NewzIntel.com

Category: Universities

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Five AIMS – Lessons from Internet Governance for Artificial Intelligence Management Strategies

    Source: Universities – Science Po in English

    Days away from the Paris AI Action Summit, the elaboration of the emerging framework to govern the development and adoption of AI technologies is at the heart of heated, sometimes overwhelming debates and controversies. While new AI models are being released at an accelerating pace, with ever greater promises of game-changing applications, revolutionary disruptions, and prophecies of geopolitical shifts, AI governance remains partially undertheorised.

    To help scaffold coherent, coordinated, and enforceable rules and institutions, Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng, Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President (International Engagement) and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, Kieron O’Hara, emeritus fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Pierre Noro, advisor of the PSIA Tech & Global Affairs Innovation Hub, reinterpret the Four Internet models elaborated by Hall and O’Hara in their 2018 article and in their influential book Four Internets: Data, Geopolitics, and the Governance of Cyberspace (Oxford UP, 2021) in regard to AI technologies.

    This translation, grounded in an analysis of the historical, socio-economic, and ideological differences distinguishing the context that shaped Internet governance and the current one, yields many enlightening insights and is the foundation of five Artificial Intelligence Management Strategies (AIMS):

    • Open AIMS: Fostering openness and transparency, common ownership and collaboration, interoperability.
    • Bourgeois AIMS: Fostering rights and civility with procedural rules and codes
    • Paternal AIMS: Mandating outcomes and confining uses.
    • Commercial AIMS: Allowing market solutions to resource allocation problems.
    • Hacker AIMS: Libertarian, anti-authoritarian, decentralised approach valorising software skills, resisting censorship, and empowering individuals and communities to make and reshape the information space.
       

    As narratives, the AIMS do not aspire to crystal clarity, but rather are intended as sensemaking aids; the characterisations above […] may already help categorize and interpret discourses, stances, and proposals.

    With many illustrations to exemplify their core tenets, their limits and their intersections, this paper offers the Five AIMS as cardinal concepts to help AI governance stakeholders, especially public and private decisionmakers, navigate the upcoming AI Action Summit and future governance conversation.

    Concluding on a set of ongoing research questions reflecting open policy challenges, it is a foundational step towards cementing the Five AIMS as a suitable framework for understanding the governance of AI.

    Learn more by reading the full policy brief: Five AIMS: Lessons from Internet Governance for Artificial Intelligence Management Strategies (PDF, 368 Ko)

    (credits: Image generated with Microsoft Copilot. Edited by Pierre Noro.)

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI: Altcoin.University Empowers Crypto Startups with Revenue-Sharing Guide Submissions

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Cheyenne , WY , Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Altcoin.University, a premier educational hub for blockchain and cryptocurrency learning, is launching an innovative opportunity for crypto startups to showcase their projects while generating revenue. Through its new Project Course Submission Program, startups can submit educational guides about their projects on a revenue-sharing basis, providing valuable insights to learners while gaining visibility in the crypto community.

    This initiative is designed to bridge the gap between emerging blockchain projects and an audience eager to understand and engage with the latest innovations in the industry. By offering founder-led or expert-curated courses, startups can educate users on their project’s mission, technology, tokenomics, and real-world applications—all while earning a share of the course revenue.

    How It Works:
        1.    Submit a Guide – Crypto startups can propose and develop a structured educational guide tailored to their project.
        2.    Get Featured on Altcoin.University – Approved guides will be hosted on the platform, exposing them to a growing audience of blockchain learners.
        3.    Earn Revenue – Instructors and project teams will receive a percentage of the guides sales, creating a sustainable and educational promotional channel.

    We believe that education is key to adoption. By allowing startups to create and monetize educational content, we’re fostering a more informed crypto ecosystem while giving projects a new way to connect with their audience

    Altcoin.University invites Web3 projects, DeFi protocols, NFT platforms, and blockchain innovators to participate in this unique program. Whether launching a new token or building a decentralized application, startups can leverage this initiative to educate, engage, and expand their community.

    Interested projects that are listed or about to be listed on an exchange can apply now at Altcoin.University to submit their guides submission for review. We will announce the chosen startups monthly underneath the submission form on the submission page.

    For media inquiries, partnership opportunities, or more information, please contact:

    Press Contact:
    Email Support@altcoin.university
    Telegram https://t.me/+xZblvGVxqF01ZDRh
    Website  https://Altcoin.University

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: USS Mount Whitney Holds Change of Command

    Source: United States Navy

    Capt. Colin Price relieved Capt. Matthew Kiser and assumed duties as the ship’s commanding officer in a ceremony aboard the ship. Vice Adm. J. T. Anderson, commander of U.S. Sixth Fleet, and Striking and Support Forces NATO, presided over the ceremony and delivered remarks about Kiser’s time aboard the Mount Whitney.

    “One unique aspect of serving as the commanding officer of the U.S. Sixth Fleet flagship is how the ship and crew represent the U.S. Navy in Europe and Africa, participating in many exercises, key leader engagements, and strengthening our relationships with allies and partners,” Anderson said. “Capt. Kiser built a great team that accomplished all we could ask of them.”

    Kiser, a graduate of Texas A&M University and a native of Bedford, Texas assumed command in April 2023. During his tour, he led the flagship of U.S. Sixth Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO while participating in several exercises and activities, including Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2023 and 2024, Large Scale Exercise (LSE) 23, as well as support to Joint Task Force 406 as it conducted multi-national maritime crisis response and contingency planning.

    During his speech that he gave in the change of command ceremony, Kiser credited the success of his tour to the hard work that Mount Whitney Sailors exhibited.

    “I couldn’t be prouder of our Team 20 Sailors and Civil Service Mariners, and their achievements over the last two years,” Kiser said. “It has been a privilege as commanding officer to witness the hard work and dedication in supporting command and control exercises and activities with our partner branches in the U.S. armed forces and our allies in NATO.

    “My time is highlighted by the efforts of Team 20 that went into demonstrating our new capability to support two separate staffs embarked simultaneously while each were engaged with their own mission – on the only ship that can do this in the world. I am eager to watch the ship’s continued progress over the next several months as the Mount Whitney gets back out to sea.”

    Price is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in systems engineering. He was commissioned in 2001, and designated a Naval Aviator in January 2004.

    As a junior officer he was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 137 in Lemoore, California, with deployments embarked aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), and as a global war on terror support assignment as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operator in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

    In August 2005, he participated in Joint Task Force Katrina providing humanitarian assistance to the citizens of New Orleans. In 2015, after completion of Navy Nuclear Power training he was assigned as the 25th executive officer of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).

    “I want to express my sincere congratulations to Capt. Kiser for a job well done and for the great service he did for our nation and Navy,” Price said. “It is an honor and pleasure to assume the watch from you. I promise to take exemplary care of your Sailors and ship.”

    Mount Whitney, forward deployed to Gaeta, Italy operates with a combined crew of U.S. Sailors and Military Sealift Command civil service mariners in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa.

    U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) is the U.S. 6th Fleet flagship, homeported in Gaeta, and operates with a combined crew of U.S. Sailors and Military Sealift Command civil service mariners.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The final stage of the VIII season of the Olympiad “I am a professional”: two weeks before the start

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    For the eighth year, the intellectual competition has been inviting talents from all over the country to become part of the universe of opportunities to receive bonuses upon admission to the HSE Master’s program, a chance to do an internship at partner companies (Yandex, VTB, Sber, Russian Railways and others) and cash prizes of up to 300,000 rubles. The results of the selection round are already known, and the final round is just around the corner. We share statistics and talk about important dates in February.

    Of the 71 areas of this Olympiad season, six are implemented by the Higher School of Economics: Economics, Sociology, Urban Studies, Business Informatics, Journalism, and Design.

    The qualifying stage has been completed

    Based on the results of the selection round, 3,619 participants were admitted to participate in the following areas of the Higher School of Economics: Business Informatics – 558, Design – 429, Journalism – 348, Sociology – 983, Urban Studies – 419, and Economics – 882.

    Participants who have scored the required number of points and presented a document confirming their student status are admitted to the final stage of the Olympiad. Passing scores may vary depending on the territorial affiliation of the university. More details are available at page.

    Alexander Chepovsky, Director of Strategic Work with Applicants, shares statistics: “The Higher School of Economics has been the university organizing the Olympiad for the eighth year now.”I am a professional“Our areas traditionally enjoy great interest among students from all over Russia. For example, this year, almost 80% of students who passed to the next stage in our areas are studying at other universities in the country. Students of the Higher School of Economics showed decent results in the selection stage of the Olympiad “I am a professional” and were admitted to participate in the final stage in 70 areas. The range of interests is impressive and makes you wonder how versatile and talented the people at the HSE are.”

    The final stage

    The final stage in all areas will begin in February. It may be held in several rounds (semi-final and final) or in one (final) depending on each specific area.

    “Business Informatics”

    The final stage is held in two rounds in a remote format. The semi-final will take place on February 23 in two time slots: from 03:00 to 09:00 and from 10:00 to 16:00 Moscow time. Participants have the right to choose one most convenient slot. The completion time is fixed: participants who start completing tasks not from the beginning of the allocated interval will have less time.

    “Design”

    There is no semi-final in this area — only the final. Participants must upload completed projects to their personal account from 00:00 on February 17 to 23:59 on March 16 Moscow time. The defense of completed assignments will take place in April.

    “Journalism”

    Participants will have an online semi-final and final. In the first round, they must complete and upload their work from 00:00 on February 26 to 23:59 on March 3 Moscow time. The final will also be held in April.

    “Sociology”

    There is no semi-final in this category. Participants must complete the final round in person.

    The competition will take place on February 15. The participants will gather and undergo the identification procedure from 09:30 to 09:50 Moscow time. The final will begin at 10:00 (Moscow time). You will have 240 minutes to complete the tasks.

    The final will be held in the following cities: Barnaul, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Tomsk, Tyumen and Yakutsk.

    “Urban Studies”

    The final stage will be held within one round (final) in person on February 16. The start is at 10:00 (Moscow time). You will have 240 minutes to complete the tasks.

    The final of the direction will take place at venues in Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg and Tomsk.

    “Economy”

    The final stage of this direction is also held in person at sites in Barnaul, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Tomsk, Tyumen and Yakutsk.

    The final will take place on February 15. The competition starts at 10:00 Moscow time. Participants will have 180 minutes to complete the tasks.

    You can find the materials of the final stage and a detailed schedule for each direction at website.

    Alexander Chepovsky gives advice to the participants of the final competition: “When going through the final stage, I advise you to be attentive and focused. Stay calm to easily cope with any tasks. Remember that the best will receive not only cash prizes, but also advantages when entering the HSE Master’s program, as well as valuable experience that will help in finding a job and building a career.”

    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 Economics: Students Graduate from Samsung Innovation Campus in Partnership with National University of Lesotho

    Source: Samsung

    A group of twenty-three (23) bright-eyed and talented students have graduated from the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), a partnership between Samsung Electronics and the National University of Lesotho (NUL).
     
    The award ceremony, held at NUL’s campus, marked the successful completion of an intensive training programme that seeks to equip young minds with cutting-edge skills in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). SIC is part of Samsung’s global initiative that aims to provide young people with the skills needed for the digital economy, focusing on areas like coding and programming (C&P) as well as artificial intelligence (AI). This NUL-SIC programme seeks to play a vital role in the development of critical skills needed by Lesotho’s economy with the ultimate aim of boosting youth employment.
     
    “Today marks the culmination of months of hard work, dedication and learning. The skills and knowledge we have gained through this programme have opened new career pathways for us and I am excited about the opportunities ahead,” said Reabetsoe Mapeshoane, a graduate of the programme. “I am grateful to Samsung and NUL for this incredible opportunity, which has truly transformed our academic and professional futures.”
     

     
    This partnership with NUL which aims to help Lesotho create more opportunities for growth, has managed to empower students to not only enhance their technical expertise, but also prepare for a future of innovation and leadership in the country’s technology industry.
     
    Prof. Issac Olusola Fajana, Vice Chancellor of the National University of Lesotho, emphasized the importance of such partnerships in shaping the future of Basotho youth. “The collaboration between Samsung and NUL is a milestone for our university and for Lesotho. By offering our students access to global industry innovators and technology-focused education, we are empowering them to become catalysts of change in the tech world. This partnership is a step towards ensuring that our graduates are prepared for a rapidly evolving digital economy.”
     
    The certificate award ceremony celebrated the graduates’ achievements with a special recognition of their hard work. And, as part of the programme – these students completed theory, practicals and capstone projects, equipping them with the tools necessary to thrive in today’s tech-driven world.
     
    “At Samsung, we believe in the power of education to change lives,” said Lefa Makgato, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for Samsung Electronics in Southern Africa. “Our mission with the Samsung Innovation Campus is not just to teach technical skills, but to nurture the next generation of innovators. These graduates have shown remarkable passion and dedication – we are excited to see them apply their newfound knowledge in real-world settings. We are proud to have partnered with NUL to make this vision a reality.”
     

     
    The global electronics giant remains committed to empowering youth through education and innovation, with plans for further collaborations and initiatives aimed at fostering talent in Africa.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Lectures, business games and master classes: SPbGASU held Russian Science Day for students of Lyceum No. 126

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Business game “Interview”

    On January 31, SPbGASU held a large-scale event for students of grades 8–11 of St. Petersburg Lyceum No. 126. The students celebrated Russian Science Day at our university. They visited departments, museums, laboratories, the exhibition hall of the architectural faculty and the scientific and technical library, listened to lectures, took part in business games and master classes.

    On behalf of the university’s management and staff, Marina Malyutina, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy, welcomed the guests: “SPbGASU was founded in 1832 under Emperor Nicholas I as the School of Civil Engineers. Throughout our history, we have had different names, but the meaning has remained the same – our university has always been the center of engineering thought and construction science.”

    “Macaroni Builder”, “First-Year Grant” and other reasons to study at SPbGASU

    Alevtina Ragimova and Marina Malyutina

    Marina Viktorovna informed that more than 12 thousand students study at the university. Every year more than 2 thousand graduates leave its walls. All of them are at the cutting edge of new technologies and knowledge and are in demand by the industry: more than 70 percent of graduates find employment in their specialty.

    The university closely cooperates with industry partners – the largest developers of St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast and other regions. More than 500 teachers are involved in the educational process, 70 percent of whom have academic titles and degrees, many of whom are members of various state and public academies, including the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences.

    You can study at SPbGASU throughout your life – full-time, part-time, part-time, improving your qualifications, undergoing retraining. Students have the opportunity to study in additional educational programs, master a second qualification. The university provides scope for research in more than 10 scientific areas. Scientists report the results of their scientific activities at conferences and symposiums.

    SPbGASU organizes intra-university and all-Russian TIM championships, participates in the International Engineering Championship CASE-IN, and holds the international competition “Macaroni Builder”. An active student life is in full swing here: the Student Leisure and Creativity Center “Kirpich”, the Center for Physical Culture and Sports operate, and student projects are supported. One of such projects is “Adapters”, within the framework of which senior students help first-year students for six months. Curators – teachers who help first-year students study, communicate, and solve everyday problems – also work with the first-year students.

    “Our university is especially proud of the SPbGASU personal scholarship, the so-called “First-Year Grant”. We support the guys who have shown themselves in school and in secondary vocational education – in public life, research, studies, and pay them an additional scholarship on a competitive basis. In general, we have 17 scholarships that our students can receive upon fulfilling certain requirements,” said Marina Malyutina.

    At the end of her speech, the vice-rector presented the lyceum with a book about the architects of St. Petersburg. Alevtina Ragimova, the director of Lyceum No. 126, in her response expressed confidence that many graduates will become students of SPbGASU.

    Students from the Kirpich Student Leisure and Creativity Center performed a concert program that drew thunderous applause. In addition, the winners of the Olympiads that the university holds for future applicants were awarded. Then the lyceum students were treated to a tour of the university and numerous events that immersed them in the world of science.

    What were university lectures about?

    Lecture by Ekaterina Voznyak “Architects of St. Petersburg and Architectural Education”

    Ekaterina Voznyak, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, spoke about the architects of St. Petersburg and architectural education in her lecture. The Dean said that she does not encourage the audience to become architects, since an architect is a calling that either exists or does not. The students will be able to decide on this issue not now, but at the age of 18-19, however, according to the Dean, it is useful for everyone to know about the architecture and architects of St. Petersburg. Ekaterina Ryurikovna emphasized that in the Northern capital they love and know their architects, who, being different people, create an ensemble, build a single city. This is what distinguishes St. Petersburg architects.

    The lecture by Dmitry Ulrich, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management, was called “Excursion into the World of Science.” He spoke about the prerequisites for the development of science, the classification of sciences, and scientific discoveries that changed the world. Students learned about the role of chemistry, physics, and mathematics in construction, heat supply, land management, and their importance for engineering education.

    Galina Tokunova, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management, offered to look into the future of the construction industry. The speaker’s focus was on TIM design, 3D printing, the Internet of Things and smart sensors, robots and drones. The audience learned why artificial intelligence will not replace specialists in economics and management, what specialists in business informatics and economic security do, what is happening in the Laboratory of Digital Information Models in Construction at SPbGASU and much more.

    What was taught in the master classes

    You could feel like an artist at the master class “City Landscape”. Before it began, Konstantin Tarasov, senior teacher of the drawing department, explained that the children would first make an air space “on the wet”, and then introduce into it the silhouette of St. Petersburg – the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Kazan Cathedral. The lesson helped the lyceum students to reveal their creative abilities.

    The model workshop hosted a master class called “Architectural Fantasies”. The children were divided into five teams and created a model of a skyscraper. Olga Belousova, associate professor of the architectural design department, said: “As a starting point, the teams received handouts – photos, pictures, discussed the concept and began to assemble a fantasy model. Forty-five minutes later, the captains presented their work. In this case, they were required not only to write a short story about their skyscraper, but also to come up with a motto for it.”

    Due to the expansion of its activities, the organization calculated its personnel needs. The calculation showed that there were not enough workers in certain areas… This is how the business game “Interview” began, in which the participants learned to present themselves to the employer.

    The guys were divided into two groups: the HR department and job seekers. Olga Bochkareva, Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Economics and Management, Associate Professor of the Construction Management Department, and Marina Egorova, Deputy Dean for Educational Work, Senior Lecturer of the same department, suggested choosing professional skills that correspond to the professions: economic security specialist, marketer, construction economist, HR department employee. The HR department developed a list of interview questions. Job seekers prepared resumes and talked about themselves. As in real life, only the best got the job.

    At the master classes of the Faculty of Forensic Expertise and Law in Construction and Transport, it was possible to acquire practical skills of legal literacy in relations with unscrupulous employers, take psychological training “How to negotiate with any person”, learn about the criminal liability of minors and receive a lot of other useful information.

    The Automobile and Road Faculty prepared an interesting program. The students learned about the operation of vehicles and transport infrastructure in Arctic conditions, about digital twins of the roads of the future, and reverse engineering. The Automobile and Road Faculty is confident that today the road industry is developing at an incredible speed, and the task of teachers is to prepare specialists who will not only follow modern trends, but also create them.

    “Students of SPbGASU master advanced technologies, participate in research on the introduction of sustainable materials in road construction and the design of safe transport interchanges. SPbGASU is a leader in training personnel for the transport complex, actively cooperates with leading enterprises in the industry and provides students with the opportunity to undergo practical training at the largest construction and transport sites,” commented Andrey Zazykin, Dean of the ADF.

    “Our graduates are in demand – they are invited to work even at the training stage, because employers know that at SPbGASU they receive not only a theoretical base, but also valuable practical experience,” added Igor Chernyaev, head of the department of technical operation of vehicles.

    “SPbGASU is an interesting option”

    We asked ninth-grade students what they remember about Russian Science Day at SPbGASU and where they plan to study next.

    “We are still searching, but this is an interesting option. I will consider it. My father studied here,” shared Timur Bukhtiyarov.

    “I liked the business game the most. It was very fun, interesting, and exciting,” said Zlata Khudyakova.

    Galina Avdeeva, deputy director of Lyceum No. 126 for educational work, said that the Lyceum is very happy with such invitations – not only students, but also teachers learn a lot of new things here.

    The Admissions Committee, which organized the celebration for the lyceum students, thanks the university teachers for their participation, as well as students from the Kirpich Center for Social and Cultural Development, the student media center, and the SPbGASU Volunteer Club.

    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 Economics: New Orleans students showcase their creativity with iPad and Mac

    Source: Apple

    Headline: New Orleans students showcase their creativity with iPad and Mac

    February 3, 2025

    UPDATE

    New Orleans students showcase their creativity with iPad and Mac

    With all eyes on New Orleans, Apple community partners Ellis Marsalis Center for Music and Arts New Orleans put the city’s aspiring young artists in the spotlight

    On a drizzly, overcast afternoon, all is quiet at the intersection of Bartholomew and Prieur streets in New Orleans’ historic Ninth Ward. The quiet neighborhood around the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (EMCM) feel worlds away from the historic French Quarter packed with jazz clubs, bars, restaurants, and markets.

    At 3 p.m., the tempo begins to shift — slowly at first, as youth ranging in age from 8 to 18 file through the blue building’s front gate, instruments in tow. The hallways grow steadily louder with the sounds of laughter, footsteps, stray musical notes, and teachers greeting their students. The fledgling musicians begin cycling through their four classes for the day: piano, homework help, an instrument of their choosing, and coding — a required course that stems from the center’s ongoing partnership with Apple.

    Launched in 2019, the collaboration with Apple has allowed EMCM to expand its curriculum, adding a suite of tech-focused courses that complement the world-class music education the center provides to students.

    “I know some people wonder, ‘Why is a music institution teaching coding?’ For us, it’s all connected — it’s part of a digital tapestry,” says Lisa Dabney, the center’s executive director. “It’s about closing the digital divide by giving students access to technology and introducing them to different types of diverse, long-term career opportunities, including pathways in music technology and beyond. In a community where many homes lack access to iPads and computers, this partnership with Apple helps us put the power of technology directly in our students’ hands, opening doors to creative and professional futures they might have never imagined.”

    Apple’s support for EMCM is part of the company’s broader long-standing commitment to uplift and amplify youth creativity in New Orleans through technology. As budding musicians at EMCM learn to code and mix new tracks with Logic Pro and GarageBand, students at Delgado Community College are producing their own podcast about local cultural icons, and young artists at Arts New Orleans have used iPad to design a new mural fans will see on their way to the Superdome this weekend.

    “We love to see technology and creativity supporting one another, and it’s such a joy to see that in action here in my hometown of New Orleans,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. “Creativity, art, and music are in our DNA. Our teams are really excited to keep working with our amazing community partners and the talented young people who light up this city.”

    EMCM’s holistic and ever-evolving programming stems directly from its namesake, who wanted to ensure that the next generation had the chance to carry on the city’s vibrant cultural legacy. This work felt especially important in the Ninth Ward — a neighborhood renowned for being home to many iconic musicians, civil rights activists, and educators — that had been disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    “At the heart of the center’s curriculum is our founder’s belief that truly understanding music begins with learning to hear it,” explains Dabney. “Piano plays a key role in this process by helping students develop critical listening skills, connect deeply with music, and build a strong foundation in music theory. For this reason, piano has been a required class for all students, in addition to their primary instrument.”

    That same foundational approach to learning now extends to coding and audio engineering courses. In the center’s Mac lab, students use the latest hardware and software to learn coding basics with Apple’s Everyone Can Code and Swift Playgrounds frameworks. And in the on-site music studio, they learn how to engineer their own tracks with apps like GarageBand and Logic Pro. Students also get access to their own iPad every semester, allowing them to take what they’ve learned in their classes and build on those skills at home.

    The audio engineering courses — made possible through Apple’s support — are among the center’s newer offerings for high school-aged students.

    “Here in New Orleans, we have hotels, we have clubs, we have conventions, and we have probably more festivals than anybody in the world. And all of them need audio,” explains Dr. Daryl Dickerson, the center’s longtime director of music education. “This is a job you can learn now, and for the rest of your life, you can do it. If you learn how to capture and edit audio at a young age, you can evolve that into a career.”

    For Jacob Jones Jr., a high school senior who plays the saxophone, trumpet, and piano, Dr. Dickerson’s Saturday afternoon audio engineering class has created a whole new framework for thinking about music.

    “You can make a sound on an instrument, and that’s great,” says Jones. “But then when you play that sound back through the computer, you can expound on it, and play around and make something totally brand-new that no one has ever heard before.”

    Outside of his classes, Jones often finds himself using the skills he’s learned in Logic and GarageBand on his iPhone whenever — and wherever — inspiration strikes. “GarageBand is really essential to me, because I’ll hear something and be like, ‘Wow, I just got to get it out.’ I’ll go on my iPhone, open GarageBand, be able to play out that melody, record it, and even make a whole song out of it,” he explains.

    This same spirit of creative experimentation is fostered in the school’s coding courses, where students like Donte Allen, 14, are encouraged to merge their passion for music and the arts with the foundational technological skills they’re acquiring in class.

    Allen has had a passion for music since he was in diapers. “My dad has a picture of me from when I was 6 months old with the trumpet in my carseat,” he notes with a smile.

    But learning how to code has opened up new creative interests.

    “Swift teaches you the fundamentals, and you can go on from there,” he explains of his newfound affinity for coding. “You can build your own apps, make your own games, and make your own stories… Music and Swift both help with my creativity.”

    This type of exposure — across a wide range of creative and technological mediums, often with surprising points of intersection in between — is what it’s all about for the center’s faculty.

    “These students want this type of education,” says Dr. Dickerson, whose next endeavor will be bringing podcasting classes into the center. “But if it’s not presented to them, they never get it. And it’s the same thing with music and everything else we do around here. So we’re always trying to present them with something new.”

    Beyond the football fervor already enveloping the Superdome, students from Arts New Orleans are putting the finishing touches on a project of their own. Their garden-themed mural, which will cover an exterior wall of the Orleans Justice Center along Interstate 10, highlights stories of previously incarcerated locals while also imparting a message of hope to the community.

    The 6,600-square-foot piece was designed by participants in the Young Artist Movement (YAM), Arts New Orleans’ arts education and workforce development program, which works primarily with students ages 14 to 22. Through YAM, founded in 2016, local youth learn the mural-making process from guest artists and are then given the opportunity to create their own across the city. The participants will also complete the installation of the mural.

    The design process for this particular mural began in the Procreate app on iPad. Using Apple Pencil, the 19 students designed the digital images that appear on the mural’s panels. Lead artists Journey Allen, Gabrielle Tolliver, and Jade Meyers then organized the final designs, and sent them to a mural cloth company to have them ghost-printed on large swaths of mural cloth. From there, the pieces are painted and will then be installed along the wall using a specific gel medium.

    Allen, a visual artist and arts educator who serves as Arts New Orleans’ director of youth education, has enjoyed watching the students blossom. “I love to see the ones who are intimidated at first by the materials,” she shares. “But then when you connect with them and they begin to open up, the artwork becomes a source of transparency, a source of trust, where they share with you a little bit of who they are. Some of them never even really drew or painted before, and here they are creating this huge mural. They ask, ‘When are we going to do the next one?’”

    For some of the young artists, the project holds an added layer of meaning — they came to YAM through its arts diversion program, an alternative to prosecution and incarceration for youth facing low-level, nonviolent offenses. Founded in 2021, it draws on the healing and restorative qualities of artistic expression, with the goal of students having their charges dismissed upon completion.

    Arts New Orleans is also piloting a standalone arts diversion program this spring to help meet participants’ unique needs. “There are many things that they need to engage in, conversations that need to be had, that we can’t have amongst the main YAM group, which are kids who have not been impacted in the same way by the criminal justice system,” Allen explains. “Giving them their own program gives them a true opportunity to expand and move beyond whatever it is they are facing.”

    The idea for YAM and its arts diversion program was sparked by now-retired Judge Arthur Hunter and Xavier University professor Ron Bechet, who is also an artist. Through his career as a police officer, a lawyer, and finally as a judge in his native New Orleans, Hunter had a firsthand look at the factors that lead to young people getting swept into the city’s criminal justice system and saw the potential for art to provide an alternate path.

    “It’s not just the art — it’s an economic opportunity as well, where they should be able to make a living using their talent,” explains Hunter, a board member at Arts New Orleans. “That’s just as much a part of it as seeing that beautiful picture on a canvas.”

    For Hunter, the timing of the mural’s unveiling couldn’t feel more fitting. “This project will be not just a culmination, but also I see it as the beginning of more art throughout the city, letting people know in the city, in the region, in the state, around the country, and around the world what kids can do in the city of New Orleans when it comes to art,” he says.

    Press Contacts

    Rachel Wolf Tulley

    Apple

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    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Raúl Sanchez de la Sierra, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

    Commuting in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, presents challenges for its 17 million residents. Massive traffic jams and unsafe driving cause chaos on the roads, leading to long delays.

    The chaos has become a pressing concern for residents. Reaching Gombe, Kinshasa’s central business district, for instance, can take up to five hours from surrounding neighbourhoods.

    When he came to power in January 2019, President Felix Tshisekedi promised to combat Kinshasa’s traffic chaos by targeting road infrastructure. This included constructing an interchange and flyover. One-way traffic was introduced on certain streets. These have had little effect. Kinshasa’s traffic issues persist.

    While congestion in the capital is usually blamed on poor infrastructure, there are some harder-to-see causes. As social science researchers, we set out to understand what institutional factors might be behind the city’s gridlock.

    In a recent paper, we analysed an illegal revenue-generating scheme inside Kinshasa’s traffic police agency involving a coalition of traffic police agents, their managers and judicial officers. We studied the role this scheme plays in the city’s traffic conditions.

    Under the scheme, known as the quota system, station managers (police commanders) assign street agents a daily quota of drivers to escort to the station, often based on fabricated allegations.

    Our findings and analysis provide insights into how the quota system causes traffic jams and accidents, undermining the police agency’s mandate of traffic regulation. We also detail how corruption operates as a coordinated system rather than as isolated acts of individual misconduct.

    The problem

    Like many traffic police agencies worldwide, Kinshasa’s traffic police are tasked with managing key intersections and enforcing traffic rules.

    Similar to many other civil servants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police officers earn meagre salaries – around US$70 monthly. Anecdotal observation suggests that the police service lacks funds for basic necessities such as fuel or communication costs. Low resources have contributed to police officers extracting funds from drivers, partly for personal profit, partly to cover the costs for their police work.

    A major way in which this is done is through a specific scheme involving traffic police agents. We found that station managers assign different street agents a daily quota of drivers to bring to the station.

    To meet this quota, agents often use brute force and have the discretion to invent infractions that they report at the police station. The dilapidated state of most cars in Kinshasa helps police officers with this task.

    At the station, agents pass the allegations to judicial officers, who have the power to issue charges – or demand bribes so drivers avoid formal penalties. Many drivers try to avoid this extortion by developing relationships with influential protectors. These are people who can intervene on a driver’s behalf and are often high-placed security officers or politicians.

    Our research

    After three years of qualitative fieldwork, we built trust with a large number of individuals inside and around the traffic police agency. This enabled us to design data collection systems in 2015 to study the traffic police agency’s practices.

    We relied on the cooperation of 160 individuals and generated the following data:

    • direct observations of over 13,000 interactions between officers and drivers at intersections

    • station records of 1,255 escorted vehicles, including bribe negotiations and outcomes

    • traffic flow and accident data from 6,399 hourly observations.

    To quantify the cost of this scheme on public service, we added an experiment: we collaborated with police commanders to reduce the daily quotas for some teams and days.

    We encouraged commanders to temporarily cut their teams’ quotas in half. Reducing quotas could be expected to lower corruption demands on agents, reducing corruption overall. It would also enable agents to focus more of their time on managing traffic – an outcome later confirmed by our findings.

    To ensure this approach worked, we compensated commanders for the private income losses they would experience due to the quota reduction, which we carefully estimated before implementing the study. This compensation is not unlike traditional anti-corruption incentives routinely used across the world, except that rather than it being targeted at street-level agents, it targeted the node of this particular scheme: the police commanders.

    What we found

    1. The scheme generates large illicit revenue. The traffic police agency’s real revenue is five times larger than its official income from fines. We found that 68% of the illicit revenue generated through the quota scheme came from bribes paid by drivers after they’d been escorted to the station. The rest of the illicit revenue comes from street-level bribes outside of this quota scheme.

    2. The revenue raised relies on extortion at police stations. Judicial police officers had the power to threaten to issue arbitrary charges. We found that, first, 82% of the allegations were unverifiable by third parties. Second, the amount raised in station bribes was strongly linked to whether a driver was able to call a powerful “protector”.

    3. Extortion in police stations relies on the street agents’ power to arbitrarily escort drivers. These agents use their discretion to fabricate allegations and/or physical force to bring drivers to the station. When a driver was not seen making an infraction, force was more likely to be used.

    Overall, this means that the scheme hinged on a coalition of managers, agents and judicial officers.

    Through the reduction in the quota scheme levels, our scheme also revealed some social costs of this scheme. We found two important results.

    Worse traffic: the quota scheme was accountable for a significant share of traffic jams and accidents observed at street intersections from where the agents operate. Partly through their induced absence and partly through their behaviour, the police officers also create numerous traffic jams and accidents. While this is suggestive rather than conclusive, our estimates suggest that 40% of traffic jams at the main intersections of the city are due to the scheme.

    Diluted incentives to respect the law: the scheme made it less likely that drivers would respect the law. They could be escorted to a police station regardless of whether they complied with the traffic code.

    Why the findings matter

    Our study, which provides rare, detailed evidence of how corruption operates, has three policy implications.

    1. Target officials’ managers, rather than the officials themselves. Visible corruption is only the tip of the iceberg, and hinges on relationships of power and coalitions inside the state.

    2. Limit the discretion of judicial officers to charge the public, or that of agents to escort drivers to police stations arbitrarily.

    3. Incentivise “good” corruption. Encouraging station officials to take a significant share of fines for genuine infractions could give agents an incentive to escort drivers who actually break traffic rules. However, the trade-offs between traffic flow, safety and compliance must be carefully weighed, as quotas tied to fines could worsen congestion.

    Raúl Sanchez de la Sierra is a co-founder of Marakuja Kivu Research, a data collection organization specialized in data collection in war-torn zones especially eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    Kristof Titeca is an associate Senior Research Fellow at the Egmont Institute in Belgium.

    Albert Malukisa Nkuku and Haoyang (Stan) Xie 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. Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines – https://theconversation.com/kinshasas-traffic-cops-run-an-extortion-scheme-generating-five-times-more-revenue-than-fines-246786

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Maikel Rheinstadter, Professor of Biophysics, McMaster University

    We live in a golden age for space exploration. Scientists are gathering massive amounts of new information and scientific evidence at a record pace. Yet the age-old question remains unanswered: are we alone?

    New telescope technologies, including space-based tools such as the James Webb Telescope, have enabled us to discover thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets that could support life similar to that on Earth.

    Gravitational wave detectors have opened a new avenue for space exploration by detecting space-time distortions caused by black holes and supernovae millions of light-years away.

    Commercial space ventures have further accelerated these advancements, leading to increasingly sophisticated spacecraft and reusable rockets, signifying a new era in space exploration.

    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu when it was 207 million miles away from Earth and brought back rock and dust samples.



    Read more:
    Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

    Several countries have developed the ability to deploy robots on the moon and Mars, with plans to send humans to these celestial bodies in the future.

    A central driver of all these ambitious endeavours is still that fundamental question of whether life exists — or ever existed — elsewhere in the universe.

    The James Webb telescope was launched in 2021, and is the most powerful telescope ever sent into space.
    (Shutterstock)

    Defining life

    Defining life is surprisingly challenging. While we intuitively recognize living organisms as having life, a precise definition remains elusive. Dictionaries offer various descriptions, such as the ability to grow, reproduce and respond to stimuli.

    But even these definitions can be ambiguous.

    A more comprehensive definition considers life as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of processing information and maintaining a state of low entropy, with little disorder or randomness.

    Living things constantly require energy to sustain their molecular organization and maintain their highly organized structures and functions. Without this energy, life would quickly descend into chaos and disrepair. This definition encompasses the dynamic and complex nature of life, emphasizing its ability to adapt and evolve.

    Life on Earth, as we currently understand it, is based on the interplay of DNA, RNA and proteins. DNA serves as the blueprint of life, containing the genetic instructions necessary for an organism’s development, survival and reproduction. These instructions are converted into messages that guide the production of proteins, the workhorses of the cell that are responsible for a vast array of functions.

    This intricate system of DNA replication, protein synthesis and cellular processes — all based on long strings of molecules linked by carbon atoms — is fundamental to life on Earth. However, the universe may harbour life forms based on entirely different principles and biochemistries.

    An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which uses an X-ray spectrometer to help search for signs of ancient microbial life in rocks.
    (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    Something other than carbon

    Life elsewhere could use different elements as building blocks. Silicon, with its chemical similarities to carbon, has been proposed as a potential alternative.

    If they exist, silicon-based life forms may exhibit unique characteristics and adaptations. For instance, they might use silicon-based structures for support, analogous to bones or shells in carbon-based organisms.

    Even though silicon-based organisms have not yet been found on Earth, silicon plays an important role in many existing life forms. It is an important secondary component for many plants and animals, serving structural and functional roles. For example, diatoms, a type of algae found in the ocean, feature glassy cell walls made of transparent silicon dioxide.

    This doesn’t make diatoms silicon-based life forms, but it does prove silicon can indeed act as a building block of a living organism. But we still don’t know if silicon-based life forms exist at all, or what they would look like.



    Read more:
    Extraterrestrial life may look nothing like life on Earth − so astrobiologists are coming up with a framework to study how complex systems evolve

    The origins of life on Earth

    There are competing hypotheses on how life arose on Earth. One is that that life’s building blocks were delivered on or in meteorites. The other is that those building blocks came together spontaneously via geochemistry in our planet’s early environment.

    Meteorites have indeed been found to carry organic molecules, including amino acids, which are essential for life. It’s possible that organic molecules formed in deep space and were then brought to Earth by meteorites and asteroids.

    On the other hand, geochemical processes on early Earth, such as those occurring in warm little ponds or in hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean, could have also provided the necessary conditions and ingredients for life to emerge.

    However, no lab has yet been able to present a comprehensive, certain pathway to the formation of RNA, DNA and the first cellular life on Earth.

    Many biological molecules are chiral, meaning they exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and right hands. While both left- and right-handed molecules are typically naturally produced in equal amounts, recent analyses of meteorites have revealed a slight asymmetry, favouring the left-handed form by as much as 60 per cent.

    Chirality refers to the existence in nature of mirror images of the same thing.
    (Shutterstock)

    This asymmetry in space-derived organic molecules is also observed in all biomolecules on Earth (proteins, sugars, amino acids, RNA and DNA), suggesting it could have arisen from the slight imbalance delivered from space, supporting the theory that life on Earth is extraterrestrial in origin.

    Chances of life

    The slight imbalance in chirality observed in many organic molecules could be an indicator that life on Earth originated from the delivery of organic molecules by extraterrestrial life. We could well be descendants of life that originated elsewhere.

    The Drake equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961, provides a framework for estimating the number of detectable civilizations within our galaxy.

    This equation incorporates factors such as the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets, and calculates the fraction of those planets where intelligent life may emerge. An optimistic estimate using this formula suggests that 12,500 intelligent alien civilizations might exist in the Milky Way alone.

    The primary argument for extraterrestrial life remains probabilistic: considering the sheer number of stars and planets, it seems highly improbable that life wouldn’t have arisen elsewhere.

    The probability of humanity being the sole technological civilization in the observable universe is considered to be less than one in 10 billion trillion. Additionally, the chance of a civilization developing on any single habitable planet is better than one in 60 billion.

    With an estimated 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe, the existence of other technological species is highly likely, potentially even within our Milky Way galaxy.

    Maikel Rheinstadter receives funding from the National Science and Engineering Council Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Province of Ontario and McMaster University..

    – ref. Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely – https://theconversation.com/is-there-life-out-there-the-existence-of-other-technological-species-is-highly-likely-248191

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Raúl Sanchez de la Sierra, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

    Commuting in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, presents challenges for its 17 million residents. Massive traffic jams and unsafe driving cause chaos on the roads, leading to long delays.

    The chaos has become a pressing concern for residents. Reaching Gombe, Kinshasa’s central business district, for instance, can take up to five hours from surrounding neighbourhoods.

    When he came to power in January 2019, President Felix Tshisekedi promised to combat Kinshasa’s traffic chaos by targeting road infrastructure. This included constructing an interchange and flyover. One-way traffic was introduced on certain streets. These have had little effect. Kinshasa’s traffic issues persist.

    While congestion in the capital is usually blamed on poor infrastructure, there are some harder-to-see causes. As social science researchers, we set out to understand what institutional factors might be behind the city’s gridlock.

    In a recent paper, we analysed an illegal revenue-generating scheme inside Kinshasa’s traffic police agency involving a coalition of traffic police agents, their managers and judicial officers. We studied the role this scheme plays in the city’s traffic conditions.

    Under the scheme, known as the quota system, station managers (police commanders) assign street agents a daily quota of drivers to escort to the station, often based on fabricated allegations.

    Our findings and analysis provide insights into how the quota system causes traffic jams and accidents, undermining the police agency’s mandate of traffic regulation. We also detail how corruption operates as a coordinated system rather than as isolated acts of individual misconduct.

    The problem

    Like many traffic police agencies worldwide, Kinshasa’s traffic police are tasked with managing key intersections and enforcing traffic rules.

    Similar to many other civil servants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police officers earn meagre salaries – around US$70 monthly. Anecdotal observation suggests that the police service lacks funds for basic necessities such as fuel or communication costs. Low resources have contributed to police officers extracting funds from drivers, partly for personal profit, partly to cover the costs for their police work.

    A major way in which this is done is through a specific scheme involving traffic police agents. We found that station managers assign different street agents a daily quota of drivers to bring to the station.

    To meet this quota, agents often use brute force and have the discretion to invent infractions that they report at the police station. The dilapidated state of most cars in Kinshasa helps police officers with this task.

    At the station, agents pass the allegations to judicial officers, who have the power to issue charges – or demand bribes so drivers avoid formal penalties. Many drivers try to avoid this extortion by developing relationships with influential protectors. These are people who can intervene on a driver’s behalf and are often high-placed security officers or politicians.

    Our research

    After three years of qualitative fieldwork, we built trust with a large number of individuals inside and around the traffic police agency. This enabled us to design data collection systems in 2015 to study the traffic police agency’s practices.

    We relied on the cooperation of 160 individuals and generated the following data:

    • direct observations of over 13,000 interactions between officers and drivers at intersections

    • station records of 1,255 escorted vehicles, including bribe negotiations and outcomes

    • traffic flow and accident data from 6,399 hourly observations.

    To quantify the cost of this scheme on public service, we added an experiment: we collaborated with police commanders to reduce the daily quotas for some teams and days.

    We encouraged commanders to temporarily cut their teams’ quotas in half. Reducing quotas could be expected to lower corruption demands on agents, reducing corruption overall. It would also enable agents to focus more of their time on managing traffic – an outcome later confirmed by our findings.

    To ensure this approach worked, we compensated commanders for the private income losses they would experience due to the quota reduction, which we carefully estimated before implementing the study. This compensation is not unlike traditional anti-corruption incentives routinely used across the world, except that rather than it being targeted at street-level agents, it targeted the node of this particular scheme: the police commanders.

    What we found

    1. The scheme generates large illicit revenue. The traffic police agency’s real revenue is five times larger than its official income from fines. We found that 68% of the illicit revenue generated through the quota scheme came from bribes paid by drivers after they’d been escorted to the station. The rest of the illicit revenue comes from street-level bribes outside of this quota scheme.

    2. The revenue raised relies on extortion at police stations. Judicial police officers had the power to threaten to issue arbitrary charges. We found that, first, 82% of the allegations were unverifiable by third parties. Second, the amount raised in station bribes was strongly linked to whether a driver was able to call a powerful “protector”.

    3. Extortion in police stations relies on the street agents’ power to arbitrarily escort drivers. These agents use their discretion to fabricate allegations and/or physical force to bring drivers to the station. When a driver was not seen making an infraction, force was more likely to be used.

    Overall, this means that the scheme hinged on a coalition of managers, agents and judicial officers.

    Through the reduction in the quota scheme levels, our scheme also revealed some social costs of this scheme. We found two important results.

    Worse traffic: the quota scheme was accountable for a significant share of traffic jams and accidents observed at street intersections from where the agents operate. Partly through their induced absence and partly through their behaviour, the police officers also create numerous traffic jams and accidents. While this is suggestive rather than conclusive, our estimates suggest that 40% of traffic jams at the main intersections of the city are due to the scheme.

    Diluted incentives to respect the law: the scheme made it less likely that drivers would respect the law. They could be escorted to a police station regardless of whether they complied with the traffic code.

    Why the findings matter

    Our study, which provides rare, detailed evidence of how corruption operates, has three policy implications.

    1. Target officials’ managers, rather than the officials themselves. Visible corruption is only the tip of the iceberg, and hinges on relationships of power and coalitions inside the state.

    2. Limit the discretion of judicial officers to charge the public, or that of agents to escort drivers to police stations arbitrarily.

    3. Incentivise “good” corruption. Encouraging station officials to take a significant share of fines for genuine infractions could give agents an incentive to escort drivers who actually break traffic rules. However, the trade-offs between traffic flow, safety and compliance must be carefully weighed, as quotas tied to fines could worsen congestion.

    – Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines
    – https://theconversation.com/kinshasas-traffic-cops-run-an-extortion-scheme-generating-five-times-more-revenue-than-fines-246786

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Rightworks names seasoned executive Jenny Buchholz as new Chief Financial Officer

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NASHUA, N.H., Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rightworks, the only intelligent cloud services provider purpose-built for accounting firms and professionals, today announced it has named Jenny Buchholz as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective February 3, 2025. Reporting to CEO Joel Hughes, Buchholz will lead the finance function as the company continues to expand into new markets and deliver its award-winning OneSpace platform at scale. In her role, Buchholz will support the company’s goals and strategic initiatives with her extensive financial experience in strategy, governance and risk management.

    “I’m excited to welcome Jenny Buchholz as the newest member of our executive team at Rightworks,” said Hughes. “Her progressive experience as a leader and track record for optimizing growth across a variety of industries will be invaluable as we continue to grow and serve the profession.”

    Buchholz joins Rightworks with more than two decades of experience in senior finance leadership roles. She recently held the position of CFO at Cisive, a global background screening firm, where she built out FP&A capabilities, implemented rigorous forecasting and KPI reporting and led integration efforts for acquired companies. Previously, Buchholz managed capital structure and cash flow, and enhanced functional areas of FP&A, accounting, pricing and planning as CFO at Captivate Communications, a digital advertising company. Additionally, she has held finance leadership roles at eBay/PayPal, Knotel and Discovery Communications. Buchholz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

    “This is an exciting time to join Rightworks and I am looking forward to working with a team that has decades of experience in advancing the accounting profession,” said Buchholz. “I’m thrilled to leverage my experience to support the company’s strategic vision and continue to drive financial excellence so we can deliver exceptional value to our customers and stakeholders.”

    Connect with Rightworks
    Visit our newsroom; read our blog; and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

    About Rightworks
    Rightworks enables accounting firms and businesses to significantly simplify operations and expand their value to clients via our award-winning intelligent cloud and learning resources. This is possible with Rightworks OneSpace, the only secure cloud environment purpose-built for the accounting and tax profession, and Rightworks Academy, the premier community for firm optimization, growth and professional development. The Academy offers access to thought leadership, events, peer communities and extensive learning resources. Founded in 2002, we’ve grown to serve over 10,000 accounting firms in the US—from single practitioners to Top 10 firms. For more information, please visit rightworks.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e50626ac-7bac-4c03-a5ff-64cb16865ff4

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kate McMahon, Historian of Global Slavery, Smithsonian Institution

    John Warner Barber’s ‘Death of Capt. Ferrer,’ 1839. Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    On the night of July 1, 1839, 53 enslaved Africans revolted aboard the slaving schooner La Amistad – Spanish for “Friendship” – while they were being shipped to a plantation in Puerto Príncipe, Cuba.

    Kidnapped and trafficked from modern-day Sierra Leone to Havana on a larger vessel, they had been transferred to the smaller La Amistad to reach Puerto Príncipe.

    A 25-year-old man named Sengbe Pieh led the rebels, who suffered 10 fatalities in the fray. They still managed to kill the captain, Ramon Ferrer, and take control of the ship, ordering the surviving crew to return them to Sierra Leone. But the crew instead sailed the vessel north, where it was captured in Long Island Sound.

    With the rebels detained in Connecticut, their fate would be decided by the state’s legal system.

    A remarkable set of 22 drawings reveal the faces of these rebels, providing a rare glimpse into their humanity when they were affirming their right to live free.

    I served as the lead historian and researcher for an exhibition where three of these portraits are now on display, “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

    Few images exist

    In 1808, the United States, along with a host of other countries, banned the participation of its citizens in the transportation of enslaved people from Africa to the Americas. Nonetheless, at least 2.8 million Africans were brought to the Americas between 1808 and 1866, primarily to work on sugar plantations in Brazil and Cuba. Shippers, plantation owners, merchants and crews reaped massive profits.

    But historians know very little about the individuals aboard these slave ships. More often than not, their existence was reflected in numbers on ledgers and spreadsheets. Their birth names, birth dates, family histories – anything that would have humanized them – were hard to come by.

    Portraits of enslaved people from the 19th century were also unusual. Enslavers often viewed them as mere chattel and not worth the expense and effort of commissioning a painting. If they did appear in art, it was in the background as loyal servants, helpless victims or stereotypical brutes.

    Putting faces to the names

    That’s what makes these drawings, created by Connecticut artist William H. Townsend during the trial, so remarkable.

    ‘Fuli,’ by William H. Townsend.
    Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

    Historians don’t know exactly why Townsend decided to draw them, only that he lived locally and sat in the courtroom during the trial. In 1934, these portraits were donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Library by one of Townsend’s descendants.

    While his motivations for drawing these portraits remain unclear, the humanity he depicted is clear. The expressions of his subjects often evoke both their resistance and their desire for freedom.

    Fuli, one of several captives who had stolen water on board the vessel and had been ordered flogged by Captain Ferrer during the voyage, gazes at the viewer with a solemn, self-possessed air. It’s easy to imagine him as a leader steeled by all the suffering he experienced over the course of his journey.

    Marqu – or Margru – was one of the three young girls who were aboard the Amistad. In her portrait, she gently smiles – a glint of a personality that’s persevered despite the trauma of the voyage and her time spent in prison awaiting trial.

    Marqu, drawn by William H. Townsend, was one of three enslaved girls aboard the Amistad.
    Library of Congress

    Grabo – or Grabeau – was second-in-command to Pieh in the revolt. He was a rice planter and was married at the time of his capture, and was enslaved to repay a debt his family owed. In his portrait, he gazes with his eyebrows raised – inquisitive, proud and at ease.

    Lights of freedom

    Despite their different facial expressions, the three appear to be united in their collective determination to be agents in their own liberation. In Pieh’s words: “Brothers, we have done that which we purposed. … I am resolved it is better to die than to be a white man’s slave.”

    Grabo, second-in-command of the rebels aboard the Amistad, drawn by William H. Townsend.
    Library of Congress

    The lawyers hired by abolitionists to represent the 53 surviving rebels – Roger S. Baldwin, Theodore Sedgwick and Seth Staples – argued that they rebelled because “each of them are natives of Africa and were born free, and ever since have been and still of right are and ought to be free and not slaves.”

    Eventually, the case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court found that because the captives aboard the Amistad were free at the time of their capture in Long Island, they could not be considered property of Spain.

    The verdict became a landmark case for litigating the illegal slave trade, which continued to expand over the next two decades until finally ending in the 1860s. The Amistad rebels inspired other captives: In 1841, as the American ship Creole traveled between Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, those on board revolted, wresting control of the ship and sailing it to the Bahamas, where they eventually gained their freedom.

    These portraits, like the testimony in court and the revolt onboard the Amistad, bring the massive, messy, contested story of slavery down to the scale of individual humans. Their visages call upon present and future generations to collectively imagine not only the horrors of the slave trade, but also the power of individual dignity and collective resistance.

    They light the darkness – in the 1840s and in the world today.

    Kate McMahon 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. Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad – https://theconversation.com/rare-portraits-reveal-the-humanity-of-the-slaves-who-revolted-on-the-amistad-245133

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sara Hughes, Adjunct Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

    Las Vegas’ water supplier offers rebates to residents who tear out their grass lawns to save water. LPETTET/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    Water scarcity is often viewed as an issue for the arid American West, but the U.S. Northeast’s experience in 2024 shows how severe droughts can occur in just about any part of the country.

    Cities in the Northeast experienced record-breaking drought conditions in the second half of 2024 after a hot, dry summer in many areas. Wildfires broke out in several states that rarely see them.

    By December, much of the region was experiencing moderate to severe drought. Residents in New York City and Boston were asked to reduce their water use, while Philadelphia faced risk to its water supply due to saltwater coming up the Delaware River.

    Parts of the Northeastern U.S. were so dry in summer 2024 that several large wildfires burned in New Jersey, as well as in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even in New York City.
    New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection via AP

    Before the drought, many people in the region weren’t prepared for water shortages or even paying much attention to their water use.

    As global temperatures rise, cities throughout the U.S. are more likely to experience hotter, drier conditions like this. Those conditions increase evaporation, drying out vegetation and soil and lowering groundwater tables.

    The Northeast drought was easing in much of the region in early 2025, but communities across the U.S. should take note of what happened. They can learn from the experiences of cities that have had to confront major water supply crises – such as Cape Town, South Africa; São Paulo, Brazil; Melbourne, Australia; Las Vegas; and New Orleans – and start planning now to avoid the worst impacts of future droughts.

    Lessons from cities that have seen the worst

    Our new analysis of these five cities’ experiences provides lessons on how to avoid a water supply crisis or minimize the effects through proactive policies and planning.

    Many cities have had to confront major water supply crises in recent years. Perhaps the most well-known example is Cape Town’s “Day Zero.”

    After three years of persistent drought in the region, Cape Town officials in fall 2017 began a countdown to Day Zero – the point at which water supplies would likely run so low that water would be turned off in neighborhoods and residents would need to fetch a daily allocation of water at public distribution points. Initially it was forecast to occur in April 2018.

    Residents in Cape Town, South Africa, line up to fill water jugs during a severe drought in 2018.
    AP Photo/Bram Janssen

    Water rates were raised, and some households installed flow restrictors, which would automatically limit the amount of water that could be used. Public awareness and conservation efforts cut water consumption in half, allowing the city to push back its estimate for when Day Zero would arrive. And when the rains finally came in summer 2018, Day Zero was canceled.

    A second example is São Paulo, which similarly experienced a severe drought between 2013 and 2015. The city’s reservoirs were reduced to just 5% of their capacity, and the water utility reduced the pressure in the water system to limit water use by residents.

    Water pricing adjustments were used to penalize high water users and reward water conservation, and a citywide campaign sought to increase awareness and encourage conservation. As in Cape Town, the crisis ended with heavy rains in 2016. Significant investments have since been made in upgrading the city’s water distribution infrastructure, preventing leaks and bringing water to the city from other river basins.

    Planning ahead can reduce the harm

    The experiences of Cape Town and São Paulo – and the other cities in our study – show how water supply crises can affect communities.

    When major changes are made to reduce water consumption, they can affect people’s daily lives and pocketbooks. Rapidly designed conservation efforts can have harmful effects on poor and vulnerable communities that may have fewer alternatives in the event of restrictions or shutoffs or lack the ability to pay higher prices for water, forcing tough choices for households between water and other necessities.

    Planning ahead allows for more thoughtful policy design.

    For example, Las Vegas has been grappling with drought conditions for the past two decades. During that time, the region implemented water-conservation policies that focus on incentivizing and even requiring reduced water consumption.

    Lake Mead, a huge reservoir on the Colorado River that Las Vegas relies on for water, reached record low levels in 2022.
    AP Photo/John Locher

    Since 2023, the Las Vegas Valley Water District has implemented water rates that encourage conservation and can vary with the availability of water supplies during droughts. In its first year alone, the policy saved 3 billion gallons of water and generated US$31 million in fees that can be used by programs to detect and repair leaks, among other conservation efforts. A state law now requires businesses and homeowner associations in the Las Vegas Valley to remove their decorative grass by the end of 2026.

    Since 2002, per capita water use in Las Vegas has dropped by an impressive 58%.

    Solutions and strategies for the future

    Most of the cities we studied incorporated a variety of approaches to building water security and drought-proofing their community – from publishing real-time dashboards showing water use and availability in Cape Town to investing in desalination in Melbourne.

    But we found the most important changes came from community members committing to and supporting efforts to conserve water and invest in water security, such as reducing lawn watering.

    There are also longer-term actions that can help drought-proof a community, such as fixing or replacing water- and energy-intensive fixtures and structures. This includes upgrading home appliances, such as showers, dishwashers and toilets, to be more water efficient and investing in native and drought-tolerant landscaping.

    Prioritizing green infrastructure, such as retention ponds and bioswales, that help absorb rain when it does fall and investing in water recycling can also diversify water supplies.

    Taking these steps now, ahead of the next drought, can prepare cities and lessen the pain.

    Michael Wilson is an employee of RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. This research was funded by the RAND Center for Climate and Energy Futures.

    Sara Hughes 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. Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control – https://theconversation.com/drought-can-hit-almost-anywhere-how-5-cities-that-nearly-ran-dry-got-water-use-under-control-248760

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Randolph Hubach, Professor of Public Health, Purdue University

    Rural America can be idyllic, but many communities still need support. Mint Images via Getty Images

    Rural America faces many challenges that Congress and the federal government could help alleviate under the new Trump administration.

    Rural hospitals and their obstetrics wards have been closing at a rapid pace, leaving rural residents traveling farther for health care. Affordable housing is increasingly hard to find in rural communities, where pay is often lower and poverty higher than average. Land ownership is changing, leaving more communities with outsiders wielding influence over their local resources.

    As experts in rural health and policy at the Center for Rural and Migrant Health at Purdue University, we work with people across the United States to build resilient rural communities.

    Here are some ways we believe the Trump administration could work with Congress to boost these communities’ health and economies.

    1. Rural health care access

    One of the greatest challenges to rural health care is its vulnerability to shifts in policy and funding cuts because of rural areas’ high rates of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

    About 25% of rural residents rely on Medicaid, a federal program that provides health insurance for low-income residents. A disproportionate share of Medicare beneficiaries – people over 65 who receive federal health coverage – also live in rural areas. At the same time, the average health of rural residents lags the nation as a whole.

    Rural clinics and hospitals

    Funding from those federal programs affects rural hospitals, and rural hospitals are struggling.

    Nearly half of rural hospitals operate in the red today, and over 170 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. The low population density of rural areas can make it difficult for hospitals to cover operating costs when their patient volume is low. These hospital closures have left rural residents traveling an extra 20 miles (32 km) on average to receive inpatient health care services and an extra 40 miles (64 km) for specialty care services.

    The government has created programs to try to help keep hospitals operating, but they all require funding that is at risk. For example:

    • The Low-volume Hospital Adjustment Act, first implemented in 2005, has helped numerous rural hospitals by boosting their Medicare payments per patient, but it faces regular threats of funding cuts. It and several other programs to support Medicare-dependent hospitals are set to expire on March 31, 2025, when the next federal budget is due.

    • The rural emergency hospital model, created in 2020, helps qualifying rural facilities to maintain access to essential emergency and outpatient hospital services, also by providing higher Medicare payments. Thus far, only 30 rural hospitals have transitioned to this model, in part because they would have to eliminate inpatient care services, which also limits outpatient surgery and other medical services that could require overnight care in the event of an emergency.

    Rural emergency hospitals can get extra funding, but there’s a catch: They have no inpatient beds, so people in need of longer care must go farther.
    AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

    Services for pregnant women have also gotten harder to find in rural areas.

    Between 2011 and 2021, 267 rural hospitals discontinued obstetric services, representing 25% of the United States’ rural obstetrics units. In response, the federal government has implemented various initiatives to enhance access to care, such as the Rural Hospital Stabilization Pilot Program and the Rural Maternal and Obstetric Management Strategies Program. However, these programs also require funding.

    Expanding telehealth

    Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth – the ability to meet with your doctor over video – wasn’t widely used. It could be difficult for doctors to ensure reimbursement, and the logistics of meeting federal requirements and privacy rules could be challenging.

    The pandemic changed that. Improving technology allowed telehealth to quickly expand, reducing people’s contact with sick patients, and the government issued waivers for Medicare and Medicaid to pay for telehealth treatment. That opened up new opportunities for rural patients to get health care and opportunities for providers to reach more patients.

    However, the Medicare and Medicaid waivers for most telehealth services were only temporary. Only payments for mental and behavioral health teleheath services continued, and those are set to expire with the federal budget in March 2025, unless they are renewed.

    One way to expand rural health care would be to make those waivers permanent.

    Increasing access to telehealth could also support people struggling with opioid addiction and other substance use disorders, which have been on the rise in rural areas.

    2. Affordable housing is a rural problem too

    Like their urban peers, rural communities face a shortage of affordable housing.

    Unemployment in rural areas today exceeds levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Job growth and median incomes lag behind urban areas, and rural poverty rates are higher.

    Rural housing prices have been exacerbated by continued population growth over the past four years, lower incomes compared with their urban peers, limited employment opportunities and few high-quality homes available for rent or sale. Rural communities often have aging homes built upon outdated or inadequate infrastructure, such as deteriorating sewer and water lines.

    Rental homes in older towns can become run down. Community maintenance of pipes and other services also requires funding.
    LawrenceSawyer/E+ via Getty Images

    One proposal to help people looking for affordable rural housing is the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which calls for creating a new federal tax credit to spur the development and renovation of family housing in distressed urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods.

    Similarly, the Section 502 Direct Loan Program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which subsidizes mortgages for low-income applicants to obtain safe housing, could be expanded with additional funding to enable more people to receive subsidized mortgages.

    3. Locally owned land benefits communities

    Seniors age 65 and older own 40% of the agricultural land in the U.S., according to the American Farmland Trust. That means that more than 360 million acres of farmland could be transferred to new owners in the next few decades. If their heirs aren’t interested in farming, that land could be sold to large operations or real estate developers.

    That affects rural communities because locally owned rural businesses tend to invest in their communities, and they are more likely to make decisions that benefit the community’s well-being.

    A farmer carries organic squash during harvest. Young farmers often struggle to find land to expand their operations.
    Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images

    Congress can take some steps to help communities keep more farmland locally owned.

    The proposed Farm Transitions Act, for example, would establish a commission on farm transitions to study issues that affect locally owned farms and provide recommendations to help transition agricultural operations to the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

    About 30% of farmers have been in business for less than 10 years, and many of them rent the land they farm. Programs such as USDA’s farm loan programs and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program help support local land purchases and could be improved to identify and eliminate barriers that communities face.

    We believe that by addressing these issues, Congress and the new administration can help some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. Efforts to build resilient and strong rural communities will benefit everyone.

    Randolph Hubach receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

    Cody Mullen receives funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. He is affiliated with the National Rural Health Association.

    – ref. 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-the-trump-administration-could-reinvest-in-rural-americas-future-starting-with-health-care-245451

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicholas R. Micinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Maine

    View at the entrance of the United States Embassy taken in Bogota, Colombia Pablo Vera/AFP via Getty Images

    As diplomatic spats go, it was short-lived.

    On Jan 26, 2025, Colombian President Gustavo Petro turned away American military planes carrying people being deported from the United States. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25% tariffs and travel bans on Colombian government officials. Despite insisting that “the U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals” and needed to “establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” Petro’s government backed down and resumed cooperation with U.S. immigration officials.

    All this took place in the span of just a few hours. But “migration diplomacy” – the use of diplomatic tools and threats to control the number and flow of migrants – isn’t new. Indeed, it was a feature of Trump’s first administration. And it is not unique to Trump; it has been in the foreign policy playbook of previous U.S. presidents as well as the European Union and governments around the world.

    As an expert on migration policy and international affairs, I have observed the evolution of this global trend, in which nations leverage migration policies for geopolitical ends.

    Richer countries with increasingly populist, nationalist bases are putting in place anti-migrant policies. But these same nations depend on poorer countries to accept deportations and host the majority of the world’s refugees – governments can’t unilaterally “dump” deported immigrants back into the home country, or in a third country.

    And while migration diplomacy can be cooperative, there’s always the possibility a disagreement will spiral into diplomatic spats or outright conflict.

    Threats to control migration

    Migration diplomacy is a relatively recent academic term. But the practice of using foreign policy tools to control migration is centuries old. Common tools of migrant diplomacy fall between the “carrots” of bilateral treaties, development aid and infrastructure investment, and the “sticks” of tariffs, travel bans and sanctions.

    Trump, during his first term, focused more on the sticks, frequently threatening tariffs or cuts in aid to push through deals on migration. For example, in 2018, Trump posted on Twitter that if Honduras and other Central American governments did not stop migrant caravans to the U.S., he would cut all aid: “no more money or aid will be given … effective immediately!”

    A few months later, Trump followed through with the threat, suspending US$400 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

    Trump then upped the ante, posting: “Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ … Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good.”

    Within three days, Guatemala signed a deal with the U.S. to cooperate on asylum and deportations. Honduras and El Salvador followed suit two months later.

    Similarly, in 2019, Trump threatened Mexico that the U.S. would impose a 5% tariff on goods “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.”

    Within 11 days, Mexico signed the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, institutionalizing what human rights groups called “illegal pushbacks” that put people at risk of torture, sexual violence and death.

    Imposing visa restrictions

    Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. government can stop granting visas to any country that “denies or unreasonably delays accepting an alien who is a citizen.”

    And during his first term, Trump imposed visa restrictions on people from Cambodia, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sierra Leone because those countries were deemed to be not cooperating with deportations.

    Such visa restrictions worked with Guinea and Ghana, which both began accepting deportations of their citizens from the U.S.

    Migration as diplomatic weapon

    Nations also use migration policy as tools to push other foreign policy goals not necessarily related to migration. As political scientist Kelly Greenhill explored in her book “Weapons of Mass Migration,” governments are using coercive engineered migration to create pressure against other rival nations. This was seen in 2021 when Belarus bused asylum seekers to the Polish border in an apparent effort to overwhelm the EU’s asylum system.

    Migrants at the Belarusian-Polish border in 2021.
    Leonid Shcheglov/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images

    Similarly, Trump used migration policies to bully other nations into cooperating with the United States. The “Muslim ban” of his first administration – rebranded in later iterations as travel bans – banned entry of citizens from Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. While the first executive order pertaining to the ban was immediately criticized as Islamophobic, the administration changed legal reasoning in front of the Supreme Court, arguing that the ban stemmed from nations not sharing information about potential terrorists and due to their passports being vulnerable to fraud.

    The travel bans were an attempt to coerce nations into sharing information with the U.S. and enforcing U.S. standards of identity documents. Indeed, Chad was later removed from the ban when it adopted these standards.

    The use of migration diplomacy by the U.S. government predates Trump. Tit-for-tat restrictions on travel were common throughout the Cold War. In 2001, President George W. Bush applied visa sanctions to Guyana when its government refused to cooperate on deportations. In 2016, President Barack Obama also applied retaliatory visa restrictions on Gambia for failing to accept U.S. deportation flights.

    Conditional aid from EU

    The European Union tends to use carrots rather than sticks to encourage cooperation on deportations. For example, a 2016 EU-Turkey deal provided 6 billion euros (US$6.25 million) in aid for refugees in Turkey in exchange for accepting the deportation of what the EU describes as “irregular migrants.” In 2023, the EU also struck a 105 million euro ($109 million) deal with Tunisia in return for the North African country’s cooperation on preventing irregular migration.

    But like Trump, the EU is not opposed to punishing states for refusing to cooperate on deportations. In April 2024, the EU tightened rules on visas for Ethiopians because their government refused to accept the return of citizens who had asylum claims denied. Earlier, the EU suspended 15 million euros ($15.6 million) in development aid to Ethiopia on similar grounds.

    Migration interdependence

    Trump’s threats and EU migration deals reveal a type of migration interdependence: Rich states in the Global North don’t want to host large numbers of migrants and refugees and need willing partners in the Global South to accept deportations, enforce emigration restrictions and continue hosting the majority of the world’s refugees.

    This interdependence is typically balanced by rich countries footing the bill and poor countries accepting deportations. But migration diplomacy is also used by less powerful nations aware of the opportunity of exacting concessions out of countries, blocs or international bodies. For example, the Kenyan government repeatedly threatened to close the Dadaab refugee camp and expel all Somali refugees unless it received more international aid. Similarly, Pakistan threatened to deport Afghan refugees unless the international community did more, but backed down after significant increases in aid.

    Rwanda extracted around $310 million from the British government without resettling a single person after a 2022 plan aimed at deterring asylum seekers to the U.K. by deporting them to Rwanda – where their cases would be reviewed and eventually settled – was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights and the U.K.’s Supreme Court.

    Similarly, the small South Pacific island nation of Nauru was paid more than $118 million with the aim of hosting all asylum seekers to Australia. The policy broke down after reports of abysmal conditions in Nauru’s detention facilities.

    While migration diplomacy does work both ways, richer countries by and large have the upper hand. And Trump’s threats against Colombia – and others – are just one example of this hardball migration diplomacy.

    Nicholas R. Micinski 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. Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy – https://theconversation.com/trumps-tariff-threats-fit-a-growing-global-phenomenon-hardball-migration-diplomacy-248380

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Colin Gordon, Professor of History, University of Iowa

    There has long been a tug-of-war over White House plans to make government more liberal or more conservative. Douglas Rissing/iStock / Getty Images Plus

    For much of the 20th century, efforts to remake government were driven by a progressive desire to make the government work for regular Americans, including the New Deal and the Great Society reforms.

    But they also met a conservative backlash seeking to rein back government as a source of security for working Americans and realign it with the interests of private business. That backlash is the central thread of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump Administration.

    Alternatively disavowed and embraced by President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign, Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policy proposals – many written by veterans of his first administration. It echoes similar projects, both liberal and conservative, setting out a bold agenda for a new administration.

    But Project 2025 does so with particular detail and urgency, hoping to galvanize dramatic change before the midterm elections in 2026. As its foreword warns: “Conservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right.”

    The standard for a transformational “100 days” – a much-used reference point for evaluating an administration – belongs to the first administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill in Washington on Aug. 14, 1935.
    AP Photo, file

    Social reforms and FDR

    In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt faced a nation in which business activity had stalled, nearly a third of the workforce was unemployed, and economic misery and unrest were widespread.

    But Roosevelt’s so-called “New Deal” unfolded less as a grand plan to combat the Depression than as a scramble of policy experimentation.

    Roosevelt did not campaign on what would become the New Deal’s singular achievements, which included expansive relief programs, subsidies for farmers, financial reforms, the Social Security system, the minimum wage and federal protection of workers’ rights.

    Those achievements came haltingly after two years of frustrated or ineffective policymaking. And those achievements rested less on Roosevelt’s political vision than on the political mobilization and demands made by American workers.

    A generation later, another wave of social reforms unfolded in similar fashion. This time it was not general economic misery that spurred actions, but the persistence of inequality – especially racial inequality – in an otherwise prosperous time.

    LBJ’s Great Society

    President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs declared a war on poverty and, toward that end, introduced a raft of new federal initiatives in urban, education and civil rights.

    These included the provision of medical care for the poor and older people via Medicaid and Medicare, a dramatic expansion of federal aid for K-12 education, and landmark voting rights and civil rights legislation.

    As with the New Deal, the substance of these policies rested less with national policy designs than with the aspirations and mobilization of the era’s social movements.

    Resistance to policy change

    Since the 1930s, conservative policy agendas have largely taken the form of reactions to the New Deal and the Great Society.

    The central message has routinely been that “big government” has overstepped its bounds and trampled individual rights, and that the architects of those reforms are not just misguided but treasonous. Project 2025, in this respect, promises not just a political right turn but to “defeat the anti-American left.”

    After the 1946 midterm elections, congressional Republicans struck back at the New Deal. Drawing on business opposition to the New Deal, popular discontent with postwar inflation, and common cause with Southern Democrats, they stemmed efforts to expand the New Deal, gutting a full employment proposal and defeating national health insurance.

    They struck back at organized labor with the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which undercut federal law by allowing states to pass anti-union “right to work” laws. And they launched an infamous anti-communist purge of the civil service, which forced nearly 15,000 people out of government jobs.

    In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lewis Powell – who would be appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon to the Supreme Court the next year – to assess the political landscape. Powell’s memorandum characterized the political climate at the dawn of the 1970s – including both Great Society programs and the anti-war and Civil Rights movements of the 1960s – as nothing less than an “attack on the free enterprise system.”

    In a preview of current U.S. politics, Powell’s memorandum devoted special attention to a disquieting “chorus of criticism” coming from “the perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.”

    Powell characterized the social policies of the New Deal and Great Society as “socialism or some sort of statism” and advocated the elevation of business interests and business priorities to the center of American political life.

    A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
    AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

    Building a conservative infrastructure

    Powell captured the conservative zeitgeist at the onset of what would become a long and decisive right turn in American politics. More importantly, it helped galvanize the creation of a conservative infrastructure – in the courts, in the policy world, in universities and in the media – to push back against that “chorus of criticism.”

    This political shift would yield an array of organizations and initiatives, including the political mobilization of business, best represented by the emergence of the Koch brothers and the powerful libertarian conservative political advocacy group they founded, known as Americans for Prosperity. It also yielded a new wave of conservative voices on radio and television and a raft of right-wing policy shops and think tanks – including the Heritage Foundation, creator of Project 2025.

    In national politics, the conservative resurgence achieved full expression in President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign. The “Reagan Revolution” united economic and social conservatives around the central goal of dismantling what was left of the New Deal and Great Society.

    Powell’s triumph was evident across the policy landscape. Reagan gutted social programs, declared war on organized labor, pared back economic and social regulations – or declined to enforce them – and slashed taxes on business and the wealthy.

    Publicly, the Reagan administration argued that tax cuts would pay for themselves, with the lower rates offset by economic growth. Privately, it didn’t matter: Either growth would sustain revenues, or the resulting budgetary hole could be used to “starve the beast” and justify further program cuts.

    Reagan’s vision, and its shaky fiscal logic, were reasserted in the “Contract with America” proposed by congressional Republicans after their gains in the 1994 midterm elections.

    This declaration of principles proposed deep cuts to social programs alongside tax breaks for business. It was perhaps most notable for encouraging the Clinton administration to pass the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, “ending welfare as we know it,” as Clinton promised.

    Aiming at the ‘deep state’

    Project 2025, the latest in this series of blueprints for dramatic change, draws most deeply on two of those plans.

    As in the congressional purges of 1940s, it takes aim not just at policy but at the civil servants – Trump’s “deep state” – who administer it.

    In the wake of World War II, the charge was that feckless bureaucrats served Soviet masters. Today, Project 2025 aims to “bring the Administrative State to heel, and in the process defang and defund the woke culture warriors who have infiltrated every last institution in America.”

    As in the 1971 Powell memorandum, Project 2025 promises to mobilize business power; to “champion the dynamic genius of free enterprise against the grim miseries of elite-directed socialism.”

    Whatever their source – party platforms, congressional bomb-throwers, think tanks, private interests – the success or failure of these blueprints rested not on their vision or popular appeal but on the political power that accompanied them. The New Deal and Great Society gained momentum and meaning from the social movements that shaped their agendas and held them to account.

    The lineage of conservative responses has been largely an assertion of business power. Whatever populist trappings the second Trump administration may possess, the bottom line of the conservative cultural and political agenda in 2025 is to dismantle what is left of the New Deal or the Great Society, and to defend unfettered “free enterprise” against critics and alternatives.

    Colin Gordon receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation.

    – ref. Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform – https://theconversation.com/trumps-project-2025-agenda-caps-decades-long-resistance-to-20th-century-progressive-reform-247176

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gary W. Miller, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

    Even the air you breathe may influence how effective a drug may be for you. Jorg Greuel/Photodisc via Getty Images

    Your genes play a major role in determining your height, hair and eye color, and skin tone, but they don’t tell the entire story of who you are. Your environment is incredibly important in shaping your personality, your likes and dislikes, and your health. In fact, your diet, social interactions, exposure to pollution, physical activity and education often exceed the influence of genetics on many of the features that define you.

    Figuring out how your genes and environment increase your likelihood of developing asthma, heart disease, cancer, dementia and other conditions can have life-changing consequences. The field of genomics has made it relatively straightforward to test both in the hospital and at home for a wide range of genetic variations linked to disease risk.

    And in recent years, science has been making progress on tracking down the environmental culprits that drive risk for several diseases – and on identifying ways to optimize treatments based on your personal environmental exposures.

    Prescribing the most effective treatment from the get-go can reduce harmful drug reactions.
    Willie B. Thomas/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    My work as a pharmacologist and toxicologist has led me to the emerging science of exposomics – the study of all of the physical, chemical, biological and social factors that affect your biology. While your genome comprises all of the genes that encode your biology, your exposome is a concept that comprises all your environmental exposures. Like how researchers use DNA sequencers to study genomics, scientists in exposomics use chemistry and high-tech sensors to measure the effects of thousands of environmental factors on health.

    Medications don’t always work

    For many people, standard drug therapies to treat certain conditions simply don’t work. Controlling blood pressure often requires months of trial and error. It can take months or even years to identify an adequate treatment plan for depression.

    Adverse events caused by medications account for more than 1 million visits to emergency departments each year in the U.S. What drives these differences in drug effects between patients? Is it their genes? Are they not taking their medication as prescribed due to side effects? Or something else?

    As it turns out, your environment can have a major effect on how well specific treatments work for you. Think about the warning labels advising you not to drink grapefruit juice while taking a specific drug, for example. This is because a natural chemical in grapefruit inhibits the enzymes that break down those medications. Some common statins used to control high cholesterol can build up to toxic levels because the chemical in grapefruit juice blocks its normal processing.

    Grapefruit isn’t the only environmental factor affecting how you respond to your medications. Over 8,600 chemicals are used in commerce in the U.S., and you are exposed to thousands of these chemicals on a daily basis. It is more likely than not that many of these chemicals can interact with the drugs you take.

    Your exposome encompasses a wide range of factors.
    Nathalie Ruaux/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    Some of the chemicals we use to keep fleas and ticks off pets can actually increase the levels of the same enzyme blocked by grapefruit juice, meaning a statin may be broken down so fast that it doesn’t control elevated cholesterol.

    Byproducts from the combustion of organic matter, such as engine exhaust and burning wood, can also interfere with drug-metabolizing enzymes. Some of these chemicals, called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, can inactivate medications used to treat asthma. The environmental factor triggering your asthma could prevent the drugs used to treat it from working.

    A chemical solution?

    Advances in chemistry are helping researchers figure out what chemicals are getting in the way of treatment.

    Your hospital laboratory can already measure dozens of molecules in your blood. Measuring your salt levels can tell doctors how your kidneys are working, cholesterol levels indicate your risk of heart disease, and specific enzymes reveal your liver’s health. These common tests are routine and useful for nearly every patient.

    There are many additional tests that can help determine how a specific condition is progressing or responding to therapy. Hemoglobin A1c levels help determine how well glucose levels are being controlled in those with prediabetes or diabetes. And thousands of other human diseases have their own corresponding biomarkers.

    In research laboratories, scientists can detect the presence of thousands of molecules at once using instruments called mass spectrometers. Each chemical in a sample has a unique mass, and these devices measure these masses for scientists to categorize. Thus, scientists can identify all of the pesticides, plasticizers, plastics, pollution and other chemicals present in a given sample. They can also measure your own internal biology, such as the compounds involved in processing the food you eat and the hormones influencing how you behave.

    Moreover, mass spectrometers can measure drug metabolites. When you take a drug, it is typically broken down or metabolized to several different compounds. Some of these compounds contribute to the drug’s effects, while others are inactive. Analyzing what metabolites are present in your body provides information about how you process drugs and whether the drugs you’re taking will interact with each other.

    Taking all these factors together, scientists can study how your environment may be interfering with the effectiveness of your medications.

    A better prescription – for you

    Together with dozens of scientists across many institutions, my colleagues and I are developing methods to measure all of the chemicals in your body. The project, dubbed IndiPHARM – short for individualized pharmacology – is designing tools to measure a wide range of drugs, drug metabolites and environmental chemicals at the same time.

    By combining environmental data with genetic information, we hope to improve how drugs work in people by figuring out whether chemicals in their environment or diet are altering how they process a given drug. This includes whether the administered drugs are at therapeutic levels, how the drugs and chemicals are interacting with each other, and determining whether other variables are affecting intended drug effects. This could lead to changing the amount of drug prescribed, switching to a different medication or even redesigning the medicines themselves.

    Our team is starting with identifying the environmental and biological factors associated with metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes, along with common co-occurring conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol and depression. For example, there are significant differences in how well people respond to anti-obesity or anti-diabetes drugs, and we hope to figure out why that is so all patients can benefit through tailored treatment.

    Getting the right drug to the right person at the right time requires a better understanding of the environmental factors that influence how they work. We envision a future where a doctor can use your genetic and environmental history to figure out the best drug treatment that would work for you from the start, reducing the need for trial and error.

    Gary W. Miller receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, the Department of Defense, Cancer Research UK, and the European Commission. He is co-founder of Exposome Therapeutics.

    – ref. Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better – https://theconversation.com/your-environment-affects-how-well-your-medications-work-identifying-exactly-how-could-make-medicine-better-246476

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stephanie Killingsworth, Ph.D. Student in Geological Sciences, University of Florida

    A paleontologist holds a megalodon fossil tooth. Kristen Grace/FLMNH, CC BY-SA

    The ratios of strontium isotopes in fossil shark teeth can be used to better understand how coastal environments evolved in ancient times, according to our newly published work.

    As paleontologists with the Florida Museum of Natural History, we’re interested in understanding ancient Florida environments.

    Our study was one of the first to date Florida coastal deposits using fossil shark teeth and a technique that looks at variations in ocean strontium. Strontium is a chemical element that occurs naturally in rock, soil and water.

    Ocean strontium values change over time, which makes measuring the levels of the chemical element a unique global system for determining the age of similar coastal sedimentary rock deposits worldwide.

    Changes in strontium isotope ratios have multiple causes. Land erosion deposits strontium into oceans, while carbonate-producing marine life produce and release strontium when building their skeletons. Strontium is also released by deep-sea vents.

    Geochemist Donald DePaolo and geologist B. Lynn Ingram discovered variations in ocean strontium by examining strontium isotopes ratios in marine sediments, including fossils. The levels of strontium isotopes in marine sediments provide a “time stamp” that correlates to the strontium value of the seawater at that time.

    That data allowed scientists to map out ratios of strontium isotopes in seawater over time. This global strontium seawater curve correlates to the geologic timescale. Scientists use the curve to reconstruct past ocean chemistry and climate conditions, as well as the age of mollusks and other shell-producing marine fossils.

    Why it matters

    Properly dating ancient sites is key to understanding how Earth and its living creatures evolved over time.

    But historically, strontium dating, while reliable, had limitations.

    For example, it works best in fully marine environments and is challenging to use in fossil sites along coastlines. That’s because the strontium values might be influenced by land sediments and freshwater rivers.

    Additionally, material used for strontium dating must not have undergone considerable physical and chemical change during fossilization, the preservation of once living things from the past. Any major chemical alteration to the fossil can affect the strontium value and give an inaccurate date.

    Our study shows that fossil shark teeth are more resistant to these types of changes due to their outer enamel-like surface.

    Remarkably, fossil shark teeth are also incredibly abundant. Sharks ruled the earth’s oceans for 400 million years, and every individual grows and sheds thousands of teeth in their lifetime.

    How we did our work

    Florida fossil sites are unique in that they possess some of the richest fossil sediments for important times in geologic history. These sites can help us understand changing climates, vegetation and sea levels over time.

    The Florida Museum of Natural History has a collection of over 115,000 shark tooth specimens from Florida alone.

    To do our study, we selected shark tooth specimens from two significant Neogene-period fossil sites in Florida. The Neogene, from 2.6 to 23.5 million years ago, was a time of immense change in biodiversity because of changing climates.

    We analyzed the strontium present in powdered samples collected by shaving a thin layer from the surfaces of the teeth. The age of the teeth helped to clarify the age of the fossil sites where they were collected. This data enabled us to calibrate and differentiate the ages of our two sites, Montbrook and Palmetto Fauna Bone Valley, by about 600,000 years.

    Before our study, scientists could estimate the age of the sites based only on mammal fossils. The sites were thought to be the same age. Our work provides a more precise date.

    These ages offer new insights into what happened in the southeastern region of North America, some 5 million to 6 million years ago. Our revised age calibrations coincide with global events, including major sea-level fluctuations and the Great American Biotic Interchange – the migration of land mammals between North and South America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama 4 million to 5 million years ago.

    For example, because certain species of ground sloths are not found at the Montbrook site (5.85 million years old) but are found at the Palmetto Fauna Bone Valley site (5.22 million years old), it suggests the immigration of ground sloths into North America occurred between these two dates.

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

    Bruce J. MacFadden receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Stephanie Killingsworth 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. Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way – https://theconversation.com/fossil-shark-teeth-are-abundant-and-can-date-the-past-in-a-unique-way-247749

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: School of Synthetic Biology and Industrial Pharmacy Opens at NSU

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

    From February 3 to February 7, 2025, the Novosibirsk State University is hosting the February School of Synthetic Biology and Industrial Pharmacy, organized by NSU Advanced Engineering School, Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies of NSU with the support of JSC Generium and SUNC NSU.

    More than 200 students from more than 40 universities across the country applied to participate in the school. 42 participants from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Altai Krais, as well as other regions of the Ural, Volga, Southern, Central and Northwestern Federal Districts were selected to participate in the School. The leading universities by the number of participants were: NSU — 15 people, SFU — 7 people, SSMU — 4 people, Altai State University — 3 people.

    The school participants will master competencies in the field of technologies for managing the properties of biological objects, bioinformatics, and will become familiar with modern approaches to the development of drugs. The work will take place in the laboratories of the new educational building of the NSU SUNC, which is one of the first-stage facilities. modern campus of NSU, being built within the framework of the national project “Youth and Children”.

    At the opening of the intensive course, Dmitry Kudlai, Director of Innovative Development Programs at NSU and Vice President of Generium JSC, gave a welcoming speech.

    — Biotechnology is a trend worldwide, as well as a fundamental component of the life of Novosibirsk State University. NSU is actively developing the construction of a world-class campus. The educational building of the NSU SUNC, where the participants will work, is the first stage of this campus, the second is the building of the flow classrooms, the research center and the educational and scientific center of the Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies of NSU. Perhaps, some of the participants of the School will be able to study in the premises of the flow classrooms building as early as September. To conduct the School, we attracted specialists from the Engineering School of Moscow State University, a team from the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics will come. The Deputy Director of the State Institute of Medicines and Good Practices will also take part. I can say for sure that it will not be boring. It is wonderful that students participate in such events, laying the foundation for a confident future, — noted Dmitry Kudlai.

    Director of the Advanced Engineering School Sergey Golovin also welcomed the participants and spoke about the career and educational opportunities that participation in the intensive course opens up:

    — One of the areas that was initially developed at the Advanced Engineering School of NSU is biotechnology. Novosibirsk really has the widest range for development. Our task is to make you as competitive as possible and provide you with subject tools, as well as a set of personal qualities. I hope that your stay at the school for a week will be useful. So that you can not only decide on further education in master’s programs, but also take the first serious big step into the world of biotechnology.

    On the first day of the event, the participants got acquainted with the program of the event and also listened to a lecture on “Development of laboratory diagnostic systems” by Eduard Agletdinov, Deputy General Director for Scientific Work at Vector-Best JSC.

    During the week of intensive work, leading specialists from pharmaceutical companies, experts from universities and scientific organizations will give plenary lectures. An important element of the event will be the educational program, where talented students will be able to get acquainted with the best modern practices in the field of drug development and current technological and regulatory trends.

    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: While plastic dominates human consumption, the global economy will remain hooked on fossil fuels

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Hanieh, Professor of Political Economy and Global Development, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

    Plastic waste in the Maldives. MOHAMED ABDULRAHEEM/Shutterstock

    In early December 2024, hopes for a landmark global treaty to curb plastic pollution were dashed as negotiations in South Korea stalled. Leading the campaign against the deal were major oil-producing nations, especially Saudi Arabia and Russia, who argued for a more flexible approach to any legally binding limits on plastic manufacturing.

    The collapse of any agreement came despite scientific research delivering ever more alarming warnings about the dangers of plastic pollution. Over the last two years, an avalanche of studies have revealed the pervasive presence of tiny plastic particles in human blood, brains, and even placental tissue.

    These particles, which stem from the breakdown of larger plastic waste, have been linked to everything from inflammation to hormonal disruption, and potential long-term health risks such as cancer. Aside from their effects on human health, plastics are wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems, with microplastics now found in Arctic ice and in the bodies of fish and birds.

    Behind these alarming studies stands a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of plastic production. The annual global production of plastics reportedly grew nearly two hundredfold between 1950 (two million tonnes) and 2015 (381 million tonnes), and the pace of growth is accelerating.

    Over half of all plastics ever made were produced in the past 25 years, and production levels are estimated to double or triple again by 2050. And more production brings more waste.

    Less than 10% of all plastics ever produced have been recycled. And the volume of “mismanaged plastics” – those which are not recycled, incinerated, or sealed in landfills – is also estimated to double by 2050.

    It seems as if humans have become the organic detritus within a plastic world of our own creation.

    Plastic elephants

    But despite growing awareness around the problems associated with plastic, there is a fundamental flaw in how we tend to think about it as a product.

    For there is a tendency to frame plastic as a problem of pollution and recycling, rather than as an integral part of our fossil fuel-driven world. This narrative is also promoted by major oil companies, such as the American giant, ExxonMobil, which stated in the lead up to the South Korean summit: “The issue is pollution. The issue is not plastic.”

    The problem with this perspective is that it obscures the fact that plastics are petrochemical products: substances which are ultimately derived from oil and gas.

    Indeed, the future of fossil fuels is increasingly tied to the future of plastics. It has been estimated that by 2040, plastics will account for as much as 95% of net growth in oil demand.

    This is perhaps why 220 fossil fuel lobbyists attended those recent treaty discussions, outnumbering all other delegations. It could also explain why Saudi Arabia, home to one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, led the opposition to any global limits on plastic production.

    At the core of capitalism

    The problem we confront is not simply the presence of an oil lobby, it is the systemic role that plastics play within capitalism.

    Plastics, and the wider petrochemical industry, played a crucial part in the transformation of global capitalism from the mid-20th century onwards.

    As I explore in my book, Crude Capitalism, the things we used to need to build and make things previously relied on sourcing naturally occurring, labour-intensive goods like timber, cotton or metals. But the invention of plastics and other synthetic materials separated commodity production from nature.

    More plastic in the pipeline.
    Kodda/Shutterstock

    Oil became more than a fuel – it was the substance that came to dominate our lives. A petrochemical shift to the rise of an oil-dominated world. With capitalism untethered from natural cycles, there was a radical reduction in the time taken to produce commodities and an end to any limits on the quantity and diversity of goods produced.

    Along with this, consumption habits became centred around notions of disposability and obsolescence. Plastics made the essential features of contemporary capitalism possible: a drive to limitless growth, continual acceleration of production and consumption, and the frenzied expansion of markets.

    The emergence of fast fashion is just one example. Alongside poorly paid garment workers in countries such as Bangladesh, really cheap clothing was only made possible through the massive expansion of polyester production (a kind of plastic), which freed the industry from its dependence on supplies of wool and cotton.

    The consumption of plastics looms large in today’s ecological crisis. And having become so accustomed to thinking about oil and gas as primarily an issue of energy and fuel choice, perhaps we have lost sight of how much of our lives depend upon the products of petroleum.

    These synthetic materials drove a post-war revolution in productivity, bringing labour-saving technology and mass consumption. It is now almost impossible to identify an area of life that has not been radically transformed by the presence of plastics and other petrochemicals.

    Plastic products have become normalised as natural parts of our daily existence. And it is this paradox which must be fully confronted if we are to move beyond fossil fuels.

    Adam Hanieh’s research into petrochemicals has been supported by a Political Economy Fellowship from the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF).

    – ref. While plastic dominates human consumption, the global economy will remain hooked on fossil fuels – https://theconversation.com/while-plastic-dominates-human-consumption-the-global-economy-will-remain-hooked-on-fossil-fuels-247393

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Presidential smiles: the untold story of teeth in the White House

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rae Gillibrand, Lecturer, Premodern History, University of Leeds

    When Donald Trump joined Elon Musk for a live interview on X (formerly Twitter) late last year, the conversation covered a range of significant topics: his near-assassination, Biden’s withdrawal from the race, and the future of the presidency. However, for many viewers, an unexpected detail stole the spotlight: Trump’s slurred speech and lisp.

    Was Trump wearing dentures? The public certainly seemed to think so. Throughout the interview, the word “dentures” was mentioned over 15,000 times on X and the interview sparked the resurgence of the hashtag #DenturedDonald.

    Why does this matter? Trump is, after all, 78 years old, and a 2017 survey showed that nearly one in four Americans aged 75 and older have no teeth left at all. However, presidential dental health has long had an impact on public perception and leadership itself. From George Washington’s infamous dentures to Teddy Roosevelt’s toothy grin, a president’s teeth (or lack thereof) have often shaped the way they are seen by the American public.

    Since the appointment of George Washington as the first US president, it has been tradition for each new president to commission a portrait of themselves during their time in office. However, it was not until Ronald Reagan’s portrait, completed in 1991, that we saw a president depicted with a smile.

    This is partly to do with practicality – many early portraits were painted from life, and sitting with a smile for hours was almost impossible – and partly to do with etiquette. In the 18th century, a wide smile was considered a sign of lewdness and drunkenness and associated largely with the lower classes.

    Indeed, a 1703 text on “decorum and civility” said that some people part their lips so that “their teeth are almost entirely visible. This is entirely contradictory to decorum, which forbids you to allow your teeth to be uncovered, since nature gave us lips to conceal them.”

    It is often suggested that historical portraits avoided smiles because of poor dental hygiene, but in reality, social conventions played a much larger role. For earlier presidents, maintaining an image of sobriety, morality and respectability was important, and a serious expression was seen as a reflection of these values.

    This all changed with Teddy Roosevelt. When Roosevelt became the 25th US president in 1901, photography was becoming much more accessible. Technological advancements and the introduction of handheld cameras meant that photography could be practised by a much broader range of people.

    Because of this, Roosevelt was often candidly photographed while laughing or smiling, leading to his reputation as “the first president who smiled”.

    He even capitalised on his grin in his 1904 campaign by releasing the Teddy’s Teeth Whistle. Retailing at five cents (US$1.77 or £1.44 in today’s money), supporters were encouraged to buy a set and “blow the horn for Teddy”.

    Roosevelt’s embrace of his smile and the promotion of his teeth marked a shift in how a president’s image could be used to influence public perception, showing that good dental health could be a powerful political tool.

    Worse than wood

    Not all presidents were as diligent as Roosevelt when it came to dental hygiene. George Washington, for example, was infamous for his poor dental health.

    His letters, diaries and financial accounts reveal a long history of dental troubles, ultimately leading to his use of dentures. However, contrary to popular belief, Washington’s dentures were not made of wood. Instead, they were made from materials including ivory, animal teeth and human teeth.

    One of Washington’s account books reveals that he bought nine teeth from enslaved people on his Mount Vernon plantation. This detail adds a sinister layer to the history of Washington’s dental care because, while these people were paid for their teeth, their enslaved status probably left them with little choice in the matter.

    Washington’s poor dental hygiene also extended to his care of his dentures. They became notoriously stained, largely due to his fondness for rich red wine. One letter from his dentist chastised him for the condition of his dentures, stating: “The set [of dentures] you sent me from Philadelphia … was very black, occasioned either by your soaking them in port wine, or by your drinking it. I advise you to either take them out after dinner and put them in clean water … or clean them with a brush.”

    These insights into Washington’s dental struggles underscore the lasting effect of oral health on the presidential image.

    Presidential dental health has played, and continues to play, an important role in shaping public perception, with teeth often serving as symbols of both personal care and political power. Whether influencing how a president is seen or reflecting broader social attitudes, the state of a leader’s teeth has clearly left its mark on the history of the office.

    Rae Gillibrand 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. Presidential smiles: the untold story of teeth in the White House – https://theconversation.com/presidential-smiles-the-untold-story-of-teeth-in-the-white-house-248391

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why drying clothes indoors could put your health at risk

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rebecca A. Drummond, Associate Professor, Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham

    Magic Lens/Shutterstock

    Hanging the washing out to dry in the garden has been a rare sight these last few months, with winter storms bringing freezing temperatures and 100mph gusts of wind. But does the way we dry our clothes indoors actually matter?

    Drying wet clothing on racks in poorly ventilated spaces could increase the amount of mould growing in your home, which is associated with poor health and, in some cases, even death.

    When mould grows in your home, it can form black or green coloured patches on the walls, and usually creates an unpleasant musty smell. It shouldn’t be ignored, because being exposed to mould over long periods of time can have serious health implications.

    Mould is a broad term for a group of fungi that produce tiny particles called spores. Fungi produce spores when conditions are right for their growth, which can include cooler temperatures and high humidity. This is why you’re more likely to find mould growing on bathroom ceilings or damp walls, where there is more water for fungal spores to settle and grow.

    There are many different species of mould. The most common ones to cause problems in damp homes are penicillium and aspergillus. It’s estimated that we breathe in small numbers of spores from these fungi on a daily basis.

    Luckily, our immune system is very good at spotting and killing fungal spores, which limits the number of fungal lung infections in humans even though we’re constantly exposed. Immune cells called macrophages sit inside the air spaces of the lungs (called alveoli), and these cells eat anything you inhale that could be considered harmful, including fungal spores.

    Risks for compromised immune systems

    However, there are many people whose immune systems are not able to remove fungal spores, and in these cases the fungi can cause dangerous infections or make underlying health conditions (such as asthma) much worse.

    People who have damaged or compromised immune systems are at higher risk of becoming seriously unwell from fungal infections. Moulds like aspergillus cause infections in patients with limited immune function, or who have lung damage from diseases like asthma, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) associated with heavy smoking.

    In people with asthma, the immune system overreacts to triggers (including fungal spores) causing inflammation in the lung. This inflammation makes it more difficult to breathe by reducing the size of the airways. The same type of immune response is responsible for the symptoms of asthma and allergic responses, and fungal spores can also trigger these same types of immune responses. This means that fungal spores can be a particularly powerful trigger for some people.

    In very extreme cases, the fungal spores don’t just cause inflammation but can invade the airways and block them leading to bleeding within the lung. This happens when spores germinate and form long spiderweb-like projections called mycelium which create sticky lumps that block airways and damage the delicate tissues of the lung.

    Growing resistance

    Aspergillus infections are treated with antifungal drugs called azoles, which prevent the fungal cells from forming properly. Azoles are very effective, but there are increasing rates of resistance to azoles reported in aspergillus which is a significant cause for concern.

    We have a limited range of antifungal drugs available to treat mould infections – and when resistance develops this can severely reduce the options a patient has for treatment.

    Resistance to drugs such as azoles can develop in patients who take these drugs for long periods of time, but recent research has indicated that resistance is more commonly developing in the environment, where most fungi are found. This means that even before a patient is diagnosed with an aspergillus infection, it may already be too late for the antifungal drugs to be effective.

    Development of drug resistance in environmental fungi has been linked to use of azoles and other antifungal drugs in farming. Fungal infections are a big problem for crops, and plants need protection from these infections the same way we do. Unfortunately, the same drugs we use in the clinic are the same types that are being used in agriculture.

    Climate change may also be driving drug resistance in environmental fungi. Exposure to high temperatures was recently found to help moulds develop resistance to commonly prescribed antifungal drugs. There have also been reports of patients becoming ill from species of mould that were not thought to cause human disease, in part because they could not grow at the human body temperature.

    More mould species could therefore be picking up the ability to cause infections, as well as becoming drug resistant. Research programs and healthcare initiatives that monitor for these changes are vital to help us become prepared for potential increases in mould infections.

    While a healthy immune system means that typical exposure to fungal spores is not likely to cause you any health problems, being exposed to very large amounts of fungal spores can prove to be fatal even for people who don’t have underlying health issues.

    In 2020, toddler Awaab Ishak died as a direct result of high exposure to fungal spores, caused by excessive damp and mould in his home.

    His death led to a change in UK law (Awaab’s Law) which requires landlords to respond promptly to damp in homes they manage, to ensure that tenants are not exposed to excessive levels of fungal spores which can affect their physical and mental health.

    It’s important, then, to help keep your home free of mould. The best way to do this is ensure you have good ventilation and take other measures to reduce damp, such as using a dehumidifier or investing in a heated clothes rack to dry your clothes indoors in the winter.

    Rebecca A. Drummond receives funding from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Lister Institute.

    – ref. Why drying clothes indoors could put your health at risk – https://theconversation.com/why-drying-clothes-indoors-could-put-your-health-at-risk-248467

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to argue without falling out – an expert guide

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jessica Robles, Lecturer in Social Psychology, Loughborough University

    Pormezz / Shutterstock

    To disagree is an inescapable part of being human. We simply are not all the same. But whereas a small disagreement may remain amiable, particularly over text or online where we can edit our responses, a face-to-face row over a sensitive topic can develop into a more antagonistic form of argument.

    You may have experienced this over the recent festive season, when many of us spend more time in close contact with our relatives than usual. This can sometimes bring simmering tensions to the surface.

    An argument can start over a lot of things, from politics to each other’s behaviour – something anyone who spends much time on social media will be familiar with. But the stronger the view, the more intense and complex an argument can become.

    So, what can you do to avoid a minor argument becoming a major row – whether online or face-to-face? As an expert in social interactions, I think paying attention to what someone says – and how they say it – is crucial, along with learning how to avoid responding in ways that might blow up in your face.

    Remember, disagreements are a normal part of life and relationships. But here are three key tips for how to avoid them escalating into something more serious.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions.

    Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    1. Manage escalation

    If you disagree with someone, stay in the conversation in a productive way by avoiding using direct insults. Also, take care to avoid actions that may put the other person on the back foot, such as accusing, complaining or mocking them.

    We tend to put a lot of emphasis on the content of an argument, and also on our assumptions about what the other person “really thinks”. What is the argument about? Is it just a misunderstanding – or is it a matter of personality, where one party is biased or has some ulterior motive?

    The rise of social media has created an age of endless conflict.
    pathdoc / Shutterstock

    We care very much whether the person actually believes what they are saying. Research suggests we often resent people playing “devil’s advocate” outside of certain settings.

    But you cannot truly know someone’s intentions, so it’s a good idea to avoid thinking the worst about the person you are arguing with. Otherwise, you might unfairly talk to them as if they’re being manipulative, unfair, damaging or thoughtless.

    2. Be open-minded

    Sometimes, what someone has said may sound (and feel) pretty awful. When this happens, keep two things in mind.

    First, nothing we say has just one meaning. There are often multiple interpretations, and you cannot always trust the first one that leaps to mind when you’re in the heat of the moment.

    During an argument, it’s worth slowing down and thinking through all possible interpretations. Consider asking for a moment to think, or getting a cup of tea to distract both of you from an escalation.

    Second, if what the person is saying still sounds negative no matter how charitable you try to be, ask them to explain more. This may not be easy to do, but people will often reveal what they meant if they have to elaborate. And helping them feel as if they are being carefully listened to might defuse a possible escalation.

    3. Stay on track

    There is another side to this coin: choosing carefully what you say, and keeping in mind how you will come across. Anyone can get caught up in an argument and say something they regret, including you.

    Something to balance carefully is “going meta” – pausing to talk about the argument you’re having and the way you’re having it. This can be productive if, for instance, you ask to keep the conversation focused on something specific. However, it can easily come across as an implicit criticism of the other person.

    If you do choose to discuss the quarrel you’re having, you may have to include an apology or speak in a quieter tone to keep the other person from thinking you are going to accuse them of arguing “wrongly” in some way. It’s challenging, so don’t feel bad if you don’t get it right the first time you try this technique.

    Anyone can get caught up in an argument, including you.
    fizkes / Shutterstock

    Do we have the same values?

    People don’t just argue for the sake of arguing. One of the main reasons for engaging in an argument is to position ourselves in relation to other people. Are we on the same side, and do we have the same values?

    Arguments are also tied to identity. The most contentious arguments generate strong feelings. We’re aware that we might be judged for our opinions, and others will assume that we might judge them in return.

    Mutual judgment can easily escalate not just during a disagreement but in the relationship as a whole, causing a temporary falling-out or even loss of friendship. People who want to avoid this often assume the answer is to simply put their feelings aside and “focus on facts”.

    But denying an emotional response might feel like denying one’s commitment to a valued cause. Recognising that someone feels this way is an important step to knowing what you might be able to change their mind about – and what is best left alone, at least for now.

    Jessica Robles 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. How to argue without falling out – an expert guide – https://theconversation.com/how-to-argue-without-falling-out-an-expert-guide-236812

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The Sims: from Hot Date to Get Famous, why expansion packs have been key to the game’s longevity

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aditya Deshbandhu, Lecturer of Communications, Digital Media Sociology, University of Exeter

    SimCity 3000, the predecessor to The Sims, played a pivotal part in my childhood, growing up in Hyderabad, India. Its recreation of the western, urban world helped me understand how cities were planned, designed and financed – and how they provided people with key services like transportation, health and education while preparing for accidents and other hazards.

    As an eight-year-old trying to figure out my place in the world, that game offered me a way to make meaning of the chaos that can be life. So, when The Sims launched in 2000 – enabling me to live inside a virtual city, rather than simply build one – I had to get my hands on a copy.

    Twenty-five years later, I write this piece in a drastically different gaming landscape, where games offer high visual fidelity and ever-increasing frame rates for ultra-smooth game play. But despite all these technological innovations and the pursuit of photo-realism, the popularity of The Sims’ game designer Will Wright’s satire on American consumer culture endures.

    Sul Sul! This article is part of a mini series from The Conversation marking 25 years of The Sims franchise.

    The franchise’s four Sims games had sold over 200 million copies before the latest instalment, The Sims 4, became free to play in 2022. Players now spend their money on extras within the game. Over 85 million people played The Sims worldwide in 2024.

    At a time when the success of a modern video game is measured in metrics like “cumulative engagement time” (number of players playing at the same time), acquisition of new players and “intensity of engagement” (number of hours spent by a player), now-over-a-decade-old The Sims 4 continues to excel with its mastery of the live-service format.

    The trailer for the first Sims game.

    Live-service describes the form modern digital games embrace when they transition from conventional products into “services” – a shift made possible because games today can be regularly updated, fixed and expanded upon by their makers remotely. They can acquire new levels and in-game features in a similar way to how streaming platforms like Netflix drop new episodes of your favourite show.

    Players don’t buy a live-service game, they sign up for the journey.

    Expanding player horizons

    In each incarnation of The Sims, players have been able to access new ways to perform roles and tasks that mimic everyday life, in the form of expansions and content packs.

    The original title, The Sims (2000), had seven expansion packs and two content packs. I distinctly remember brewing potions in the chemistry lab and rubbing a magic lamp to conjure a genie in the first expansion, Livin’ Large; the new holiday island that was built for The Sims: Vacation; and leaving my Sim’s home to visit downtown areas as part of Hot Date.

    The trailer for The Sims Hot Date expansion pack.

    But for The Sims 4 (2014), the developers went all in. This game – and its subsequent expansions – represents a digital supermarket of lifestyles, sub-cultures, activities and stardom. For example, 2018’s Get Famous pack not only introduced Del Sol Valley – a region that resembled Los Angeles and the Hollywood Hills – but also introduced the “reputation” mechanism for players.

    The Discover University expansion (2019) allowed players to take their Sims to school in a new region called Britechester – after this update, the game integrated Sims’ careers and education, and in many ways changed the rules of the game. And the Eco Lifestyle expansion pack (2020) is memorable because the game engaged with ideas of sustainable living for the first time.

    Genre, fantasy and reality

    From content packs featuring a digital recreation of singer Katy Perry in The Sims 3 to collaborations with streamers, content creators and fashion houses, The Sims has remained relevant by consistently blurring the lines between genre, reality and fantasy.

    Hot Date was a popular early Sims expansion pack.

    Today, video game makers the world over try to master formats like free-to-play games where players pay for cosmetic items, customisations and added content, or expansions offering downloadable content. The Sims set the standard for most of them.

    Over the past 25 years, this franchise has had several life simulation competitors in the form of Second Life, Facebook’s once popular Farmville, virtual reality experiences like Half-Life: Alyx and, during the pandemic when we worked, learnt and played online, initiatives like the Metaverse.

    However, today only The Sims endures. The game’s developers continue to give its players what they want, while also getting them to engage with difficult ideas like sustainability, the question of life and death, and even gentrification (For Rent expansion pack, anyone?).

    Few games let players critique life so closely. For game researchers like me, this begs the question: do people play life simulation games like The Sims in order to build alternative lives, relive their own – or create something entirely new?

    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.

    Aditya Deshbandhu 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. The Sims: from Hot Date to Get Famous, why expansion packs have been key to the game’s longevity – https://theconversation.com/the-sims-from-hot-date-to-get-famous-why-expansion-packs-have-been-key-to-the-games-longevity-248604

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Will multinational companies flock to Syria? Maybe, if foreign aid arrives first

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ana Carolina Garriga, Professor of Political Science, University of Essex

    hanohiki / Shutterstock

    Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, recently appeared at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in the Swiss resort of Davos. He announced that his country is open for business and seeking foreign investment.

    After more than 13 years of civil war and decades of dictatorship that saw Syria become a pariah state, the country needs all the financial support it can get. But will foreign firms set up shop in Syria?

    Countries like Syria, emerging from conflict, face the challenge of convincing investors they are a safe environment for investment. Our research suggests companies look at what governments are doing in terms of aid when considering whether to invest. In general, post-war countries that receive more foreign aid subsequently receive more foreign investment.

    Foreign direct investment (FDI) typically involves multinational companies building factories, opening stores or investing capital in businesses abroad. It can be highly beneficial for developing countries.

    FDI is the most stable source of international financing, and generally has positive long-term effects on economic growth and poverty reduction. More importantly for incumbent governments, FDI has positive short-term effects on domestic employment, government financing and spending, and foreign exchange reserves.

    It also has a potential positive effect on government approval ratings, as attracting inward FDI signifies political competence to voters. These reasons are why almost all governments compete to receive these financial flows.

    FDI is especially important in post-conflict countries. Civil wars typically destroy or seriously harm the productive capacity of countries. In Syria, the conflict destroyed tens of billions of US dollars worth of infrastructure, and incapacitated more than half its electrical grid.

    After 13 years of civil war, Syria needs all the financial support it can get.
    Vagabjorn / Shutterstock

    War often disrupts a country’s access to the international economic exchanges that help economic growth. Since the beginning of its conflict in March 2011, Syria’s annual exports have dropped from US$8.8 billion (£7.1 billion) to US$1 billion, due to the war and war-related sanctions. Its economy has shrunk by 54%.

    Foreign investment can contribute substantially to rebuilding the economy. But post-conflict countries might seem risky to investors.

    Foreign firms sometimes avoid countries plagued by violence, political instability, or political risk. Conflict could reemerge in Syria, and multinational corporations probably do not want their business in a place where factories could be bombed or customers killed.

    Post-conflict situations are also relatively information-poor environments. Conflict often hampers data collection efforts, and governments, in desperate need of capital, may be incentivised to misrepresent the actual state of the economy or strength of the political system.

    In the case of Syria, foreign observers do not know what to make of the new ruling coalition, which is led by a designated terrorist organisation in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. While the international community seems to want to support Syria – the UK, for example, has been clear about its intention to help the country – observers are unsure about the environment and how it might change in the coming years.

    In these kinds of situation, international investors look at a variety of signals. In our research, we show that one key signal is whether other governments have sent official development aid to post-conflict countries.

    Following the aid

    We argue that the decision to send aid to a country signals the donors’ trust of local authorities. What matters is this presence of aid, whether or not the aid achieves its intended purpose.

    Examining decades of global data, we have found a robust relationship between foreign aid and subsequent investment in post-conflict countries – with one striking exception.

    There does not seem to be a relationship between aid from the US and foreign investment. Because so much of US foreign aid is geostrategic – to shore up alliances or secure access to particular areas – investors do not seem to view it as a valuable signal about the recipient country.

    So, Syria should perhaps not worry too much about the new US president Donald Trump’s plan to cut American foreign aid. If aid from other government donors can still flow in, this could encourage investment to follow.

    Fortunately for Syria, some countries and international organisations have already pledged aid – including the UK, which has announced £50 million in humanitarian aid for the country and its refugees. This seems like a good sign for Syria’s future – even more so because of the signal it sends to foreign investors.

    Specific domestic policies that encourage FDI and build stronger institutions will be necessary to secure investment in the longer term. Syria will need to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and property rights, while creating a stable environment for investment.

    However, if the pledged aid materialises – and if more countries chip in – this could lead to substantial economic benefits for Syria.

    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. Will multinational companies flock to Syria? Maybe, if foreign aid arrives first – https://theconversation.com/will-multinational-companies-flock-to-syria-maybe-if-foreign-aid-arrives-first-248406

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Representation gaps and the rise of populism

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laurenz Guenther, Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Economics, Bocconi University

    Shutterstock/Alejo Bernal

    The rise of rightwing populists continues across the west, leaving many wondering how mainstream parties can respond. Part of the picture is the failure of political parties to meet voters’ views on immigration with policy responses.

    Germany is a strong example here. In 2013, it had no notable rightwing populist party. Alternative for Germany (the AfD) did already exist, but it was neither populist nor strongly anti-immigrant. But immigration into Germany was increasing.

    In the years prior to 2013, several hundred thousand asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East entered the country each year. Many Germans wanted lower immigration but German political parties were not offering corresponding policies. The public and parliamentarians were already on a different page.

    To measure this disagreement, researchers asked representative samples of German parliamentarians and ordinary citizens the following question in 2013: “Should it be easier or harder for foreigners to immigrate?”

    They could choose from 11 responses, ranging from “0 – immigration for foreigners should be much easier” to “10 – immigration for foreigners should be much harder”.

    The results show that most Germans wanted to restrict immigration in 2013. Despite this public demand, nearly all parliamentarians from all the four major parties wanted to facilitate immigration.

    Immigration attitudes in 2013:

    How the representation gap emerged over immigration.
    L Guenther, CC BY-ND

    Two years later, in 2015, the refugee crisis began. Over the course of just a few years, two million asylum seekers entered Germany. In response, Germans viewed immigration as an increasingly important issue and increasingly voted based on their attitudes towards immigration. Because most Germans wanted lower immigration, this increased the demand for an anti-immigration party.

    During this time, the AfD changed its policy platform to become Germany’s only party that was clearly calling for much lower immigration. As a result, the AfD became the only party to represent the will of many Germans on the issue they considered most important.

    Immigration attitudes in 2017:

    From this perspective, it is not surprising that the AfD strongly increased its vote share in the 2017 election and became the first party to the right of the conservatives to ever enter the federal parliament.

    In my research, I found similar patterns are evident across Europe. In 27 countries, most political mainstream parties are much more in favour of immigration than the majority of their voters and citizens demand.

    The representation gap is not only systematic across countries but also across political issues and voter subgroups. On nearly all cultural issues, such as multiculturalism or gender relations, I found that voters are more conservative than their parliamentarians.

    Across Europe, the difference between the average voter and parliamentarian is as large as the difference between the average conservative and socialist parliamentarian.

    Even voters with the same level of education, or voters who are well-informed about politics, are much more culturally conservative than their representatives. Even immigrants themselves are much more opposed to immigration and multiculturalism than the average parliamentarian.

    While these cultural representation gaps have existed for a long time, it is the increase in their salience and perceived importance that contributes to the rise of rightwing populism. This is most strongly driven by the increased importance in immigration.

    These results matter because they can equip politicians with the information they need to win (back) voters. And on a deeper level, these findings raise the question whether mainstream parties need to adjust their policies on immigration.

    One important argument of mainstream politicians against populists is that once populists come to power they aim to establish dictatorships and then rule against the interest of the people. However, this argument rings hollow if mainstream parties are unwilling to acknowledge and act on the issues considered most important by the people.

    Laurenz Guenther receives funding from Bocconi University. He is affiliated with the Instutute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University.

    – ref. Representation gaps and the rise of populism – https://theconversation.com/representation-gaps-and-the-rise-of-populism-245871

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How The Sims’ endless customisation fostered one of gaming’s most diverse player communities

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andra Ivănescu, Senior Lecturer in Game Studies and Ludomusicology, Brunel University of London

    Katy Perry is in a recording booth. She turns to the camera, smiles and begins to sing: “Badipsa frooby noop”. As if to confirm that we didn’t mishear her, she repeats “Badipsa frooby noop” and gives the camera a thumbs up.

    The moment was captured in 2010, in a behind-the-scenes video of Perry recording her song Last Friday Night in Simlish – the language spoken by characters in The Sims games. It was part of her branded downloadable content (DLC) package, Sweet Treats, which was available to players of The Sims 3.

    The Sims is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025, to the chagrin of many a millennial. From its groundbreaking approach to inclusive character creation to the surreal charm of global pop stars re-recording their hits in Simlish, The Sims has always operated at the intersection of individuality and shared culture.

    Created by one of the industry’s few auteur game-designers, Will Wright, The Sims 1 was released on the cusp of the millennium and changed the video game landscape forever.

    The game harks back to what game studies researcher Jesper Juul described, in his foundational book Half-Real (2005), as the “primordial game structure”. This is a game in which the player doesn’t follow a set story or structure in a linear way, but gets to design their own strategies, combining the rules in often unpredictable ways.

    Sul Sul! This article is part of a mini series from The Conversation marking 25 years of The Sims franchise.

    More than that, players are able to tell their own stories and build emergent narratives. These narratives are not about war, fantasy worlds or outer space, but regular people, regular homes, regular jobs and plenty of WooHoo (The Sims’ euphemism for sex).

    Custom creativity

    The Sims franchise provides players with a space to perform and experiment, to be cruel, silly or creative. These modes of play can take the form of machinima – using the game engine to make creative videos. Or using features like the family album, in which players can capture photos of their avatars within the game to make poignant statements about important social issues.

    The base game has provided an increasingly diverse range of opportunities for customisation of characters, spaces and activities. And the large quantity of available DLCs and mods (player-made modifications to the game) has offered even more variety.

    Many of the customisation options have been explicitly related to characters’ identities, and the series has gradually improved its representation. For instance, while the original game already included same-sex relationships, The Sims 2 included a “joined union” option which was similar to marriage. By The Sims 3, same-sex couples could marry with no distinction from opposite-sex couples. Similar developments have taken place in the diversity of skin tones and gender identities as the series progressed.



    Read more:
    Why The Sims 4’s new inclusion of transgender and disabled sims matters

    As a result of these inclusive changes, players enjoy gaming experiences as diverse as they are.

    Phillip Ring, executive producer on The Sims 4, provided an overview of the game’s demographics in a Game Developers Conference talk in 2023. Only 21% of Sims players are men, while 55% identify as heterosexual and 62% as white. Ring explained how the game’s developers, Maxis and Electronic Arts, consider equality, diversity and inclusion as part of hiring, development and engaging with the player community. Active inclusivity has become an essential part of The Sims design.

    None of this touts The Sims as a digital utopia. The franchise has been criticised for its consumerist ideology, and much of its progressive content has been deeply controversial in different territories of the game’s release.

    Katy Perry records Last Friday Night in Simlish.

    For better or worse, the game has both reflected and shaped pop culture – which brings us back to Katy Perry. The Simlish version of her song may sound nonsensical, but it reflected a cultural moment – the post-feminist, anthemic pop of the 2010s.

    That moment has now passed. In a post-Brat summer era, Perry’s Sims moment feels outdated. The Sims, however, remains relevant, evolving alongside popular culture.

    In his book Understanding Video Game Music (2016), musicologist Tim Summers interprets Simlish rerecordings as satires of contemporary pop culture. I disagree. Instead, I believe Simlish is designed to let players “fill in the blanks”, using their imagination to shape meaning.

    This has always been central to The Sims – allowing players to project their own stories onto a world within the cultural zeitgeist. Many of us grew up with The Sims. As we’ve evolved, so has the game – which remains a dynamic cultural artefact.

    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.

    Andra Ivănescu is the recepient of a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for her project Gaming Censorship: Videogame Content Regulation in the UK.

    – ref. How The Sims’ endless customisation fostered one of gaming’s most diverse player communities – https://theconversation.com/how-the-sims-endless-customisation-fostered-one-of-gamings-most-diverse-player-communities-248686

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How The Sims accidentally invented the cosy game genre

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Jerrett, Lecturer, Faculty of Creative & Cultural Industries, University of Portsmouth

    Ooboo Vroose Baa Dooo! That’s “happy birthday” in Simlish, the delightfully nonsensical language of The Sims. The life simulation video game franchise turns 25 this year, making me feel officially old.

    Like many others, I grew up playing The Sims, oscillating between designing dream homes and orchestrating ideal careers, and trapping my Sim characters in a tiny block room, removing all the doors and watching the chaos ensue. For the more benevolent among us, The Sims was an endlessly rewarding digital dollhouse.

    Game designer Sid Meier (creator of the Civilisation series) defines a video game as “a series of interesting decisions”. In most games, interesting decisions are about which gun to use or which party member to heal. The Sims’ interesting decisions, however, were far more mundane. “What clothes should I make my simulated human (typically a digital avatar of myself or my friends) wear?”; “Who should they date?”; and, most importantly: “Should I use the ‘rosebud’ cheat to give myself infinite money?”

    The Sims went on to become one of the bestselling franchises of all time, with myriad sequels, expansions and an obsessed player base. While similar titles at the time, such as Black and White, had you playing as an omnipotent god, they were primarily strategy games based around controlling territory. What made The Sims special was its focus on emergent narratives – player-driven experiences where players could create their own stories.

    Sul Sul! This article is part of a mini series from The Conversation marking 25 years of The Sims franchise.

    Much of this focus is also present in what is now called the “cosy game” genre. These are games that focus not on conflict or challenges, but rather on creativity, exploration and personal expression.

    Before Stardew Valley let us befriend a moody fisherman, Animal Crossing allowed us to be financially terrorised by a raccoon, and Unpacking made us cry over a box of kitchen utensils, The Sims showed us a new way to play. One where the biggest challenge was forgetting to pay your bills, and the most rewarding accomplishment was finally affording a pool (whose exit ladder may or may not just have mysteriously disappeared).

    This normalised the idea that games didn’t need to be won to be fun. It was a shift in design philosophy that paved the way for later games that let players tend a farm, manage a café, or befriend ghosts without a game-defined goal.

    A trailer for one of the more recent expansion packs, Cottage Living.

    The Sims was less about victory than it was about making your own fun – whether that meant imagining your future family life with your crush, or seeing how well you could build your Sim’s career from the ground up before succumbing to late-stage capitalism.

    Copying The Sims’ homework

    Many features that define the cosy game genre today trace directly back to The Sims. It popularised meticulous environment building and customisation tools, for example, from house layouts to outfit choices and suspiciously elaborate hedge mazes. This DNA is the bedrock of many modern cosy games, like Tiny Glade’s whimsical castle-building or pandemic hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ island growing.

    The Sims was free from combat or major stressors (unless you count fire hazards and rogue Grim Reapers). No timers, no pressure – just vibes (unless you forgot to build a toilet, in which case the vibes would be bad). You could play at your own pace, which came to define other self-paced games like A Short Hike.

    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.

    Much of The Sims was about the relationships between the Sims themselves. They could get married, have children, make friends and even enemies. Instead of fighting for survival, Sims were fighting for their relationships.

    This was augmented by a growing “machinima” fan culture, where players made short films and movies using in-game footage. These forms of emergent, social storytelling are a mainstay of modern gaming and meme culture, made even more prevalent by social media and the “share” buttons now on many game controllers.

    In this work of machinima, a Sims player has made a sitcom trailer using footage from their gameplay.

    Over the years, The Sims franchise has become a bastion for diversity, equity and inclusion. Most recently, that’s meant allowing players to create disabled and transgender Sims.

    This provides more representation to players, and showcases the importance of cosy games for exploring an array of identities, values and stories. The move has even inspired copycats like the upcoming Inzoi, which provides even more realistic graphics and complex life simulation, building on the formula introduced by Sims creator Will Wright all those years ago.

    For 25 years, The Sims has proven that games can be different. They don’t need conflict, challenge or even victory to be engaging. Sometimes, the real joy comes from designing an entire town, crafting a chaotic soap opera – or simply watching a Sim pace around a door-less room, gradually descending into madness.

    Adam Jerrett 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. How The Sims accidentally invented the cosy game genre – https://theconversation.com/how-the-sims-accidentally-invented-the-cosy-game-genre-248702

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to set healthy boundaries

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Gio Dolcecore, Assistant Professor, Social Work, Mount Royal University

    Boundaries are about what you do when something triggers an emotional response from you, and how you communicate to others what you are feeling. (Shutterstock)

    Setting our boundaries can sometimes be tough. Maybe you’re living with someone who’s always in your space. Or you’ve got that friend who feels a little too comfortable trauma-dumping on you. Maybe you feel your spouse isn’t respecting your choices.

    Whatever the reason, telling others how you feel isn’t always easy. And it can be difficult to figure out where to draw your lines and how to communicate them to others.

    There’s also a lot of misunderstanding about what boundaries are and what they aren’t. The prevalence of “therapy-speak” can make figuring that out even harder.

    Setting boundaries can often seem complicated and feel uncomfortable. That’s because it can take a lot of courage to stick up for yourself. It also takes a lot of emotional regulation and self-awareness.

    However, setting boundaries doesn’t have to be a daunting prospect. Taking time to figure out how to communicate them effectively can lead to healthier relationships with the people in your life.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions.

    Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    Setting healthy boundaries

    Think of boundaries as promises you make to yourself about how you will respond to others when their actions or words conflict with your self-worth, communication style and relationship expectations. Things that influence our beliefs towards boundaries can include our cultural, religious and political identities.

    Boundaries are about what you do when something triggers an emotional response from you, and how you communicate to others what you are feeling. Boundaries are not about telling others what to do or how to feel.

    People in different places approach them in different ways. American authors like Brené Brown see boundaries as a way of loving ourselves by saying no, even if that means we let someone else down.

    Looking at cultures around the world can also help us learn more about the intricate relationship between boundaries, communication style and relationship expectations. For example, in Iran the term gheirat refers to a moral-emotional experience. It is a concept referring to an experience when there is a violation involving people, such as romantic partners, family dynamics and politics.

    A healthy boundary can be invitational, meaning you are inviting others to participate in the problem-solving process. In relationships we have to balance our feelings, their feelings and what is needed for the relationship to blossom. This tricky balance means inviting others in, while indicating what is needed for you to safely participate.

    For example saying “let’s finish this conversation when neither of us is raising our voices” is a healthy way of setting a boundary compared to “leave me alone right now” or “don’t speak to me like that.”

    Telling someone not to speak to you during a hard conversation can sound dismissive of their feelings, especially if they’re feeling unheard. The boundary is not about the conversation ending, it’s about what is needed for the conversation to continue in a respectful way.

    You don’t always owe others your time to communicate and explain what you need. Sometimes, it’s about walking away from a situation that you know isn’t serving you.
    (Shutterstock)

    Communication is key

    Healthy boundaries can be a way to mutually emotionally regulate. For example, saying “it makes me uncomfortable when you tell your friends personal details about our relationship” is offering others two opportunities. The first, awareness of how their actions are making you feel. And second, the opportunity to problem-solve with you.

    Most people will respond by explaining why they are doing what they are doing. With that information, you can decide how you want to respond. Maybe they’re choosing to disclose information to their friends because they rely on external processing to help make decisions. Or maybe they’re looking for external validation. You get to choose how to respond now that you have their rationale.

    As a therapist, I often tell clients you have options when it comes to setting and maintaining boundaries. The next time you have to set a boundary, think of the following tips.

    Do:

    • Express how you’re feeling in response to someone’s actions or inaction.

    • Identify your priorities and know your limits. Provide an opportunity for repair.

    • If someone tells you why they did what they did, remind them it’s important for you they recognize how you’re feeling versus rationalizing their behaviour.

    Don’t:

    • Tell someone how to act or feel.

    • Expect others to know what you need or what you’re thinking.

    • Rely on others to uphold your boundaries.

    You don’t always owe others your time to communicate and explain what you need. Sometimes, it’s about walking away from a situation that you know isn’t serving you. Based on how you observe people living their life, how they talk about social or political issues, conduct themselves when you express your feelings, you can choose not to give people access to your life.

    Sometimes walking away is about preserving your self-worth, especially after you’ve tried communicating and problem solving. This is where boundaries become hard to maintain, because we have to determine whether someone’s actions are enough to protect ourselves and uphold our self worth.

    However you choose to set your boundaries, communicating them honestly and calmly is key to getting others to understand and respect them.

    Gio Dolcecore 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. How to set healthy boundaries – https://theconversation.com/how-to-set-healthy-boundaries-237745

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Northfield Capital Announces Changes to the Board of Directors

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Northfield Capital Corporation (TSX-V: NFD.A) (“Northfield” or the “Company”) today announced that Mr. Thomas Pladsen has resigned from the board of directors of the Company (the “Board”), effective January 31, 2025, for personal reasons. Mr. Pladsen has served as a director of the Company for over 30 years, during which time he provided invaluable insight and guidance to the Company. The Company would like to express its sincere thanks to Mr. Pladsen for his long-standing service.

    The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Klein as a member of the Board, effective January 31, 2025, to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Plasden’s resignation. Mr. Klein has also been appointed as the Chair of the Audit Committee of the Board, in place of Mr. Plasden, effective January 31, 2025.

    Eric R. Klein, ICD.D, CBV, CPA, is an experienced Executive with over 35 years of experience in Investment Banking, Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Strategy and Corporate Management. As the President of Klein Advisory Services Inc. since 2018, Eric has guided both healthy and distressed entities, focusing on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic advisory across various sectors including manufacturing, technology, and financial services. His strategic insights are further underscored by his past advisory role as a Senior Advisor for a Canadian asset based lender, where he was instrumental in portfolio management and spearheading new business initiatives. Previously Eric was an Executive Vice President at Dundee Corp. and a senior Partner at Farber Financial group. Eric has significant board-level experience, serving as Director and Chair of the Audit Committee for several Canadian public companies. Eric holds two degrees from McGill University. He is certified as a CPA, a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV), and holds an Independent Corporate Director designation (ICD.D), demonstrating his commitment to rigorous corporate governance and financial integrity.

    We take this opportunity to welcome Eric to the Board and look forward to his governance and contributions to Northfield.

    The Company has granted an aggregate of 10,000 stock options (“Stock Options”) to purchase class A restricted voting share of the Company (each, a “Class A Share”) to Mr. Klein, at an exercise price of $21.50 per Class A Share. The Stock Options have been granted pursuant to the Company’s Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan, and expire on January 31, 2030.

    About Northfield Capital Corporation

    Northfield is a leading Canadian investment firm with deep roots in resources, mining, aviation, and alcoholic beverages. Founded in 1981, Northfield combines decades of experience with a forward-thinking ethos to unlock opportunities.

    For further information, please contact:

    Michael G. Leskovec, CPA, CA
    Chief Financial Officer
    Telephone: (416) 628-5940

    Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

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