Category: Universities

MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities – New book describes the rise of the ocean’s most fearsome predators – Flinders

Source: Flinders University

If you think Jaws is scary, then imagine a 16 metre super-sized shark weighing more than 60 tonnes attacking a dolphin or small whale.

The rise and fall of the ancient megalodon (Otodus megalodon) is among the stories contained in a major new book by leading Australian palaeontologist, Flinders University Professor John Long.

The Secret History of Sharks, to be launched at a special event hosted by the South Australian Museum, covers the complete, untold story of how sharks emerged as Earth’s ultimate survivors.

Professor Long says: “Sharks have been fighting for their lives for 500 million years and today are under dire threat.

“They are the longest-surviving jawed vertebrate on Earth, outlasting all five major global mass extinction events that decimated life on the planet.

“But how did they thrive for so long? By developing superpower-like abilities that allowed them to ascend to the top of the oceanic food chain.”

As well as the megalodon, the book describes a gigantic shark with a deadly saw blade of jagged teeth and bizarre sharks fossilised while in their mating ritual.

Flinders University Strategic Professor of Palaeontology Long has been studying fossil fishes and sharks all his life, and draws upon his own experiences and adventures in remote localities around the world when he was involved in some of the key discoveries contained in the book.

Over the past 30 years, Professor Long’s own research efforts led to the discovery of the first fossil found in the Kimberley region Gogo fossil field in Western Australia. This demonstrated how early sharks had remnant bone cells in their cartilage. He also named a fossil shark found in Victoria (Maiseyodus).

Among a range of global experts in shark evolution and biology are Flinders University Southern Shark Ecology researchers Professor Charlie Huveneers and Dr Lauren Meyer who study the tourism attraction of White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) cage diving in South Australia and elsewhere.

Other novel research outlined in the book includes ways sharks contribute to medical advances and how Flinders University Professor Youhong Tang and other experts’ discovered the potential for marine vessels to copy the streamlined pattern of shark skin.

“These amazing scientific discoveries have ramifications far beyond the ocean and can teach us about our own survival.”

Hear Strategic Professor Long discuss his latest book – The Secret History of Sharks: The Rise of the Ocean’s Most Fearsome Predators – at the SA Museum.

Tuesday 8 October 6pm-8pm
South Australian Museum

Listen to Professor Long on RN Conversations here https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations/sharks-megalodon-ocean-history-paleontology/104215338
The Secret History of Sharks: The Rise of the Ocean’s Most Fearsome Predators by John Long (Quercus Books, Australia; Ballantine Books, USA).

Professor John Long is the strategic professor of palaeontology at Flinders University, one of Australia’s largest palaeontological research groups. The former vice president of research and collections at the Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County, Long has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, some 25 books and over 150 popular science articles. His groundbreaking research work on the evolution of fishes and the origins of sex has appeared in the magazines Nature, Science, and Scientific American.

MIL OSI – Submitted News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Post-turmoil bank failure management: the European challenges

Source: Bank for International Settlements

1. Introduction

Let me first thank the organisers for their kind invitation to participate in this event on financial crisis management.

Today I plan to share with you some reflections on bank crisis management inspired by recent experience on bank failures in different jurisdictions.

As you all know, one of the most significant policy reforms that emerged from the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) was the creation of a new bank resolution framework. Under the slogan “avoid the perception of too-big-to-fail banks”, the Financial Stability Board established new standards aimed at reducing the impact of systemic bank failures.

The FSB’s Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions contain the main elements of the new framework. The Key Attributes aim to facilitate orderly resolution of systemic entities without exposing public funds to losses. A key component of the new resolution regime is the bail-in tool that would allow resolution authorities to write down liabilities or to convert them into equity in order to absorb losses and, in some cases, recapitalise a firm in resolution.

During the 2023 bank turmoil, crisis management frameworks in both the United States and Switzerland were directly tested. In the US, the failure of two regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, required the use of a systemic exception as authorities felt that the preservation of financial stability justified waiving the restrictions on the support that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is allowed to provide, in order to protect all the deposits of those banks. Moreover, a special liquidity facility was established by the Federal Reserve to ease potential system-wide funding pressures.

In Switzerland, the crisis of Credit Suisse, a global systemically important bank (G-SIB), was not managed under the new resolution framework but rather through a series of ad hoc measures taken to facilitate the absorption of Credit Suisse by UBS without the formal declaration of Credit Suisse as a failing institution. Moreover, although the measures adopted outside resolution included a substantial bail-in of some creditors, they also entailed the provision of public guarantees to support the liquidity and solvency of the resulting institution.

Arguably, the actions taken by authorities met the primary objective of preserving financial stability. At the same time, those actions did not follow the usual procedures and, contrary to the objectives of the post-crisis reforms, required different forms of external support.

While not directly affected by last year’s turmoil, the application of the new resolution framework in the European Union had previously shown relevant flows. In particular, the crisis of two significant Venetian banks in 2017 had to be resolved with a large amount of government intervention. That triggered a still ongoing discussion on how to improve the current crisis management framework. In particular, there is now relatively broad consensus that, at present, there is no effective mechanism to deal with crises of mid-sized banks without public support.

My remarks will discuss some of the issues that the recent turmoil and other recent bank failure episodes in Europe have raised in relation to the current policy framework for bank crisis management.¹

2. Some issues stemming from the recent turmoil

Resolution planning

The speed with which apparently solvent banks became failing banks, particularly in the US, points to the need to strengthen resolution planning (FDIC (2023a)). This should first be achieved by enlarging the scope of application of meaningful resolution planning obligations to all banks that can be systemic in failure – something that is not yet the case in some jurisdictions, notably the US.

In addition, resolution plans for international banks should address practical issues relating to the operationalisation of resolution actions – particularly bail-in – in a cross-border context. Given that debt securities earmarked to be bailed-in in resolution are typically issued in international financial centres, it is important that resolution decisions – such as a conversion of debt securities into equity – be effective in all relevant jurisdictions.

Moreover, resolution plans should contemplate different options and not focus on just a single resolution strategy (FSB (2023a,b)). As the case of Credit Suisse shows, the preparatory work conducted around the development of the entity’s resolution plan proved very useful for managing the failure of the bank, even if the plan was not ultimately implemented. Yet the process would have been smoothed if, in addition to contemplating a massive bail-in, the plan had included provisions for a possible full or partial sale of business (SoB).

Loss absorbency

One of the main ingredients of the new resolution framework – and of the new resolution planning and resolvability requirements – that emerged from the crisis is the availability of sufficient resources within systemic banks’ balance sheets to absorb losses and, if needed, recapitalise the institution after resolution is triggered. In particular, the FSB has issued standards for total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) that all G-SIBs should comply with.

In jurisdictions where the new resolution framework is being applied beyond G-SIBs (like the EU), there is a version of the TLAC standard, the minimum requirements for eligible liabilities (MREL), that is also binding for less systemic institutions. In other jurisdictions, such as the US, no TLAC-type requirement is applied for non-G-SIBs. Therefore, most US banks – including those failing in the recent turmoil – had no specific obligation to hold liabilities that could absorb losses in resolution beyond the capital requirements established in prudential regulation.

However, a recent proposal by the FDIC (Gruenberg (2023) and FDIC (2023b)) would require banks with more than $100 billion in assets to satisfy minimum long-term debt requirements. The counterpart of those debt instruments on the asset side could be transferred to the acquirer, but the debt instruments themselves would be left in the residual entity to be liquidated. This would make those debt instruments act as gone-concern capital supporting the transfer transaction (Restoy (2023)).

MREL obligations in the EU are, on average, substantially larger than the long-term debt requirements now considered in the US². However, while the proposed US requirements can only be met with debt, MREL targets in the EU can be met with a variety of eligible liabilities that include equity, debt and even some non-covered deposits. In reality, many small and mid-sized institutions in the EU cover a large part of their MREL requirements with equity instruments.³ This is probably due to the fact that it is difficult for those banks to tap regulated debt markets, given their lack of experience and their specific business model.

From a conceptual point of view, there is merit in, at least, limiting the eligibility of equity to satisfy gone-concern capital requirements. Experience shows that, unlike long-term debt, equity instruments tend to disappear quite quickly as a bank approaches the point of non-viability and during the resolution process itself as hidden losses emerge in the balance sheets.⁴ Therefore, equity, being the most powerful loss-absorbing instrument in going-concern, might simply not be available in gone-concern.

Public support

Finally, a word on public support. The foundational principles of the new resolution framework developed after the GFC included the objective to minimise the cost of bank failure management actions for taxpayers. However, experience – including the recent bank turmoil – shows that there are instances in which some form of external support is required to preserve financial stability and the continuity of the systemically critical functions of failing banks.

Regular support for resolution actions is often provided by the deposit insurance fund (DIF). That support is normally capped by a least-cost restriction that prohibits the DIF from committing funds exceeding the expected cost (net of recoveries) of paying out covered deposits if the bank were liquidated (Costa et al (2022)). Additional support aimed at protecting public interest could be provided directly by the national Treasury or by dedicated funds contributed by the industry. In the US, extraordinary support for failing large systemic institutions can be provided by an orderly liquidation fund as provided for in Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act. Moreover, under the FDI Act, the least-cost restriction for FDIC support can be waived if a systemic risk exception is applied. In both cases, extraordinary external support can only be authorised through a special procedure requiring the endorsement of the regulatory agencies and the Treasury after consulting the US president.

A completely different model is in place in the European Union, where external support can be provided by the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), built up with contributions from the industry. However, the conditions for access and the available amounts are highly restrictive.⁵ Moreover, beyond the SRF, the possibility of the state directly supporting resolution is almost non-existent. Since national insolvency regimes are less restrictive and allow for the provision of public liquidation aid, the failure of some European banks that could have systemic implications was in fact managed through national insolvency procedures, thereby effectively reducing the scope of application of the common resolution framework.

Recent developments show that the minimisation of public support should remain a key objective. However, there should be no ambition to establish a resolution framework that can eliminate any possible need to use external funds to support the orderly resolution of any systemic bank.

A specific situation in which some sort of public support would normally be required is the provision of liquidity in resolution. Once a bank has been resolved, there is no guarantee that it will immediately recover the trust of its clients and other fund providers. Therefore, there is a need to put in place an effective funding-in-resolution facility, backed by some sort of public indemnity that would allow a bank in resolution to obtain funding from the central bank even when it does not hold all the required collateral.

3. The European challenges

The failures of the two Venetian banks in 2017 clearly showed the internal contradictions of the European bank failure management regime. Importantly, it also illustrated the EU’s lack of an effective regime to resolve mid-sized banks, ie those deemed too large to be subject to regular piecemeal liquidation procedures but too small and unsophisticated to issue large amounts of bail-in-able liabilities (Restoy (2016)).

Against that framework, a key flaw of the current resolution regime is the absence of effective conditions to operationalise SoB resolution strategies, which are arguably the most appropriate for mid-sized banks (Restoy et al (2020)). The tight constraints on the provision of external support to facilitate these transactions make them unfeasible in most cases. Arguably, the assets acting as counterparts of MREL could help compensate acquirers. However, strict MREL obligations can be a challenge for many mid-sized banks, which would tend to meet them with equity that – unlike debt instruments – might not be available when the bank is declared non-viable.

Those deficiencies in the common resolution framework are particularly relevant in a context in which there is no last-recourse source of funds that could be mobilised if resolution actions are unable to meet their objectives and, in particular, preserve financial stability.

In any case, the main weakness of the current European bank failure regime within the banking union is the absence of a common deposit insurance regime. Since the banking union’s main objective is the denationalisation of bank risk, it can scarcely be contested that the absence of a common deposit guarantee scheme renders the union not only incomplete but potentially also unable to meet its stated objectives.

The CMDI proposal

The legislative proposal by the European Commission (EC (2021)) for a reform of the current crisis management and deposit insurance (CMDI) regime constitutes a valuable attempt to correct some of the main flaws and inconsistencies of the current framework.

The CMDI contains three important proposals:

First, while the dual route for bank failure management (resolution or insolvency) is kept, the definition of “public interest” criteria to determine the application of one regime or another is clarified. In the proposal, the public interest criteria would include the expected disruption of financial stability “at the national and regional level”.

Second, the external funding of SoB transactions is significantly strengthened by alleviating the existing financial cap for DIF support and the minimum bail-in restrictions for access to the SRF. The formulation of the least-cost constraint on DIF support for SoB transactions remains unaltered. However, in line with the US regime and the proposals made by several observers,⁶ the current super-preference for DIF claims in insolvency is replaced by a general depositor preference rule. Moreover, any contribution made by the DIF (together with any bail-in of eligible liabilities) would count to meet the 8% minimum bail-in required for SRF access.

Third, while the (now more ample) available external support could not be directly considered for the purposes of MREL determination, the CMDI now formally allows the SRB to adjust MREL for banks with a preferred resolution strategy of SoB based on a set of pre-established criteria such as size, business model, risk profile or marketability.

Naturally the CMDI could not remedy all imperfections of the current European bank failure regime, as there is not yet political support for more ambitious reforms. For instance, a key deficiency that will remain is the lack of an effective mechanism for providing liquidity in resolution. At present, there is no guarantee in the banking union that banks in resolution could satisfy the conditions required to obtain funding from the ECB/Eurosystem. That would most likely require a sort of public indemnity such as that available in other jurisdictions, including Switzerland, thanks to the emergency legislation that was passed in March 2023. While the SRF could be used to provide liquidity to banks in resolution, its current resources are worth only €80 billion. It is now foreseen that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) could provide a backstop to the SRF as soon as the ESM Treaty is properly amended. Yet, even with the (still pending) approval of the backstop, the new maximum lending capacity (of around €140 billion) would remain quite restrictive for managing systemic bank failures in the banking union.

More importantly, the CMDI could not make any progress on the completion of the banking union. The enlargement of the scope of the common banking union resolution regime – as opposed to the national insolvency regime – strengthens the European framework. Yet enhancing the role of national deposit insurance funds in bank resolution makes the lack of a European fund particularly problematic.

In any event, the proposal certainly provides for a substantial technical improvement of the current framework. Resolution would arguably become the default option for all bank failures with any sort of systemic impact. At the same time, by improving the available funding for SoB transactions, the CMDI effectively expands the SRB’s ability to deal with the failures of mid-sized banks, thereby helping to address the most significant flaw of the current framework.

Importantly, the BU resolution regime would continue to exclude the government stabilisation tool as a last-resort option. Under those conditions, the legislative framework’s ability to preserve the stability of the financial system upon the failure of a mid-sized bank would depend exclusively on the effectiveness of the existing resolution tools. In particular, the available external support from the national DIF and the SRF would need to be sufficient – together with MREL – to facilitate an SoB transaction under which deposits and other sensitive liabilities could be assumed by a suitable acquirer.

The ongoing negotiations

In that context, it is somewhat worrying that in the current negotiations around the Commission’s CMDI initiative in the European Parliament, and particularly the Council, some opposition has emerged against the key aspects of the proposal aimed at enlarging the available funds to support SoB transactions. In particular, the position that the super-preference of DIF claims in insolvency should be kept seems to be gaining support, although the interpretation of the least-cost constraint could be made more flexible. Also, a number of additional conditions and obstacles would be introduced to allow DIF support to count towards the satisfaction of the 8% minimum bail-in condition for the SRF to provide support to facilitate SoB transactions.

Those amendments to the original CMDI could put at risk the objectives of the original Commission proposal. First, as discussed before, the super-preference of DIF claims in insolvency does severely undermine the DIF’s ability to support resolution by considerably tightening the least-cost constraint, as understood today. Introducing more leeway to interpret the costs for the national DIF of paying out deposits in liquidation, by considering indirect effects on the industry, would blur the line between the roles to be played by the SRF and the national DIF, introduce uncertainty about the effective available support and provoke inconsistencies across countries.

Moreover, introducing additional constraints and operational obstacles to reduce the minimum bail-in required to obtain support from the SRF would most likely further constrain the available funding for SoB transactions. At the very least, the timely verification that all those conditions are met could be operationally challenging given the speed with which resolution actions need to be adopted.

In sum, there is a risk that, under some of the proposed amendments in the CMDI, the SRB could find itself unable – due to the lack of sufficient funding instruments – to deal with the failure of mid-sized banks even if they pass the now more flexible public interest test. Ultimately, that might require the SRB to transfer the responsibility to national authorities in order for them to apply national insolvency procedures including liquidation aid to be provided by the domestic sovereign. That would not only contradict the spirit of the European bank failure regime and the objectives of the new resolution framework at the global level but also challenge the very purpose of the banking union.

4. Conclusions

Let me conclude.

I have covered in this presentation several possible reforms of bank failure management regimes. In general, adjustments to the current setup should aim to satisfy two basic objectives. The first is to improve the resolution framework and resolution tools to make them more effective and therefore reduce the need for government support to be provided to failing banks in order to preserve financial stability. The second is to embed sufficient flexibility and pragmatism in the arrangements as regards the use of different tools and the availability of external funds.

In particular, there are strong reasons to extend resolution planning obligations to all banks whose failure could have adverse effects on the financial system. Crucially, resolution plans should include well defined requirements for a minimum amount of loss-absorbing liabilities in resolution. Those requirements should be calibrated to directly support the feasibility of the envisaged resolution strategy and ideally be composed primarily of debt -instruments rather than equity as the latter might well largely disappear before resolution is triggered.

In addition, as there is no way to foresee all the possible conditions that might occur in a resolution weekend and affect the feasibility of resolution measures, planned resolution strategies should be more an array of options for deploying different tools than a rigid playbook. Importantly, experience shows that it is wise to put in place well defined procedures for the delivery of extraordinary external support in extreme circumstances.

Finally, the EU now has a great opportunity to address the deficiencies identified in the current bank crisis management framework, particularly with regard to the failure of mid-sized bans. The European Commission’s CMDI legislative proposal is a highly valuable and internally consistent initiative. The rest of the European authorities would do well if, despite the difficult negotiations that reflect a disparity of national interest, they manage to achieve a political compromise that would preserve the proposal’s main features and objectives.

Many thanks.

References

Acharya, A, E Carletti, F Restoy and X Vives (2024): “Banking turmoil and regulatory reform”, IESE Banking Initiative and CEPR, June.

Costa, N, B Van Roosebeke, R Vrbaski and R Walters (2022): “Counting the cost of payout: constraints for deposit insurers in funding bank failure management“, FSI Insights on policy implementation, no 45, July.

European Commission (EC) (2021): Targeted consultation on the review of the crisis management and deposit insurance framework, January.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (2023a): Options for deposit insurance reform, May.

— (2023b): Fact sheet on proposed rule to require large banks to maintain long-term debt to improve financial stability and resolution, August.

Financial Stability Board (FSB) (2023a): 2023 bank failures: preliminary lessons learnt for resolution, October.

— (2023b): 2023 Resolution Report: Applying lessons learnt, December.

Garicano, L (2020): “Two proposals to resurrect the Banking Union: the Safe Portfolio Approach and SRB+”, paper prepared for ECB conference on “Fiscal policy and EMU governance”, Frankfurt, 19 December.

Gelpern, A and N Véron (2020): “Europe’s banking union should learn the right lessons from the US”, Bruegel Blog, 29 October.

Gruenberg (2023): “Statement by Martin J. Gruenberg, Chairman, FDIC, on the notice of proposed rulemaking on long-term debt“, August.

Restoy, F (2016): “The challenges of the European resolution framework”, closing address of the conference “Corporate governance and credit institutions’ crises”, organised by the Mercantile Law Department, UCM (Complutense University of Madrid), Madrid, 3 November.

— (2019): “How to improve crisis management in the banking union: a European FDIC?”, speech at the CIRSF Annual International Conference 2019 on “Financial supervision and financial stability 10 years after the crisis: achievements and next steps”, Lisbon, 4 July.

— (2023): “MREL for sale-of-business resolution strategies“, FSI Briefs, no 20, September.

Restoy, F, R Vrbaski and R Walters (2020): “Bank failure management in the European banking union: what’s wrong and how to fix it”, FSI Occasional Paper, no 15, July.

Single Resolution Board (SRB) (2023):

MIL OSI Economics –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Education – Cautionary Tale – “Learning on the job” – The Northland Transpower transmission tower – QPEC

Quality Public Education Coalition (QPEC)

RNZ reports that Transpower did not follow standard practice and did not provide sufficient training on the job (Midday Report, Wed 25 Sep),

There is a disturbing parallel currently taking place in vocational education.   Learning on the job is the. mantra of Te Pūkenga, the umbrella organisation of polytechnics and ITOs.

Te Pūkenga relies heavily on shipping students out to work-sites, for industry and businesses to “train” the learners.   There is a real question whether such enterprises have the time, interest and ability to train novices properly.

But a major issue confronting learning on the job is that trades and professions are becoming increasingly complex, and the world is becoming more demanding and threatening – climate change, new technologies, AI, ethical issues, pressure on resources, coercive employment practices, corporatising.

Staff in the polytechnics insist that there simply has to be intensive, comprehensive and thorough education off-site.

It’s not that staff don’t want on-site experience for their students.   They have always supported practicums and practical experience as in nursing, house construction, engineering, health technology.

But they want to avoid proposals like this story from a QPEC Forum in June 2021.   A polytechnic lecturer reports a question from an industry contact:

Why are you teaching your students everything about plumbing – hot water, fluid pressure, all that?   All we need is for our students to join pipes, because that’s our main activity, as the biggest employer.

The staff member is adamant that students need far-sighted, comprehensive education in their trades and professions, as a base for life-long learning.

Providing vocational education

The Transpower issue raises two problems.

One, learning on the job is not infallible.   Transpower apparently delegated job learning to Omoxon, who did not carry it out.   Transpower then played Blame-the-Contractor, to try to avoid the public outcry.

The pylon toppling cost millions and Transpower’s failure suggests that business can’t be the vehicle for reliable job preparation.   That lies outside the primary task of running a business or industry, and points to the second issue.

To serve the best interests of vocational education, we must avoid short cuts like relying heavily on work-based learning.   Instead, we need to insist on the importance of polytechnics for off-site, institutional education., integrated with work experience.

That means providing well-designed programmes in polytechnics that are very stable. richly resourced and feature well-supported, professional educators – the teaching staff.

David Cooke, National Chair, QPEC

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: A Challenge for the Young and Daring. The Next Competition “Design of the Young-2024” Has Started

MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

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

This is the largest competition of youth design and art, which will be held in St. Petersburg for the fifth time. Last year, the competition for the first time went beyond the citywide framework and united over three thousand students and recent graduates of 147 universities and colleges from more than 70 cities of Russia.

In total, the main program “Young Design/Young Design-2024” included 16 unique nominations, developed jointly with leading specialized universities and large partner companies of the competition.

The participants and guests at the opening ceremony were welcomed by the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Knyaginin. He noted the high demand of the city’s economy for specialists in various design fields, which is confirmed by both the growth of their professional status and the level of material remuneration. St. Petersburg is interested in increasing the labor market of specialized specialists as an important component of the city’s productive material force. And holding such competitions helps to reveal their professional potential.

We are open not only to those who are currently studying in various design areas, but also to all students who would like to demonstrate their creative abilities in this competition with the support of mentors and tutors. I have no doubt that for many of them this will be an important step in their professional growth and achieving career success, – noted Vladimir Knyaginin.

Students of higher education institutions and colleges, as well as graduates of the last three years, can take part in the competition. Applications are accepted until October 13. Detailed information about the competition, its nominations and partners posted on the website.

The competition is organized by the St. Petersburg Initiatives Foundation with the support of the City Government. Its main co-organizers are the HSE Design School — St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Stieglitz Academy, and St. Petersburg State University. The project is being implemented using a grant from the President of the Russian Federation, provided by the Presidential Grants Fund.

The main goal of the event is to support talented youth, attract young artists and designers to work on large projects of partner companies, and develop and implement promising ideas for enterprises in the real sector of the city’s economy.

Marina Petrochenko, Director of the SPbPU Institute of Civil Engineering, delivered a welcoming speech at the opening and presented the Polytechnic University nominations.

The first nomination is for graphic design. The nomination partner is the Administration of the Krasnogvardeisky District of St. Petersburg. The project is called Ilyinskaya Sloboda. The nomination provides for the development of territorial branding for the historical territory of Ilyinskaya Sloboda. The second nomination is for product design, the partner of which is the Polytechnic City. The goal is to develop a set of furniture for a student dormitory classroom, including the interior. The third nomination is industrial design. The nomination partner is NotAnotherOne. The nomination is called “SmartCace: development of a smart case for a smartphone.”

We invite students and graduates of creative specialties to take part in the competition in the nominations proposed by the Polytechnic University. I wish all participants and organizers success and inspiration! – said Marina Petrochenko.

The opening of the competition is marked by the exhibition “St. Petersburg Schools of Design”, dedicated to the history of the development of St. Petersburg design using the example of four leading universities co-organizing the event. Its multifaceted exposition also includes furniture samples and other design products created by participants of last year’s competition based on assignments from customer companies. The exhibition is open to all comers until October 2.

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

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

http://www.spbstu.ru/media/nevs/partnership/challenge-for-the-young-and-daring-the-next-design-competition-for-youth-2024 has started/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Eco-anxiety Q&A: how the IPCC’s vice-chair keeps her head cool on a warming planet

Source: The Conversation – France – By Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, Professor of Environmental Sciences, Central European University

In the past months, the planet has experienced the hottest months of June and August, boreal summer and day on record, with a global average temperature of 17.16°C on 22 July. While many have been getting on with their lives as best as they can, there are many more who are feeling the heat, as levels of climate anxiety continue to rise. At risk are people experiencing climate impacts in the Global South, but also professionals in the Earth sciences documenting and modelling them.

So, how can we channel our alarm in a way that doesn’t paralyse us, but propel us into action? To answer this question, The Conversation Europe spoke to one of the world’s most public-facing climate scientists, the Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Diána Ürge-Vorsatz.

Could you start off by describing your work? According to you, what have been the highlights of your career as a climate scientist?

So I mostly work in the area of energy efficiency. I have done a lot of modelling, including to demonstrate how higher efficiency buildings could reduce carbon emissions. Among others, I have alerted the world of what we call the carbon lock-in risks of inefficient building retrofits — when fossil fuel-intensive systems perpetuate, delay, or prevent the transition to low-carbon alternatives.

I’ve always tried to concentrate on solutions which not only allow us to solve environmental issues, but also to increase human well-being and meet other societal goals. That’s because I come from a country [Hungary] where I see that while the environment and climate change are important, they typically play second fiddle to other priorities. Hence, I believe we have to solve these things in a way that makes it worthwhile.

Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, 2024.
Fourni par l’auteur

My work therefore prompted lawmakers to revise the EU’s legislation to boost building energy efficiency – the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive – in 2010. On the first day the Fidesz government was reelected that year, I showed them how many jobs could be created through high efficiency building retrofits. Based on our research, they committed that the entire building stock would be refurbished to slash energy consumption by 60 %, which would have been really very ambitious, the first such commitment in the world. Unfortunately, a few months later, they changed their direction and they rather went into other energy policy priorities.

Do you also research alarming climate scenarios? You told me the other day that you were particularly concerned with the potential collapse of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) at the moment

That’s one of my concerns, yes, because it’s amongst the tipping points that would exert its impact the earliest.

If we look at other Earth system tipping points, most of them require a century, several centuries, if not several millennia until they exert a full impact. If AMOC collapses, it would exert its full impact within two to three decades, potentially. These are very strong impacts predicted clearly, on Europe as well as other regions. More and more papers have shown evidence that its collapse could already be underway. That’s definitely been alarming.

When you started on this career path, would you describe yourself as prey to eco-anxiety? And if not, was there a turning point when it appeared?

No, when I started I don’t think we had any knowledge that would have amounted to any existential threat, and it was still not so tangible that so many things could go wrong.

I was studying for my PhD at UCLA, at UC Berkeley from 1992-96. In the LA Times, there was a two page advertisement calling for artists to design artwork that would scare anyone away, which they could put above the Yucca Mountain deep high-level based nuclear repository so that even if people didn’t speak English or they didn’t understand our script anymore, they could still understand that there was something really dangerous under that.

At that point, I remember thinking: “Oh my God, if you just can’t dig or walk wherever you want anymore, that’s just wrong. We cannot do that to future generations.”

Then there’s the never-ending news cycle, making it hard to pinpoint specific moments that alarm you. One that comes to mind has been the discovery over time that forever chemicals – Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – are everywhere, even in the most remote parts of the earth and rain is no longer of drinking water quality even in Antarctica. This isn’t going to go away — precisely because PFAS are what we call forever chemicals. We will never be able to vacuum clean the planet from PFAS. Likewise with microplastics. When you start looking ahead with your eyes open, it can be really scary.

And how do you experience the intimate knowledge of that alarming data on the one hand, and the public’s, and above all the elites’, climate inaction on the other?

Well, I wouldn’t quite call it “climate inaction”. It’s easy to dwell on the idea that the glass is half empty. But in fact, the glass is half full. Lots has been done since the 2015 Paris Agreement, which was itself a miracle.

You were there when the deal was struck, weren’t you? Could you tell us what it was like?

Well, it was truly euphoric, because before that, if a scientist dared mentioning [the threshold of] 1.5°C [of warming above pre-industrial levels], you were a tree-hugger and an advocate, not a scientist. You did not get funding.

And suddenly that became a political reality, or at least a political goal. I think that was really amazing for me because that time we didn’t have science clearly backing that you actually could achieve 1.5°C. So in the run-up to the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) asked the IPCC to produce a report on 1.5°C. I remember talking about it with colleagues at the time, who told me: “That’s crazy, this train is gone, let’s not do it”.

Then the months went by and and those voices faded. By the time we got to the plenary meeting in January there was not a single voice saying “We shouldn’t do this report”. Scientists changed course and put so much effort in on trying to say “Okay can this be done well? Let’s actually see”. Then they ran their models to figure out that actually not only can it be done — but there are so many ways we can get there. Yes, I know that it’s now increasingly unlikely that we still will meet it, but it still created a lot of momentum.

One fact that we don’t emphasize enough: we have prevented the world from warming by five to six degrees by the end of the century, and we are now at worst saying perhaps four degrees, but more likely 2.5°C to 3.5°C.

How do you communicate with your children about the climate crisis? For example, are there things that you choose not to tell them in order to protect them?

I don’t hide anything from them. We quite frequently talk about the gravity of the situation because I cannot help bearing on them in the evening all the negative experiences and facts I learned during the day and I just have to unload these for them at dinners and so on.

One of my daughters did experience quite severe environmental anxiety for almost two years when she was about nine years old. She had come with me to a TV shooting and they allowed her into the studio. And before my interview, they just played this intense clip about storms and fires – typical climate impacts. But after that, she was really very afraid for a long time.

How did that fear translate itself?

She couldn’t sleep very well. She was constantly afraid physically. She would tell me: “My god, is this going to burn around us? Are we going to have floods?”

And it’s that a nine year old cannot, of course, fully comprehend yet how these risks will unfold in the future. I think she was put in this state of fear and anxiety. So that’s why it was also hard to manage because it wasn’t anything concrete or anything that she could verbally express or phrase nicely.

And I couldn’t say, “Look darling, it’s not going to happen.”

And how did she manage to surface from that state of paralysis?

After a while, I think she understood that it wasn’t yet threatening her life. But all of my children are still concerned and many of them want to contribute to fighting climate change in some way.

For example, my eldest daughter was studying medicine, but after her second year, she spent the entire summer in tears. She was deeply passionate about climate action and believed there were only two paths forward. Either she could still save the planet by becoming an architect to design zero-energy buildings, or, if it was too late, she should focus on mitigating the damage by remaining in medicine. After two months of struggling with this dilemma, she abandoned her dream of architecture and decided to continue with medical school. It was heartbreaking for me to see how little hope they had of solving the climate crisis.

What would your advice be for parents whose children are suffering from eco-anxiety?

I think the best way is to turn anxiety into action — to explain to them that they have and we still have agency. Even though we are small, we have a very important impact. We can vote. We can choose a profession where we can change the world. We can be role models and we can influence our peers through social media and many other ways.

So if we tell them the five scenarios that the IPCC presents (investor, consumer, citizen, role model, professional) in the 6th Assessment Report as individual roles we can play to curb climate change, it’s not only through whether we choose to take a plastic bag or not. The future isn’t something that happens to us, but in our hands. We are all part of systems where each of us can influence more than we think.

If your children were to start striking for the climate, would you support them?

Yes, I think protests are one of the very important ways how we can have an impact. Besides, children often don’t have any other tools. And that’s why they also feel anxiety because they don’t yet have influence. They don’t have any money to spend, or any voting rights yet. They don’t yet have a profession through which they can influence the world. They feel powerless.

And often children’s only power is to protest. If we give them other means to where they can influence the processes, that’d be even better.

Diána Ürge-Vorsatz ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Eco-anxiety Q&A: how the IPCC’s vice-chair keeps her head cool on a warming planet – https://theconversation.com/eco-anxiety-qanda-how-the-ipccs-vice-chair-keeps-her-head-cool-on-a-warming-planet-231226

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Eco-anxiety Q&A: how the IPCC’s vice-chair keeps her head cool on a warming planet

Source: The Conversation – France – By Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, Professor of Environmental Sciences, Central European University

In the past months, the planet has experienced the hottest months of June and August, boreal summer and day on record, with a global average temperature of 17.16°C on 22 July. While many have been getting on with their lives as best as they can, there are many more who are feeling the heat, as levels of climate anxiety continue to rise. At risk are people experiencing climate impacts in the Global South, but also professionals in the Earth sciences documenting and modelling them.

So, how can we channel our alarm in a way that doesn’t paralyse us, but propel us into action? To answer this question, The Conversation Europe spoke to one of the world’s most public-facing climate scientists, the Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Diána Ürge-Vorsatz.

Could you start off by describing your work? According to you, what have been the highlights of your career as a climate scientist?

So I mostly work in the area of energy efficiency. I have done a lot of modelling, including to demonstrate how higher efficiency buildings could reduce carbon emissions. Among others, I have alerted the world of what we call the carbon lock-in risks of inefficient building retrofits — when fossil fuel-intensive systems perpetuate, delay, or prevent the transition to low-carbon alternatives.

I’ve always tried to concentrate on solutions which not only allow us to solve environmental issues, but also to increase human well-being and meet other societal goals. That’s because I come from a country [Hungary] where I see that while the environment and climate change are important, they typically play second fiddle to other priorities. Hence, I believe we have to solve these things in a way that makes it worthwhile.

Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, 2024.
Fourni par l’auteur

My work therefore prompted lawmakers to revise the EU’s legislation to boost building energy efficiency – the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive – in 2010. On the first day the Fidesz government was reelected that year, I showed them how many jobs could be created through high efficiency building retrofits. Based on our research, they committed that the entire building stock would be refurbished to slash energy consumption by 60 %, which would have been really very ambitious, the first such commitment in the world. Unfortunately, a few months later, they changed their direction and they rather went into other energy policy priorities.

Do you also research alarming climate scenarios? You told me the other day that you were particularly concerned with the potential collapse of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) at the moment

That’s one of my concerns, yes, because it’s amongst the tipping points that would exert its impact the earliest.

If we look at other Earth system tipping points, most of them require a century, several centuries, if not several millennia until they exert a full impact. If AMOC collapses, it would exert its full impact within two to three decades, potentially. These are very strong impacts predicted clearly, on Europe as well as other regions. More and more papers have shown evidence that its collapse could already be underway. That’s definitely been alarming.

When you started on this career path, would you describe yourself as prey to eco-anxiety? And if not, was there a turning point when it appeared?

No, when I started I don’t think we had any knowledge that would have amounted to any existential threat, and it was still not so tangible that so many things could go wrong.

I was studying for my PhD at UCLA, at UC Berkeley from 1992-96. In the LA Times, there was a two page advertisement calling for artists to design artwork that would scare anyone away, which they could put above the Yucca Mountain deep high-level based nuclear repository so that even if people didn’t speak English or they didn’t understand our script anymore, they could still understand that there was something really dangerous under that.

At that point, I remember thinking: “Oh my God, if you just can’t dig or walk wherever you want anymore, that’s just wrong. We cannot do that to future generations.”

Then there’s the never-ending news cycle, making it hard to pinpoint specific moments that alarm you. One that comes to mind has been the discovery over time that forever chemicals – Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – are everywhere, even in the most remote parts of the earth and rain is no longer of drinking water quality even in Antarctica. This isn’t going to go away — precisely because PFAS are what we call forever chemicals. We will never be able to vacuum clean the planet from PFAS. Likewise with microplastics. When you start looking ahead with your eyes open, it can be really scary.

And how do you experience the intimate knowledge of that alarming data on the one hand, and the public’s, and above all the elites’, climate inaction on the other?

Well, I wouldn’t quite call it “climate inaction”. It’s easy to dwell on the idea that the glass is half empty. But in fact, the glass is half full. Lots has been done since the 2015 Paris Agreement, which was itself a miracle.

You were there when the deal was struck, weren’t you? Could you tell us what it was like?

Well, it was truly euphoric, because before that, if a scientist dared mentioning [the threshold of] 1.5°C [of warming above pre-industrial levels], you were a tree-hugger and an advocate, not a scientist. You did not get funding.

And suddenly that became a political reality, or at least a political goal. I think that was really amazing for me because that time we didn’t have science clearly backing that you actually could achieve 1.5°C. So in the run-up to the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) asked the IPCC to produce a report on 1.5°C. I remember talking about it with colleagues at the time, who told me: “That’s crazy, this train is gone, let’s not do it”.

Then the months went by and and those voices faded. By the time we got to the plenary meeting in January there was not a single voice saying “We shouldn’t do this report”. Scientists changed course and put so much effort in on trying to say “Okay can this be done well? Let’s actually see”. Then they ran their models to figure out that actually not only can it be done — but there are so many ways we can get there. Yes, I know that it’s now increasingly unlikely that we still will meet it, but it still created a lot of momentum.

One fact that we don’t emphasize enough: we have prevented the world from warming by five to six degrees by the end of the century, and we are now at worst saying perhaps four degrees, but more likely 2.5°C to 3.5°C.

How do you communicate with your children about the climate crisis? For example, are there things that you choose not to tell them in order to protect them?

I don’t hide anything from them. We quite frequently talk about the gravity of the situation because I cannot help bearing on them in the evening all the negative experiences and facts I learned during the day and I just have to unload these for them at dinners and so on.

One of my daughters did experience quite severe environmental anxiety for almost two years when she was about nine years old. She had come with me to a TV shooting and they allowed her into the studio. And before my interview, they just played this intense clip about storms and fires – typical climate impacts. But after that, she was really very afraid for a long time.

How did that fear translate itself?

She couldn’t sleep very well. She was constantly afraid physically. She would tell me: “My god, is this going to burn around us? Are we going to have floods?”

And it’s that a nine year old cannot, of course, fully comprehend yet how these risks will unfold in the future. I think she was put in this state of fear and anxiety. So that’s why it was also hard to manage because it wasn’t anything concrete or anything that she could verbally express or phrase nicely.

And I couldn’t say, “Look darling, it’s not going to happen.”

And how did she manage to surface from that state of paralysis?

After a while, I think she understood that it wasn’t yet threatening her life. But all of my children are still concerned and many of them want to contribute to fighting climate change in some way.

For example, my eldest daughter was studying medicine, but after her second year, she spent the entire summer in tears. She was deeply passionate about climate action and believed there were only two paths forward. Either she could still save the planet by becoming an architect to design zero-energy buildings, or, if it was too late, she should focus on mitigating the damage by remaining in medicine. After two months of struggling with this dilemma, she abandoned her dream of architecture and decided to continue with medical school. It was heartbreaking for me to see how little hope they had of solving the climate crisis.

What would your advice be for parents whose children are suffering from eco-anxiety?

I think the best way is to turn anxiety into action — to explain to them that they have and we still have agency. Even though we are small, we have a very important impact. We can vote. We can choose a profession where we can change the world. We can be role models and we can influence our peers through social media and many other ways.

So if we tell them the five scenarios that the IPCC presents (investor, consumer, citizen, role model, professional) in the 6th Assessment Report as individual roles we can play to curb climate change, it’s not only through whether we choose to take a plastic bag or not. The future isn’t something that happens to us, but in our hands. We are all part of systems where each of us can influence more than we think.

If your children were to start striking for the climate, would you support them?

Yes, I think protests are one of the very important ways how we can have an impact. Besides, children often don’t have any other tools. And that’s why they also feel anxiety because they don’t yet have influence. They don’t have any money to spend, or any voting rights yet. They don’t yet have a profession through which they can influence the world. They feel powerless.

And often children’s only power is to protest. If we give them other means to where they can influence the processes, that’d be even better.

Diána Ürge-Vorsatz ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Eco-anxiety Q&A: how the IPCC’s vice-chair keeps her head cool on a warming planet – https://theconversation.com/eco-anxiety-qanda-how-the-ipccs-vice-chair-keeps-her-head-cool-on-a-warming-planet-231226

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: SCS tours Government Career Fair at Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

SCS tours Government Career Fair at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (with photos)
SCS tours Government Career Fair at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (with photos)
**********************************************************************************

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, attended the Government Career Fair at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today (September 26) and reminded those interested in applying for four civil service graduate posts to submit their applications through the online application system on the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) website by next Friday (October 4). Mrs Yeung toured the career fair with the Vice President (Student and Global Affairs) of PolyU, Professor Ben Young. It is the first time for the career fair to take place at PolyU, with the participation of officers from various departments and civil service grades to introduce the entry requirements of respective grades and share their personal work experience, as well as to encourage students to join the civil service. “Thirty government bureaux and departments took part in the career fair today, covering over 50 civil service grades. Apart from the general grades, there are also professional grades and the disciplined services. In view of the characteristics of the courses offered by PolyU, we have arranged officers from the relevant departments to introduce their grades to students. For instance, today’s career fair highlights civil service job opportunities relating to surveying and maritime fields, so that PolyU students who are currently enrolled in the relevant courses can gain a better understanding of the grades concerned. We hope that students will join the Government after graduation and put their knowledge and skills in the relevant professional fields to good use,” Mrs Yeung said. The CSB is organising Government Career Fairs at 10 local universities from mid-September to early October. In addition to PolyU, Government Career Fairs were held at City University of Hong Kong, the Education University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Shue Yan University and Hong Kong Baptist University. The remaining two career fairs will take place at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Mrs Yeung encouraged those who are aspiring to serve the community to join the civil service to unleash their potential, pursue their dreams and contribute to Hong Kong. She pointed out that since July 2022 all candidates for civil service jobs must attain a pass result in the Basic Law and National Security Law Test (BLNST) in order to be considered for appointment. By the end of 2023, the number of applicants for the BLNST had reached nearly 140 000. The Government has strengthened its recruitment efforts in recent years and a number of grades have recorded a noticeable increase in the number of applicants. In particular, the number of candidates applying for Administrative Officer (AO), Executive Officer II (EOII) and other grades under the joint recruitment exercise in 2023-24 had surged by nearly 40 per cent, showing that a career in the Government is quite attractive to job seekers. The Government has launched a joint recruitment exercise for the appointment of four civil service grades, namely AO, EOII, Assistant Trade Officer II and Transport Officer II. Students graduating in the years of 2025 or 2026 may also apply this year. The deadline for submitting applications is 11.59pm on October 4. Candidates interested in applying for posts under the joint recruitment exercise must attain the requisite results in the relevant paper(s) of the Common Recruitment Examination and the BLNST. For details, please refer to the CSB website.

Ends/Thursday, September 26, 2024Issued at HKT 16:15

NNNN

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Easing Africa’s debt burdens: a fresh approach, based on an old idea

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Danny Bradlow, Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria

The statistics are stark: 54 governments, of which 25 are African, are spending at least 10% of their revenues on servicing their debts; 48 countries, home to 3.3 billion people, are spending more on debt service than on health or education.

Among them, 23 African countries are spending more on debt service than on health or education.

While the international community stands by, these countries are servicing their debts and defaulting on their development goals.

The Group of 20’s current approach for dealing with the debts of low income countries is the Common Framework.

It requires the debtor to first discuss its problems with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and obtain its assessment of how much debt relief it needs. Then it must negotiate with its official creditors – international organisations, governments and government agencies – over how much debt relief they will provide. Only then can the debtor reach an agreement – on comparable terms to the official creditors – with its commercial creditors.

Unfortunately, this process has been sub-optimal.

One reason is that it works too slowly to meet the urgent needs of distressed borrowers. As a result, it condemns debtor countries to financial limbo. The resulting uncertainty is not in anyone’s interest. For example, Zambia has been working through the G20’s cumbersome process for more than three and a half years and has not yet finalised agreements with all its creditors.

The need for a new approach is overwhelmingly evident. Although the current crisis has not yet become the “systemic” threat it was in the 1980s when multiple countries defaulted on their debt, it is a “silent” sovereign debt crisis.

We propose a two-part approach that would improve the situation of sovereign debtors and their creditors. This proposal is based on the lessons we have learned from our work on the legal and economic aspects of developing country debt, particularly African debt.

First, we suggest that official creditors and the IMF create a strategic buyer of “last resort” that can purchase the bonds of debt distressed countries and refinance them on better terms.

Second, we recommend that all parties involved in sovereign debt restructurings adopt a set of principles that they can use to guide the debtor and its creditors in reaching an optimal agreement and monitoring its implementation.

The current approach fails to deal effectively and fairly with both the concerns of the creditors and all the debtor’s legal obligations and responsibilities. Our proposed solution would offer debtors debt relief that does not undermine their ability to meet their other legal obligations and responsibilities, while also accommodating private creditors’ preference for cash payments.

Our proposal is not risk-free. And buybacks are not appropriate for all debtors. Nevertheless it offers a principled and feasible approach to dealing with a silent debt crisis that threatens to undermine international efforts to address global challenges such as climate, poverty and inequality.

It uses the IMF’s existing resources to meet both the bondholders’ preferences for immediate cash and the developing countries’ need to reduce their debt burdens in a transparent and principled way.

It also helps the international community avoid a widespread default on debt and development.

Bondholders are a major problem

Foreign bondholders, who are the major creditors of many developing countries, have proven to be particularly challenging in providing substantive debt relief in a timely manner. In theory, they should be more flexible than official creditors.

Developing countries have been paying bondholders a premium to compensate them for providing financing to borrowers that are perceived to be risky. As a result, bondholders have already received larger payouts than official creditors. Therefore, they should be better placed than official creditors to assist the debtor in the restructuring processes.

However, despite having received large returns from defaulted bonds, bondholders have remained obstinate in debt restructurings.

Our proposal seeks to overcome this hurdle in a way that is fair to debtors, creditors and their respective stakeholders.

How it would work

First, the official creditors and the IMF should create and fund a strategic buyer “of last resort” who can purchase distressed (and expensive) debt at a discount from bondholders. The buyer, now the creditor of the country in distress, can repackage the debt and sell it to the debtor country on more manageable terms. The net result is that the bondholders receive cash for their bonds, while the debtor country benefits from substantial debt relief. In addition, the debtor and its remaining official creditors benefit from a simplified debt restructuring process.

This concept has precedent. In 1989, as part of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the international community’s effort to deal with the then existing debt burdens of poor countries, the World Bank Group established the Debt Reduction Facility, which helped eligible governments repurchase their external commercial debts at deep discounts. It completed 25 transactions which helped erase approximately US$10.3 billion in debt principal and over US$3.5 billion in interest arrears.

Some individual countries have also bought back their own debt. In 2009, Ecuador repurchased 93% of its defaulted debt at a deep discount. This enabled the government to reduce its debt stock by 27% and promote economic growth in subsequent years.

Unfortunately, the countries currently in debt distress lack sufficient foreign reserves to pursue such a strategy. Hence, they need to find a “friendly” buyer of last resort.

The IMF is well positioned to play this role. It has the mandate to support countries during financial crises. It also has the resources to fund such a facility. It can use a mix of its own resources, including its gold reserves, and donor funding, such as a portion of the US$100 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the IMF’s own reserve currency, which rich economies committed to reallocate for development purposes.

Such a facility, for example, would have enabled Kenya to refinance its debts at the SDR interest rate, currently at 3.75% per year, rather than at the 10.375% rate it paid in the financial markets.

It is noteworthy that the 47 low-income countries identified as in need of debt relief have just US$60 billion in outstanding debts owed to bondholders. Our proposed buyer of last resort would help reduce the burden of these countries to manageable levels.

Second, we propose that both debtors and creditors should commit to the following set of shared principles, based on internationally accepted norms and standards for debt restructurings.

Guiding principles

1. Guiding norms: Sovereign debt restructurings should be guided by six norms: credibility, responsibility, good faith, optimality, inclusiveness and effectiveness.

Optimality means that the negotiating parties should aim to achieve an outcome that, considering the circumstances in which the parties are negotiating and their respective rights, obligations and responsibilities, offers each of them the best possible mix of economic, financial, environmental, social, human rights and governance benefits.

2. Transparency: All parties should have access to the information that they need to make informed decisions.

3. Due diligence: The sovereign debtor and its creditors should each undertake appropriate due diligence before concluding a sovereign debt restructuring process.

4. Optimal outcome assessment: The parties should publicly disclose why they expect their restructuring agreement to result in an optimal outcome.

5. Monitoring: There should be credible mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the restructuring agreement.

6. Inter-creditor comparability: All creditors should make a comparable contribution to the restructuring of debt.

7. Fair burden sharing: The burden of the restructuring should be fairly allocated between the negotiating parties.

8. Maintaining market access: The process should be designed to facilitate future market access for the borrower at affordable rates.

The G20’s current efforts to address the silent debt crisis are failing. They are contributing to the likely failure of low income countries in Africa and the rest of the global south to offer all their residents the possibility of leading lives of dignity and opportunity.

Danny Bradlow, in addition to his university position, is Co-Chair of the T20 task force on sovereign debt, and Co-Chair of the Academic Circle on the Right to Development.

Marina Zucker-Marques is a co-chair for the Brazil T20 Task Force 3 on reforming the International Financial Architecture

Kevin P. Gallagher 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. Easing Africa’s debt burdens: a fresh approach, based on an old idea – https://theconversation.com/easing-africas-debt-burdens-a-fresh-approach-based-on-an-old-idea-239427

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Easing Africa’s debt burdens: a fresh approach, based on an old idea

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Danny Bradlow, Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria

The statistics are stark: 54 governments, of which 25 are African, are spending at least 10% of their revenues on servicing their debts; 48 countries, home to 3.3 billion people, are spending more on debt service than on health or education.

Among them, 23 African countries are spending more on debt service than on health or education.

While the international community stands by, these countries are servicing their debts and defaulting on their development goals.

The Group of 20’s current approach for dealing with the debts of low income countries is the Common Framework.

It requires the debtor to first discuss its problems with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and obtain its assessment of how much debt relief it needs. Then it must negotiate with its official creditors – international organisations, governments and government agencies – over how much debt relief they will provide. Only then can the debtor reach an agreement – on comparable terms to the official creditors – with its commercial creditors.

Unfortunately, this process has been sub-optimal.

One reason is that it works too slowly to meet the urgent needs of distressed borrowers. As a result, it condemns debtor countries to financial limbo. The resulting uncertainty is not in anyone’s interest. For example, Zambia has been working through the G20’s cumbersome process for more than three and a half years and has not yet finalised agreements with all its creditors.

The need for a new approach is overwhelmingly evident. Although the current crisis has not yet become the “systemic” threat it was in the 1980s when multiple countries defaulted on their debt, it is a “silent” sovereign debt crisis.

We propose a two-part approach that would improve the situation of sovereign debtors and their creditors. This proposal is based on the lessons we have learned from our work on the legal and economic aspects of developing country debt, particularly African debt.

First, we suggest that official creditors and the IMF create a strategic buyer of “last resort” that can purchase the bonds of debt distressed countries and refinance them on better terms.

Second, we recommend that all parties involved in sovereign debt restructurings adopt a set of principles that they can use to guide the debtor and its creditors in reaching an optimal agreement and monitoring its implementation.

The current approach fails to deal effectively and fairly with both the concerns of the creditors and all the debtor’s legal obligations and responsibilities. Our proposed solution would offer debtors debt relief that does not undermine their ability to meet their other legal obligations and responsibilities, while also accommodating private creditors’ preference for cash payments.

Our proposal is not risk-free. And buybacks are not appropriate for all debtors. Nevertheless it offers a principled and feasible approach to dealing with a silent debt crisis that threatens to undermine international efforts to address global challenges such as climate, poverty and inequality.

It uses the IMF’s existing resources to meet both the bondholders’ preferences for immediate cash and the developing countries’ need to reduce their debt burdens in a transparent and principled way.

It also helps the international community avoid a widespread default on debt and development.

Bondholders are a major problem

Foreign bondholders, who are the major creditors of many developing countries, have proven to be particularly challenging in providing substantive debt relief in a timely manner. In theory, they should be more flexible than official creditors.

Developing countries have been paying bondholders a premium to compensate them for providing financing to borrowers that are perceived to be risky. As a result, bondholders have already received larger payouts than official creditors. Therefore, they should be better placed than official creditors to assist the debtor in the restructuring processes.

However, despite having received large returns from defaulted bonds, bondholders have remained obstinate in debt restructurings.

Our proposal seeks to overcome this hurdle in a way that is fair to debtors, creditors and their respective stakeholders.

How it would work

First, the official creditors and the IMF should create and fund a strategic buyer “of last resort” who can purchase distressed (and expensive) debt at a discount from bondholders. The buyer, now the creditor of the country in distress, can repackage the debt and sell it to the debtor country on more manageable terms. The net result is that the bondholders receive cash for their bonds, while the debtor country benefits from substantial debt relief. In addition, the debtor and its remaining official creditors benefit from a simplified debt restructuring process.

This concept has precedent. In 1989, as part of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the international community’s effort to deal with the then existing debt burdens of poor countries, the World Bank Group established the Debt Reduction Facility, which helped eligible governments repurchase their external commercial debts at deep discounts. It completed 25 transactions which helped erase approximately US$10.3 billion in debt principal and over US$3.5 billion in interest arrears.

Some individual countries have also bought back their own debt. In 2009, Ecuador repurchased 93% of its defaulted debt at a deep discount. This enabled the government to reduce its debt stock by 27% and promote economic growth in subsequent years.

Unfortunately, the countries currently in debt distress lack sufficient foreign reserves to pursue such a strategy. Hence, they need to find a “friendly” buyer of last resort.

The IMF is well positioned to play this role. It has the mandate to support countries during financial crises. It also has the resources to fund such a facility. It can use a mix of its own resources, including its gold reserves, and donor funding, such as a portion of the US$100 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the IMF’s own reserve currency, which rich economies committed to reallocate for development purposes.

Such a facility, for example, would have enabled Kenya to refinance its debts at the SDR interest rate, currently at 3.75% per year, rather than at the 10.375% rate it paid in the financial markets.

It is noteworthy that the 47 low-income countries identified as in need of debt relief have just US$60 billion in outstanding debts owed to bondholders. Our proposed buyer of last resort would help reduce the burden of these countries to manageable levels.

Second, we propose that both debtors and creditors should commit to the following set of shared principles, based on internationally accepted norms and standards for debt restructurings.

Guiding principles

1. Guiding norms: Sovereign debt restructurings should be guided by six norms: credibility, responsibility, good faith, optimality, inclusiveness and effectiveness.

Optimality means that the negotiating parties should aim to achieve an outcome that, considering the circumstances in which the parties are negotiating and their respective rights, obligations and responsibilities, offers each of them the best possible mix of economic, financial, environmental, social, human rights and governance benefits.

2. Transparency: All parties should have access to the information that they need to make informed decisions.

3. Due diligence: The sovereign debtor and its creditors should each undertake appropriate due diligence before concluding a sovereign debt restructuring process.

4. Optimal outcome assessment: The parties should publicly disclose why they expect their restructuring agreement to result in an optimal outcome.

5. Monitoring: There should be credible mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the restructuring agreement.

6. Inter-creditor comparability: All creditors should make a comparable contribution to the restructuring of debt.

7. Fair burden sharing: The burden of the restructuring should be fairly allocated between the negotiating parties.

8. Maintaining market access: The process should be designed to facilitate future market access for the borrower at affordable rates.

The G20’s current efforts to address the silent debt crisis are failing. They are contributing to the likely failure of low income countries in Africa and the rest of the global south to offer all their residents the possibility of leading lives of dignity and opportunity.

– Easing Africa’s debt burdens: a fresh approach, based on an old idea
– https://theconversation.com/easing-africas-debt-burdens-a-fresh-approach-based-on-an-old-idea-239427

MIL OSI Africa –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia 2024 Preventing Violence Hackathon
Source: Australian Ministers for Social Services

26 September 2024

*Check against delivery*

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for having me here today.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet and acknowledge their custodianship.

I pay my respects to the Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today.

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge anyone here who has lived or living experience with family, domestic, and sexual violence.

The voices of victim-survivors are central to all our efforts, and I offer my deepest thanks to those who share their experiences as a platform for change.

I would also like to recognise here with us today:
- Holly Donaldson, CAPHIA Executive Director and the CAPHIA Board of Directors
- Lisa Hall, Sheelagh Lawler, Rebecca Johnson and the University of Queensland Public Health team
- Associate Professor Courtney Ryder, Injury Prevention Discipline Lead at Flinders University and CAPHIA Board Member and Director
- Jack Feng, Chief Student Entrepreneur, University of Queensland, Mindmuse.care Co-Founder, and
- Damian Topp, Challenge DV Board Member, Chief Executive Officer PA Research Foundation.
As we all know, family, domestic and sexual violence is an issue that remains pervasive within our society.

It has long term and far-reaching impacts – affecting children, families, friends, work colleagues, communities and society as a whole.

Ending violence requires sustained and collective efforts across all parts of society.

The Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments in Australia have committed to these efforts through the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.

This is our national policy framework which seeks to end violence against women and children within a generation.

Within the National Plan, family, domestic and sexual violence is called out as a health issue.

Victim-survivors may experience physical injuries including lifelong disability and increased pain, as well as mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, fear.

These issues will no doubt continue to affect them throughout their lives.

Viewing family, domestic and sexual violence through a public health lens presents the opportunity to understand its multifaceted nature.

It also helps us to better understand the significant and often lifelong health and wellbeing impacts for victim-survivors, family members and communities.

Family, domestic and sexual violence is preventable when addressed within a systemic framework.

In 2022, the Albanese Labor Government appointed the first federal Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin.

Commissioner Cronin just last month tabled her first yearly report to Parliament. The report noted that of workforces that respond to domestic, family and sexual violence, 90 per cent are medical professionals and allied health workers.

Health services which are person-centred, trauma informed and coordinated across public health services with other support services can enable effective support and treatment while ensuring safety is a priority.

And importantly at this conference, we can consider what can be done to enhance healthcare workers’ knowledge of family, domestic and sexual violence.

Because we know that primary health care professionals are often a first point of contact, and therefore play a vital role in prevention, early identification and responding to family, domestic and sexual violence.

It’s vital to look across all service support systems and how they interact to support those that need help.

As I stand here at a university, it would be remiss of me not to mention the important role universities play when it comes to ending gender-based violence.

As with all workplaces, universities also have an important role in reducing, preventing and responding appropriately to sexual harassment and violence.

The Albanese Government recently introduced legislation to establish an independent National Student Ombudsman to investigate student complaints and resolve disputes with universities, including in relation to sexual assault and sexual harassment.

A National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence will also be established.

Universities also have a critical part to play in furthering the research and evidence we need.

Everyone across our community has a part to play and I commend the students and judges participating in these Hackathon pitches, and all of you here today – students, academics and educators – for your work and your interest in this important issue.

I encourage you all to think broadly about how we can prevent gender-based violence, knowing that where a person interacts with a service – be it a GP, a counsellor, or a police officer – might be one of the only opportunities we have to help them.

I look forward to getting feedback from these pitches, and hope you enjoy the rest of the forum.

Thank you.

MIL OSI News –
January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: The improvement of the territory of the Russian Biotechnology University is nearing completion

MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

Specialists from the city services complex are completing the improvement of the territory of the Russian Biotechnology University in the north of the capital. The work is 80 percent complete, said the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement Petr Biryukov.

“This year we are improving the territory of the Russian Biotechnology University, which is the flagship of scientific developments in the field of biotechnology and health preservation. Today, the project to create a “Biocity” is being implemented on the territory of the university, and in addition, at the request of students, we are updating the territory so that it becomes more functional,” said Petr Biryukov.

“Biogorod” is an educational and leisure space where teachers will be able to implement modern teaching practices, and Muscovites will be able to attend various events and educational programs, play sports, and relax. In addition, conditions will be created for the application and demonstration of the results of innovative developments.

Three functional zones are being created on the university’s territory. The first will appear in the courtyard of the main building for employees and students. There, pavilions for coworking and a lecture hall, a summer open stage with an amphitheater and a media screen, a recreation and self-study area, as well as one small space with a round dry fountain and an amphitheater are being set up. A small sports cluster will appear in the second zone between buildings A and B — table tennis tables and exercise machines have already been installed, a streetball court has been prepared, and an amphitheater is being assembled. A gastropark with recreation areas is being created.

The third zone, located between the dormitory buildings, the educational building and the residential building, is almost ready. There is a universal area for ball games, next to which a small stand was placed. In addition, there are tables for playing table tennis, a workout area and an area with weight training equipment, a place for playing panna football, a summer terrace and recreation areas.

In all three zones, flower beds were laid out in which trees, shrubs and cereal plants will be planted.

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

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144485073/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: In a new manifesto, OpenAI’s Sam Altman envisions an AI utopia – and reveals glaring blind spots

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hallam Stevens, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, James Cook University

Ryan Carter Images / Shutterstock

By now, many of us are probably familiar with artificial intelligence hype. AI will make artists redundant! AI can do lab experiments! AI will end grief!

Even by these standards, the latest proclamation from OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, published on his personal website this week, seems remarkably hyperbolic. We are on the verge of “The Intelligence Age”, he declares, powered by a “superintelligence” that may just be a “few thousand days” away. The new era will bring “astounding triumphs”, including “fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics”.

Altman and his company – which is trying to raise billions from investors and pitching unprecedently huge datacentres to the US government, while shedding key staff and ditching its nonprofit roots to give Altman a share of ownership – have much to gain from hype.

However, even setting aside these motivations, it’s worth taking a look at some of the assumptions behind Altman’s predictions. On closer inspection, they reveal a lot about the worldview of AI’s biggest cheerleaders – and the blind spots in their thinking.

Steam engines for thought?

Altman grounds his marvellous predictions in a two-paragraph history of humanity:

People have become dramatically more capable over time; we can already accomplish things now that our predecessors would have believed impossible.

This is a story of unmitigated progress heading in a single direction, driven by human intelligence. The cumulative discoveries and inventions of science and technology – Altman reveals – have led us to the computer chip and, inexorably, to artificial intelligence which will take us the rest of the way to the future. This view owes much to the futuristic visions of the singularitarian movement.

Such a story is seductively simple. If human intelligence has driven us to ever-greater heights, it is hard not to conclude that better, faster, artificial intelligence will drive progress even farther and higher.

This is an old dream. In the 1820s, when Charles Babbage saw steam engines revolutionising human physical labour in England’s industrial revolution, he began to imagine constructing similar machines for automating mental labour. Babbage’s “analytical engine” was never built, but the notion that humanity’s ultimate achievement would entail mechanising thought itself has persisted.

According to Altman, we’re now (almost) at that mountaintop.

Deep learning worked – but for what?

The reason we are so close to the glorious future is simple, Altman says: “deep learning worked”.

Deep learning is a particular kind of machine learning that involves artificial neural networks, loosely inspired by biological nervous systems. It has certainly been surprisingly successful in a few domains: deep learning is behind models that have proven adept at stringing words together in more or less coherent ways, at generating pretty pictures and videos, and even contributing to the solutions of some scientific problems.

So the contributions of deep learning are not trivial. They are likely to have significant social and economic impacts (both positive and negative).

But deep learning “works” only for a limited set of problems. Altman knows this:

humanity discovered an algorithm that could really, truly learn any distribution of data (or really the underlying “rules” that produce any distribution of data).

That’s what deep learning does – that’s how it “works”. That’s important, and it’s a technique that can be applied to various domains, but it’s far from the only problem that exists.

Not every problem is reducible to pattern matching. Nor do all problems provide the massive amounts of data that deep learning requires to do its work. Nor is this how human intelligence works.

A big hammer looking for nails

What is interesting here is the fact that Altman thinks “rules from data” will go so far towards solving all humanity’s problems.

There is an adage that a person holding a hammer is likely to see everything as a nail. Altman is now holding a big and very expensive hammer.

Deep learning may be “working” but only because Altman and others are starting to reimagine (and build) a world composed of distributions of data. There’s a danger here that AI is starting to limit, rather than expand, the kinds of problem-solving we are doing.

What is barely visible in Altman’s celebration of AI are the expanding resources needed also for deep learning to “work”. We can acknowledge the great gains and remarkable achievements of modern medicine, transportation and communication (to name a few) without pretending these have not come at a significant cost.

They have come at a cost both to some humans – for whom the gains of global north have meant diminishing returns – and to animals, plants and ecosystems, ruthlessly exploited and destroyed by the extractive might of capitalism plus technology.

Although Altman and his booster friends might dismiss such views as nitpicking, the question of costs goes right to the heart of predictions and concerns about the future of AI.

Altman is certainly aware that AI is facing limits, noting “there are still a lot of details we have to figure out”. One of these is the rapidly expanding energy costs of training AI models.

Microsoft recently announced a US$30 billion fund to build AI data centres and generators to power them. The veteran tech giant, which has invested more than US$10 billion in OpenAI, has also signed a deal with owners of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (infamous for its 1979 meltdown) to supply power for AI. The frantic spending suggests there may be a hint of desperation in the air.

Magic or just magical thinking?

Given the magnitude of such challenges, even if we accept Altman’s rosy view of human progress up to now, we might have to acknowledge that the past may not be a reliable guide to the future. Resources are finite. Limits are reached. Exponential growth can end.

What’s most revealing about Altman’s post is not his rash predictions. Rather, what emerges is his sense of untrammelled optimism in science and progress.

This makes it hard to imagine that Altman or OpenAI takes seriously the “downsides” of technology. With so much to gain, why worry about a few niggling problems? When AI seems so close to triumph, why pause to think?

What is emerging around AI is less an “age of intelligence” and more an “age of inflation” – inflating resource consumption, inflating company valuations and, most of all, inflating the promises of AI.

It’s certainly true that some of us do things now that would have seemed magic a century and a half ago. That doesn’t mean all the changes between then and now have been for the better.

AI has remarkable potential in many domains, but imagining it holds the key to solving all of humanity’s problems – that’s magical thinking too.

Hallam Stevens has previously received funding from the Ministry of Education (Singapore), the National Heritage Board (Singapore), the National Science Foundation (USA) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

– ref. In a new manifesto, OpenAI’s Sam Altman envisions an AI utopia – and reveals glaring blind spots – https://theconversation.com/in-a-new-manifesto-openais-sam-altman-envisions-an-ai-utopia-and-reveals-glaring-blind-spots-239841

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

January 22, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Are private hospitals really in trouble? And is more public funding the answer?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Scott, Professor of Health Economics and Director, Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University

Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

A battle between private hospitals and private health insurers is playing out in public.

At its heart is how much health insurers pay hospitals for their services, and whether that’s enough for private hospitals to remain viable.

Concerns over the viability of the private health system have caught the attention of the federal government, which has launched a review into private hospitals that has yet to be made public.

But are private hospitals really in trouble? And if so, is more public funding the answer?

Private hospitals vs private health insurers

Many private hospital operators have reported significant pressures since the start of the COVID pandemic, including staff shortages.

Inflationary pressures have increased the costs of supplies and equipment, pushing up the costs of providing hospital care.

Now, private hospitals have publicised their difficult contract negotiations with private health insurers in an attempt to gain support and help their case.

Healthscope, which runs 38 for-profit private hospitals in Australia, has been threatening to end agreements with private health insurers.

St Vincent’s, which operates ten not-for-profit private hospitals, announced it would end its contract with nib (one of Australia’s largest for-profit health insurers) but then reached an agreement.

UnitingCare Queensland, which operates four private hospitals, announced it would end its contract with the Australian Health Service Alliance, which represents more than 20 small and medium non-profit private health insurers. Since then, the two parties have also kissed and made up.

Why should we care?

There are three reasons why viability of the private health sector affects us all, regardless of whether we have private health insurance or use private hospitals.

1. Taxpayers subsidise the private health system

Australian taxpayers subsidised private health insurance premiums by A$6.3 billion
(in premium rebates) in 2021–22. Much of this makes its way to private hospitals. Medicare also subsidised fees for medical services delivered for private patients in private and public hospitals to the tune of $3.81 billion in 2023–24.

But when the going gets tough, the private health sector (both hospitals and health insurers) turns to the government for more handouts.

So we should be concerned about the value we currently get from our public investment into the private health system, and if more public investment is warranted.

2. Public hospitals may be affected if private hospitals close

Calls for greater government support for private health have long argued that a larger private hospital sector would help reduce pressures on the public system.

Indeed, this was the justification for a series of incentives introduced from the late 1990s to support private health insurance in Australia.

However, the extent of this is hotly debated. Recent evidence shows higher private health insurance coverage leads to only very small falls in waiting times in public hospitals.

While it is possible the closure of a few private hospitals might lead some patients to seek care in public hospitals, this shift might not be that large and will not increase waiting times too much.

3. Fewer private beds, but is that a bad thing?

If unviable private hospitals close or merge, we’d expect to see fewer
private hospital beds overall.

Fewer private hospital beds is not necessarily bad news. Mergers of small private day hospitals, in particular, might make them more efficient and lead to lower costs, which in turn lowers health insurance premiums.

We might also need fewer private beds. This is due to policies that try to shift health care out of hospitals into the community or the use of
hospital-in-the-home schemes (where patients receive hospital-type care at home with the support of visiting health staff and/or telehealth). The private health insurers are supporting both.

If a few small private hospitals close, this reflects the market adjusting to less demand for hospital care. Some of the closures have been for maternity wards but with falling birth rates, this also seems like an appropriate market adjustment.

Falling birth rates mean less demand for maternity wards.
christinarosepix/Shutterstock

What do we know?

Any objective data about what is happening in the private hospital sector is scarce. This is mainly because the Australian Bureau of Statistics has stopped a compulsory survey of all private hospitals. The latest data we have is from 2016–17.

Health insurers are the largest payer of private hospitals and hence wield a considerable amount of negotiating power. In 2016–17, almost 80% of private hospitals’ income came from private health insurers. Health insurers have also increasingly become “active” purchasers of health care – not just passively paying insurance claims, but wanting to strike a good deal with private hospitals for their members to keep premiums (and costs) down, and profits high.

Reports of hospitals closing ignore hospitals that are opening at the same time. But since 2016–17 there are no publicly reported data on the total number of private hospitals in Australia or changes over time.

The latest figures we have show about half of all hospitals in Australia are private, and of these 62% are for-profit with the rest run by not-for-profit organisations (such as St Vincent’s).

The main for-profit providers are Ramsay Health Care and Healthscope. Both have operations overseas and were in trouble before the COVID pandemic.

Fast-forward to 2024 and the recent issues with contract negotiations suggests the financial situation of for-profit private hospitals might not have improved. So this could reflect a long-term issue with the sustainability of the private hospital sector.

What are the options?

The private health system already receives large public subsidies. So the crux of the current debate is whether the government should intervene again to prop up the private sector. Here are some options:
- do nothing and let this stoush play out Closure and mergers of private hospitals might be good if smaller hospitals and wards are no longer needed and patients have other alternatives
- introduce more regulation Negotiations between small groups of private hospitals and very large dominant private health insurers may not be efficient. If the insurers have significant market power they can force small groups of private hospitals into submission. Some private hospital groups may be negotiating with many different health insurers at the same time, which can be costly. Regulation of exactly how these negotiations happen could make the process more efficient and create a more level playing field
- change how private hospitals are paid Public hospitals are essentially paid the same national price for each procedure they provide. This provides incentives for efficiency as the price is fixed and so if their costs are below the price, they can make a surplus. Private hospitals could also be funded this way, which could remove much of the costs of contract negotiations with private hospitals. Instead, private hospitals would be free to focus on other issues such as the number and quality of procedures, and providing high-value health care.
How do we help private hospitals become more efficient? Regulating prices and contract negotiations are a start.
Kitreel/Shutterstock

What next?

Revisiting the regulation of prices and contract negotiations between private hospitals and private health insurers could potentially help the private hospital sector to be more efficient.

Private health insurers are rightly trying to encourage such efficiencies but the tools they have to do this through contract negotiations are quite blunt.

As we wait for the results of the review into the private hospital sector, value for money for taxpayers is paramount. We are all subsidising the private hospital sector.

Anthony Scott has previously received funding from the Medibank Better Health Foundation.

Terence C. Cheng 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. Are private hospitals really in trouble? And is more public funding the answer? – https://theconversation.com/are-private-hospitals-really-in-trouble-and-is-more-public-funding-the-answer-238891
MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –
January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: NSU to begin classes as part of a practical course for postgraduate students “Fundamentals of Scientific Research”

MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

Classes within the postgraduate course “Fundamentals of Scientific Research” will begin at Novosibirsk State University on September 26. This course is an integral part of the educational component of the new model of postgraduate study at NSU along with another discipline – “Academic English”. They are mandatory for first-year postgraduate students of all faculties of the university.

The course program was developed by the head of the laboratory of functional diagnostics of low-dimensional structures for nanoelectronics Physics Department of NSU Pavel Geidt in 2022. The course is designed for one semester. Some postgraduate students study it in the first half of the academic year, the rest in the second. Over 360 young scientists have completed it in two years.

— This course does not involve mastering the deep theoretical aspects of philosophy, entrepreneurship, communication psychology, natural sciences and other classical disciplines. It is rather a synthesis of several sections of these disciplines that have the greatest practical significance for graduate students at this stage. Its goal is to help young scientists from various sciences undergo postgraduate studies and further engage in independent research activities. The idea of the course comes from a common problem: often university teachers do not tell graduate students in a structured way about a lot of practical information related to scientific activity, about its organizational and reporting aspects, about performance in projects, about the features of preparing grant applications, about etiquette in the scientific community and team , about information retrieval tools, about computer tools for working with data arrays and much more. As a result, graduate students face many difficulties: how to formulate a hypothesis for their research, how to prepare a publication for a scientific publication, how to successfully defend their dissertation and other uncertainties. The knowledge that they will receive as part of the course will help young scientists at the very beginning of their scientific career to build relationships with scientific supervisors, heads of departments and faculties, heads of scientific projects, employees of their laboratory, foundations, monitoring agencies and other structures that they will encounter ,” explained Pavel Geidt.

The course consists of 8 lectures, including “The Main Aspects of Conducting Research”, “The Role of Management in Scientific Research”, “Financing Scientific Activity”, “Writing Scientific Publications”, “Participation in Scientific Events” and “Methods of Defending Dissertations through the Higher Attestation Commission and the NSU Dissertation Council”. These lectures will be given by Pavel Geidt, as well as Ilya Beterov, Associate Professor of the Quantum Electronics Department of the NSU Physics Faculty, Anna Komarova, Associate Professor of the Political Economy Department of the EF, Leading Researcher of the Laboratory of Empirical Analysis of Industry Markets of the EF, and Natalia Aksenova, Head of the Department of Support and Analysis of Scientific Research at NSU.

The course includes two practical classes. Unlike lectures, which are a summary of existing knowledge and organized information from various sources, practical classes are original authorial material. The first class, “Michael Faraday’s Principle: Work, Finish, Publish,” was developed by Pavel Geidt.

— Publication of research results in scientific journals is mandatory for every scientist, but for those who are taking their first steps in big science, this causes many difficulties. Which journal should I send my work to? How to write and format a manuscript correctly? How to respond to reviewers’ comments? Who decides whether to publish an article? What should I do if my manuscript is not accepted for publication? How can I make sure that it is published anyway? And these are far from all the questions that young researchers have at the first stage of their independent, thoughtful scientific work. We tried to recreate the process of preparing an article for publication in a classroom setting so that it would be understandable and “transparent.” The students are divided into 4 groups: a group of authors, the university administration, the editorial board of a foreign scientific journal, and the editorial board of a domestic publication. Each participant in the practical lesson receives their own role: scientist, scientific supervisor, editor-in-chief of a scientific journal, reviewer, and others. In this way, all stages of the process of creating and publishing an article are reproduced, and the roles of the participants in this process acquire meaning, as if they come to life, said Pavel Geidt.

The second practical lesson “Critical Thinking in Science. TRIZ: Relevance for Technical and Humanitarian Sciences and Further Prospects for the Application of TRIZ for Dissertations” was developed and is being conducted by the Director Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization of NSU Alexander Kvashnin. Teamwork is also important here. Mixed groups of young scientists from different faculties and institutes work together to resolve complex contradictions in science and technology that require a creative approach. Here, graduate students are also given homework: find a way to solve a technical problem within the framework of their dissertation research and describe it in 200 words.

At this stage, it is expected that graduate students will develop the skills to formulate research problems and systematically design ways to solve these problems in the types of activities that interest them, encourage young scientists to methodologically reflect on their research project, instill a desire for clarity, structure and internal coherence of arguments and reasoning in their written works and oral presentations, and maintain interest in further in-depth mastery of disciplines related to the courses within and beyond the framework of their dissertations.

— A budding scientist must be prepared for practical scientific work in graduate school and be able to conduct independent scientific research. This requires a clear knowledge of current scientific problems, the ability to analyze the state of the topic of interest and the related field of activity. Graduate students need skills in preparing grant applications, planning the execution of work and completing a project on time. Submitting reports with the publication of the results of intellectual activity, speaking at international conferences and, of course, successfully defending a dissertation are also important. We will teach graduate students to do science independently, as well as to speak about it in an understandable language, — Pavel Geidt summarized.

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

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

http://vvv.nsu.ru/n/media/nevs/science/classes-will-begin-in-the-practical-course-for-graduate-students-fundamentals-of-scientific-research/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Sergei Sobyanin: 262 socially oriented NGOs received city support

MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

More than 20 years ago, a grant competition for socially oriented non-profit organizations (NPOs) was established in Moscow. Every year, the best initiatives are selected in the capital and up to five million rubles are allocated for their implementation. Over the entire period, more than 3.4 thousand projects have received city support.

“In 2024, the competition broke the record for the number of approved applications. This time, proposals were received from about 900 NGOs, 262 of which received support,” Sergei Sobyanin said in

on your blog.

The grant amounts range from 500 thousand to five million rubles. They are provided for projects in the following nominations: “Charity”, “Safe Moscow”, “Ecology of the Megapolis”, “Civic Initiatives”, “Creative Moscow”, “Volunteering and Volunteering”, “Media Moscow”, “Family Moscow” and “Urban Innovations”. The most popular nominations in terms of the number of laureate initiatives were “Youth of Moscow” (62 projects), “Our Heritage” (55 projects), “Healthy Lifestyle and Sports” (37 initiatives).

The full list of award winners has been published on the website.

An independent assessment was conducted by an expert council. It included representatives of the Moscow Public Chamber, scientific, research and educational communities, and NGOs. Each project was assessed by three experts, and they did not have the opportunity to see the marks of their colleagues.

The projects were assessed based on their significance for the city and its residents, relevance and feasibility. The experts also took into account the effectiveness of the proposed solution, its efficiency and uniqueness.

Career guidance for schoolchildren and assistance to SVO participants

Among the winners is the Artificial Intelligence project of the scientific and educational center of the Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman. The center itself is engaged in career guidance for schoolchildren: young research staff help students develop engineering thinking and the skills they need when entering technical universities.

This year, the center’s team intends to develop two additional education programs of 16 academic hours each, which any high school student will be able to study.

The Association of Veterans of the Special Military Operation (SVO) helps combat veterans adapt to civilian life faster and involves them in educating the younger generation. The grant is intended to launch the project “Museums of the Special Military Operation in Moscow Schools”. Five schools will be involved in it – museum exhibits will open in the institutions, courage lessons will be held, and meetings with SVO heroes will be held. The project will be implemented in 2025.

Another project in support of the special military operation is the center for legal assistance to SVO participants and their families of the regional public organization “Lotus”. The center’s specialists will deal with various issues – from registration of status, benefits and payments for housing and communal services to entering into inheritance rights.

The project “Equal to equal. Adaptation club” is implemented by the Foundation for the Promotion of the Russian Language and Education in Russian. Its goal is to help young people with disabilities adapt to universities. In several capital institutions of higher professional education, students will be taught the basics of inclusive volunteering. Specialists will talk about the problems and difficulties of children with disabilities during their studies and ways to help them. A special online portal will post methodological materials, video courses and lectures that will help children with disabilities quickly get used to the new environment and not feel lonely in a group.

The charitable foundation for helping children born at an early stage, “Give me some sunshine”, will launch a program for the social, physical and creative development of children with disabilities. The participants of the project “We, playing, study, speak and understand” will be children aged six to 12 years. They will work with an adaptive physical education trainer and a speech development specialist. Speech therapy equipment will be purchased for correctional classes. The training will take place in the family center opened by the foundation.

Winners of last year’s grant competitions

The international charitable public organization “Fair Aid of Doctor Lisa” helps citizens who find themselves in difficult life situations – lonely pensioners, people left homeless, seriously ill patients. With the funds of the grant of the Mayor of Moscow, the organization launched the project “Let’s Extend a Helping Hand”, within the framework of which medical and social assistance was received by participants of the FAO. They were provided with medicines, hygiene products and medical supplies.

The Global Impact Alliance, a charitable foundation for scientific research and development, is implementing the project Inclusive Routes: Virtual Reality Solutions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The scenario of the Public Transport project will soon be available for children with this diagnosis. The team has worked out all the elements of the bus in detail: validators, screens, and light indicators — everything to ensure that children’s adaptation to the virtual space is as close as possible to real conditions. As a result, the skill will be better consolidated, and during a trip on a real bus, the child will quickly get their bearings and remember what to do.

The autonomous non-profit organization “Dynamic Guys” created a musical performance “You Can’t Fly, You Can’t Stay”. The plot is based on the story of people blocked in the capital’s airport due to weather conditions. The premiere took place at the beginning of the summer at the Moscow State Academic Theater “Russian Song”, more than 750 people saw it. And the video version of the performance has already collected over one million views.

The Virta Charity Foundation held two exhibitions in support of homeless animals. The events were attended by over three thousand Muscovites. The foundation’s volunteers brought 270 dogs and cats from shelters to the exhibitions, 57 of which found a new home.

The professional skills competition “Best in the Profession. Nanny of the Year” was held with the help of a grant. Participants were interviewed by psychologists, underwent reliability checks and completed competition tasks, as well as demonstrated medical knowledge and skills necessary for working with children. More than a thousand applications were received from nannies, educators, governesses and governesses of Moscow. Only 20 contenders for the title of the best reached the final. The competition was held by the ANO for assistance in employment and leisure of the adult population “Vozrasu. net” (the “Grandma for an hour” service).

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

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

https://vvv.mos.ru/major/themes/11823050/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Access to a GP can make all the difference in surviving lung cancer – and that is a problem for Māori
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ross Lawrenson, Professor of Population Health, University of Waikato

Surviving lung cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand could depend on whether you can access a GP – raising questions about equity in the country’s health system.

Our new research examines the outcomes for patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer through their GP versus those who are diagnosed at the emergency department (ED).

Examining 2,400 lung cancer diagnoses in Waikato between 2011 and 2021, we found those who are diagnosed with lung cancer after ED visits tended to have later-stage disease and poorer outcomes compared to those diagnosed after a GP referral.

We also found diagnosis after ED attendance was 27% higher for Māori than non-Māori and 22% higher for men than women.

These results raise important questions about health inequity in New Zealand and highlight the need to ensure everyone is able to access an early cancer diagnosis.

Limited access to everyday health care

Currently half of all general practices have closed their books to new patients, leaving 290,000 patients unenrolled and reliant on emergency departments for their health care.

Some 80% of practices have closed their books to new patients at some point since 2019.

For those who are enrolled in a practice, the wait times for appointments are often such that the only option is to go to the ED for help.

This is especially true in rural areas where the hospital can become the default route to diagnosis.

Lung cancer is New Zealand’s single biggest cause of cancer deaths, with over 1,800 per year. Some 80% of those who are diagnosed with lung cancer present with advanced disease and very poor prospects of survival.

It’s also the cancer with the largest equity gap. The mortality rate for Māori with lung cancer is three to four times that of people of European descent.

While much of this disparity is due to differences in the rates of smoking among ethnic groups, there is also evidence delays in diagnosis and poorer access to surgery are also major influences on survival rates.

Identifying lung cancer

Lung cancer usually starts in the tissue lining the airways and symptoms can initially be relatively minor – some shortness of breath during exercise, a niggly cough or sharp pains while breathing.

Patients with these sorts of symptoms usually go to a GP to check whether this is something that needs further investigation.

But if someone cannot get an appointment, or does not recognise the symptoms as serious, then they are likely to delay taking action.

Advanced symptoms of lung cancer include coughing up blood or having lumps in the neck due to lymphatic spread of the cancer. People with these alarming symptoms tend to go to the hospital for treatment.

Our study confirms earlier findings that those diagnosed through the emergency department are:
- more likely to have advanced disease
- more likely to have a more aggressive type of cancer (called small cell cancer), and
- have substantially poorer likelihoods of survival.
The median survival for those who never went to the ED was 13.6 months, while the median survival for those with one ED visit was just three months.

That said, attending an emergency department has some advantages. These include being seen by a doctor within a few hours, immediate access to x-rays and, in our major hospitals, access to the definitive diagnostic tool for a lung cancer – a computed tomography (CT) machine.

Our study found 25% of cases went to the ED two or more times in the two weeks before their diagnosis. This was especially true for those going to one of the Waikato rural hospitals, where a second or third visit was more likely before being diagnosed.

Barriers to care

It is clear New Zealand still has several barriers to primary care. This has lead to an over-reliance on emergency departments for diagnosing cancer, despite the long-running faster cancer treatment targets.

The situation is unlikely to improve. Access to GPs is getting worse, in part due to increasing fees.

Māori and Pacific patients with lung cancer were less likely than other ethnic groups to have been enrolled with a primary health organisation when they were diagnosed. They were also less likely to have visited a GP in the three months prior to diagnosis.

Making it easier to see a GP

Making general practice care more accessible is the most effective way of addressing the inequities in our lung cancer statistics.

Currently, New Zealand has only 74 GPs per 100,000 people, compared to 110 in Australia.

It is clear we need to substantially increase the number of GPs. This is a long-term project but needs to be a strategic goal for the health sector.

In the meantime, we need to make primary care more accessible by increasing patient subsidies and reducing the direct patient costs to see a doctor. At the same time, we need to better equip GPs with access to diagnostic facilities, including in our rural hospitals.

Ross Lawrenson receives funding from NZ Health Research Council. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

Chunhuan Lao receives funding from NZ Health Research Council.

– ref. Access to a GP can make all the difference in surviving lung cancer – and that is a problem for Māori – https://theconversation.com/access-to-a-gp-can-make-all-the-difference-in-surviving-lung-cancer-and-that-is-a-problem-for-maori-239808
MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –
January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Reps. Adams, Foushee Introduce the College Thriving Act to Promote Skills-For-Success College Courses
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Alma Adams (12th District of North Carolina)

WASHINGTON, DC (September 26, 2024) — Today, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04) and Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12), introduced H.R. 9824, the College Thriving Act of 2024, legislation to create a Department of Education grant for colleges and universities to design and implement a skills-for-success course for first year college students.

“Opportunities for practical and emotional skill-building in a student’s first year of college leads to a more positive transition to college life, and an increase in campus engagement and academic success in their later years,” said Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04). “The College Thriving Act will provide institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, with critical funding to establish skills-for-success courses to better help students achieve their goals. I thank Congresswoman Adams for joining me in introducing this bill, and I look forward to moving it through the House and onward.”

“College should be a place discover who you are as a person, and the first year of college can be an overwhelming transition for many who are on their own for the first time. I’m joining with my fellow North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee to introduce the College Thriving Act, to help young people make the critical adjustment to college life and succeed in the years ahead,” said Rep. Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. (NC-12). “This small investment will be especially helpful to students who, like me, may be the first in their family to attend college and need additional support as they begin their higher education journey. I want all our young people to have that opportunity, to become happier, healthier, wealthier, more productive college graduates.”

Specifically, the College Thriving Act of 2024 will:
- Create a $1 million three-phase, five-year grant program through the Department of Education for accredited four-year public institutions of higher education to design, pilot, and fully implement a skills-for-success course for incoming first year students.
- The skills-for-success course topics would include time management, mental wellbeing, engaging with campus partners and resources, goal setting, coping with stress, organizational skills, and navigating interpersonal relationships and conflict.
- Require schools to submit a report at the completion of the five years on the success and other findings of the pilot and implemented course.
- Additionally, when evaluating grant applications, the Department of Education will prioritize HBCUs for grant awards to the greatest extent possible.
The College Thriving Act is endorsed by: American Psychological Association and North Carolina Psychological Association.

The full bill text of the College Thriving Act is available here.

###

Congresswoman Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. represents North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District (Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Cabarrus County) and serves on the House Committee on Agriculture, and the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, where she serves as ranking member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

MIL OSI USA News –
January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: McConnell, Warner Introduce Vital Bill To Support Bourbon Production And Environment

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA) announced today the introduction of the White Oak Resilience Act of 2024, which will mobilize greater federal resources and direct research into safeguarding our nation’s White Oak tree population.
White Oak trees are vital to the environmental ecosystem, as well as several trademark American industries, like bourbon and furniture production. Considered the most important hardwood tree in the eastern United States, White Oak trees provide sustenance and shelter for a host of wildlife species across the country.
White Oak trees can take up to 25 years to reach full maturity, but a lack of seedlings has created an impending shortage that threatens the future of this species and the billions of dollars in economic impact they generate nationwide. This bipartisan legislation will help reverse the depletion of this iconic tree and address the threat its extinction poses to the American economy.
“Kentucky bourbon is synonymous with the White Oak tree, used to age our state’s signature spirit in its wooden barrels. As we face an impending White Oak shortage, I’m proud to introduce bipartisan legislation that will help protect this species and preserve Kentucky’s iconic bourbon industry that bolsters our economy and supports thousands of jobs across the Commonwealth. This is commonsense conservation at its best,” said Senator McConnell.
“Virginia is home to one of the highest concentrations of White Oak trees in the country, and they play an indispensable role in our ecology and our economy,” said Senator Warner. “These trees have tremendous utility as both food for many species and material for the forestry industry, but without further action, we could face a severe shortage soon. I’m glad to sponsor bipartisan legislation that will get ahead of that crisis by bolstering a plan to regenerate our White Oak trees, keeping Virginia beautiful and investing in one of the forestry industry’s most valuable species.”
In a statement from Brown-Forman, the largest American-owned spirits and wines company: “We are pleased to see the introduction of the White Oak Resilience Act to the Senate. Brown-Forman depends on healthy forests to provide the white oak for our bourbon barrels. White Oak barrels are more than just a container, they’re an important ingredient that provides all of the color and more than half the flavor to our whiskeys. We are committed to the conservation of the existing hardwood forests we rely on and have undertaken several initiatives to support sustainable forestry practices. We are appreciative of the leadership from Senators McConnell and Warner, supporting this key legislation will provide critical resources for white oak restoration.”
“Sazerac commends Senators McConnell and Warner for introducing the Senate companion to HR 5582, the White Oak Resilience Act. Although Sazerac has locations in numerous states, we have distilleries in both Kentucky and Virginia (Buffalo Trace and 1792 in Kentucky; A. Smith Bowman in Virginia) making it particularly significant that these two senators have come together to recognize the importance of this species. The spirits industry has found the ideal wood in White Oak for our barrels and has endeavored to regenerate it for years to come,” said Elizabeth Wise, Chief Global Government and Public Affairs for Sazerac.
“On behalf of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, the worldwide voice of Bourbon, we applaud Leader McConnell and Senator Warner for their leadership in introducing the White Oak Resilience Act,” said Kentucky Distillers’ Association President Eric Gregory. “White Oak is instrumental to our signature industry as the new charred oak barrel is where the magic happens, transforming young whiskey into the mellow, amber nectar that is Kentucky Bourbon. The KDA and its 68-member companies have an enduring commitment to the sustainable and conscientious use of our natural resources that our legendary distilleries depend on to make the world’s greatest whiskey. The White Oak Resilience Act will help ensure the future of this important species for our communities, our homegrown Bourbon industry, and generations to come.”
“On behalf of the University of Kentucky, I want to extend our sincere thanks to Leader McConnell and Senator Warner for introducing the White Oak Resilience Act that addresses White Oak sustainability, which is crucial to Kentucky’s signature bourbon industry. The research this measure directs will allow us to leverage our scientific expertise, particularly in genetics and genomics, to support the health and resilience of White Oak tree populations. As a land-grant institution committed to the Commonwealth’s economic development, we are well-positioned to translate our findings into practical applications for the bourbon industry,” said University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto.
“White Oak is a keystone species that supports over 500 types of wildlife while also bolstering rural economies and providing wood products to cities and towns across America,” said Jason Meyer, Executive Director of the White Oak Initiative. “We’d like to thank Senators Warner and McConnell for their leadership in bringing this bill forward and working together to ensure a long, sustainable future for this critical American resource.”
“Virginia’s upland oak forests are on the decline and are incredibly important for wildlife and sustainable forestry,” said Virginia State Forester Robert W. Farrell. “The White Oak Resilience Act will help Virginia’s forest landowners care for their hardwood forests and ensure White Oak is on the Virginia landscape for generations to come.”
Earlier this year, Senators McConnell and Warner supported Senate passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 and the President signed it into law. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator McConnell secured measures to help preserve the nation’s natural beauty, including language instructing the U.S. Forest Service to work on White Oak restoration, used for barrels that only bourbon can be aged in.
U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (KY-06) introduced the companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Maryland Delegation Announces More Than $10 million for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration, Preservation

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Maryland Ben Cardin

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone and Glenn Ivey (all D-Md.) today announced $10,698,764 in National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funding for 11 Maryland projects to protect and restore water quality, species and habitats in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“Maryland’s ecological and economic identity revolves around the health and preservation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Bay watershed puts food on our tables, supports the livelihood of thousands of people across the region and provides critical habitat for a variety of wildlife species,” said the lawmakers. “In order to maintain this legacy, Team Maryland continues to fight for and secure investments to restore our environment and protect public health. Through these projects and the work of our local partners, we’re working to ensure that generations to come can continue to rely on our beloved Bay.”
The following agencies and organizations received awards:
$2,839,348, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy: To engage Talbot County landowners, the Coastal Conservation Association and high school volunteers to install 280 oyster reef balls and restore 2,700 linear feet of living shoreline, as well as nearly two acres of low-marsh habitat.
$1,481,650, Blue Water Baltimore, Inc.: To mitigate stormwater runoff and pollution in Baltimore’s urban watershed by building rain gardens and permeable pavements at more than a dozen sites across the City.
$1,274,392, Prince George’s County Government: To restore more than 1,000 linear feet of a degraded, unhealthy tributary to Lower Beaverdam Creek.
$1,225,069, Future Harvest, Inc.: To advance the adoption of soil health and climate-smart farm management systems by engaging underserved agricultural producers to improve water quality and habitat restoration in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
$1,081,656, Stewardship Network: To accelerate the installation and maintenance of nature-based green infrastructure solutions across Central Maryland by growing the nascent Climate Crew Network.
$997,500, The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County: To mitigate flooding and improve water quality in the historic community of Columbia Beach, Maryland.
$542,994, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science: To improve the delivery of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Report Card and increase its relevance to watershed citizens by integrating socially relevant indicators and community perspectives on watershed ecosystem health.
$420,247, Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts, Inc.: To increase the adoption of conservation practices through a refreshed farm certification program.
$330,000, Chesapeake Stormwater Network, Inc.: To deliver core stormwater training programs to the stormwater management community across the Chesapeake Bay watershed and expand efforts to focus on younger and more diverse audiences of existing and emerging stormwater professionals.
$265,877, Nature Forward, Inc.: To collaborate with four local community organizations to improve water quality and restore pollinator habitat in underserved areas of the Anacostia River watershed.
240,028, Civic Works, Inc.: To engage community residents and young AmeriCorps adults in training and installation of stormwater best management practices in East Baltimore.
The awards were made available through the Chesapeake Small Watershed Grants Program, which the lawmakers fought to provide funding for within Fiscal Year 2024 annual appropriations.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Heinrich, Luján Introduce Sarah Davenport for Consideration to Serve on U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico

US Senate News:

Source: US Senator for New Mexico Ben Ray Luján
WASHINGTON – Yesterday, before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) introduced Sarah Davenport for consideration to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. Heinrich and Luján strongly recommended Davenport to the Biden Administration and welcomed the announcement of her nomination in August.

VIDEO: Heinrich, Luján Introduce Sarah Davenport for Consideration to Serve on U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, September 25, 2024.
Sarah Morgan Davenport has served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico in Las Cruces, New Mexico, since 2009. In that capacity, her practice has focused on prosecuting complex, multi-defendant criminal cases. From 2008 to 2009, Ms. Davenport served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico in Las Cruces. And from 2006 to 2008, she served as an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Law Clerk with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico in 2006 and her B.M. from the New Mexico State University in 1998.
In June, Heinrich and Luján commended the Honorable William Paul Johnson, who announced his intention to retire from regular active service as a United States District Court Judge effective in January 2025, after 23 years of distinguished service on the federal bench. The soon-to-be vacant seat on the District Court for the District of New Mexico, which Davenport has been nominated to fill, will be based in Las Cruces, N.M.
During the Biden Administration, Heinrich and Luján have worked together to confirm three of the currently sitting federal judges: District Judges Margaret Strickland, David Herrera Urias, and Matthew Garcia. Earlier this year, the senators also successfully secured the confirmation of David O. Barnett, Jr. for U.S. Marshal for the District of New Mexico. In 2022, the senators highly recommended and welcomed the confirmation of Alexander M.M. Uballez as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Bennet, Hickenlooper Introduce Public Lands Legislation to Protect Gunnison Basin and Surrounding Regions

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Colorado Michael Bennet
Washington, D.C. — Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper introduced the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection (GORP) Act to permanently protect key portions of the Gunnison Basin and the surrounding regions through a variety of public land management tools, including special designations focused on recreation, wildlife, scientific research, and conservation.
The bill is based on over a decade of collaboration with local governments, Tribes, and public lands user groups. It has the bipartisan support of six counties in Western Colorado, as well as the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and local municipalities. A wide variety of local businesses and public lands user groups, including summer and winter motorized recreation, conservation, mountain biking, whitewater recreation, rock climbers, ranchers, water users, and hunters and anglers, also support the bill.
“For over a decade, Coloradans have come together at trailheads and kitchen tables to share their love for the spectacular landscape in and around Gunnison County,” said Bennet. “This bill proves that people with wide-ranging interests can forge compromise and develop a common vision to protect our public lands for future generations.”
“Adventurers across Colorado and the country come to the Gunnison Basin for its rugged canyons and untamed wilderness,” said Hickenlooper. “Protecting these additional 730,000 acres will help keep it that way for generations.”
“Land is very important to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and throughout history we have lost a lot of land that has been taken from the tribe unjustly,” said Manuel Heart, Chairman Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. “To get land back for the tribe by putting it into Trust status as this legislation does, is important to the tribe’s children and grandchildren. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe appreciates Senator Bennet’s work on the GORP Act, supports the legislation and hopes it will move forward quickly in the US Senate.”
“Colorado’s great outdoors are known around the world and this bill marks a valuable step in the need to protect the incredible Gunnison Basin for future generations of Coloradans and visitors,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis. “I appreciate Senator Bennet’s leadership on this issue and look forward to seeing this bill move forward.”
“As a former resident of the Gunnison Valley and Western Colorado University graduate, I am intimately aware of the importance public lands, wildlife and outdoor recreation are to local communities’ economy and environment,” said Dan Gibbs, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Natural Resources. “Our forests, water, wildlife and open spaces are some of our most precious natural resources and outdoor recreation drives visitors and residents to our state to enjoy our diverse opportunities. I commend the work of Senator Bennet and the many diverse stakeholders on developing the locally driven Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act. Introduction is a great first step and I look forward to working alongside all interested parties as this legislation makes its way through the U.S. Congress.”
“The GORP Act reflects the way we do business in Gunnison County: we sit down with our neighbors to find common-ground solutions and a way forward to best serve our community. Public lands are our backyard here and I’m proud of the work we’ve done to bring so many stakeholders – snowmobilers, ranchers, mountain bikers, and conservationists to name a few – together,” said Jonathan Houck, Gunnison County Commissioner. “While GORP started in Gunnison County, I couldn’t be happier to stand with five neighboring Western Slope counties in support of this legislation, and I thank Senator Bennet for listening to our communities.”
“Delta County is glad to have worked with Senator Bennet on the GORP Act,” said the Delta County Commissioners. “Its provisions for Delta County will provide public access to a boat ramp, ensure that the BLM can continue to permit existing motorized boat use, and bring forward a thoughtful balance of uses on public lands in the North Fork Valley. This legislation shows what’s possible when we roll up our sleeves and work together.”
“The Saguache County Board of Commissioners are pleased to support the introduction of Senator Bennet’s Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act (GORP), and eagerly anticipate the passing of this legislation,” said the Saguache County Commissioners. “We appreciate the multi years the many stakeholders have committed to this project.”
“Pitkin County Is a strong supporter of public lands, and we believe in designating new Wilderness areas in sensitive landscapes, where appropriate,” said Greg Poschman, Chairman, Pitkin County Board of Commissioners. “We are incredibly grateful to Senator Bennet for his work on the GORP Act, and we look forward to celebrating the two proposed Wilderness designations in Colorado’s wild and pristine high country.”
“Hinsdale County was proud to have collaborated with Senator Bennet, Gunnison County and Ouray County on the GORP Act,” said Kristie Borchers, Chair, Hinsdale County Board of County Commissioners. “We are excited that a key portion of the scenic Cimarron area where Hinsdale, Ouray and Gunnison County come together will be protected by this legislation. This bill will help protect our watersheds and the landscapes that attract the visitors who help drive our mountain town economies in the San Juan Mountains. We look forward to seeing the GORP Act move forward in Congress.”
“The GORP Act sets the bar for collaborative and beneficial legislation,” said Lynn Padgett, Vice-Chair, Ouray County Board of County Commissioners. “I am forever grateful to Senator Bennet and his team and stakeholders like Gunnison, Hinsdale, and Ouray Counties for enthusiastically working together to include the proposed Uncompahgre Wilderness expansion and especially for protecting Turret Ridge. The peaks of the Cimarron range are unique in their scenery and geology. The GORP Act not only protects important migration areas for elk and key habitats for lynx and moose. The GORP Act protects our precious wildlands, vital to our local economy and quality of life.”
“Our groups have worked for nearly a decade to craft a vision for public lands in and around Gunnison County that will benefit our economy, environment, and quality of life into the future,” said members of the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative in a joint statement. “The GORP Act reflects the countless hours we spent working together and with communities around the Gunnison Basin. We are eager to see this thoughtful and well-vetted legislation signed into law.”
Background
The GORP Act will protect over 730,000 acres of public lands in Western Colorado, safeguarding the region’s local economy, world-class recreation, ranching heritage, wildlife habitat, and clean air and water. The bill also includes provisions for recreational boating in Delta County and at the request of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, transfers the Pinecrest Ranch from fee ownership to trust ownership.
Senator Bennet drafted the GORP Act at the request of Gunnison County and based on a proposal from the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative. The bill also reflects the input from surrounding counties and feedback Senator Bennet received during a public comment period held in 2022.
The text of the bill is available HERE. Maps of the areas designated by the bill are HERE. A summary of the bill is HERE. You can find additional information, including support letters and answers to frequently asked questions on the GORP Act website HERE.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Rachel Kyte appointed as the UK’s Special Representative for Climate
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Rachel Kyte will support ministers to increase senior international diplomatic engagement on climate and clean energy.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Energy Secretary of State Ed Miliband have announced Rachel Kyte as the UK’s Special Representative for Climate. The role, previously left vacant for over a year, has been re-appointed under this administration as part of our ambitions to restore the UK’s role as an international leader on the climate.

Ms Kyte is Professor of Practice in Climate Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and dean emerita of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She has extensive international climate experience with previous roles including Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All, World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change as well as Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank and for Business Advisory Services at the International Finance Corporation.

The announcement was made in New York in the margins of a discussion on ‘Accelerating Deployment of Clean Power: Building a Global Clean Power Alliance’, an event hosted by the Foreign Secretary and Energy Secretary.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said:

We cannot address the urgency of the climate and nature crisis without coordinated global action. This government is committed to boosting the UK’s climate leadership. Rachel Kyte will bring invaluable expertise and experience as we work together with partners to drive the energy transition, support those most vulnerable to the worst impacts of the climate crisis and meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:

Climate change is the defining issue of our time. The governments mission for clean power by 2030 is about protecting energy security for families and businesses at home, whilst also driving global action to provide climate security for our future generations.

Rachel’s expertise will be invaluable in unlocking climate finance and supporting countries on the front line of the crisis – backing that strong action at home with leadership on the international stage.

Rachel Kyte said:

This government is committed to reconnecting the UK to the world with climate action as a priority. And the world is being shaped politically and economically by climate change.

This provides an opportunity to use international action to help deliver on the UK’s energy mission. And it provides challenges, not least in mobilizing the financing to protect people and drive greener growth. There is no time like now for the UK to help drive action and I am excited to play my part in this new role.

The UK Special Representative for Climate role will support ministers to increase senior international diplomatic engagement on climate and clean energy, increasing UK international leadership, building influence, raising global ambition and accelerating progress on UK strategic climate objectives. A joint role between the FCDO and DESNZ, Ms Kyte will report to both the Foreign Secretary and Energy Secretary.

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Published 26 September 2024
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Banking: Lufthansa Group appoints Felipe Bonifatti as Vice President Asia Pacific & Joint Ventures East

Source: Lufthansa Group

With an aviation career that spans more than three decades, Lufthansa Group is delighted to announce the appointment of Felipe Bonifatti as Vice President Asia Pacific & Joint Ventures East. Based in the Lufthansa Group regional headquarters of Singapore, Felipe will lead all commercial activities, including Joint Venture sales, in the Asia Pacific region from November 1, 2024.

Born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Felipe Bonifatti is a dual national of both Argentina and Spain. A graduate of the German school in Mar del Plata, Felipe holds both a bachelor’s degree as well as a law degree from the National University. Felipe also holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Belgrano in Argentina.

Felipe’s career in aviation began in 1992, and he has held various senior positions with Lufthansa Group across Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean. Appointed General Manager Equatorial Guinea & Sao Tome and Principe, Felipe was subsequently promoted to General Manager Colombia, Ecuador & Peru where he was awarded with the prestigious Order of Alexander von Humboldt by the Colombian Parliament.

As the youngest executive of the Lufthansa Aviation Group in Latin America, Felipe Bonifatti was subsequently appointed General Manager Central America & the Caribbean where he successfully opened Lufthansa Groups’ first operation in Central America. During this time Felipe spearheaded the Group’s expansion into the Caribbean region, including pioneering operations of Group airlines including Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Edelweiss. Further promotions led to Felipe assuming the positions of Senior Director, Head of Sales Mexico, Central America & Caribbean, as well as his current position of Senior Director South America & Caribbean, in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

According to Frank Naeve, Senior Vice President Global Markets & Stations:

Felipe Bonifatti brings a wealth of experience to the role of Lufthansa Group Vice President Asia Pacific & Joint Ventures East, and I am personally very excited to have him on board. As one of our most senior executives in the Americas I am confident he will deliver on our ambitious growth plans for the Asia Pacific region

Felipe Bonifatti speaks German, English, Portuguese & Spanish, is married with two children and very much looks forward to growing the Lufthansa Group footprint in the dynamic Asia Pacific region.

About Lufthansa Group

The Lufthansa Group is an aviation group with operations worldwide. With 100,000+ employees, Lufthansa Group generated revenue of €35.4bn in the financial year 2023. Our largest business segment is Passenger Airlines while other key business segments include Logistics and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO). Other companies and Group functions such as IT companies and Lufthansa Aviation Training form complimentary components of the Group. All airlines and business segments play leading roles in their respective markets.

MIL OSI Global Banks –

January 22, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Is an ankle sprain also a brain injury? How neuroscience is helping athletes, astronauts and ‘average Joes’
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gordon Waddington, AIS Professor of Sports Medicine Research, University of Canberra

Have you ever thought of an ankle sprain as a brain injury? Most people probably wouldn’t.

However, we are starting to understand how the brain is constantly adapting, known as plasticity.

Even though the damage of an ankle sprain happens at the ankle, there may also be some changes going on in the brain to how it well it senses pain or movement.

One of our doctoral students, Ashley Marchant, has shown something similar happens when we change how much weight (or load) we put on the muscles of the lower limb. The closer the load is to normal earth gravity, the more accurate our movement sense is; the lower the muscle load, the less accurate we get.

This work means we need to rethink how the brain controls and responds to movement.

Solving an important puzzle

Historically, movement science has attempted to improve muscle function through resistance training, cardiovascular exercise and flexibility.

One of the big issues in the treatment and prevention of sport injuries is that even when the sports medicine team feels an athlete is ready to return, the risk of a future injury remains twice to eight times higher than if they’d never had an injury.

This means sports medicos have been missing something.

Our work at the University of Canberra and the Australian Institute of Sport has targeted sensory input in an attempt to solve this puzzle. The goal has been to assess the ability of the sensory reception, or perception, aspect of movement control.

Input (sensory) nerves outnumber output (motor) nerves by roughly ten to one.

Over 20 years, scientists have developed tools to allow us to determine the quality of the sensory input to the brain, which forms the basis of how well we can perceive movement. Gauging this input could be useful for everyone from astronauts to athletes and older people at risk of falls.

We can now measure how well a person gets information from three critical input systems:
- the vestibular system (inner ear balance organs)
- the visual system (pupil responses to changes in light intensity)
- the position sense system in the lower limbs (predominantly from sensors in the muscles and skin of the ankle and foot).
This information allows us to build a picture of how well a person’s brain is gathering movement information. It also indicates which of the three systems might benefit from additional rehabilitation or training.

Lessons from space

You may have seen videos of astronauts, such as on the International Space Station, moving around using only their arms, with their legs hanging behind them.

The crew of the International Space Station have some fun with ‘synchronised space swimming’ in 2021.

This shows how when people leave earth’s gravity, they get minimal information to the sensory system from the skin and muscles of their legs.

The brain rapidly deactivates the connections it normally uses for controlling movement. This is OK while the astronaut is in space but as soon as they need to stand or walk on the earth or moon surface, they are at greater risk of falls and injury.

Similar brain changes might be occurring for athletes due to changes in movement patterns after injury.

For example, developing a limp after a leg injury means the brain is receiving very different movement information from that leg’s movement patterns. With plasticity, this may mean the movement control pattern doesn’t return to an optimum pre-injury status.

As mentioned previously, a history of injury is the best predictor of future injury.

This suggests something changes in the athlete’s movement control processes after injury – most likely in the brain – which extends beyond the time when the injured tissue has healed.

Measures of how well an athlete perceives movement are associated with how well they go on to perform in a range of sports. So sensory awareness could also be a way to identify athletic talent early.

In older people and in the context of preventing falls, poor scores on the same sensory input perception measures can predict later falls.

This might be due to reduced physical activity in some older people. This “use it or lose it” idea might show how brain connections for movement perception and control can degrade over time.

Precise health care

New technologies to track sensory ability are part of a new direction in health care described as precision health.

Precision health uses technologies and artificial intelligence to consider the range of factors (such as their genetic make-up) that affect a person’s health and provide treatments designed specifically for them.

Applying a precision health approach in the area of movement control could allow much more targeted rehabilitation for athletes, training for astronauts and earlier falls prevention for older people.

Gordon Waddington owns shares in Prism Neuro Pty Ltd a perceptual neuroscience ability measurement company. He receives funding from the Medical Research Futures Fund, Australian Research Council, NSW Institute of Sport, Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport.

Jeremy Witchalls receives funding from the NSW Institute of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport.

– ref. Is an ankle sprain also a brain injury? How neuroscience is helping athletes, astronauts and ‘average Joes’ – https://theconversation.com/is-an-ankle-sprain-also-a-brain-injury-how-neuroscience-is-helping-athletes-astronauts-and-average-joes-230416
MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –
January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Registration for the VII Medical Tournament of Schoolchildren has begun

MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

Registration ends November 24, 2024, and uploading of solutions for the Selection Round ends December 1, 2024.

Participation in the Schoolchildren’s Medical Tournament is a great opportunity for schoolchildren and future applicants to get in touch with medicine, learn how to select reliable information, work in a team, and immerse themselves in an environment of like-minded people.

— Our goal is to teach schoolchildren to work with scientific information, improve their public speaking skills, teach them to speak in public, and develop communication skills, give them the opportunity to communicate with our experts, who are practicing top-category doctors. And, of course, to give an idea of modern medicine, to show how complex and interesting it is at the same time, — shared Evgeniya Kholdina, head of the Expert and Methodological Commission.

The final stage will take place on March 21-24, 2025 at NSU.

Winning a prize and winning the final stage gives additional points for admission to NSU in the direction of “General Medicine”.

Detailed information:

VK:https://vk.com/schoolmedturn

Telegram channel:https://t.te/shoolmedturn

Website:https://vvv.shoolmedturn.ru/

The project is implemented with the support of Rosmolodezh.Grants

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

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

http://vvv.nsu.ru/n/media/nevs/education/registration-for-the-vii-medical-tournament-schoolchildren has begun/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 22, 2025

MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Cline Recognizes Harrisonburg Business for Being Awarded DOL’s HIRE Vets Medallion

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06)

Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06) has been awarded the Guardian of Small Business Award for the 118th Congress by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization. NFIB’s Guardian of Small Business Award is reserved for lawmakers who vote consistently with small businesses on key issues identified by small business owners. “I am truly ho… Read More »

Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06) recently toured the Valley Health Winchester Medical Center, where he was briefed on Valley Health’s upcoming projects. Guided by Kris Maddalena, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Congressman Cline received an in-depth tour of the facility. During his visit, Valley Health honored him with an award recognizing his leadership, dedication, and support for patient… Read More »

Winchester, VA – Yesterday, Congressman Ben Cline concluded his three-day healthcare tour across Virginia’s Sixth District. Throughout the tour, he visited various healthcare facilities, engaging with dedicated professionals and witnessing firsthand the vital efforts of hospitals, clinics, and organizations committed to delivering quality care in our communities. “This Healthcare tour has been an … Read More »

Yesterday, Congressman Ben Cline continued his three-day healthcare tour across Virginia’s Sixth District, building on the momentum from Tuesday’s kickoff in Roanoke. On Wednesday, he visited additional healthcare facilities, engaging with professionals and examining the vital efforts of hospitals, clinics, and organizations committed to providing quality care in the community. “The tour has been … Read More »

Yesterday, Congressman Ben Cline kicked off the first day of his comprehensive three-day Sixth District Healthcare tour, visiting key healthcare facilities on Tuesday in Roanoke. The tour will take Congressman Cline to various communities across Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District, where he will engage with healthcare professionals and explore the work of hospitals, clinics, and organizations … Read More »

James Madison University | JMU Office of Federal Relations and Communications HARRISONBURG, Va. – Congressman Ben Cline visited the JMU School of Nursing Wednesday to receive feedback from students in the online doctoral program and to tour the school’s labs and classrooms. The congressman, whose 6th District covers western areas of Virginia from Roanoke to Winchester, became interested in touring… Read More »

WSLS | Connor Dietrich ROANOKE, Va. – Rep. Ben Cline is taking time to recognize some of the everyday heroes in the Roanoke Valley. On Monday, Cline stopped by Roanoke Fire-EMS’s station one to honor Capt. Peter Matthiessen. The fire captain is one of the head organizers of the annual Roanoke 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. “You’re truly just an amazing credit to this community and it’s an honor to get… Read More »

The Virginian Review | Rebecca Stalnaker COVINGTON, Va. (VR) — Congressman Ben Cline will visit the Virginian Review office on Aug. 1 at 3 p.m. to present a special plaque commemorating the paper’s 110-year anniversary. The visit will honor the publication’s long-standing contribution to the community and recognize its significant milestone. During his visit, Cline will formally present a plaque t… Read More »

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) released the following statement regarding President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race. “The undeniable truth is that Joe Biden’s mental incapacity forced him out of the race, rendering him unfit for the presidency,” Rep. Ben Cline said. “If Biden can’t handle running a campaign, he can’t handle holding the highest office. Biden’s … Read More »

Roanoke, VA – Following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump on Saturday in Pennsylvania, Congressman Ben Cline condemned the terrible attack and called for national unity in rejecting political violence. This violent act is unacceptable, and completely goes against the fundamental values of our nation. “Our thoughts and prayers are with President Trump, his family, and the victim… Read More »

Today, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) introduced the No Bias in the Baseline Act to revise the fiscal distortions embedded in the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) baseline projections. This legislation will empower Congress with the tools needed to make informed financial decisions and eliminate the baseline bias in the budget process in favor of higher spending. “It is essential that Congress is… Read More »

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) led his colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) do not move forward with adopting the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) as the minimum energy efficiency standard. In April of this year, HUD and USDA announced the … Read More »

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) announced his candidacy to become the next chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC). “It’s time to turn the tide on the dangerous path our Nation has been led down by the disastrous policies of the Biden Administration,” Rep. Cline said. “We need a strong, conservative compass to set us back on the right course – one that puts America … Read More »

Colby Johnson | WHSV HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Sixth District Representative Ben Cline was appointed to the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party. The committee will study and determine the best ways to counter Chinese influence across multiple areas including telecommunications, immigration, foreign affairs issues, and national security. “My specialty coming from the judiciary co… Read More »

Jon Solomon Reports |Just The News Representative Ben Cline (R-VA) says President Biden’s immigration executive order will do little to nothing to help the dire situation at the southern border, commenting on the amount of loopholes that the order allows is like “trying to catch water with a strainer.” Additional interviews with Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, National Council of Resistanc… Read More »

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MIL OSI USA News –

January 22, 2025

MIL-Evening Report: The common raupō once kept NZ’s wetlands and lakes thriving – now it could help restore them

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rewi Newnham, Professor in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Shutterstock/Sketchart

With about 90% of New Zealand’s natural wetlands drained or severely damaged during the past decades, we need to understand the role of native plants in the restoration of these important habitats.

Raupō is a resilient plant and acts as an ecological buffer.
Wikimedia Commons/Grapeman4, CC BY-SA

Our new research details the history of raupō (bulrush) from the time before people arrived in Aotearoa. It shows this resilient, opportunistic plant – and taonga species – can play an important role restoring wetlands and freshwater quality.

An unexpected finding was that the decline of freshwater quality in many lakes did not really kick in until the mid-20th century with intensification of agriculture. Until then, lake water quality indicators generally showed these ecosystems remained healthy. The prolific expansion of raupō after Aotearoa was first settled may have helped.

Thriving on material washed from disturbed catchments, raupō acted as an ecological buffer, intercepting nutrients and sediments, and reducing potentially harmful effects on freshwater ecosystems.

From the mid-20th century, as water quality began to deteriorate, raupō populations – and any buffering effects – were generally in decline as wetlands and lake shallows were drained for grazing land and better access to water supply.

Lessons from this plant’s past can be put to good use today as we strive to bring back the mauri (life force) of our freshwater systems.

Survival strategies for hard times

Before settlement, when dense forest covered most of the country, raupō was surviving on the fringes. As a wetland plant, it likes its roots submerged, but needs light to grow.

Its preferred niche is the shallow margins of lakes, ponds and streams or nutrient-rich swamps. Before people, these places were much less common. Forests typically grew right up to the water’s edge and extended across some swamps.

Under these conditions, raupō evolved strategies for survival: aerated roots to cope with water logging; tiny, abundant seeds that spread far and wide on the wind; rhizomes (underground stems) that extend from the mother plant and store carbohydrates to keep the plant alive in lean times.

Raupō has several attributes that allow it to grow on disturbed land. 1. large, resilient structures; 2. small, wind-dispersed seeds; 3. long-lived seed bank; 4. flowers produce abundant pollen; 5. aerated roots; 6. rhizomes store energy over winter; 7. rhizomes anchor in substrate, trapping sediment; 8. aggressive clonal propagation; 9. floating rhizome mats.
Author provided, CC BY-SA

Raupō can even build floating root mats, from sediment trapped by its rhizomes, that extend out across open water and even detach from the shoreline to become mobile raupō islands.

With these survival strategies, raupō could wait for better times which, in Aotearoa’s dynamic environment, duly arrived.

Episodic agents of disruption – storms, floods, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic ashfall – created opportunities. Local forest damage allowed light to penetrate to ground level, and slips and floods brought nutrient-rich sediment from soils.

Raupō would seize these opportunities to expand. But they were typically short-lived as the inevitable process of forest succession returned the environment to stability – and raupō back to a state of patient hibernation.

Hitting the jackpot

Then people arrived, with fire and hungry mouths to feed. This time, the disturbances persisted. Forest clearances endured, sediments rich in nutrients flooded wetlands and lakes, and raupō, supremely equipped for just this scenario, spread across swamps and lake shores as wildfires spread on land.

Our tūpuna (ancestors) observed this behaviour, as well as what was happening around raupō. Insects and birds were feeding and nesting. Freshwater fish, crays, shellfish and eel spawned among its fertile beds.

This new-found abundance also offered a range of resource opportunities. Raupō’s flax-like leaves were woven into mats, rope and string. Leaves and stems were used like thatch to cloak the roofs and walls of whare.

This graphic shows how raupō responded to environmental changes during the past millennium (upper panels), informed by pollen analysis of lake sediments (lower panels).
Author provided, CC BY-SA

Traditional poi were often made from raupō leaves. Some iwi, particularly in the south, used the stems to build lightweight boats for navigating rivers and lakes. Flower stalks, shoots and young leaves were eaten, and the rhizomes and roots, when cooked, provided edible carbohydrates. The most cherished raupō kai, however, were cakes baked using the copious raupō pollen.

Unsurprisingly, for many iwi raupō remains a taonga species today, treasured for this array of resources and for its ecological and even spiritual roles in maintaining the mauri of freshwater habitats, upon which so much depends.

For some iwi, raupō are seen as kaitiaki (guardians) watching over a lake or wetland, and signalling its health. In these ways, raupō also connects us with other Indigenous communities. Although raupō is native to this country, the same species is found in Australia and parts of East Asia, while relatives in the genus Typha (Greek for marsh) occur naturally on all continents, except Antarctica.

Similar practices occurred wherever raupō and its relatives are found.
This connection between cultural and ecological roles is one of the fascinating findings from our research. We describe raupō as a “human-associated species”, not just because of its taonga status, but because its fate seems so closely linked to people.

More work needs to be done, but history tells us raupō has an important role in restoring the health of our freshwater ecosystems. Not only can it soak up nutrients and contaminants, but as both a native and taonga species it can assist remediation solutions that are ecologically and culturally supportive and sustainable.

This research was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment research programmes – Our lakes’ health; past, present, future (C05X1707) and Our lakes, Our future (CAWX2305).

– ref. The common raupō once kept NZ’s wetlands and lakes thriving – now it could help restore them – https://theconversation.com/the-common-raupo-once-kept-nzs-wetlands-and-lakes-thriving-now-it-could-help-restore-them-238887

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Chinese researchers isolate anti-HIV antibody from alpacas

Source: China State Council Information Office 2

A Chinese research team has isolated an antibody from alpacas that can effectively inhibit HIV, providing a promising avenue for the development of new anti-AIDS drugs.
The findings were recently published in the international academic journal Nature Communications.
Antiretroviral therapy is currently the primary clinical approach to inhibiting HIV replication, according to Wu Zhiwei, professor at the School of Medicine, Nanjing University.
While this treatment effectively extends the lifespan of patients, it may lead to significant drug resistance in the virus. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore new therapies, said Wu, who is also a co-corresponding author of the research.
The primary approach in the clinical development of new anti-AIDS drugs targets the process by which the virus enters host cells. In this process, a receptor known as CD4 acts as a “doorknob,” which the virus utilizes to open the cell’s “door.”
The researcher team isolated thousands of CD4 nanobodies (a smaller, more stable type of antibody) from alpacas, of which Nb457 showed the potential to inhibit HIV.
They built a series of pseudoviruses to simulate 117 HIV strains and caused them to interact with Nb457.
The results showed that Nb457 effectively inhibited 116 virus strains, showing good broad-spectrum and antiviral activity.
In true virus tests, the trimeric nanobodies engineered from Nb457 have demonstrated potent inhibition of HIV, said Wu Xilin, a researcher at the School of Medicine, Nanjing University, another co-corresponding author of the research.
The results of mice experiments also showed that the virus was almost undetectable in the treated mice, and no drug-resistant mutations were found, Wu said.
HIV mutates rapidly and is prone to drug resistance, leading to a decline in drug efficacy, according to Wu.
The newly discovered antibody does not target the virus itself but the “doorknob” CD4, making it less likely to induce drug resistance in the virus and offering significant implications for the development of new anti-AIDS drugs and clinical treatment, Wu said.

MIL OSI China News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Meeting with Chinese counterparts in Beijing

Source: Australian Treasurer

Over the next two days, I will meet with key Chinese counterparts in Beijing.

This is another important step towards stabilising our economic relationship with China.

It will be the first visit by an Australian Treasurer to China in seven years.

These meetings are part of the Albanese Labor Government’s methodical and coordinated efforts to re‑establish dialogue with China, Australia’s largest trading partner.

The main purpose is to co‑chair the 2024 Australia‑China Strategic Economic Dialogue with Zheng Shanjie, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, on Thursday 26 September.

Our relationship with China is full of complexity and opportunity.

We recognise a more stable economic relationship between Australia and China is a good thing for Australian workers, businesses, investors and our country more broadly.

That’s why in the last week I have consulted directly with the chairs, CEOs and senior executives of major China‑facing Australian employers, including Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, BHP, Woodside, Fortescue, Macquarie, BlueScope, HSBC, King & Wood Mallesons, the Port of Newcastle, Sydney Airport, Cochlear, the University of New South Wales, GrainCorp and the Business Council of Australia.

Dialogue and engagement gives us the best chance to properly manage and maximise these important links.

Our approach to China has been to cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in Australia’s national interest.

The Strategic Economic Dialogue has not been convened since 2017 but our Government has agreed with Chinese counterparts to restart it.

I’ll also be meeting with other counterparts from the Chinese Government during my two days of engagements.

My meetings in China build on Prime Minister Albanese’s engagements in November 2023 and Premier Li Qiang’s meetings in Australia in June 2024.

We recognise that there’s a lot at stake and a lot to gain from the relationship with China.

We’ve got an opportunity to make sure both countries benefit from the continued complementarity of our economies, while protecting Australia’s interests.

MIL OSI News –

January 22, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Federation opens Warulung ‘Place of Being’ to connect to Gunaikurnai country

Source: Federation University

A new outdoor space at Federation University Australia’s Gippsland Campus will provide a safe and welcoming environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, and community members to connect to country and celebrate culture.

‘Warulung’, meaning ‘Our place’ in the Gunaikurnai language, was officially launched this week as part of the Place of Being project by the Aboriginal Education Centre at Federation and the University’s Property and Infrastructure team, in partnership with an advisory committee made up of Traditional Owners and community leaders.

It will support spiritual and cultural practices, dances, smoking ceremonies, and events throughout the year, enabling students, staff, and the wider community to learn, reflect and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ connection to country.

The site features a semi-circle of five steel shields, signifying the five clans of the Gunaikurnai: Brataualung, Brayakaulung, Brabralung, Tatungalung and Krauatungalung.

Warulung’s spherical fire pit was designed by Gunaikurnai artist Ronald Ewards-Pepper and complements the site’s original stone fire pit designed by Gunaikurnai elder, Uncle Wayne Thorpe.

The shields and garden were installed by the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, with design input from Gunaikurnai and Indigenous artists.

‘Places of Being’ have also been established at Federation campuses in the Wimmera and Ballarat, with another to be launched in 2025 in Berwick.

Quotes attributable to Federation University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Duncan Bentley

“The Place of Being projects provide a safe space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students and the wider community to connect to country.”

“We hope this amazing space at the Gippsland campus can be a central place for community to come together to celebrate the rich culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

Quotes attributable to Federation University Aboriginal Education Centre Senior Manager, Katrina Beer

“We have students and staff who come from many different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who need a culturally safe place to connect spiritually.”

“We hope Warulung can create that sense of belonging, like a home away from home.”

Quotes attributable to Warulung advisory committee member, Aunty Christine Johnson

“Country is everything. It’s family, it is life, the connection of belonging, a space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, communities and families, whereby we listen to yarn, share stories, reflect and celebrate with the wider community.”

MIL OSI News –

January 22, 2025

Category: Universities

1. Introduction

2. Some issues stemming from the recent turmoil

Resolution planning

Loss absorbency

Public support

3. The European challenges

The CMDI proposal

The ongoing negotiations

4. Conclusions

References

Bondholders are a major problem

How it would work

Guiding principles

Bondholders are a major problem

How it would work

Guiding principles

Steam engines for thought?

Deep learning worked – but for what?

A big hammer looking for nails

Magic or just magical thinking?

Private hospitals vs private health insurers

Why should we care?

What do we know?

What are the options?

What next?

Career guidance for schoolchildren and assistance to SVO participants

Winners of last year’s grant competitions

Limited access to everyday health care

Identifying lung cancer

Barriers to care

Making it easier to see a GP

Share this page

Updates to this page

Solving an important puzzle

Lessons from space

Precise health care

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Survival strategies for hard times

Hitting the jackpot