. They work on a research project and are involved in expanding the research agenda of departments. Colleagues can also, if they wish, teach and participate in expert-analytical projects. The postdoc will be provided with a workplace, access to information resources, databases and electronic subscriptions of HSE, as well as participation in scientific and educational events and programs for scientific advancement and career development.

    Each applicant can choose to participate in one or two projects, indicating the priority option. The full list of vacancies is published on the website of the Russian Postdocs Attraction Program. To submit an application, you must fill out form.

    Today, there are more than 50 postdocs from different regions and cities of Russia working at HSE. The program implements the practice of consultations with current participants. Online meetings are held every Wednesday at 12:00 and 17:00 Moscow time. You can ask all your questions by filling out application.

    “The program to attract Russian postdocs has allowed our still young and small laboratory to expand its research capabilities,” says Robert Sandlersky, head of International Laboratory of Landscape Ecology Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies HSE University. — The postdoc attracted under the program acquired many new skills in his first year of work that are useful for our research. The knowledge acquired at HSE allowed him to formulate his own research direction in the second year of the program, which is especially valuable for our small team. With the help of our postdoc, we organized and conducted a student expedition to his native region, Buryatia, and implemented the research project “Geoinformation support for recreational activities in Tunkinsky National Park”. Thus, the Russian Postdoc Attraction Program allowed us to expand the geography of our research and involve students in it. I am pleased to plan the next research project, for which we can attract a new active postdoc.”

    “The program for attracting Russian postdocs is a great opportunity to be involved in the activities of the best university in Russia! I am glad that I took a risk and applied for the competitive selection,” shared Anastasia Ustyuzhantseva, postdoc, research fellow Department of Operations Management and Logistics. — A wide range of professional and personal growth trajectories, English courses for any level of training, advanced training in relevant areas, work in world-class research teams — this is only a small part of what participation in the program provides. I began to look at many things in a new way, made useful contacts, and was able to concentrate on truly important professional tasks.”

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Distinguished Scientist Award Goes to UConn’s Dr. David C. Steffens

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Dr. David C. Steffens is the 2025 recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.

    Steffens, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UConn School of Medicine, was named the winner of this lifetime achievement award during the annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry on March 14 in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Steffens was honored with the Distinguished Scientist Award for his career of scientific accomplishments in the field of geriatric psychiatry, as well as his mentoring of the next generation of researchers.

    The AAGP is a national association representing and serving its members and the field of geriatric psychiatry. AAGP promotes the mental health and well-being of older people through professional education, public advocacy, and support of career development for clinicians, educators, and researchers in geriatric psychiatry and mental health.

    “I am humbled that my colleagues nominated me and that I was selected for this honor,” shared Steffens whose work focuses on mood and cognitive disorders in older adults. For over two decades he has been continuously funded by The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and other NIH institutes.

    Steffens has served as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UConn since 2012. He joined UConn after more than 20 years at Duke University School of Medicine, where he had served as a professor of psychiatry, vice chair for education and division chief of Geriatric Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He is the past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and is the primary editor of the leading textbook in geriatric psychiatry. Steffens also has considerable experience in medical education and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, resident physicians, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty.

    Steffens is graduate of Rice University and the University of Texas, Houston Health Science Center School of Medicine, and he completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at Duke.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 1.5 million-year-old bone tools discovered in Tanzania rewrite the history of human evolution

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jackson K Njau, Associate professor, Indiana University

    The ancestors of humans started making tools about 3.3 million years ago. First they made them out of stone, then they switched to bone as a raw material. Until recently, the earliest clear evidence of bone tool making was from sites in Europe, dated to 400,000 years ago. But archaeologists have now found and dated bone tools in Tanzania that are a million years older.

    The tools are made from the bones of large animals like hippos and elephants, and have been deliberately shaped to make them useful for butchering large carcasses.

    The discovery of bone implements that are the oldest ever found, by far, casts light on human evolution. It shows that our hominin ancestors were able to think about and make this technology a lot earlier than anyone realised.

    I am a scientist who co-directs a multidisciplinary research project team at the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, focusing on hominin evolution. Our project’s main goal has been to investigate the changes in hominin technology and behaviour that happened between 1.66 million and 1.4 million years ago.

    We’re interested in this time period because it marks a pivotal change in human technology, from the rudimentary stone knives and cores of the Oldowan culture to the more advanced crafted stone handaxes of the Acheulean culture.

    We found the Olduvai bone tools in 2018 and recently described them in the journal Nature. They show that by 1.5 million years ago, our ancestors (Homo erectus) had already developed the cognitive abilities required to transfer skills from making stone tools to making bone tools.

    This leap in human history was a game-changer because it allowed early hominins to overcome survival challenges in landscapes where suitable stone materials were scarce.

    Tools at Olduvai

    Olduvai Gorge is a Unesco World Heritage site. It became well known in 1959 through the pioneering work of palaeontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, whose discoveries of early human remains reshaped our understanding of human evolution. The site offers an unparalleled window into human history, spanning nearly 2 million years.



    Read more:
    Finds in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge reveal how ancient humans adapted to change

    Aside from fossilised bones, it has yielded the most detailed record of stone tool cultures in the world. It has documented the evolution from the simple chopping tools and stone knives of the Oldowan industry (about 2 million years ago) to the more advanced Acheulean tools (1.7 million years ago), such as handaxes, cleavers, picks and spheroids and then on – through arrowheads, points and blades (about 200,000 years ago) to the micro-blades of the Later Stone Age (about 17,000 years ago).

    All these tools provide a glimpse into the ingenuity and cultural advancements of our early ancestors.

    And now the picture has new detail.

    Our team uncovered 27 ancient bone tools during excavations at the T69 Complex, FLK West site at Olduvai. We know how old they are because we found them securely embedded underground where they had been left 1.5 million years ago, along with thousands of stone artefacts and fossilised bones. We dated them using geochronological techniques.

    Unlike stone, bone shafts crack and break in a way that allows the systematic production of elongated, well-shaped artifacts. Flaking them by hitting them with another object – a process called knapping – results in pointed tools that would be ideal for butchering, chopping and other tasks.

    The knapped tools we found were made from large shaft fragments that came from the limb bones of elephants and hippos, and were found at hippo butchery sites. Hominins likely brought elephant bones to the site on a regular basis, and obtained limb bones from butchered hippos at the site itself.

    What Homo erectus knew

    The find shows that 1.5 million years ago, Homo erectus could apply knapping skills to bone. Homo erectus, regarded as the evolutionary successor to the smaller-brained Homo habilis, left a lasting imprint on history. Its fossils, found at Olduvai, offer a glimpse into a span of about a million years, stretching from 1.5 million to roughly 500,000 years ago.

    Now we know that these hominins not only understood the physical properties of bones but also knew about skeletal anatomy. They could identify and select bones suitable for flaking. And they knew which animals had skeletons large enough to craft reliable tools after the animals’ death.



    Read more:
    Large mammals shaped the evolution of humans: here’s why it happened in Africa

    We don’t know exactly why they chose bones as a raw material. It may have been that suitable stone material was scarce, or they recognised that bones provided a better grip and were more durable.

    Why haven’t such old bone tools been found before? The answer is likely that they are destroyed by weathering, abrasion from water transport, trampling and scavenger activity. Organic materials don’t always get time to fossilise. Also, analysts were not used to looking for bone tools among fossils.

    This discovery will likely encourage researchers to pay closer attention to the subtle signs of bone knapping in fossil assemblages. This way we will learn more about the evolution of human technology and behaviour.

    Jackson K Njau 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. 1.5 million-year-old bone tools discovered in Tanzania rewrite the history of human evolution – https://theconversation.com/1-5-million-year-old-bone-tools-discovered-in-tanzania-rewrite-the-history-of-human-evolution-251826

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nigerian journalists are harassed by the public, the state and paid ‘data boys’ – what must change

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Temple Uwalaka, Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies, University of Canberra

    Death threats, kidnapping, unlawful detention, torture and assassination are some of the crimes being committed against journalists in Nigeria, according to a recent report. Another recent report details how the police and politicians are responsible for 70% of these harassment cases.

    They point to the increased level of threats that Nigerian journalists endure in their fourth estate role, serving as the voice of the people and holding government to account.

    This isn’t new. The harassment of journalists is baked into Nigerian history. But today journalists are also attracting online threats and harassment from members of the public.

    I teach and research media and politics, with a focus on online journalism in Nigeria. What’s clear is that the digital age has brought with it a complex relationship not just between journalists and the state, but also with citizens.

    All these parties need to turn down the heat, in the interests of free and fair information, particularly in a young democracy like Nigeria.

    A long history of violence

    The history of Nigerian journalism is characterised by violence from British colonial powers, from 1859 when the first newspaper was established, and also from indigenous politicians. There’s always been a suspicion that a free press could empower ordinary citizens and cause a shift in the power base.

    This isn’t unfounded. Journalism contributed to ending colonialism. But, after independence in 1960, the political class feared that an unfettered press would be difficult to control. Particularly when the country came under oppressive military rule from 1966 to 1999.

    There was always a fair amount of goodwill towards the press from citizens. But the ownership and control of major media houses by prominent Nigerian politicians, alongside the rise of social media, has changed the picture.

    The public used to act as the buffer for journalists, defending them from the attacks of government officials. Now some Nigerians have joined in attacking and harassing journalists in Nigeria.

    Online harassment

    We know that journalists in Nigeria under-report the harassment they receive. Many don’t view acute forms of harassment – verbal abuse, online disrespect and maltreatment – as an issue. One of our studies found they regard this as mere online banter, verbal sparring and attention seeking. But dismissing harassment doesn’t make it go away or stop. It just makes it worse in frequency and form.



    Read more:
    Threats to press freedom are taking on different forms across Africa

    Our studies indicate that online harassment of journalists is prevalent and escalating. This type of harassment is usually sustained and it often moves from one social media platform to another.

    In some cases, it spills from online to offline. The burning of the Television Continental station in Lagos in 2020 is just one example. The harassment is usually personal. Threats to the lives and safety of journalists are becoming common.

    Data Boys and corruption

    Nigerian journalists have reported that the harassers particularly target investigative and political reports, as well as perceived unethical conduct by journalists.

    The result is that political reporting is becoming difficult. A critical report about a politician makes the journalist an enemy of the politician. The politician will then unleash their supporters and paid influencers (known as “Data Boys”) to harass and hassle the journalist.

    The Data Boys phenomenon as we know it today began during Nigeria’s 2015 general elections. Data Boys are groups of young people on a politician’s payroll. They help to promote the politician’s image online and generally do their bidding. The politician sends them money to buy internet data and shares promotional “news” about themself. The Data Boys are also paid to attack any perceived enemy of the politician.

    It’s an increasingly successful political tactic in Nigeria. As a result, journalists have started censoring themselves.

    Data Boys aside, we asked ordinary Nigerians who reported engaging in online harassment why they picked on journalists. They indicated that perceived journalistic malpractice was their main reason. They accused journalists of being part of the problem because they believed many were corrupt and in the pay of politicians. Adding fuel to the fire is that Nigerian politicians are also often media owners.

    Some solutions

    One of the reasons that a culture of harassment continues is the failure of law enforcement. Those who harass journalists are not made to account for their actions. Strengthening harassment laws in Nigeria would give law enforcement the tools needed to curb it.

    There are no explicit laws around online harassment in Nigeria, just sexual and physical assault laws. This has to change if journalists are to be protected. All respondents in our studies, both journalists and the public, highlighted the law as a cardinal factor to fight harassment.

    Another solution is that journalists need to be accountable, transparent and ethical. Journalists themselves have raised these concerns about their profession.

    Yet in our studies journalists did not highlight transparency or an improved code of conduct as ways to improve the harassment situation in Nigeria.



    Read more:
    Western media outlets are trying to fix their racist, stereotypical coverage of Africa. Is it time African media did the same?

    Their detachment can come off as arrogant and has the potential to worsen hostility towards them. All the suggested solutions to online harassment made by journalists in our studies were external to them, like media sensitisation campaigns, improved workplace security and proper punishment for offenders. Their attitudes, we found, could be misconstrued as lacking self-reflection or empathy.

    Journalists, their harassers and politicians will all need to make changes or be brought to book if the problem is to be solved. Until then, online harassment is harming journalism as a profession in Nigeria. And this has the potential to have a negative impact on democracy.

    Temple Uwalaka 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. Nigerian journalists are harassed by the public, the state and paid ‘data boys’ – what must change – https://theconversation.com/nigerian-journalists-are-harassed-by-the-public-the-state-and-paid-data-boys-what-must-change-252100

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Diabetic foot pain: expert tips on how to cope

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Peter Kamerman, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand

    An estimated 1 in 10 people worldwide have diabetes. Africa is the region with the fastest growth and it’s estimated that the number of people on the continent with diabetes will more than double in the next 20 years, increasing to about 55 million people by 2045.

    Having diabetes has serious consequences for health and is associated with increased risk of developing diseases related to damage to the heart (heart attacks), blood vessels (strokes, foot ulcers), kidneys (chronic kidney failure), and the nervous system (blindness, loss of sensation).

    When it comes to nerve damage, it typically affects long nerve fibres that supply the feet and can sometimes affect fibres that supply the hands too (a so-called glove and stocking distribution).

    It is the nerve fibres that detect sensations such as touch and temperature that are often worst affected, resulting in numbness. The numbness that develops can be a nightmare for people and is often described as their “feet feeling dead”.

    A peculiarity of this numbness is that it may be accompanied by intractable pain. This type of pain, resulting from damage to sensory nerve fibres, is called neuropathic pain.

    As scientists in the field of pain and pain management we work on neuropathic pain in people living with diabetes and its management. In this article we aim to draw attention to the problem and discuss how it can be managed.

    Nerve damage

    It has been estimated that up to 50% of people with diabetes will develop damage to peripheral nerves during their lifetime, and up to 50% will experience pain because of that nerve damage.

    The predictors of developing nerve damage are well established. Older age, increased duration of diabetes, and poor control of blood glucose concentration are the main culprits. What determines whether the nerve damage is associated with pain is largely unknown.

    Neuropathic pain is often described as a “burning” pain, and is frequently
    accompanied by other sensations such as “pins and needles”, and pain that feels like stabbing, shooting, electric-like shocks, and deep aching.

    In some people there is very little or no numbness. In these people pain can often be triggered by gentle touch and movement across the skin (for example, bed sheets brushing across a foot, putting on socks), and cool and warm temperatures that are not normally felt as painful.

    Sometimes my feet will hurt really badly and I can’t get up and can hardly walk. – Anonymous patient

    Having such intractable pain has devastating consequences for quality of life.

    Pain sufferers have less social interaction with family and friends, and find it much more difficult to enjoy their favourite activities. Sleep is significantly disrupted.

    Having neuropathic pain is associated with high rates of anxiety and depression. To make matters worse, the sleep disruption, anxiety and depression may feed back into a vicious cycle to worsen and maintain the pain.

    There are days when I’d really like to go somewhere or do something and just
    don’t go. I know it will hurt. There’s no point in doing it. – Anonymous patient

    Medications to manage the pain

    Neuropathic pain is not responsive to the medications used to treat conditions such as headaches and joint pains (for example, paracetamol and ibuprofen).

    Instead, neuropathic pain is responsive to medications that in some cases are also used to treat conditions such as depression and epilepsy.

    Examples include:

    • low doses of tricyclic antidepressants (for example, amitriptyline)

    • a class of antidepressants called serotonin and noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors (for example, duloxetine)

    • anti-seizure drugs like gabapentinoids (for example, gabapentin and pregabalin).

    However, there is very little information to guide doctors to predict which drug will work best for a patient.

    So, often finding the correct treatment is a trial-and-error approach, which can be frustrating for both patients and doctors.

    Coping mechanisms

    Chronic pain management is also about teaching people to cope with their pain so that they get back to enjoying their lives and are no longer consumed by the pain.

    Such interventions include the practice of mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy, and other self-management activities specifically designed for people with chronic pain.

    With the rapidly growing number of individuals with diabetes, it is more important than ever that we detect and treat the pain caused by nerve fibre damage.

    Public education and increased awareness of this painful consequence of diabetes will hopefully encourage affected people to seek early medical attention, thus allowing management of the condition, maintaining well-being and restoring function.

    Peter Kamerman receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. He is the sole proprietor of Blueprint Analytics, and consults for Partners in Research.

    Andreas C Themistocleous receives funding from UK Medical Research Council.

    – ref. Diabetic foot pain: expert tips on how to cope – https://theconversation.com/diabetic-foot-pain-expert-tips-on-how-to-cope-251937

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How political leaders communicate climate policy should be a defining factor this election

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Andrew Heffernan, Climate Associate at the Information Integrity Lab and Adjunct Professor in Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

    Prime Minister Mark Carney has called an April 28 federal election, setting the stage for a campaign where climate policy could be a central issue.

    The current iteration of Canada’s consumer carbon rebate is dead — which many view as a casualty of effective communication — yet climate policy remains a pressing topic for voters and a major battleground for political leaders.



    Read more:
    The Canada Carbon Rebate is still widely misunderstood — here’s why

    As Canada grapples with intensifying climate-related challenges, the next government will not only need to implement evidence-based policies to meet international climate commitments, but also effectively communicate its vision to voters.

    The public remains concerned about environmental issues, yet many are worried that bold climate policies have damaged the economy. This tension between environmental responsibility and economic growth will shape how each party formulates and communicates their climate policies in the upcoming campaign.

    The Liberals: Navigating the middle ground

    For Carney and the Liberal Party, the challenge is twofold. First, the Liberals must present a new climate plan after the collapse of the consumer carbon rebate, which has faced widespread public opposition in recent years.

    While the new Liberal leader has already terminated the the carbon rebate, it still remains unclear what exactly his comprehensive climate plan will look like. Carney’s website states that his strategy will: “Provide incentives for consumers. Put more of the burden on big polluters. And help us build the strongest economy in the G7.”



    Read more:
    Big government, big trouble? Defending the future of Canada’s climate policy

    This suggests his climate policy will hinge more on positive incentives for consumers to invest in sustainable approaches rather than putting a cost on polluting.

    While the carbon rebate initially enjoyed broad support as a key tool for reducing emissions, it has become a lightning rod for political controversy.

    Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue; it’s increasingly seen as a matter of economic survival, with green energy jobs and clean technologies representing an opportunity for Canada to position itself as a global leader in the sector.

    Carney will have to make a convincing case that his policy will create jobs, stimulate innovation and provide a clear path toward a greener, more sustainable economy.

    Failing to do so could lead to the loss of centrist and moderate voters, some of whom are wary of the perceived economic risks of aggressive climate action.

    The Conservatives: Axing the rebate isn’t enough

    On the opposite end of the political spectrum, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has made axing the carbon rebate a central part of his platform.

    Framing the carbon rebate as an economic penalty, Poilievre has played into populist sentiments by promising to “axe the tax” and relieve financial pressures on Canadian families and businesses.

    However, even if the Conservatives are successful in eliminating the carbon rebate, they still face the challenge of needing a comprehensive climate policy that lowers emissions and meets Canada’s Paris Agreement targets. Poilievre has said he would not withdraw Canada from the accord, but he hasn’t addressed how he would meet Canada’s commitments.

    Poilievre’s populist rhetoric may resonate with voters who feel economically squeezed, but it’s unlikely to be enough to win over voters concerned about the climate crisis — especially as he has voted against environmental and climate action in Parliament over 400 times in his career, a point his opponents will be sure to raise repeatedly.

    For the Conservatives, the real challenge will be how to present a climate policy that appeals to both economic conservatives, who prioritize fiscal responsibility, and environmental conservatives, who are concerned about the future of the planet.

    Poilievre will need to clearly articulate how his policies will preserve Canada’s environmental future without stifling economic growth or inflating costs for the average Canadian.

    NDP and Green Party

    A key piece of the future of climate policy in Canada will be the NDP and Green Party, who are generally considered left-of-centre parties alongside the governing Liberals.

    The NDP, which can siphon progressive votes away from the Liberals — which sometimes benefits Conservatives — have been clear as mud when it comes to their climate policy for the next election.

    NDP leader Jagmeet Singh rescinded his party’s long-standing support for the Liberal carbon rebate in April 2024, but has not yet said what his party would put in its place.

    Meanwhile, the Green Party, which has historically played a less significant role in electoral outcomes in terms of vote splitting, has generally maintained its support for the carbon rebate. Its website suggests the party supports the polluter-pays principle. However, the Greens have yet to take a clear stance on the shifting climate grounds on which this election could partially be fought.

    Political communication the key to success

    In the coming years, the future of climate policy in Canada will be less about crafting the perfect policy and more about crafting a message that addresses how people are feeling.

    The Liberal Party has been open about the demise of the carbon rebate being a combination of a lack of their own effective communication strategy, mixed with harmful disinformation campaigns that led to the demise of their signature climate policy.

    For the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens alike, the road to effective climate policy will lie in this communication. Political leaders will need to balance ambition and pragmatism, ensuring their policies align with Canadians’ economic interests.

    With 71 per cent of Canadians suggesting they want the next government to do more to address climate change, leaders who can articulate a vision for a sustainable, prosperous future while addressing the immediate concerns of Canadians will be the ones who have the best chance of winning the public’s trust — and the next election.

    Andrew Heffernan is affiliated with the Liberal Party of Canada.

    – ref. How political leaders communicate climate policy should be a defining factor this election – https://theconversation.com/how-political-leaders-communicate-climate-policy-should-be-a-defining-factor-this-election-251990

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to have conversations with people who fall for misinformation this election campaign

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jaigris Hodson, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads University

    Canadians head to the polls on April 28. Like other recent general elections, both in Canada and around the world, this federal election campaign is sure to be characterized by polarized misinformation.

    We all have someone in our families or social circles who has political opinions grounded in false or misleading information. Whether the source of that information is Russian bots on social media, high-profile podcasters or Fox News, it’s easy to dread election-time conversations as misinformation strains our most important relationships.

    But perhaps we can approach these conversations as an opportunity to push back against growing polarization in our communities.

    My research shows that polarization and misinformation often go hand in hand, and when they do, the information being spread is strongly resistant to being corrected by way of evidence.

    But when we truly begin to listen to the people who believe misinformation, we can often help counter false claims. So in this upcoming election, how can we push back against election misinformation when we hear it? Let’s examine some strategies.



    Read more:
    5 expert tips to protect yourself from online misinformation

    The role of anxiety

    Most people think that others who believe misinformation will change their minds if provided with the right evidence, but that’s simply not true.

    People have good reasons for not wanting to change their minds, even when confronted with contradictory facts. One of the key personality traits linked to the belief in misinformation turns out to be anxiety. This can manifest in ways that resist correction.

    For example, most of us feel anxious when we have to hold two conflicting beliefs at the same time. So if we already believe misinformation and are confronted with evidence to the contrary, we may reject the evidence to avoid the dissonance of managing both beliefs.

    Additionally, people might believe something because others in their social group believe it, meaning there is social anxiety associated with rejecting the group’s belief, even if it’s wrong.

    Finally, anxiety about the future can drive people to accept misinformation that helps to relieve those fears.

    Taken together, this means that correcting political misinformation, which involves all three of the above triggers — self, social and future anxiety — cannot be accomplished solely by providing evidence. We need to mitigate these anxieties while engaging in gentle correction since outright correcting can make the anxieties worse.

    The ‘AIMS’ method

    Motivational interviewing is a proven method of pushing back against another type of polarizing misinformation: health misinformation.

    One particular approach to motivational interviewing, known as the AIMS method, has been successfully tested in Canada for countering vaccine misinformation.

    AIMS stands for Announce, Inquire, Mirror and Secure. It provides a way to address misinformation while building the sort of connection and trust that people need to reduce the anxiety that is the trigger for believing misinformation in the first place.

    The first step, Announce, is where the topic is approached. In the medical world, this usually occurs when a doctor announces that it’s time for a vaccine, but in the world of political misinformation, the announcement doesn’t have to come from a professional.

    Instead, Announce can occur when the person you are talking to announces a piece of political misinformation, like the claim that the government is vaccinating people for the purposes of controlling the population. Announce is basically where the process of addressing misinformation begins.

    Inquire is the step where motivational interviewing really begins to differ from a conventional approach of simply providing evidence to back up a false claim. In this second step, it’s important to ask questions, and approach the misinformation with a sense of curiosity.

    Basically, as you probe more and more deeply, you’re trying to understand the anxieties that are driving the misinformation belief.

    As you ask questions, you begin to also engage in the third step, Mirror. Mirroring means checking in, and repeating what you’re hearing so that the person you are talking to recognizes they’re being heard. At this stage, you can begin to introduce pieces of evidence that disprove the claims being made, but only after you truly understand the person’s concerns and can reflect them back.

    It’s also important to manage how you introduce contradictory evidence. It must be done with compassion and a gentle but reassuring manner.

    Finally, when all the concerns have been addressed, you can begin the final step, which is to Secure trust. Here you can follow up on the announcement that sparked the discussion — the original piece of misinformation — and see if the person you’re talking to now feels differently than they did before.

    Importantly, you may not be successful at securing this step in just one conversation, but if you have conducted the other steps properly, you will have built important trust that, over time, is more likely to help you counter future misinformation with the person you’re talking to.

    Preserving relationships

    Combating any misinformation, and especially political misinformation, is not a quick or easy process. It may have to take place in repeated discussions over a long period of time.

    Political misinformation is particularly difficult to counter because political views are often tied deeply to people’s self-identity, and also because political misinformation is often shared within social groups.

    But if you engage in motivated interviewing this election season, you may make a small difference. At the very least, you will help to preserve relationships with friends and loved ones that are often frayed when political misinformation enters the picture.

    Jaigris Hodson is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Canada Research Chairs Program.

    – ref. How to have conversations with people who fall for misinformation this election campaign – https://theconversation.com/how-to-have-conversations-with-people-who-fall-for-misinformation-this-election-campaign-252667

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Egg prices soar as outdated supply chains crack under pressure

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jack Buffington, Associate Professor of Practice in Supply Chain Management, University of Denver

    Experts predict that egg prices will keep climbing in 2025. Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    There may be no kitchen table issue in America more critical than the price of food.

    So when the price of eggs rose over 40% from 2024 to 2025, it became a headline news story in Colorado and across the nation.

    Public officials and the media blamed high egg prices on bird flu outbreaks and said containing the outbreak in supply chains would lower prices. In early March 2025, egg prices fell in the U.S., but these trends are likely to reverse due to higher seasonal demand during Easter and Passover.

    Rising prices and market volatility have led to food costs climbing to 11.4% of American’s disposable income, the largest percentage since 1991.

    Arresting these rising costs, as I argue in my 2023 book, means reinventing supply chains to address the growing supply, demand and price volatility that has created uncertainty for consumers since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

    I have described global supply chains, and supply chains in the U.S. in particular, as “efficiently broken.” By this I mean that they aspire to offer low prices from economies of scale but lack sufficient resiliency to create stability.

    Without addressing the systemic weaknesses in supply chains, I believe major health and economic disruptions will continue to happen in Colorado, nationally and around the world.

    Cage-free eggs

    Colorado faces a double whammy where egg prices are concerned.

    It’s one of nine states with a cage-free egg mandate, which requires all eggs sold in the state to come from cage-free facilities. The regulation has been shown to increase the price of eggs by as much as 50%.

    Over the past two decades, cage-free egg laws have been passed in states as consumers have grown more concerned with the welfare of farm animals. What that means varies from state to state because the term cage-free isn’t regulated by a federal agency. In Colorado, egg-laying hens must be housed in a cage-free system and must have a minimum of 1 square foot of usable floor space per hen.

    Colorado is the 28th largest egg producer in the U.S., far behind Midwestern states such as Iowa, Indiana and Ohio, but it has a few large producers such as Morning Fresh Farms, as well as smaller ones such as the Colorado Egg Producers Association, a collection of seven family-owned farms.

    Colorado’s cage-free egg law went into effect in January 2025 – around the same time that consumers noticed bare egg shelves at their supermarkets. Many consumers and some elected Republicans in Colorado blamed the cage-free law.

    Nevada is pulling back on its cage-free egg mandate to deal with the challenge of unaffordable egg prices.

    But cage-free laws are not the main driver of increasing egg prices, as I’ve noted in my research. Like many others, the egg supply chain needs to be reinvented to balance price, scale, resiliency and stability.

    Supply chain issues

    What is driving up the prices of eggs and other consumer goods is the concentration of producers. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how vulnerable prices and supply chains are.

    Five years ago this month, when the pandemic started, many products became unavailable and more expensive.

    In 2022, a major product recall of Similac led to a baby formula shortage in the U.S. The baby formula market is highly concentrated, with four companies responsible for approximately 90% of the domestic market. A large-scale facility that produced the baby formula was found to have unsanitary conditions and contaminated products. Pulling this one facility offline at the same time the nation was coping with pandemic-related supply chain issues led to the shortage.

    Supply chain issues led to a U.S. shortage of baby formula in 2022.
    Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Then at the beginning of 2024, supplies of insulin ran short due to production issues at Eli Lilly, one of the three companies responsible for over 90% of the U.S. insulin market.

    And in the second half of 2024, hospitals couldn’t get enough IV fluid due to damage caused by Hurricane Helene to a Baxter factory in North Carolina that manufactures approximately 60% of IV fluids in the U.S. This factory had been relocated to North Carolina from Puerto Rico due to the supply impact from Hurricane Maria that damaged the island in 2017.

    In all of these cases, the supply chain was easily interrupted due to a reliance on a few large producers. In 2025, bird flu and eggs are just another example of America’s “efficiently broken” supply chain.

    Bird flu and cost of eggs

    In the U.S., the top five egg producers are responsible for 40% of hens, with Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods alone responsible for 13% of total U.S. production.

    An average-sized production facility in the U.S. can house 75,000 to 500,000 hens. Large facilities can house over 4 million. The mass production of eggs from these facilities means eggs are, in stable times, cost effective for the American consumer. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, eggs in the U.S. never surpassed $3 a dozen, and it was an affordable food solution compared with processed foods.

    But this scale and efficiency comes at the price of resiliency during something like a bird flu outbreak. Larger farms create a higher risk of viral outbreak, which leads to the need for culling millions of birds and a heightened risk of viral replication and mutation.

    The solution may increase prices

    Policymakers want to reduce the spread of disease at American egg factories to mitigate the spread of bird flu. But these measures are expensive.

    Factory farms increase the potential for viruses to spread rapidly and even mutate. Therefore, bird flu is a more serious precursor of supply chain disruption than a hurricane or product recall because it has the potential to create a public health crisis.

    One solution to limit the spread of bird flu is to regulate the number of hens allowed in a single facility. This would lead to smaller and more farms across the U.S., but also higher consumer prices.

    This solution would mirror other countries such as Canada, where the average facility size is much smaller than in the U.S. and eggs and poultry cost significantly more. That’s why – under the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – Canada has quota and tariff protection from American companies flooding its market with eggs and poultry that would cost consumers two to three times less.

    Yet in March 2025, the price of eggs in Canada is 50% cheaper than eggs in the U.S. because the country has not suffered the same damages from bird flu.

    Following Canada’s lead wouldn’t result in egg prices as low as giant factory farms, but it would protect American consumers from the periodic price shocks caused by disease or localized weather events that disrupt supplies.

    Despite the threat of a public health crisis, American consumers don’t want to pay more for eggs – and their leaders have promised they won’t have to.

    Read more of our stories about Colorado.

    Jack Buffington 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. Egg prices soar as outdated supply chains crack under pressure – https://theconversation.com/egg-prices-soar-as-outdated-supply-chains-crack-under-pressure-251425

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Who gets to brand Puerto Rico: Its tourism agency or its biggest star?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Carlos A. Suárez Carrasquillo, Associate Instructional Professor in Political Science, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida

    The Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is one of the biggest stars of the music world. After becoming Spotify’s most-streamed artist for three years in a row – the first and only artist ever to do so – he sold out all 49 dates of his 2024 U.S. tour, netting US$211 million.

    Earlier this year, after Bad Bunny co-hosted “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and announced a 21-show residency in Puerto Rico, the recently reelected mayor of San Juan, Miguel Romero, quipped that the artist had done a better job of promoting Puerto Rico than the island’s official destination marketing organization.

    That agency, Discover Puerto Rico, was founded in 2017 to market the island to both tourists and investors. Established during the administration of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, it was part of a broader effort to professionalize Puerto Rico’s place branding and underscored the importance of tourism to the island’s economy.

    As a scholar of Puerto Rican politics and place branding – and a native Puerto Rican – I think this case study raises interesting public policy questions: Who gets to brand Puerto Rico? Why does it matter if a place has a brand anyway? And if political leaders are dissatisfied with an agency whose sole purpose is to market the island, what comes next?

    It’s not just a place – it’s a brand

    Historically, place-branding campaigns have been led by governments seeking to attract tourism and investment. One of the most iconic examples was the “I Love New York” campaign, launched in 1977 as a collaboration between New York City and private partners. Similar public-private models became more common in the decades that followed.

    Puerto Rico has seen various branding efforts over the years. Early boosterism efforts emerged during the first half of the 20th century, and in 1970, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company was created to promote the island as a
    tourist destination. By the 1990s, many Puerto Rican municipalities had begun adopting different place branding strategies.

    During Puerto Rico’s deepening fiscal crisis in the 2010s, branding efforts remained a bipartisan priority. But the two dominant political parties – the pro-territory Partido Popular Democrático, and the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista – each rebranded the island every time a new administration took office, raising concerns about consistency. The last major government-led initiative before Discover Puerto Rico was the “Isla Estrella” campaign, which included a sponsorship deal with Spain’s Sevilla FC soccer team.

    The ‘Discover Puerto Rico’ era

    In 2017, Discover Puerto Rico took control over the island’s place-branding efforts. However, its performance has been polarizing, with critics pointing to significant blunders. For example, an early ad in its “Live Boricua” campaign sparked backlash for featuring a family that didn’t look like most Puerto Ricans.

    Beyond its marketing blunders, Discover Puerto Rico has struggled to navigate Puerto Rico’s politically charged place-branding landscape. In fact, it has been contested from the start, and remains so, as recently elected Gov. Jennifer González evaluates its future. It remains unclear to what extent efficiency and economic development will serve as the main criteria for evaluating its success, and to what extent party politics will influence the decision-making process.

    Just a day before Mayor Romero made his remark about Bad Bunny, Discover Puerto Rico’s CEO, Brad Dean, resigned, taking a similar role in St. Louis. Dean has argued that during his tenure, Discover Puerto Rico has driven significant increases in tourism and tourism spending. While these self-reported figures suggest success, they don’t address a critical issue – the long-standing political controversy surrounding Puerto Rico’s branding.

    Pop culture carries the weight

    At the same time the future of Discover Puerto Rico remains uncertain, the island has gained unparalleled international attention thanks to popular music.

    Reggaetón, an urban genre that originated in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, has amassed a massive global fan base, extending beyond Puerto Rico and Latin America to the rest of the world. In 2017, Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi’s video for the worldwide hit “Despacito” turned La Perla, a working-class barrio in Old San Juan, into a magnet for tourists from all over the world.

    “Despacito” prompted a surge of visits to La Perla, as the French news agency AFP noted.

    More recently, in January 2025, Bad Bunny released his latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which taps into traditional Puerto Rican music genres such as bomba, plena and música jíbara that aren’t usually associated with reggaetón. It charted at No. 1. Bad Bunny also announced a Puerto Rico-exclusive concert series, with some dates reserved for locals and others open to fans worldwide.

    The success of Puerto Rican reggaetón artists raises an important question: Why have these organic cultural movements been so effective – perhaps even more so than the official expert-driven place-marketing agency – in promoting Puerto Rico as a brand?

    I think the answer probably lies in authenticity. Unlike government-led initiatives, reggaetón’s global appeal stems from its cultural resonance and emotional connection with audiences worldwide, regardless of politics.

    At this critical juncture for the island’s tourism agency, perhaps Discover Puerto Rico should rebrand itself as “Discover the Birthplace of Reggaetón.”

    Carlos A. Suárez Carrasquillo 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. Who gets to brand Puerto Rico: Its tourism agency or its biggest star? – https://theconversation.com/who-gets-to-brand-puerto-rico-its-tourism-agency-or-its-biggest-star-248825

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: National monuments have grown and shrunk under US presidents for over a century thanks to one law: The Antiquities Act

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Monica Hubbard, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Boise State University

    Over 730,000 people visit Colorado National Monument each year. It was established in 1911 under the Antiquities Act. Gordon Leggett, CC BY-SA

    America’s public lands, from its majestic national parks to its vast national forests, are at the heart of the country’s identity.

    They cover more than a quarter of the nation and large parts of the West. Some are crisscrossed by hiking trails and used by hunters and fishermen. Ranchers graze cattle on others. In many areas, the government earns money through oil, gas, timber and mining leases.

    These federally managed public lands have long enjoyed broad bipartisan support, as have moves to turn them into protected national parks and monuments. Research consistently shows that a majority of Americans want their congressional representatives to protect public access to these lands for recreation. One avenue for protection is the creation of national monuments.

    But the status of national monuments can change.

    Presidents have expanded and contracted national monuments, as the U.S. saw with Bears Ears National Monument in Utah over the course of the past three presidencies. The rules for the use and maintenance of various public lands can also change, and that can affect surrounding communities and their economies.

    The U.S. is likely to see changes to public lands again under the second Trump administration. One of the new administration’s early orders was for the Department of Interior to review all national monuments for potential oil and gas drilling and mining. At least two national monuments that President Joe Biden created in California are among the new administration’s targets.

    The avenue for many of these changes is rooted in one century-old law.

    The power and vagary of the Antiquities Act

    The Antiquities Act of 1906, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, gave Congress or the president the authority to establish national monuments on federal land as a means of protecting areas for ecological, cultural, historical or scientific purposes.

    From Theodore Roosevelt on, 18 of the 21 presidents have used the Antiquities Act to create, expand or contract national monuments through a presidential proclamation.

    By using the Antiquities Act to create, expand or reduce national monuments, presidents can avoid an environmental impact statement, normally required under the National Environmental Policy Act, which also allows for public input. Supporters argue that forgoing the environmental impact statement helps expedite monument creation and expansion. Critics say bypassing the review means potential impacts of the monument designations can be overlooked.

    The Antiquities Act also offers no clarity on whether a president can reduce the amount of area protected by prior presidents. The act simply states that a president designates “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” This has led to the shifting of national monument boundaries based on the priorities of each administration.

    The Citadel Ruins are the remains of Anasazi cliff dwellings at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
    Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management via Wikimedia Commons

    An example is Bears Ears, an area of Utah that is considered significant to several tribes but also has uranium, gas and oil resources. In 2016, President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears a national monument. In 2017, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation reducing Bears Ears by 80% of its total designated size. The monument’s size and scope shifted a third time when President Joe Biden reestablished Bears Ears to the boundaries designated by Obama.

    In the span of just over five years, the monument was created, reduced, then restored to the original monument designation.

    The uncertainty about the long-term reliability of a designation makes it challenging for federal agencies to manage the land or assure Indigenous communities that the government will protect cultural, historical and ecological heritage.

    Public lands can be economic engines

    National parks and monuments can help fuel local economies.

    A 2017 study by Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group, found that Western rural counties with more public land have had greater economic growth, including in jobs and personal income, than those with little public land. National monuments can also benefit neighboring counties by increasing population, income and employment opportunities.

    Even small national monuments provide economic benefits for their surrounding communities. Visitors to Fort Stanwix National Monument in Rome, N.Y., spent $5.3 million in nearby communities in 2023, according to a National Park Service report.
    National Park Service via Wikimedia Commons

    While many counties adjacent to public lands may be dependent on natural resource extraction, the establishment of a national monument can open up new opportunities by expanding tourism and recreation. For example, four national parks and monuments in southeastern Utah, including Natural Bridges, drew about 2.4 million visitors who spent nearly US$400 million in surrounding communities.

    However, when there is uncertainty over whether public lands will remain protected, communities may be hesitant to invest in that future, not knowing whether it will soon change.

    What Congress and the courts could do

    There are a few ways to increase the certainty around the future of national monuments.

    First, lawsuits could push the courts to determine whether the president has the authority to reduce national monuments. Since the Antiquities Act doesn’t directly address presidential authority to reduce monument size, that’s an open question.

    Advocacy groups sued the government over Trump’s authority to shrink Bears Ears National Monument, but their cases were put on hold after Biden expanded the monument again. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear other cases in 2024 that argued that a president’s authority to declare and expand national monuments should be far more limited under the law.

    Second, Congress could permanently protect designated national monuments through legislation. That would require presidential approval, and the process would likely be slow and cumbersome. Creating White Clouds Wilderness in Idaho, for example, took decades and a public campaign to have it designated a national monument before Congress approved its wilderness designation.

    Third, Congress could take new steps to protect public lands. For example, a bipartisan bill titled Public Lands in Public Hands Act could block privatization of public lands and increase and maintain access for recreation. One of the bill’s lead sponsors is U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican from Montana who served as Interior secretary during the first Trump administration. Whether the bill will pass and gain the president’s approval remains to be seen.

    Public lands have widespread support

    The Antiquities Act has led to the creation of 163 terrestrial and marine monuments and subsequently the protection of land and waters that hold cultural, scientific or historic significance.

    These monuments tend to have broad support. During the first Trump administration, there were over 650,000 public comments on Trump’s review of national monument creation. An analysis found that 98% of the comments expressed broad support for both the creation and expansion of national monuments.

    Gold Butte National Monument covers nearly 300,000 acres of remote and rugged desert landscape in southeastern Nevada and is popular with hikers.
    Bureau of Land Management

    Public lands are more than just physical places. They are spaces where our ideals and values around public land unify us as Americans. They are quintessentially American – and in many ways define and shape the American identity.

    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. National monuments have grown and shrunk under US presidents for over a century thanks to one law: The Antiquities Act – https://theconversation.com/national-monuments-have-grown-and-shrunk-under-us-presidents-for-over-a-century-thanks-to-one-law-the-antiquities-act-252707

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How Japanese anime draws on religious traditions to explore themes of destiny, sacrifice and the struggle between desire and duty

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ronald S. Green, Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Coastal Carolina University

    Kyojuro Rengoku, also known as the Flame Hashira, is a central character in the ‘Demon Slayer’ series. Deviant Art, CC BY-ND

    I have spent years studying and teaching Japanese anime, exploring how its narratives intertwine with cultural, philosophical and religious traditions. One of the most compelling aspects of Japanese anime is its ability to merge thrilling action with deep spiritual and ethical questions.

    “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train,” which shattered Japanese box-office records for earnings and ended up as 2020’s highest-grossing film in the world, is a prime example of how anime engages with these profound themes. With “Demon Slayer” continuing its global success, it is an opportune time to examine how it intertwines Buddhist, Shinto and samurai traditions into a narrative of heroism, impermanence and moral struggle.

    Spiritual themes in anime

    Anime often explores spiritual and philosophical questions by drawing on Japan’s religious traditions to examine themes of fate, self-sacrifice and the struggle between desire and duty.

    Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke,” for example, follows Prince Ashitaka, who is cursed by a demon and must journey to find a cure. His quest leads him into a conflict between the industrialized Irontown, which seeks to expand by clearing forests, and the spirits of the natural world, including the Deer God, a divine being that governs life and death.

    The film reflects Shinto principles by portraying nature as sacred and inhabited by “kami,” or spiritual beings. It emphasizes harmony between humans and the environment and the consequences of disrupting this balance.

    Scholar Melissa Croteau, in her book “Transcendence and Spirituality in Japanese Cinema,” notes how Miyazaki’s films use nature spirits to critique modernity’s detachment from the sacredness of the environment.

    A still from ‘Spirited Away’ in which 10-year-old Chihiro must learn to navigate an unseen world.
    GoodFon.com, CC BY-NC

    Similarly, his 2001 animated film “Spirited Away” reflects animist ideas in Japanese culture, where spirits are believed to inhabit natural elements and even everyday objects. Set in a mysterious Japanese bathhouse filled with “kami,” 10-year-old Chihiro, once shy and afraid of change, learns to navigate this hidden world and transforms along the way.

    A key moment in the film is the arrival of a polluted river spirit, which appears as a filthy, sludge-covered creature but is revealed to be a once-pristine river god, burdened by human waste. This scene embodies the animist belief that natural entities have their own spirit and must be respected. It also reinforces an environmental message: When nature is polluted or mistreated, it loses its vitality, but with care and reverence it can be restored.

    “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” a landmark Japanese anime television series that aired from 1995 to 1996, engages with deep philosophical ideas, particularly existentialist questions of identity and purpose. Set in a postapocalyptic world, the series follows 14-year-old Shinji Ikari, who is recruited to pilot a giant biomechanical weapon called an evangelion to defend humanity against mysterious beings known as Angels.

    As Shinji and his fellow pilots struggle with their roles, the series explores themes of isolation, self-worth and the challenges of forming close, meaningful relationships. It draws from both Buddhist and Gnostic thought, which emphasize a focus on inner spiritual knowledge and the belief that clinging too tightly to the material world causes suffering. Evangelion portrays suffering as arising from attachment and the inability to form meaningful relationships.

    Rengoku: The embodiment of selfless heroism

    What sets “Mugen Train” apart is its focus on the internal conflicts of its characters, symbolized by their battles with demons. These demons represent human suffering and attachment, themes deeply influenced by Buddhist thought. At the heart of the film is Kyojuro Rengoku, a demon slayer who embodies unwavering selflessness and honor.

    Rengoku’s flame-breathing forms.

    Rengoku’s fire-based fighting style is deeply symbolic. In Japanese culture, fire represents both destruction and renewal. The Kurama Fire Festival, held annually on Oct. 22 in Kyoto, is a Shinto ritual where large torches are carried through the streets to ward off evil and purify the land.

    Similarly, Buddhist goma fire ceremonies involve priests burning wooden sticks in sacred flames to symbolize the eradication of ignorance and desire. Rengoku’s own techniques reflect this duality: His flames cleanse the world of evil while signifying his unwavering spirit.

    Goma fire ritual.

    Bushido, the samurai code of honor, underpins Rengoku’s character. Rooted in Confucian ethics, Zen Buddhism and Shinto beliefs, this code emphasizes loyalty, self-sacrifice and duty to protect others. His mother’s teaching – “The strong must protect the weak” – guides his every action, reflecting the Confucian value of filial piety and the moral obligation to serve society.

    Bushido’s connection to Zen Buddhism, with its focus on discipline and acceptance of impermanence, further shapes Rengoku’s unwavering resolve, while its Shinto influences reinforce his role as a guardian upholding a sacred duty.

    Even approaching death, Rengoku remains steadfast, accepting impermanence, or “mujō,” a fundamental Buddhist principle that sees beauty in life’s transience. His sacrifice teaches that true strength lies in selflessness and moral integrity.

    Akaza: A manifestation of attachment and suffering

    Opposing Rengoku is Akaza, a demon who embodies the destructive consequences of clinging to power and immortality. Once human, Akaza became a demon in his obsession with strength, unable to accept the impermanence of life.

    His refusal to acknowledge death aligns with Buddhist teachings that suffering arises from attachment and desire. Scholars such as Jacqueline Stone have explored how Buddhist texts portray clinging to existence as a fundamental source of suffering, a theme vividly reflected in Akaza’s character.

    Visual elements reinforce Akaza’s symbolism. His body is covered in tattoos reminiscent of “irezumi,” traditional Japanese body art historically associated with crime and hardship. In Edo-period Japan, tattoos were often used to mark criminals, branding them as outcasts from society. Even today, irezumi remains stigmatized in many parts of Japan, with some public bathhouses, gyms and swimming pools barring individuals with visible tattoos due to their historical association with the yakuza. In contemporary anime, tattooed characters frequently symbolize a troubled past or inner turmoil, reinforcing Akaza’s role as a figure trapped by his own suffering and destructive path.

    Akaza’s irezumi visually conveys his entrapment in cycles of suffering, reinforcing his contrast with Rengoku’s liberating flames.

    A battle about human struggles

    The battle between Rengoku and Akaza is more than a fight between good and evil; it is a clash between two worldviews – selflessness versus egoism, acceptance versus attachment. “Mugen Train” taps into universal human struggles, making its themes resonate far beyond Japan.

    The film’s exploration of impermanence, moral duty and the pursuit of meaning contributes to anime’s broader legacy as a medium that entertains while provoking deep philosophical reflection.

    As “Demon Slayer” continues to captivate audiences worldwide, evidenced by social media buzz around its new projects and the ongoing enthusiasm of fans, its success underscores anime’s ability to blend action with profound themes.

    Whether through Rengoku’s selfless courage or Akaza’s tragic downfall, “Mugen Train” offers a timeless meditation on what it means to live with purpose and integrity.

    Ronald S. Green 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 Japanese anime draws on religious traditions to explore themes of destiny, sacrifice and the struggle between desire and duty – https://theconversation.com/how-japanese-anime-draws-on-religious-traditions-to-explore-themes-of-destiny-sacrifice-and-the-struggle-between-desire-and-duty-246960

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Poor neighborhoods, health care barriers are factors for heart disease risk in Black mothers

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Curisa M. Tucker, Assistant Professor of Nursing Science, University of South Carolina

    The study examined more than 7 million births that occurred over 22 years. supersizer/E+ via Getty Images

    Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood contributes to a rare form of heart failure known as peripartum cardiomyopathy, a potentially deadly disease that disproportionately affects Black mothers.

    That’s the key finding of my recent study, published in February 2025 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

    Peripartum cardiomyopathy can occur in pregnant or postpartum mothers during late pregnancy up to five months after birth. The disease is difficult to identify and is often misdiagnosed. Multiple studies estimate that 7% to 20% of U.S. mothers who have it don’t survive.

    As a nurse scientist with a research focus on maternal health equity, I wanted to learn more about the factors that cause peripartum cardiomyopathy.

    My team and I examined more than 7.3 million birth records in California between 1997 and 2019. By using the neighborhood deprivation index, which measures socioeconomic disadvantage in a geographic area, we linked hospital discharge and vital records information up to 12 months postpartum follow-up on each woman. From that data, we developed a more complete picture on why women developed the illness.

    We found that living in poor neighborhoods with fewer resources was associated with a 20% to 70% increased risk of developing this disease. Those in the most under-resourced neighborhoods – areas with less access to nutritious food, stable housing and quality health care – had the highest risk. This was true even after accounting for other factors, like income, race, high blood pressure and obesity.

    But living in highly stressed neighborhoods explained only part of the reason for the higher rates of peripartum cardiomyopathy in Black women. We found that even if they lived in better neighborhoods, Black women were still more than three times as likely to develop the condition than others.

    Why it matters

    Our findings suggest deeper issues are contributing to the increase in the disease, particularly in Black women.

    Barriers to health care are critical. These include insurance gaps,
    transportation issues, the biases of doctors and other providers and inadequate access to care.

    A better understanding of these factors can help policymakers develop effective interventions for all women at risk and reallocate resources – and dollars – to prevent disparities in maternal health outcomes.

    Pregnancy itself causes increased stress on the heart.

    What still isn’t known

    Our study only points to neighborhood disinvestment and chronic high blood pressure as contributors to the risk of peripartum cardiomyopathy. Unanswered questions remain about the other causes.

    More research is needed to fully understand how social determinants of health, which are the environmental conditions where people are born, live, work and play, affect health outcomes.

    For example, these communities are often food deserts – places with limited access to healthy food and larger supermarkets. Overcrowded or poor-quality housing also contribute to stress and health problems. So does the lack of safe space for physical activity.

    What’s next

    My future work will focus on further identifying the key factors that influence peripartum cardiomyopathy risk, such as economic stability and the effects of environmental stressors, like pollution.

    I’ll also track the long-term health of peripartum cardiomyopathy survivors to understand how social factors affect recovery. My ultimate goal is to inform policies and practices that reduce disparities and improve maternal heart health for all.

    The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

    NIH provided funding to support this work.

    – ref. Poor neighborhoods, health care barriers are factors for heart disease risk in Black mothers – https://theconversation.com/poor-neighborhoods-health-care-barriers-are-factors-for-heart-disease-risk-in-black-mothers-250591

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ukraine will need major rebuilding when war ends − here’s why the US isn’t likely to invest in its recovery with a new Marshall Plan

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Frank A. Blazich Jr., Curator of Military History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

    Europe after World War II? No, it’s the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in 2023, after a year of Russian bombardment. AP Photo, File

    President Donald Trump wants Ukraine to repay the United States for helping to defend the country against Russia’s invasion.

    Since 2022, Congress has provided about US$174 billion to Ukraine and neighboring countries to assist its war effort. Trump inflated this figure to $350 billion in a March 2025 White House meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Separately, he has suggested Ukraine could reimburse the U.S. by giving America access to its minerals.

    Ukraine is rich in titanium, graphite, manganese and other rare earth metals used to produce electric vehicle batteries and other tech devices.

    Mining and refining these critical mineral resources would require major investment in infrastructure and economic development, including in parts of Ukraine severely damaged by fighting. Some analysts are calling for a return to the European Recovery Program, commonly known as the Marshall Plan.

    The Marshall Plan used $13.3 billion in U.S. funds – roughly $171 billion in today’s dollars – to rebuild war-torn Western Europe from 1948 to late 1951. It is often evoked as a solution for reconstruction following global crises. Yet as a military historian and curator, I find that the Marshall Plan is not well understood.

    For the U.S., the economic gains of the Marshall Plan did not come from European countries’ repaying loans or allowing the U.S. to extract their raw materials. Rather, the U.S. has benefited enormously from a half-century of goodwill, democratic stability and economic success in Europe.

    European nations turn inward

    After World War II ended in 1945, Western Europe faced a staggering burden of destruction and upheaval.

    Allied bombardment of major industrial areas and German cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne had created massive housing shortages. Meanwhile, fighting through agricultural areas and a critical manpower shortage had curtailed food production. What harvest there was could not get to hungry civilians because so many of Europe’s roads, bridges and ports had been destroyed.

    The United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and other European governments were buried in debt after so many years of war. They could not afford to rebuild on their own. Yet rather than cooperating on their mutual economic reconstruction, European nations looked inward, focusing primarily on their own political challenges.

    The continent was politically and militarily divided, too. Europe’s western half was influenced by the democratic, capitalistic forces led by the U.S. Eastern Europe was beholden to the communist, command-economy forces of the Soviet Union.

    In a 1946 speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill articulated Europe’s growing postwar divide. Over the ruins of proud nations, he said, “an iron curtain” had “descended across the continent.”

    US looks abroad

    Unlike Europe, the U.S. emerged from World War II as the wealthiest nation in the world, with its territory intact and unharmed. Its steel and oil industries were booming. By 1947, the U.S. was the clear successor to Great Britain as the world’s superpower.

    But President Harry Truman feared the ambitions of the war’s other great victor – the Soviet Union. In March 1947, he announced a new doctrine to contain communist expansion southward across Europe by giving $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey.

    Around the same time, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall met with Soviet officials to plan Germany’s future. Following the Nazis’ surrender in May 1945, Germany had been divided into four occupied zones administered by U.S., British, French and Soviet forces.

    Each nation had its own goals for its section of Germany. The U.S. wanted to revitalize Germany politically and economically, believing that a moribund Germany would thwart the economic reconstruction of all of Europe.

    Marshall hoped that the Soviets would cooperate, but Soviet ruler Josef Stalin preferred extracting reparations from a prostrate Germany to investing in its recovery. A vibrant German economic engine, the Soviets felt, could just as easily rearm to attack the Russian countryside for the third time that century.

    The Truman administration chose to unilaterally rebuild the three western Allied sectors of Germany – and Western Europe.

    Marshall outlined his plan at a commencement address at Harvard University in June 1947. American action to restore global economic health, he said, would provide the foundation for political stability and peace in Europe. And an economically healthy Western Europe, in turn, would inhibit the spread of communism by plainly demonstrating the benefits of capitalism.

    “Our policy is not directed against any country,” Marshall said, “but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.”

    Marshall’s plan

    Marshall invited all European nations to participate in drafting a plan to first address the immediate humanitarian aid of Europe’s people, then rebuild its infrastructure. The U.S. would pay for it all.

    For nearly bankrupt European nations, it was a lifeline.

    In September 1947, the new Committee for European Economic Co-operation, composed of 16 Western – but not Eastern – European nations, delivered its proposal to Washington.

    It would take a masterful legislative strategy for the Democratic Truman administration to persuade the Republican-led Congress to pass this $13 billion bill. It succeeded thanks to the dedicated effort of Republican Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, who convinced his isolationist colleagues that the Marshall Plan would halt the expansion of communism and benefit American economic growth.

    In April 1948, Truman signed the Economic Cooperation Act. By year’s end, over $2 billion had reached Europe, and its industrial production had finally surpassed prewar levels seen in 1939.

    NATO is born

    Along with economic stability, the Truman administration recognized that Europe needed military security to defend against communist encroachment by the Soviet Union.

    In July 1949, 12 European countries, the U.S. and Canada established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO committed each member country to the mutual defense of fellow NATO members.

    Since 1947, NATO has steadily expanded eastward to include Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other former Soviet satellite states directly bordering Russia.

    Ukraine, which declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, is not yet a NATO member. But it desperately wants to be.

    Ukraine applied for NATO membership in 2022 after Russia’s invasion. Its application is pending. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said any peace deal with Ukraine must bar NATO membership.

    Would a Marshall Plan work for Ukraine?

    Modern-day Ukraine mirrors the Western European countries of the Marshall Plan era in meaningful ways.

    It suffers from the physical devastation of war, with its major cities heavily damaged. The threat of military attack from hostile neighbors remains urgent. And it has a functional, democratic government that would – in peacetime – be capable of receiving and distributing aid to develop the nation’s economic growth and stability.

    U.S. global leadership, however, has changed dramatically since 1948.

    Outright American taxpayer financing of Ukraine’s reconstruction seems impossible. Any plan to reconstruct the country after war will likely require public funding from multiple nations and substantial private investment. That private investment could well include mineral extraction and refinement ventures.

    Ultimately, Ukraine’s recovery will most likely involve Ukraine and neighboring nations reaching agreement to restore its economic and military security. The European Union, which Ukraine also seeks to join, has the bureaucratic and economic resources necessary to reconstruct Ukraine, restore peace and ease tensions on the continent.

    Any future Marshall Plan for Ukraine will probably be European.

    Frank A. Blazich Jr. 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. Ukraine will need major rebuilding when war ends − here’s why the US isn’t likely to invest in its recovery with a new Marshall Plan – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-will-need-major-rebuilding-when-war-ends-heres-why-the-us-isnt-likely-to-invest-in-its-recovery-with-a-new-marshall-plan-251872

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How many types of insects are there in the world?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicholas Green, Assistant Professor of Biology, Kennesaw State University

    This is a close-up photo of an ordinary garden fly. Amith Nag Photography/Moment via Getty Images

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    How many types of insects are there in the world? – Sawyer, age 8, Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina

    Exploring anywhere on Earth, look closely and you’ll find insects. Check your backyard and you may see ants, beetles, crickets, wasps, mosquitoes and more. There are more kinds of insects than there are mammals, birds and plants combined. This fact has fascinated scientists for centuries.

    One of the things biologists like me do is classify all living things into categories. Insects belong to a phylum called Arthropoda – animals with hard exoskeletons and jointed feet.

    All insects are arthropods, but not all arthropods are insects. For instance, spiders, lobsters and millipedes are arthropods, but they’re not insects.

    Instead, insects are a subgroup within Arthropoda, a class called “Insecta,” that is characterized by six legs, two antennae and three body segments – head, abdomen and the thorax, which is the part of the body between the head and abdomen.

    The mandibles of the ants are its jaws; the petiole is the ant’s waist.
    Vector Mine/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Most insects also have wings, although a few, like fleas, don’t. All have compound eyes, which means insects see very differently from the way people see. Instead of one lens per eye, they have many: a fly has 5,000 lenses; a dragonfly has 30,000. These types of eyes, though not great for clarity, are excellent at detecting movement.

    What is a species?

    All insects descend from a common ancestor that lived about about 480 million years ago. For context, that’s about 100 million years before any of our vertebrate ancestors – animals with a backbone – ever walked on land.

    A species is the most basic unit that biologists use to classify living things. When people use words like “ant” or “fly” or “butterfly” they are referring not to species, but to categories that may contain hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of species. For example, about 18,000 species of butterfly exist – think monarch, zebra swallowtail or cabbage white.

    Basically, species are a group that can interbreed with each other, but not with other groups. One obvious example: bees can’t interbreed with ants.

    But brown-belted bumblebees and red-belted bumblebees can’t interbreed either, so they are different species of bumblebee.

    Each species has a unique scientific name – like Bombus griseocollis for the brown-belted bumblebee – so scientists can be sure which species they’re talking about.

    This is what a dragonfly looks like up close.
    Dieter Meyrl/E+ via Getty Images

    Quadrillions of ants

    Counting the exact number of insect species is probably impossible. Every year, some species go extinct, while some evolve anew. Even if we could magically freeze time and survey the entire Earth all at once, experts would disagree on the distinctiveness or identity of some species. So instead of counting, researchers use statistical analysis to make an estimate.

    One scientist did just that. He published his answer in a 2018 research paper. His calculations showed there are approximately 5.5 million insect species, with the correct number almost certainly between 2.6 and 7.2 million.

    Beetles alone account for almost one-third of the number, about 1.5 million species. By comparison, there are “only” an estimated 22,000 species of ants. This and other studies have also estimated about 3,500 species of mosquitoes, 120,000 species of flies and 30,000 species of grasshoppers and crickets.

    The estimate of 5.5 million species of insects is interesting. What’s even more remarkable is that because scientists have found only about 1 million species, that means more than 4.5 million species are still waiting for someone to discover them. In other words, over 80% of the Earth’s insect biodiversity is still unknown.

    Add up the total population and biomass of the insects, and the numbers are even more staggering. The 22,000 species of ants comprise about 20,000,000,000,000,000 individuals – that’s 20 quadrillion ants. And if a typical ant weighs about 0.0001 ounces (3 milligrams) – or one ten-thousandth of an ounce – that means all the ants on Earth together weigh more than 132 billion pounds (about 60 billion kilograms).

    That’s the equivalent of about 7 million school buses, 600 aircraft carriers or about 20% of the weight of all humans on Earth combined.

    For every person on Earth, it’s estimated there are 200 million insects.

    Many insect species are going extinct

    All of this has potentially huge implications for our own human species. Insects affect us in countless ways. People depend on them for crop pollination, industrial products and medicine. Other insects can harm us by transmitting disease or eating our crops.

    Most insects have little to no direct impact on people, but they are integral parts of their ecosystems. This is why entomologists – bug scientists – say we should leave insects alone as much as possible. Most of them are harmless to people, and they are critical to the environment.

    It is sobering to note that although millions of undiscovered insect species may be out there, many will go extinct before people have a chance to discover them. Largely due to human activity, a significant proportion of Earth’s biodiversity – including insects – may ultimately be forever lost.

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Nicholas Green 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 many types of insects are there in the world? – https://theconversation.com/how-many-types-of-insects-are-there-in-the-world-247333

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Genomic sequencing reveals previously unknown genes that make microbes resistant to drugs and hard to kill

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nneka Vivian Iduu, Graduate Research Assistant in Pathobiology, Auburn University

    In the 20th century, when a routine infection was treated with a standard antibiotic, recovery was expected. But over time, the microbes responsible for these infections have evolved to evade the very drugs designed to eliminate them.

    Each year, there are more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States, leading to over 35,000 deaths and US$4.6 billion in health care costs. As antibiotics become less effective, antimicrobial resistance poses an increasing threat to public health.

    Antimicrobial resistance began to emerge as a serious threat in the 1940s with the rise of penicillin resistance. By the 1990s, it had escalated into a global concern. Decades later, critical questions still remain: How does antimicrobial resistance emerge, and how can scientists track the hidden changes leading to it? Why does resistance in some microbes remain undetected until an outbreak occurs? Filling these knowledge gaps is crucial to preventing future outbreaks, improving treatment outcomes and saving lives.

    Antimicrobial resistance can be deadly.

    Over the years, my work as a microbiologist and biomedical scientist has focused on investigating the genetics of infectious microbes. My colleagues and I identified a resistance gene previously undetected in the U.S. using genetic and computational methods that can help improve how scientists detect and track antimicrobial resistance.

    Challenges of detecting resistance

    Antimicrobial resistance is a natural process where microbes constantly evolve as a defense mechanism, acquiring genetic changes that enhance their survival.

    Unfortunately, human activities can speed up this process. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in health care, farming and the environment push bacteria to genetically change in ways that allow them to survive the drugs meant to kill them.

    Early detection of antimicrobial resistance is crucial for effective treatment. Surveillance typically begins with a laboratory sample obtained from patients with suspected infections, which is then analyzed to identify potential antimicrobial resistance. Traditionally, this has been done using culture-based methods that involve exposing microbes to antibiotics in the lab and observing whether they survived to determine whether they were becoming resistant. Along with helping authorities and researchers monitor the spread of antimicrobial resistance, hospitals use this approach to decide on treatment plans.

    However, culture-based approaches have some limitations. Resistant infections often go unnoticed until antibiotics fail, making both detection and intervention processes slow. Additionally, new resistance genes may escape detection altogether.

    Genomics of antimicrobial resistance

    To overcome these challenges, researchers have integrated genomic sequencing into antimicrobial resistance surveillance. Through whole-genome sequencing, we can analyze all the DNA in a microbial sample to get a comprehensive view of all the genes present – including those responsible for resistance. With the computational tools of bioinformatics, researchers can efficiently process vast amounts of genetic data to improve the detection of resistance threats.

    Despite its advantages, integrating genomic sequencing into antimicrobial resistance monitoring presents some challenges of its own. High costs, quality assurance and a shortage of trained bioinformaticians make implementation difficult. Additionally, the complexity of interpreting genomic data may limit its use in clinical and public health decision-making.

    Bioinformatics allows researchers to analyze large biological datasets.
    hh5800/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Establishing international standards could help make whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics a fully reliable tool for resistance surveillance. The World Health Organization recommends laboratories follow strict quality control measures to ensure accurate and comparable results. This includes using reliable, user-friendly computational tools and shared microbial databases. Additional strategies include investing in training programs and fostering collaborations between hospitals, research labs and universities.

    Discovering a resistance gene

    Combining whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics, my colleagues and I analyzed Salmonella samples collected from several animal species between 1982 and 1999. We discovered a Salmonella resistance gene called blaSCO-1 that has evaded detection in U.S. livestock for decades.

    The blaSCO-1 gene confers resistance to microbes against several critical antibiotics, including ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and, to some extent, cephalosporins and carbapenems. These medications are crucial for treating infections in both humans and animals.

    Salmonella Typhimurium invading a cell.
    NIAID/Flickr, CC BY-SA

    The blaSCO-1 gene likely remained unreported because routine surveillance usually targets well-known resistance genes and it has overlapping functions with other genes. Gaps in bioinformatics expertise may have also hindered its identification.

    The failure to detect genes like blaSCO-1 raises concern about its potential role in past treatment failures. Between 2015 and 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began implementing whole-genome sequencing for routine surveillance of Salmonella. Studies conducted during this period found that 77% of multistate outbreaks were linked to livestock harboring resistant Salmonella.

    These missed genes have significant implications for both food safety and public health. Undetected antimicrobial resistance genes can spread through food animals, contaminated food products, processing environments and agricultural runoff, allowing resistant bacteria to persist and reach humans. These resistant bacteria lead to infections that are harder to treat and increase the risk of outbreaks. Moreover, the global movement of people, livestock and goods means that these resistant strains can easily cross borders, turning local outbreaks into worldwide health threats.

    Identifying new resistance genes not only fills a critical knowledge gap, but it also demonstrates how genomic and computational approaches can help detect hidden resistance mechanisms before they pose widespread threats.

    Strengthening surveillance

    As antimicrobial resistance continues to rise, adopting a One Health approach that integrates human, animal and environmental factors can help ensure that emerging resistance does not outpace humans’ ability to combat it.

    Initiatives like the Quadripartite AMR Multi-Partner Trust Fund provide support for programs that strengthen global collaborative surveillance, promote responsible antimicrobial use and drive the development of sustainable alternatives. Ensuring researchers around the world follow common research standards will allow more labs – especially those in low- and middle-income countries – to contribute to global surveillance efforts.

    The health of future generations depends on the world’s ability to ensure food safety and protect public health on a global scale. In the ongoing battle between microbial evolution and human innovation, vigilance and adaptability are key to staying ahead.

    This research was supported by the USDA Agricultural Research Service Program, the FDA and the HHS.

    – ref. Genomic sequencing reveals previously unknown genes that make microbes resistant to drugs and hard to kill – https://theconversation.com/genomic-sequencing-reveals-previously-unknown-genes-that-make-microbes-resistant-to-drugs-and-hard-to-kill-250148

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Nigerian journalists are harassed by the public, the state and paid ‘data boys’ – what must change

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Temple Uwalaka, Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies, University of Canberra

    Death threats, kidnapping, unlawful detention, torture and assassination are some of the crimes being committed against journalists in Nigeria, according to a recent report. Another recent report details how the police and politicians are responsible for 70% of these harassment cases.

    They point to the increased level of threats that Nigerian journalists endure in their fourth estate role, serving as the voice of the people and holding government to account.

    This isn’t new. The harassment of journalists is baked into Nigerian history. But today journalists are also attracting online threats and harassment from members of the public.

    I teach and research media and politics, with a focus on online journalism in Nigeria. What’s clear is that the digital age has brought with it a complex relationship not just between journalists and the state, but also with citizens.

    All these parties need to turn down the heat, in the interests of free and fair information, particularly in a young democracy like Nigeria.

    A long history of violence

    The history of Nigerian journalism is characterised by violence from British colonial powers, from 1859 when the first newspaper was established, and also from indigenous politicians. There’s always been a suspicion that a free press could empower ordinary citizens and cause a shift in the power base.

    This isn’t unfounded. Journalism contributed to ending colonialism. But, after independence in 1960, the political class feared that an unfettered press would be difficult to control. Particularly when the country came under oppressive military rule from 1966 to 1999.

    There was always a fair amount of goodwill towards the press from citizens. But the ownership and control of major media houses by prominent Nigerian politicians, alongside the rise of social media, has changed the picture.

    The public used to act as the buffer for journalists, defending them from the attacks of government officials. Now some Nigerians have joined in attacking and harassing journalists in Nigeria.

    Online harassment

    We know that journalists in Nigeria under-report the harassment they receive. Many don’t view acute forms of harassment – verbal abuse, online disrespect and maltreatment – as an issue. One of our studies found they regard this as mere online banter, verbal sparring and attention seeking. But dismissing harassment doesn’t make it go away or stop. It just makes it worse in frequency and form.

    Read more: Threats to press freedom are taking on different forms across Africa

    Our studies indicate that online harassment of journalists is prevalent and escalating. This type of harassment is usually sustained and it often moves from one social media platform to another.

    In some cases, it spills from online to offline. The burning of the Television Continental station in Lagos in 2020 is just one example. The harassment is usually personal. Threats to the lives and safety of journalists are becoming common.

    Data Boys and corruption

    Nigerian journalists have reported that the harassers particularly target investigative and political reports, as well as perceived unethical conduct by journalists.

    The result is that political reporting is becoming difficult. A critical report about a politician makes the journalist an enemy of the politician. The politician will then unleash their supporters and paid influencers (known as “Data Boys”) to harass and hassle the journalist.

    The Data Boys phenomenon as we know it today began during Nigeria’s 2015 general elections. Data Boys are groups of young people on a politician’s payroll. They help to promote the politician’s image online and generally do their bidding. The politician sends them money to buy internet data and shares promotional “news” about themself. The Data Boys are also paid to attack any perceived enemy of the politician.

    It’s an increasingly successful political tactic in Nigeria. As a result, journalists have started censoring themselves.

    Data Boys aside, we asked ordinary Nigerians who reported engaging in online harassment why they picked on journalists. They indicated that perceived journalistic malpractice was their main reason. They accused journalists of being part of the problem because they believed many were corrupt and in the pay of politicians. Adding fuel to the fire is that Nigerian politicians are also often media owners.

    Some solutions

    One of the reasons that a culture of harassment continues is the failure of law enforcement. Those who harass journalists are not made to account for their actions. Strengthening harassment laws in Nigeria would give law enforcement the tools needed to curb it.

    There are no explicit laws around online harassment in Nigeria, just sexual and physical assault laws. This has to change if journalists are to be protected. All respondents in our studies, both journalists and the public, highlighted the law as a cardinal factor to fight harassment.

    Another solution is that journalists need to be accountable, transparent and ethical. Journalists themselves have raised these concerns about their profession.

    Yet in our studies journalists did not highlight transparency or an improved code of conduct as ways to improve the harassment situation in Nigeria.

    Read more: Western media outlets are trying to fix their racist, stereotypical coverage of Africa. Is it time African media did the same?

    Their detachment can come off as arrogant and has the potential to worsen hostility towards them. All the suggested solutions to online harassment made by journalists in our studies were external to them, like media sensitisation campaigns, improved workplace security and proper punishment for offenders. Their attitudes, we found, could be misconstrued as lacking self-reflection or empathy.

    Journalists, their harassers and politicians will all need to make changes or be brought to book if the problem is to be solved. Until then, online harassment is harming journalism as a profession in Nigeria. And this has the potential to have a negative impact on democracy.

    – Nigerian journalists are harassed by the public, the state and paid ‘data boys’ – what must change
    – https://theconversation.com/nigerian-journalists-are-harassed-by-the-public-the-state-and-paid-data-boys-what-must-change-252100

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Diabetic foot pain: expert tips on how to cope

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Peter Kamerman, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand

    An estimated 1 in 10 people worldwide have diabetes. Africa is the region with the fastest growth and it’s estimated that the number of people on the continent with diabetes will more than double in the next 20 years, increasing to about 55 million people by 2045.

    Having diabetes has serious consequences for health and is associated with increased risk of developing diseases related to damage to the heart (heart attacks), blood vessels (strokes, foot ulcers), kidneys (chronic kidney failure), and the nervous system (blindness, loss of sensation).

    When it comes to nerve damage, it typically affects long nerve fibres that supply the feet and can sometimes affect fibres that supply the hands too (a so-called glove and stocking distribution).

    It is the nerve fibres that detect sensations such as touch and temperature that are often worst affected, resulting in numbness. The numbness that develops can be a nightmare for people and is often described as their “feet feeling dead”.

    A peculiarity of this numbness is that it may be accompanied by intractable pain. This type of pain, resulting from damage to sensory nerve fibres, is called neuropathic pain.

    As scientists in the field of pain and pain management we work on neuropathic pain in people living with diabetes and its management. In this article we aim to draw attention to the problem and discuss how it can be managed.

    Nerve damage

    It has been estimated that up to 50% of people with diabetes will develop damage to peripheral nerves during their lifetime, and up to 50% will experience pain because of that nerve damage.

    The predictors of developing nerve damage are well established. Older age, increased duration of diabetes, and poor control of blood glucose concentration are the main culprits. What determines whether the nerve damage is associated with pain is largely unknown.

    Neuropathic pain is often described as a “burning” pain, and is frequently accompanied by other sensations such as “pins and needles”, and pain that feels like stabbing, shooting, electric-like shocks, and deep aching.

    In some people there is very little or no numbness. In these people pain can often be triggered by gentle touch and movement across the skin (for example, bed sheets brushing across a foot, putting on socks), and cool and warm temperatures that are not normally felt as painful.

    Sometimes my feet will hurt really badly and I can’t get up and can hardly walk. – Anonymous patient

    Having such intractable pain has devastating consequences for quality of life.

    Pain sufferers have less social interaction with family and friends, and find it much more difficult to enjoy their favourite activities. Sleep is significantly disrupted.

    Having neuropathic pain is associated with high rates of anxiety and depression. To make matters worse, the sleep disruption, anxiety and depression may feed back into a vicious cycle to worsen and maintain the pain.

    There are days when I’d really like to go somewhere or do something and just don’t go. I know it will hurt. There’s no point in doing it. – Anonymous patient

    Medications to manage the pain

    Neuropathic pain is not responsive to the medications used to treat conditions such as headaches and joint pains (for example, paracetamol and ibuprofen).

    Instead, neuropathic pain is responsive to medications that in some cases are also used to treat conditions such as depression and epilepsy.

    Examples include:

    • low doses of tricyclic antidepressants (for example, amitriptyline)

    • a class of antidepressants called serotonin and noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors (for example, duloxetine)

    • anti-seizure drugs like gabapentinoids (for example, gabapentin and pregabalin).

    However, there is very little information to guide doctors to predict which drug will work best for a patient.

    So, often finding the correct treatment is a trial-and-error approach, which can be frustrating for both patients and doctors.

    Coping mechanisms

    Chronic pain management is also about teaching people to cope with their pain so that they get back to enjoying their lives and are no longer consumed by the pain.

    Such interventions include the practice of mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy, and other self-management activities specifically designed for people with chronic pain.

    With the rapidly growing number of individuals with diabetes, it is more important than ever that we detect and treat the pain caused by nerve fibre damage.

    Public education and increased awareness of this painful consequence of diabetes will hopefully encourage affected people to seek early medical attention, thus allowing management of the condition, maintaining well-being and restoring function.

    – Diabetic foot pain: expert tips on how to cope
    – https://theconversation.com/diabetic-foot-pain-expert-tips-on-how-to-cope-251937

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: The Gender Pay Gap Stalls in 2025 – Payscale’s Research Shows

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Despite pay transparency laws, wage equity progress continues to stall nationwide, with systemic barriers still limiting women’s earning potential.
    • The “childbearing penalty” remains highly evident, as women with children continue to earn just 75 cents for every dollar fathers make, while fathers make 2% more than childless men.
    • While the gender pay gap showed gradual improvement from 2018 to 2022, progress has remained stagnant since the Great Resignation, with declines especially evident among older women.

    SEATTLE, March 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Payscale Inc., the leading provider of compensation data, software and services, released its 2025 Gender Pay Gap Report (GPGR), revealing that despite pay transparency laws, the closing of the gender pay gap has stalled nationwide, with systemic barriers still limiting women’s earning potential.

    Payscale’s analysis found that in 2025 women still earn just 83 cents for every dollar men make. While this is unchanged from last year, according to AAUW, Equal Pay Day shifted back more than two weeks this year, meaning that women must work that much longer to achieve the same earnings as men in 2025, compared to 2024. The controlled gender pay gap also remains the same as last year, at 99 cents. The controlled gender pay gap is the amount that women earn for every dollar that a man earns when accounting for job title and compensable factors, while the uncontrolled gender pay gap is the difference in median pay for men and women overall.

    “Even though our 2025 Compensation Best Practices Report showed a minor decrease in support for pay equity (57%), and there has been a recent weakening of public support around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) of late, some states have shown promising progress towards closing the gender pay gap,” said Ruth Thomas, pay equity strategist at Payscale. “While not every state has enacted pay transparency laws, which are shown to support pay equity efforts, many organizations are still staunchly committed to the cause. In fact, compared to 2020, there has been a 19% increase in corporate commitment to these efforts.”

    Key takeaways from GPGR:

    Working Parents — Motherhood continues to hurt pay equity, while fathers get a raise as a result of the childbearing penalty.

    • Women with children face a significantly wider gender pay gap, earning just 75 cents for every dollar fathers make—unchanged from last year.
    • This gap is even wider for women of color, with American Indian and Alaska Native mothers experiencing the largest disparity, earning just 64 cents for every dollar fathers earn.
    • When controlling for job roles and experience, mothers earn 98 cents for every dollar earned by fathers with similar characteristics, a figure that has remained steady.
    • Meanwhile, fatherhood financially benefits men, who earn 2% more than childless men, while mothers face stagnant or reduced pay compared to childless women.

    Job Seeking — Women seeking new jobs are closing the pay gap, but parenting responsibilities and workplace flexibility keep many stuck with lower wages.

    • The gender pay gap is narrower for women actively seeking a new job in the next six months compared to those not looking, suggesting that a willingness to leave positions may lead to higher pay.
    • Yet, this uncontrolled gender pay gap slightly widened this year to $0.83 from $0.84 last year, indicating slower progress overall.
    • Women who stay in their current job may do so due to benefits they can’t afford to lose, such as flexible work schedules, which can result in tolerating lower pay.
    • Workplace culture, flexibility, and work-life balance may be more important to women than men when deciding whether to stay with an employer, potentially influencing their pay trajectory.

    Higher Education — Despite earning advanced degrees like MBAs, law degrees, and health professional doctorates, women still face a significant pay gap, highlighting that education alone doesn’t guarantee pay equity.

    • Women with MBAs face the largest uncontrolled pay gap, earning just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men with the same degree.
    • Health professional doctorates have the smallest uncontrolled pay gap at 89 cents, while women with law degrees earn 87 cents for every dollar men with the same degree make, marking a slight decrease from last year.

    Leadership and Career Progress — Not only do women earn less as their career progresses, they’re also less likely to reach leadership roles.

    • White men are the most likely to hold leadership positions, with 45% serving as managers or in higher roles. Women are underrepresented in leadership roles, with only 5% of white women becoming executives compared to 7% of white men. The numbers are even lower for women of color: 3% for Hispanic women, 4% for Black or African American women, and 3% for Asian women.
    • Women who do ascend the corporate ladder earn less than their male counterparts, with the gap widening at higher levels. Women at the executive level earn 93 cents for every dollar men make, even when controlling for job characteristics, and just 72 cents when not controlling for these factors.
    • The gender pay gap is widest for Hispanic women and American Indian and Native Alaskan women at the executive level when data are controlled, currently standing at 91 cents, which is two points narrower than 2024.

    Gender Norms — While STEM industries show progress toward pay equity, traditional gender norms continue to widen the gap in other sectors.

    • The biggest pay gaps appear in occupations with deep-rooted gender norms, including Legal (63 cents), Farming & Fishing (77 cents), and Management (79 cents), where men dominate top-paying positions.
    • The gender pay gap is also widest in Finance & Insurance (78 cents) and Agencies & Consultancies (84 cents) industries, despite women making up 53% and 59% of the workforce in these industries, respectively.
    • Even in female-dominated industries like Healthcare (89 cents), Education (91 cents), and Nonprofits (88 cents), pay disparities persist.
    • Some STEM-heavy industries show pay equity when controlled, but women remain underrepresented in higher-paying roles within these industries.

    Location – States with and without salary transparency laws have seen improvements in the controlled gender pay gap, likely due in part to increased awareness from transparency efforts in other regions or companies adopting national pay transparency practices.

    • In 2025, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Massachusetts will enact pay transparency legislation.
    • The controlled pay gap remained closed in 2025 for California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. – all showed closed pay gaps last year, and, except for New Jersey and Oregon, have active pay transparency laws.
    • While other states continue to show improvement, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New Mexico, Vermont, and Washington state have seen their gaps widen.
    • New gains are emerging in Alabama, Delaware, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West Virginia, where the controlled pay gap has recently closed.

    “It’s disappointing to still see a lack of progress towards closing the gender pay gap. Beyond being the right thing to do, ensuring fair pay without discrimination is required by law. This fact alone should support closing the gender pay gap. Even more, it’s a critical retention tool for businesses, which is why, unsurprisingly, women employees frequently leave organizations because they don’t think they are being paid fairly,” said Lulu Seikaly, senior corporate employment attorney at Payscale. “Pay transparency has an important role to play here, because when an employee has an understanding of their compensation trajectory it increases trust and loyalty. Our 2025 Compensation Best Practices Report revealed that over half (56%) of companies are sharing pay ranges in their job postings regardless of whether or not it’s required by law — a promising nod to the future of fair pay.”

    According to Payscale’s 2025 Compensation Best Practices Report, 72% of HR and compensation professionals believe that gender pay gap research is meaningful. Paired with Payscale’s compensation management software and services enable organizations to easily evaluate their current compensation strategies and standardize their internal pay practices to increase transparency and ensure fair pay.

    The 2025 Gender Pay Gap Report analyzes crowdsourced data from over 369,000 people in the U.S. who took Payscale’s free online salary survey between January 2024 and January 2025. The full report and its methodology, including analysis by race, job level, age, education, industry, occupation, and location, can be accessed in its entirety at Payscale.com/research-and-insights/gender-pay-gap.

    About Payscale
    As the industry leader in compensation management, Payscale is on a mission to help job seekers, employees, and businesses make sustainable fair pay a reality. Empowering 65% of the Fortune 500, Payscale provides a combination of diverse and dynamic data sources, experienced compensation services, and scalable software to enable organizations such as Panasonic, ZoomInfo, Chipotle, AccentCare, University of Washington, American Airlines, and PetSmart to make fair and appropriate pay decisions.

    Pay is powerful.

    To learn more, visit www.payscale.com.
      
    Contact: Press@Payscale.com

    The MIL Network –