U.S

• Rio Tinto has reached a court approved settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of a suit brought in 2017 concerning disclosure of the impairment of Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique (RTCM) reflected in Rio Tinto’s 2012 year-end accounts.
• With this settlement, all investigations of Rio Tinto regarding this matter have been finalised.
• Rio Tinto settled claims brought by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission in 2022 and the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority in 2017 relating to the same RTCM impairment.
• The U.S. Court who approved the SEC settlement previously dismissed a related private putative securities class action in 2019.

• Oral Surgery Management (USOSM), will be participating in Becker’s The Future of Dentistry Roundtable October 25-27 at the Swissotel, Chicago.
• McCann will be a speaker on the panel “Navigating the Rise of Specialty DSOs: Orthodontics, Periodontics and Oral Surgery,” on Oct. 26.
• Founded in November 2017, USOSM is a management services organization (MSO) that exclusively serves premier, board certified oral and maxillofacial surgeons.
• “As the first management services firm, exclusively serving oral and maxillofacial surgeons, and as a continued, recognized leader in the OMS space, it is our honor to be a part of the Becker’s panel on the rise of specialty services organizations in orthodontics, periodontics and oral surgery,” said McCann.

• YPSILANTI, Mich. , Oct. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Eastern Michigan University's longstanding commitment to be an institution of opportunity is substantiated in the latest U.S. News and World Report Social Mobility rankings.
• Eastern is tied for first among Michigan universities for advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating a large proportion of economically disadvantaged students.
• Eastern has scored highly in U.S. News' Social Mobility rankings for several years.
• It is what Eastern Michigan University stands for – providing pathways to opportunities and careers for those who might otherwise be left behind."

• Nearly 30 years after the infamous Battle of Mogadishu, the U.S. military is still conducting operations in Somalia.
• Some of their bodies were dragged along city streets by Somali militants.
• There have been at least 282 U.S. counterterrorism operations in Somalia, including drone strikes and other aerial bombardments.
• In May 2022, Biden also agreed to send about 500 U.S. troops to Somalia.
• But the question remains: Why are U.S. forces still intervening in Somalia?

The cost of US involvement in Somalia

• Between 2007 and 2020, the U.S. spent at least US$2.5 billion on counterterrorism operations in Somalia, according to Costs of War, a 2023 Brown University study.
• This amount was largely spent by the U.S. Department of State and does not include the unknown expenditures of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Defense Department.
• For comparison, between 2001 and 2022 the U.S. spent approximately $2.3 trillion, or nearly 1,000 times more, on “counterterrorism” wars in Afghanistan.
• The U.S. spends time and money training the Somali National Army, assisting in surveillance and drone strike operations.
• Many of their activities are not publicly traceable.

Understanding the crisis in Somalia

• Located in East Africa on the coast of the Indian Ocean, Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world.
• Decades of civil war coupled with extreme droughts have caused the roughly 17 million people to exist in dire living conditions.
• The group comprised about a dozen local Islamic courts in southern Somalia that solved social disputes, reopened schools and ended roadblocks erected by violent warlords.

The US global war on terrorism

• When the CIA’s effort failed to topple the group, the U.S. government then backed an Ethiopian military invasion of Somalia in late 2006.
• In my view, this U.S.-supported Ethiopian invasion was largely responsible for creating the conditions of political uncertainty and violence that prevail today.
• Al-Shabaab portrayed the U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion in religious and nationalist terms and painted the U.S. and Ethiopia as Christian invaders of a Muslim country.
• After two years of war, Ethiopia withdrew its troops, claiming their mission to rid the extremist threat was accomplished.

Time for a US reckoning on Somalia?

• On Sept. 6, 2023, for instance, the U.S. military reportedly provided “remote assistance” to an aerial strike operation conducted by the Somali government that killed five civilians.
• The U.S. role in Somalia does not absolve al-Shabaab of its crimes, as the militant group continues to recruit from socially and economically disenfranchised communities in Somalia.
• Among those crimes are bombings of civilian targets throughout Africa and the Middle East, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
• But in my view, a demand for reparations from the Somali government before an international tribunal may force a U.S. reckoning on its global war against terrorism that nevertheless still rages on in Somalia.