MIL Email Publisher – Foreign Submissions

Gaza, 9 July 2025 – A recent retrospective mortality survey of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and their families reveals the appalling death rate of Israel's all-out war on Gaza, especially among children, which is consistent with conflict-related figures provided by the Gazan Ministry of Health.

Osnabrueck, Delhi, July 09, 2025 – Hellmann Worldwide Logistics India has for the second year in a row received the certification as a Best Workplaces™ in Transportation & Logistics 2025 by the Great Place to Work® Institute India.

Chisinau, Moldova, July 9th,2025 – Moldova Innovation Technology Park (MITP), the first fully virtual IT park in Europe and a key pillar of Moldova's innovation ecosystem, continues to break records and transform the country's economic landscape.

A lift in household spending is expected for the remainder of 2025, however a slower interest rate cutting cycle could dampen this recovery.

https://youtu.be/UP9AxIqN2VY

The CommBank Household Spending Insights (HSI) Index rose for the third month in a row in June, up 0.3 per cent following gains of 0.4 per cent in April and May.

Eight of the twelve HSI categories recorded spending growth for the month, led by Utilities (+2.9 per cent), Education (+1.1 per cent) and Communications & Digital (+1.0 per cent). The timing of the energy rebates has made the utilities category choppy, while the release of Nintendo Switch 2 likely supported sales in the Communications & Digital category.

Three categories saw a fall in the month, led lower by Hospitality (-0.8 per cent), Motor Vehicle (-0.1 per cent) and Recreation (-0.1 per cent). These categories all performed relatively well in May and again show the fickle nature of consumer spending at present.

Refugees settling in Australia feel welcomed by Indigenous communities and believe it is important to respect and learn about first nations' culture, according to a new survey.

More than half (63 per cent) of respondents said that felt welcomed by Indigenous communities and that it was important to be welcoming to Indigenous Australians, while just 13 per cent said it was not important.

The findings are part of a survey of refugees who have settled in regional Australia, conducted by migrant and refugee settlement agency AMES Australia and the University of Wollongong.

The interim results of the 'Settling Well' survey found refugees in the regions feel welcome and safe, and value the peaceful environment regional communities provide in raising children.

The study is a five-year longitudinal comparative assessment of the impacts of refugee settlement in regional Australia.

The study surveyed refugee and established communities in Nhilll, Mildura, Albury-Wodonga, Cowra-Orange, Rockhampton and Townsville.

Mildura based former refugee Jules Kangeta said it was important to respect Indigenous culture.

“I find welcome to country ceremonies very moving. You can see an ancient culture at work and the local Indigenous community are telling us we are welcome,” Mr Kangeta said.

“It is a very generous gesture that shows love and shows that these are good people. The ceremonies are important because the give authority and agency to newcomers, like me, to this country.

“It is important that Indigenous communities are recognised and have a say in the country that was originally theirs,” Mr Kangeta said.

AMES Australia CEO Cath Scarth said refugee and Indigenous communities had many things in common and natural affinity.

“Many people from both communities can, at times, feel marginalised and can struggle to find their places in mainstream society. So, it's not surprising there is a level of empathy between them,” she said.

The study also found refugees were finding employment opportunities and affordable housing in the regions.

It found refugees valued the lack of congestion in regional Australia and they most planned to stay.

But it also identified issues with a lack of service provision and educational opportunities.

It asked refugees how they felt about life in rural Australia in terms of economic, cultural and social outcomes as well as access to opportunity and health and wellbeing.

The study surveyed 324 people from 25 countries. Most of the participants were from the Democratic republic of Congo, Burma, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan and Bhutan.

“Overall, people feel safe and peaceful in regional Australia. They felt welcomed by, but also a little isolated from, communities mostly because of language barriers,” the report said.

“They like the lack of congestion, and they see regional communities as better places to raise kids because they see them as safer from bad influences. But this also comes with less educational opportunities.

“Many people have been able to buy houses, that would have been out of reach in the cities. And employment opportunities are generally good,” the report said.

Asked if they planned to stay in regional Australia, 75 per cent said they planned to stay long term and just 5 per cent said they did not.

The study found refugees were mostly satisfied with the support they received on settling into new communities.

“We found that individuals – settlement workers, volunteers and community members – were important in helping people to settle,” the report said.

The study also found services in the regions were less accessible that in cities.

“In some communities we found a lack of things like dental services, refugee mental health and immigration lawyers,” the report said.

“We also found that younger adults were missing out on schooling and further educational opportunities.”

The study also identified a lack of English language tuition in secondary settlement locations, where mainstream settlement services are not available.

The study's preliminary recommendations included: flexible settlement core funding to respond to needs that arise; reassessment of needs after initial settlement, and flexible delivery of English language classes tailored to different aspirations and locations.

Predatory fish that evolved into the first terrestrial animals on Earth are still revealing insights into the origins of mammals – including new research into the eating habits of lobe-finned fish which inhabited an ancient reef in Australia.

In new research in iScience journal, an international study led by Flinders University reveals new insights into the lives of 380-million-year-old lungfish after a high-tech examination of ‘remarkable’ well-preserved jawbones found in the remote Gogo fossil field in northern Western Australia.

The 3D finite element model (FEM) analysis of the strength and features of fossilised mandible bones was used to evaluate how multiple species co-existed in the tropical prehistoric ecosystem during the Devonian ‘Age of Fishes’.

Dr Alice Clement, corresponding author of the new study, says lungfish are ‘sister taxa’ to the tetrapods – or all four-limbed animals with a backbone, including humans – “which means they are our closest ‘fishy’ relatives”.

“They have an extensive fossil history stretching back over 400 million years and still with living representatives today and their phylogenetic proximity to tetrapods giving insight into our long distant ancestors who first made the move from water to land,” she says.

The exceptional Gogo Formation has so far yielded the greatest diversity of lungfishes known from any time or space – with 11 described showing a remarkable diversity of morphologies, particular relating to skull and jaw shape.

Now for the first time the different biomechanical function has been reconstructed – to highlight the diet and predatory powers of the mysterious fish.

“We’re slowly teasing apart the details of how the bodies and lifestyles of these animals changed, as they moved from being fish that lived in water, to becoming tetrapods that moved about on land,” says Dr Clement.

With Australian and overseas colleagues, the Flinders team included honours palaeontology researcher Joshua Bland, Dr Clement, Professor John Long and biomedical experts in the US including Dr Olga Panagiotopoulou.

 “Our comprehensive dataset offers the most detailed quantification of biting performance in any fossil fish thus far, providing biomechanical evidence for diverse feeding adaptations and niche partitioning within Gogo lungfishes,” says Dr Panagiotopoulou, from Touro University California.

Based on CT scans of exceptionally-preserved 3D fossils, seven taxa were examined to quantify shape disparity, with FEM used on five which were preserved with associated crania and lower jaws.

“We were then able to model the stress and strain experienced by these lower jaws during biting,” she says

The 3D virtual models are all available via Morphosource.

Strategic Professor of Palaeontology John Long says the new study features important information about the specialised way ‘gracile’ or ‘robust’ morphology and dentition of their jawbones allowed these fascinating fish to hunt, bite and eat.

“The results were somewhat surprising, with some ‘robust’-looking lower jaws appearing to not be all that well suited to biting stress, and some of the more gracile or slender jaws appeared to be able to with strand stress and strain very well,” says Professor Long, who previously described the slender long-snouted Griphognathus whitei (or ‘duck-billed’ lungfish) from the Gogo Formation area.

“This diversity of biomechanical function seen in the Gogo lungfishes suggest that there was niche partitioning and tropic differentiation among lungfishes, possibly accounting for their incredibly high species diversity at this site.”

Primitive forms of placoderm and other fish were the dominant predators around the world for about 60 million years before becoming extinct. Some fossil samples of lobe-finned fish found 50-100 years ago can now be studied in more detail with new techniques such as FEM, which is often used in engineering research.

Lead author, Flinders Palaeontology Lab researcher Joshua Bland, adds: “The Late Devonian reefs of the Gogo Formation were a truly unique lungfish community with species possessing a whole host of different behaviours and abilities.

“To capture parts of that story, hidden in the bone, was extremely rewarding. It felt like we lifted the veil on some real functions behind the form. It was impressive to see the more complex morphology perform better in our tests,” he says.

The latest research article – ‘Comparison of diverse mandibular mechanics during biting in Devonian lungfishes’ (2025) by Joshua Bland (Flinders University), Hugo Dutel (University of Bristol & Université de Bordeaux), John A Long (Flinders), Matteo Fabbri (Center of Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, US), Joseph Bevitt (Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, ANSTO), Kate Trinajstic (Curtin University & WA Museum), Olga Panagiotopoulou (Touro University California) and Alice M Clement (Flinders) – has been published in iScience. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112970

This work was funded by the Australian Research Council grant DP 220100825.

Acknowledgements: Researchers thank the Gooniyandi Peoples, the local station managers of Gogo and Mt Pierre Stations, those who facilitated specimen and museum collection access and the facilities and the scientific and technical assistance from multiple organisations and individuals.

The United Nations is urging governments to accelerate efforts to make trade systems more inclusive and sustainable, highlighting limited support for vulnerable groups including small and medium-sized enterprises, women traders and the agricultural sector despite steady progress in broader trade facilitation.

“The global trading environment has recently faced unprecedented challenges. Extensive tariff measures have introduced uncertainty and increased trade costs, while broader disruptions have exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. These tr

Responding to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Taliban Supreme Leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Taliban Chief Justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for their suspected responsibility for the crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International, reiterates:

“The announcement is an important development that gives hope, inside and outside the country to Afghan women, girls, as well as those persecuted on the basis of gender identity or expression, such as members of the LGBTQI community. This is a crucial step to hold accountable all those allegedly responsible for the gender-based deprivation of fundamental rights to education, to free movement and free expression, to private and family life, to free assembly, and to physical integrity and autonomy.

“Amnesty International also calls on the international community to recognize gender apartheid as a crime under international law in order to strengthen efforts to combat institutionalized regimes of systematic oppression and domination imposed on the grounds of gender.”

Background  

On 8 July 2025, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) has issued, in the context of the Situation of Afghanistan, warrants of arrest for Mr Haibatullah Akhundzada, Supreme Leader of the Taliban, and Mr Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Chief Justice of the Taliban, who have exercised de facto authority in Afghanistan at least from 15 August 2021.

In 2023, Amnesty International published its report, The Taliban’s war on women, on the crime against humanity of gender persecution against women and girls in Afghanistan. The 2022 report, Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule,also documented the Taliban’s widespread, systematic, and intentional attacks on the rights of women, together with the use of torture and other ill-treatment and enforced disappearance. The discriminatory restrictions on the rights of women and girls affect all spheres of their lives, and they are institutionalized through the Taliban’s policies, decisions, and laws.

Digital divide creates efficiency gap for inhouse teams managing cross-border subsidiaries

• APAC Entities require 29% more management tasks than global average
• Processing times vary from 11 days to 64 days
• Board-level activity triple that of European counterparts
• New Zealand, Singapore and Australia lead regional efficiency rankings.

SINGAPORE – Multinational organizations face significantly higher operational demands in Asia-Pacific, with entities requiring 28.7% more management tasks than the global average, according to new data released in the Asia-Pacific Special Report by Mercator^® by Citco (Mercator).

The analysis reveals stark contrasts in processing times – from 11 days in digitally advanced Singapore to 64 days in Macau – creating unprecedented challenges for corporate secretarial teams managing multi-jurisdictional portfolios. The findings, representing $USD10.37 billion in market capital, draw from actual operational data across 180 jurisdictions and 20 different types of corporate secretarial activities.

Regional Position

Activity Level: 5.37 tasks per entity vs global average of 4.18

APAC entities average 5.37 tasks versus the global 4.18, reflecting complex regulatory requirements and varying governance approaches. While regional hubs offer streamlined processes, the overall management burden remains significantly higher, often requiring local expertise.

Governance: Highest global volume of board and shareholder decisions

APAC leads globally in board-level activity, with triple the board and shareholder tasks compared to European counterparts. This reflects the region's distinct approach where boards serve as active management tools, with many markets requiring local directors and in-country representatives.

Cost: 14% above North America, 47% below Middle East & Africa

Entity management costs position APAC 14% above North American averages while maintaining a 47% advantage against Middle East & Africa. This reflects APAC's uniquely diverse market composition – from Malaysia's competitive rates to South Korea's premium service environment.

Jurisdictional Rankings

New Zealand leads the overall cost and time efficiency rankings, with multinationals benefiting from its streamlined digital processes and straightforward compliance requirements. Singapore tops processing speed, while Malaysia emerges as most cost-efficient.

At the other end of the scale, South Korea, China, and Indonesia rank lowest with the most costly and complex, demanding careful planning and necessitating specific local expertise.

Kariem Abdellatif, Head of Mercator^® by Citco comments:

“Our analysis reveals a stark reality in Asia-Pacific: organizations face a 29% higher workload managing their entities compared to global averages, driven by a growing digital divide across the region. While markets like New Zealand have fully embraced and embedded technology-enabled processes, others like Japan maintain more traditional requirements that significantly increase complexity and resources needed. This creates two distinct operational realities for multinational organizations.

What's particularly challenging for global in-house teams is navigating these extremes both within a single region and a single team – from 11-day processing times in Singapore to 64 days in Macau. The contrast is striking: while one jurisdiction accepts simple e-signature execution, another requires multiple sequential approvals in a foreign language just to process a single document. As regulatory requirements evolve and digital transformation accelerates, this gap will likely widen further, making strategic entity management crucial for operational success.”

To read the full report please visit: https://mercator.net/our-thinking/publications/asia-pacific-special-report/

About the report

Part of Mercator's Entity Portfolio Management report series – the Asia-Pacific: Special Report provides direct insight into the cost and time required to manage entities across APAC.

Unlike survey and sentiment-based reports, this report combines real-life data, with expert insights from our jurisdictional and cross-jurisdictional experts. This approach delivers benchmarks for multinational companies, with jurisdictions ranked by cost efficiency, time efficiency, and overall performance scores that combine both metrics to provide a comprehensive review of entity management across the region.

The data

The statistics that form the basis of this report cover the period between April 2024 to May 2025 and are drawn directly from Mercator^® by Citco's proprietary EPM technology platform – Entica^® – which individually records all the activities undertaken for clients.

The data represents approximately $USD10.37 billion in market capital, spread across major business sectors in APAC. The global data covers over 180 jurisdictions and 20 different types of corporate secretarial activities. APAC's jurisdictional rankings feature the 17 most active jurisdictions in APAC (meeting a threshold of minimum five tasks or four entities).

About Mercator^® by Citco

Mercator by Citco (Mercator) is the pioneer of Entity Portfolio Management and a strategic partner for many organizations with a global footprint. Mercator's unrivalled knowledge and focus on entity management combined with our proprietary technology 'Entica^®' is evolving the way multinational companies view and manage their portfolio of entities. Mercator's services cover over 180 jurisdictions via a single-point-of-contact model, delivered by highly-experienced, client-dedicated teams, supported by local operations that cover all time zones.

Find out more at: https://mercator.net/

About the Citco group of companies (Citco)

The Citco group of companies (Citco) is a network of independent companies worldwide. These companies are leading providers of asset-servicing solutions to the global alternative investment industry. With $2 trillion in assets under administration and operations spanning across 36 countries, Citco's unique culture of innovation and client-driven solutions have provided Citco's clients with a trusted partner for more than four decades.

Source: Flinders University

Northern Australia's annual monsoon season brings relief to drought-stricken lands and revitalises crops and livestock for farmers. But a study of 150,000 years of climate records shows that the monsoon is likely to intensify – triggering a higher risk of flooding while worsening the impact of droughts in East Asia.

Led by Professor Michael Bird, researchers at James Cook University and Flinders University have assessed sediments at Girraween Lagoon near Darwin, revealing a continuous record of monsoon rainfall patterns dating back beyond the last interglacial period.

This research published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews offers insight into how climate change could alter monsoon patterns across East Asia and Australia.

“This is the longest terrestrial record ever produced at the southern end of the Indo-Australian monsoon system, which delivers vital rainfall to millions across the Southern Hemisphere. The record also has implications for the Northern Hemisphere where tens of millions in Asia rely on monsoons for food and their livelihoods.

“Our study shows how the two monsoon systems are interrelated over thousands of years and reveals what causes them to change. Our analyses shows that that rainfall in northern Australia is closely tied to sea level changes, which shift the location of the northern coastline by up to 320 km. These shifts strongly alter local rainfall, with wetter periods occurring when the coastline is closer to the Australian landmass and the oppose effect is prolonged drought in East Asia.”

“Intriguingly, the research also uncovered what we consider bursts of intense monsoon activity – some lasting less than 10,000 years. These bursts align with Heinrich events – abrupt pulses of freshwater into the North Atlantic from rapidly melting ice linked to the weakening of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean,” said Professor Bird.

These findings carry a warning from scientists because the Gulf Stream is already weakening due to climate change, and the study suggests this could lead to increased rainfall in northern Australia while contributing to droughts in parts of East Asia.

“This isn’t just ancient history. It is a window into the rainfall patterns that are emerging today. Our data suggest that the weather tr