New guidelines to regulate Australia’s booming cosmetic procedures industry have been called “tough” and “a crackdown” in media reports this week.
On Tuesday, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) announced the new guidelines – one for procedures, the other for advertising – and said it put the lucrative industry “on notice”.
The guidelines stem from AHPRA’s 2023 review of non-surgical cosmetic procedures – think injectables (such as Botox and dermal fillers), laser skin resurfacing, chemical peels, hair transplants and more.
That review was established only after AHPRA investigated widespread reports about unsafe practices in cosmetic surgery in 2022, exposing risks and deficiencies in both the surgical and non-surgical cosmetics sector.
These included the predatory targeting of under-18s, inadequate training for practitioners, and poor screening of patients. For example, 52-second telehealth consultations.
So, how tough are these guidelines? And can they be enforced?
What do the guidelines say?
The new rules aim to put safety before sales and cover many more issues than any previous guidance.
These new rules ban financial incentives, discounts and other financial arrangements, such as “contra deals” – where Botox injections might be administered in exchange for restaurant meals, as occurred in one New South Wales case.
They also ban perks for social media influencers, who often get free treatments.
The guidelines confirm influencers recruited by practitioners should not create unreasonable expectations of benefits for patients (which is already against the law if practitioners do it). If influencers do, the recruiting practitioner will be responsible.
The new rules for health practitioners aim to make non-surgical procedures safer. Tijana Simic/Shutterstock
Botox is a prescription-only drug subject to strict controls.
But several practitioners have been disciplined for administering or procuring it inappropriately, such as in day spas or by arranging “remote” prescriptions by email. Recent cases of unregistered people injecting it at parties, resulting in botulism (a serious condition), also suggest gaps in oversight.
The new rules allow only suitably trained practitioners to prescribe these drugs following an in-person or video consultation. Batch prescribing – issuing prescriptions for multiple patients – is now clearly unacceptable.
The guidelines emphasise skills and training. Registered nurses will now need a year’s experience in other fields before giving cosmetic treatments. Enrolled nurses will be expected to first have a year of supervised, relevant experience.
There must also be robust protocols to manage any complications after a procedure. Practitioners must provide detailed aftercare instructions, and ensure patients are aware of their right to complain and to whom.
The guidelines address this by requiring registered nurses and nurse practitioners to thoroughly assess a patient’s suitability for a treatment.
They must confirm the patient’s expectations are realistic, discuss risks and alternatives (including no treatment), be transparent about their own skills and experience, and explain all costs.
The guidelines specify that screening assessments must check for underlying conditions, such as body dysmorphic disorder, which is known to be more common in those seeking cosmetic treatments.
Patients experiencing this condition would likely be unsuitable. That’s because people with body dysmorphic disorder are at higherrisk of poor psychosocial outcomes (such as poorer mental health or wellbeing).
If found unsuitable, patients must be refused treatment and referred to another appropriate practitioner, such as a psychologist, for appropriate support.
Overall, the new guidelines foster better informed consent processes. They prompt practitioners to screen for and discuss the psychosocial risks known to be associated with cosmetic procedures.
Consultations will have to screen patients to see if they’re suitable for treatment. Chay_Tee/Shutterstock
What about under 18s?
AHPRA says the new rules offer greater protection for young people through new safeguards and special rules for under-18s.
The guidelines say prescribing dermal fillers to minors is inappropriate. For other procedures, they require parental or guardian consent where practicable, and a cooling-off period of seven days between obtaining informed consent and the procedure.
However, health practitioners will still be able to exercise their clinical judgement for under-18s within the limits of the law.
Instead, they define the standards expected of all registered health practitioners who perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures – except doctors, who have their own guidelines.
If a health practitioner does not comply with the guidelines, the board responsible for their registration and accreditation – for example, the Nursing and Midwifery Board – can take “immediate action” to suspend them or launch disciplinary proceedings for extended sanctions.
Before now, there were no specific rules about cosmetic procedures – just the general (but important) codes of conduct for each profession.
The guidelines give real teeth to the bodies that regulate the health profession and will likely enable them to weed out bad actors from the cosmetic workforce. Even so, they cannot compensate or redress patient harms.
Japanese company ispace said it has not been able to establish communication with its uncrewed moon lander following its lunar touchdown attempt on Friday, two years after its failed inaugural mission.
Tokyo-based ispace has hoped to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace, which have accomplished commercial landings amid an intensifying global race for the moon that includes state-run missions from China and India.
Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900 km (560 miles) from the moon’s north pole.
The company’s live-streamed flight data showed Resilience’s altitude suddenly falling to zero shortly before the planned touchdown time of 4:17 a.m. on Friday, Japanese time (1917 GMT on Thursday) following an hour-long descent from lunar orbit.
“We haven’t been able to confirm” communication, and control centre members will “continuously attempt to communicate with the lander,” the company said in the broadcast. Footage from the control room showed nervous faces of ispace engineers.
A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo.
The status of Resilience remains unclear, and ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada will hold a press conference about the outcome of the mission at 9 a.m. (0000 GMT), the company said.
In 2023, ispace’s first lander crashed into the moon’s surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design is mostly unchanged in Resilience, the company has said.
Resilience carried a four-wheeled rover built by ispace’s Luxembourg subsidiary and five external payloads worth a total of $16 million, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university.
Following the landing, the 2.3-metre-high lander and the microwave-sized rover were scheduled to begin 14-day exploration activities until the arrival of a freezing-cold lunar night, including capturing images of regolith, the moon’s fine-grained surface material, on a contract with U.S. space agency NASA.
Shares of ispace more than doubled earlier this year on growing investor hopes for the second mission, before calming in recent days. As of Thursday, ispace had a market capitalisation of more than 110 billion yen ($766 million).
Resilience in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, which took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March.
Intuitive Machines, which last year marked the world’s first touchdown of a commercial lunar lander, made its second attempt in March but the lander Athena ended on its side on the lunar surface just as in the first mission.
Japan last year became the world’s fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the U.S., China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander, yet also in a toppled position.
Despite President Donald Trump’s proposed changes to the U.S. space policy, Japan remains committed to the American-led Artemis moon program, pledging the involvement of Japanese astronauts and technologies for future lunar missions.
Including one in 2027 as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services for the Artemis program, ispace plans seven more missions in the U.S. and Japan through 2029 to capture increasing demands for lunar transportation.
India urged the international community to adopt concrete, time-bound measures and establish a dedicated global facility to support Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) financing, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr. P. K. Mishra said today at the Ministerial Roundtable on DRR Financing in Geneva. He praised the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and its partners for convening the discussion and acknowledged Brazil and South Africa for sustaining global dialogue through their G20 presidencies.
Dr. Mishra told delegates that financing for disaster risk reduction bears directly on a country’s ability to protect development gains as climate and disaster threats grow. He noted that, in India’s early years, Finance Commission allocations for DRR amounted to only INR 60 million (approximately USD 0.7 million). Today, outlays under the 15th Finance Commission top INR 2.32 trillion (around USD 28 billion). “Over time, India has transformed DRR financing from a reactive measure into a planned, predictable framework,” he said, explaining that the Disaster Management Act of 2005 laid the groundwork for rule-based fund transfers from national authorities down to states and districts.
According to Dr. Mishra, India’s approach rests on ensuring that budgets cover preparedness, mitigation, relief, and recovery in one integrated flow of funds. He emphasized that the needs of vulnerable communities remain at the forefront of allocation decisions. He added that, by making resources accessible at every level—central, state, and local—the government ensures timely assistance for all affected areas. “We have built accountability and transparency into every stage of expenditure, so outcomes can be measured and lessons learned applied,” he explained.
Dr. Mishra stressed that while each country must design a financing system suited to its governance, fiscal context, and risk profile, guidance from global benchmarks is essential. He said: “Countries need to take ownership of DRR financing, while benefiting from technical support and experience sharing. At the same time, international cooperation can help mobilize resources that go beyond traditional public finance.”
He proposed that risk-pooling arrangements, insurance schemes, and other innovative tools be developed in line with local fiscal capacity, noting that these instruments can complement public budgets without imposing unsustainable debt burdens. “It is not enough to wait for disasters and then allocate funds; we need a mix of financial instruments that can smooth the impact of shocks,” he argued.
At the global level, Dr. Mishra observed that no dedicated international mechanism currently exists to help countries set up or strengthen DRR financing frameworks. He called for the creation of a global facility under the UN system and in partnership with multilateral development banks, one that would provide catalytic funding, technical assistance, and a platform for knowledge exchange. “Such a facility would help countries move from intent to action with clear, time-bound milestones,” he said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has projected India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 6.5 per cent for 2025-26, with domestic economic activity showing resilience on the back of a strong agriculture sector, industry picking up, and the services sector expected to maintain momentum.
The quarterly growth rates projected for the financial year are: Q1 at 6.5, Q2 at 6.7, Q3 at 6.6 and Q4 at 6.3 per cent.
“The provisional estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) placed India’s real GDP growth in 2024-25 at 6.5 per cent. During 2025-26 so far, domestic economic activity has exhibited resilience. The agriculture sector remains strong. With a very good harvest in both the kharif as well as rabi cropping seasons, the supply of major food crops is comfortable. The reservoir levels remain healthy. The highest procurement of wheat in the last four years provides a comforting stock position,” RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Friday.
Industrial activity is gradually increasing, even though the pace of recovery is uneven. The services sector is expected to maintain momentum. Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) services stood strong at 58.8 in May 2025, indicating robust expansion in activity, he pointed out.
The RBI Governor stated that on the demand side, private consumption, the mainstay of aggregate demand, remains healthy, with a gradual rise in discretionary spending. Rural demand remains steady, while urban demand is improving. Investment activity is reviving as reflected by high-frequency indicators.
Merchandise exports recorded a strong growth in April 2025 after a lacklustre performance in the recent past. Non-oil, non-gold imports posted a double-digit growth, reflecting buoyant domestic demand conditions. Services exports continue on a strong growth trajectory, he explained.
Malhotra further stated that going forward, the outlook for the agriculture sector and rural demand is expected to receive further impetus from the expected above-normal southwest monsoon rainfall. On the other hand, sustained buoyancy in services activity should nurture revival in urban consumption.
The government’s continued thrust on capex, elevated capacity utilisation, improving business optimism, and easing financial conditions should help further revive investment activity, he observed.
Trade policy uncertainty, however, continues to weigh on merchandise exports prospects, while the conclusion of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom and progress with other countries should provide a fillip to trade in goods and services, the RBI Governor pointed out.
He also said that spillovers emanating from protracted geopolitical tensions, global trade and weather-related uncertainties pose downside risks to growth.
The U.S. Supreme Court made it easier on Thursday for people from majority backgrounds such as white or straight individuals to pursue claims alleging workplace “reverse” discrimination, reviving an Ohio woman’s lawsuit claiming she was illegally denied a promotion and demoted because she is heterosexual.
The justices, in a 9-0 ruling authored by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, threw out a lower court’s decision rejecting a civil rights lawsuit by the plaintiff, Marlean Ames, against her employer, Ohio’s Department of Youth Services. Ames said she had a gay supervisor when she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a gay woman and demoted, with a pay cut, in favor of a gay man.
Reverse discrimination lawsuits are increasing in the United States amid a backlash by conservatives and Republicans including President Donald Trump against initiatives in the public and private sectors to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workforce.
The Ames case centered on how plaintiffs like her must try to prove a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex – including sexual orientation.
Thursday’s ruling will affect how cases are handled by courts in certain parts of the country where plaintiffs from majority groups must provide more evidence than minority plaintiffs to make an initial – or “prima facie” – claim of discrimination under a 1973 Supreme Court ruling that governs the multi-step process employed to resolve such cases.
These courts include the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against Ames. They require majority-group plaintiffs to show “background circumstances” indicating that a defendant accused of workplace bias is “that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.”
Jackson, writing for the Supreme Court, said that both the language of Title VII and the court’s precedents make clear that there can be no distinctions between majority-group and minority-group plaintiffs.
“By establishing the same protections for every ‘individual’ – without regard to that individual’s membership in a minority or majority group – Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone,” Jackson wrote.
Ames, 61, sued in 2020 seeking monetary damages. She argued that she was discriminated against in her department’s 2019 employment decisions because she is heterosexual in violation of Title VII and that she was more qualified than the two gay people given the job positions instead of her.
“I was straight and pushed aside for them,” Ames told Reuters in February.
“We are overjoyed that the court saw the case our way,” Edward Gilbert, an attorney for Ames, said after Thursday’s ruling.
The 6th Circuit said Ames could not satisfy the “background circumstances” requirement by showing that a gay person made the employment decisions in favor of gay people. The two people who had authority in those personnel decisions, the 6th Circuit noted, were straight.
Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office had defended the employment actions concerning Ames as part of a Department of Youth Services restructuring and said department leaders felt she lacked the vision and leadership skills needed for the newly created job for which she applied.
Department spokesperson Dominic Binkley said Ohio agrees that litigants should not be held to differing standards, but emphasized that lower courts must now address Ohio’s remaining arguments in the case.
“We look forward to fully pressing those arguments as the case moves forward because the Ohio Department of Youth Services did not engage in unlawful discrimination,” Binkley said.
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY POLICIES
On his first day back in office in January, Trump ordered the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion policies in federal agencies and encouraged private companies to follow suit. Conservative groups including America First Legal, which has filed numerous legal actions claiming anti-white and anti-male bias, had urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Ames.
The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and other civil rights groups told the Supreme Court in a legal filing that Ames was asking the justices “to interpret Title VII in a way that ignores the realities of this country’s persisting legacy of discrimination in evaluating disparate-treatment claims.”
These groups said the “background circumstances” inquiry lets courts account for the reality of historical and present-day discrimination “against certain minority groups like Black and/or LGBTQ people, and the virtual absence of widespread discrimination targeting certain majority groups like white people and straight people.”
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on February 26.
In the underwriting auction conducted on June 06, 2025, for Additional Competitive Underwriting (ACU) of the undernoted Government securities, the Reserve Bank of India has set the cut-off rates for underwriting commission payable to Primary Dealers as given below:
Announcement on Open Market Outright Reverse Repo Tenders No.1 [2025]
(Open Market Operations Office, June 5, 2025)
In order to keep liquidity adequate in the banking system, the People’s Bank of China will conduct outright reverse repo operations in the amount of RMB1000 billion on June 6, 2025 through variable-rate tenders with a fixed quantity and multi-price auctions. The operation will have a maturity of 3 months (91 days).
Announcement on Open Market Operations No.106 [2025]
(Open Market Operations Office, June 6, 2025)
The People’s Bank of China conducted reverse repo operations in the amount of RMB135 billion through quantity bidding at a fixed interest rate on June 6, 2025.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China has fundamentally improved the business environment and supply reliability of electricity, and significantly reduced power outages in urban and rural areas during the past few years, a senior energy official said.
After years of combined effort, China has made connecting to the power grid easier and more affordable across the country, Song Hongkun, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, said during a news conference held in Beijing on Thursday.
As a result, the average power outage time for urban and rural grid users decreased by 28 percent and 44 percent, respectively, last year compared to 2020.
Major cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta region, and the Pearl River Delta region saw average outage times fall below one hour this year, with core urban areas reaching levels comparable to advanced global cities, he said.
Looking ahead, China aims to establish a modern business environment for the power sector, characterized by convenience, high-quality supply, green usage, universal service, and coordinated regulation by 2029, further supporting the country’s modernization drive, Song added.
According to the administration, the country’s installed renewable energy capacity reached almost 2.02 billion kilowatts by the end of April, a year-on-year increase of 58 percent. Combined wind and solar power capacity hit 1.53 billion kilowatts, surpassing thermal power for the first time.
In 2024 alone, China added 373 million kilowatts of renewable energy capacity, accounting for approximately 86 percent of the total new power capacity. For the past two consecutive years, new renewable energy installations have exceeded 300 million kilowatts, representing over 50 percent of global additions, it said.
Renewable energy generation reached 3.47 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2024, about 35 percent of total power generation. Wind and solar power have maintained a high overall utilization rate in recent years, Song noted.
To further enhance the grid’s ability to absorb renewable energy, China has been actively promoting the construction of large-scale clean energy bases and inter-provincial transmission lines, improving system regulation capabilities. The government has set a target of ensuring a national renewable energy utilization rate of no less than 90 percent by 2027.
According to Song, the administration has been continuously improving the comprehensive carrying capacity of distribution networks to accommodate the increasing proportion of distributed renewable energy sources, particularly distributed solar power.
This involves strengthening the construction and upgrading of distribution grids, building robust and flexible networks, enhancing intelligent capabilities, and refining grid dispatch and operation mechanisms, he said.
According to Zhou Xia, director-general of the center of power reliability management at the China Electricity Council, significant investment and technological progress have positioned China as the operator of the world’s most advanced power grid.
National power supply reliability reached 99.924 percent last year, a further improvement from the previous year and a dramatic increase compared to the early 1990s when urban residents experienced an average of 96.54 hours of power outages annually, she said.
Rural areas have also seen substantial gains, with power supply reliability for rural grid users substantially improved.
Qian Chaoyang, general manager of China Southern Power Grid, said the company has increased investment in rural grid construction this year to enhance its capacity to absorb distributed renewable energy. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), the company has invested over 170 billion yuan ($23.68 billion) in rural grid network, with 31.2 billion yuan allocated for this year. Investments will be further increased during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) to improve the situation, he said.
The Indian benchmark indices surged on Friday after Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra announced a jumbo 50-basis-point cut, from 6 per cent to 5.5 per cent, and a 100-basis-point reduction in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) from 4 per cent to 3 per cent.
The impact was immediate. At about 10:46 a.m., the Sensex was 505.70 points, or 0.62 per cent, higher at 81,947.74, while the Nifty gained 168.40 points, or 0.68 per cent, to reach 24,919.30.
The Nifty Bank index advanced 682.95 points (1.22 per cent) to 56,443.80. The Nifty Midcap 100 climbed 363.20 points (0.62 per cent) to 58,666.20, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 added 48.25 points (0.26 per cent) to 18,480.85.
Among Sensex constituents, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank led the gains. Sun Pharma, Infosys, Nestlé India and HCL Tech were the principal laggards.
“The change in monetary stance from accommodative to neutral also indicates that more rate cuts are unlikely unless the situation warrants. The credit growth that this rate cut will hopefully stimulate will compensate for the dip in margins,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd.
Madhavi Arora, Chief Economist, Emkay Global, said that the RBI appears to have front-loaded all policy actions, be it higher-than-expected rate cuts or infusing durable albeit staggered liquidity via lower CRRs.
“All of that now implies that the ball is in the banks’ court to transmit easier financial conditions faster,” Arora mentioned.
Earlier in the session, the domestic indices had opened flat ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee decision, with selective buying in IT and PSU banking shares. The India VIX fell 4.21 per cent to 15.08, signalling that the market is pricing in lower near-term volatility.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping confronted weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals in a rare leader-to-leader call on Thursday that left key issues to further talks.
During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi told Trump to back down from trade measures that roiled the global economy and warned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, according to a Chinese government summary.
But Trump said on social media that the talks focused primarily on trade led to “a very positive conclusion,” announcing further lower-level U.S.-China discussions, and that “there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products.”
He later told reporters: “We’re in very good shape with China and the trade deal.”
The leaders also invited each other to visit their respective countries.
The highly anticipated call came in the middle of a dispute between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks over “rare earths” minerals that threatened to tear up a fragile truce in the trade war between the two biggest economies. It was not clear from either countries’ statements that the issue had been resolved.
A U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts “shortly at a location to be determined,” Trump said on social media.
The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump’s January inauguration.
Though stocks rallied, the temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and U.S. complaints about China’s state-dominated, export-driven economic model.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives.
China’s decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets continues to disrupt supplies needed by automakers, computer chip manufacturers and military contractors around the world.
Beijing sees mineral exports as a source of leverage – halting those exports could put domestic political pressure on the Republican U.S. president if economic growth sags because companies cannot make mineral-powered products.
The 90-day deal to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions is tenuous. Trump has accused China of violating the agreement and has ordered curbs on chip-design software and other shipments to China. Beijing rejected the claim and threatened counter-measures.
“The U.S. side should take a realistic view of the progress made and withdraw the negative measures imposed on China,” the Chinese government said in a statement summarizing Xi’s call with Trump published by the state-run Xinhua news agency. “Xi Jinping emphasized that the United States should handle the Taiwan issue prudently.”
TOP RIVALS
In recent years, the United States has identified China as its top geopolitical rival and the only country in the world able to challenge the U.S. economically and militarily.
Despite this and repeated tariff announcements, Trump has spoken admiringly of Xi, including of the Chinese leader’s toughness and ability to stay in power without the term limits imposed on U.S. presidents.
Trump has long pushed for a call or a meeting with Xi, but China has rejected that as not in keeping with its traditional approach of working out agreement details before the leaders talk.
The U.S. president and his aides see leader-to-leader talks as vital to sort through log-jams that have vexed lower-level officials in difficult negotiations.
Thursday’s call came at Trump’s request, China said.
It’s not clear when the two men last spoke.
Both sides said they spoke on Jan. 17, days before Trump’s inauguration and Trump has repeatedly said that he had spoken to Xi since taking office on Jan. 20. He has declined to say when any call took place or to give details of their conversation. China had said that the two leaders had not had any recent phone calls.
The talks are being closely watched by investors worried that a chaotic trade war could disrupt supply chains in the key months before the Christmas holiday shopping season. Trump’s tariffs are the subject of ongoing litigation in U.S. courts.
Trump has met Xi on several occasions, including exchange visits in 2017, but they have not met face to face since 2019 talks in Osaka, Japan.
Xi last traveled to the U.S. in November 2023, for a summit with then-President Joe Biden, resulting in agreements to resume military-to-military communications and curb fentanyl production.
Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, JP Nadda, chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday to review the availability and distribution of fertilizers during the ongoing Kharif season. The meeting, held with officials from the Department of Fertilizers, focused on ensuring timely supply and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
During the meeting, Nadda highlighted the vital role of agriculture in ensuring national food security and stressed the importance of making essential nutrients available to support crop productivity. He was briefed on the current status of fertilizer supply and preparations for Kharif 2025. Officials informed that domestic fertilizer production is being maintained at an optimum level, with diammonium phosphate (DAP) production reaching 3.84 lakh metric tonnes—the highest in recent months.
To bridge the gap between demand and domestic supply, Indian fertilizer companies have secured agreements with key exporters, including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Russia. These tie-ups aim to ensure consistent imports throughout the year. Nadda instructed officials to ensure fertilizers are promptly distributed across all states to meet farmers’ requirements. He also emphasised the need for close coordination with state governments, fertilizer companies, Indian Railways, and port authorities to streamline the supply chain.
Expressing concern over the increasing reliance on chemical fertilizers, especially urea, the minister called for a renewed focus on sustainable agriculture. He directed officials to intensify the implementation of PM-PRANAM (PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother-Earth). The initiative promotes balanced fertilizer use, adoption of alternatives, and encourages organic and natural farming. States demonstrating a reduction in chemical fertilizer use will be eligible for incentives under the scheme.
Nadda also underlined the need for strict action to curb the illegal diversion, hoarding, and black marketing of fertilizers. He called for coordinated efforts with state governments to prevent such practices and ensure fertilizers reach the intended beneficiaries.
The meeting was attended by Rajat Kumar Mishra, Secretary, Department of Fertilizers, along with senior officials including Anita Meshram and Aparna S. Sharma, Additional Secretaries, and Abhay Sharma, Director (Movement).
Amazon gives undertakings to CMA to curb fake reviews
Commitments include enhanced detection systems and sanctions for businesses and mark another milestone in CMA’s ongoing action to curb fake reviews.
iStock
Amazon commits to tough sanctions for businesses using fake reviews to boost their product ratings, as well as users who post fakes
Move comes after Google signed undertakings in January and CMA published guidance to help businesses comply with consumer law on reviews
CMA now actively sweeping review platforms as it considers how to take action under new consumer regime
Amazon, one of the largest online retailers in the world, has given undertakings to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) committing to enhance its existing systems for tackling fake reviews, which are now explicitly banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA).
The undertakings also tackle CMA concerns about ‘catalogue abuse’. This is where sellers hijack the reviews of well-performing products and add them to an entirely separate and different product, in order to falsely boost its star rating – and mislead consumers. In practice, this could mean a consumer thinks they have found a pair of 5-star headphones, but on closer inspection, the majority of reviews are about a mobile phone charger.
Amazon has also agreed to sanction businesses that boost their star ratings via bogus reviews or catalogue abuse, including bans from selling on the website. Sanctions will also be applied to users who post fake reviews, who could be banned from posting reviews altogether.
These undertakings build on Amazon’s existing processes to ensure rigorous and robust systems are in place – meaning consumers can have greater trust and confidence in both star ratings and online reviews.
The update comes as part of continued action from the CMA to protect consumers online. Earlier this year, it secured undertakings from Google that saw the company make significant changes to its processes for tackling fake reviews, including sanctions for repeat offenders.
Amazon’s Undertakings
The undertakings come after the CMA launched an investigation into Amazon over concerns that the company was breaching consumer law by failing to take adequate action to protect people from fake reviews – including not doing enough to detect and remove fake reviews, act on suspicious patterns of behaviour, or properly sanction reviewers and businesses taking part in fake review activity.
The CMA welcomes the constructive and collaborative approach from Amazon in developing these undertakings, and its commitment to implement them swiftly to protect its customers.
Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, said:
So many people use Amazon, from buying a new bike lock to finding the best coffee machine – and what’s clear is that star ratings and reviews have a huge impact on their choices. That’s why these new commitments matter and help set the standard. They mean people can make decisions with greater confidence – knowing that those who seek to pull the wool over their eyes will be swiftly dealt with.
The undertakings from Amazon and Google, alongside our recently published advice to review platforms, paint a clear picture of what the law requires from businesses. Following this, we’re now launching the next phase of our work. This will scrutinise whether review platforms, businesses who list products on them, and reviewers themselves, are complying with the strengthened laws around fake reviews – and whether further action will be needed to see real change for shoppers.
To address the CMA’s concerns, Amazon has committed to:
Rigorous processes to tackle fake reviews and catalogue abuse: Amazon has committed to have in place robust processes to quickly detect and remove fake reviews and catalogue abuse – meaning it can better identify those businesses and reviewers that are breaking the law, and take the necessary action.
Sanctions for businesses and reviewers: Businesses selling on Amazon face being sanctioned for catalogue abuse or using fake reviews to falsely boost their star ratings – and can be banned from selling on the site altogether. Users who post fake reviews, positive or negative, risk being banned from writing further reviews, and all their previous reviews being deleted.
Easier reporting functions: The undertakings commit Amazon to ensure they have clear and robust mechanisms that allow consumers – and businesses – to report fake reviews and catalogue abuse quickly and easily.
What’s next
The CMA is currently conducting an initial sweep of review platforms following the publication of its Fake Reviews Guidance in April. This seeks to identify review platforms that may need to do more to ensure they are complying with consumer law (as is outlined in the guidance).
This action will form part of a new phase of the CMA’s work looking into the conduct of players across the sector, including businesses whose products and services are listed on review sites. It will determine whether further CMA action is needed under the new consumer regime.
Under the DMCCA, the CMA can now decide independently whether consumer law has been infringed, rather than going through the courts. It can also tackle consumer law breaches directly, including issuing fines, ordering businesses to improve their practices to make sure they are in line with the law, and making them pay redress to affected consumers.
All media enquiries should be directed to the CMA press office by email on press@cma.gov.uk, or by phone on 020 3738 6460.
The undertakings relate to the reviews, review counts and star ratings for products listed on and visible to consumers when searching Amazon’s UK online store.
As part of the CMA’s Online reviews and endorsements findings report, it estimated that £23 billion a year of UK consumer spending is potentially influenced by online reviews across the 6 broad sectors looked into.
The CMA’s case against Amazon was opened under the previous consumer enforcement regime. Accordingly, the undertakings have been given to the CMA pursuant to Part 8 of the Enterprise Act 2002. Under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 enforcement regime, if a business infringes consumer protection law, the CMA can fine them up to 10% of their global turnover. The new regime came into effect on 6 April 2025.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced a sharp 50 basis points cut in the repo rate, bringing it down from 6 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Announcing the decision, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the central bank was responding to the sharp moderation in inflation, which has now fallen to 3.2 per cent — below the RBI’s lower tolerance band of 4 per cent.
In a further liquidity-boosting measure, the RBI also announced a 100 basis points cut in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), to be implemented in four tranches of 25 basis points each on September 6, October 4, November 1, and November 29. This move is expected to infuse approximately ₹2.5 lakh crore into the banking system.
“The repo rate has now been reduced by a cumulative 100 basis points since February. Given this, we are shifting the monetary policy stance from accommodative to neutral to closely monitor the evolving growth-inflation dynamics,” Governor Malhotra stated.
The repo rate — the rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks — acts as a key benchmark for interest rates in the economy. A cut in the repo rate typically leads to a reduction in lending rates for borrowers, thereby encouraging both consumption and investment.
However, the Governor stressed that the success of the rate cut would depend on timely and effective transmission by commercial banks to consumers.
RBI’s inflation outlook has been revised downward from 4 per cent to 3.7 per cent. The Governor said the moderation in inflation is broad-based, and the alignment with the RBI’s target band appears durable. He also noted that food inflation is likely to soften further on the back of a strong rabi harvest and record wheat and pulses production.
“There has been a considerable improvement in supply-side conditions. The second advance estimates point to a record wheat crop and robust kharif arrivals, which will help contain food prices,” he added.
Governor Malhotra highlighted that the Indian economy remains on a strong footing. Corporate, bank, and government balance sheets are healthy, and the external sector is stable. He said India continues to be the fastest-growing major economy and offers attractive opportunities for both domestic and international investors.
“India’s economic resilience is underpinned by strong fundamentals — demography, digitalisation, and domestic demand,” he said.
Falling crude oil prices have also contributed to the positive inflation outlook, while anchoring inflation expectations going forward.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
TOKYO, June 6 (Xinhua) — Tokyo-based ispace has officially confirmed the failure of its moon landing mission after losing contact with the descending lander early Friday.
At a press conference held around 9:00 a.m. local time, ispace announced the end of the mission after determining that it was impossible to re-establish contact with the craft.
The lander, launched from Florida in January, successfully entered lunar orbit and began its descent from an altitude of 100 km around 3 a.m. Friday. It was scheduled to make a soft landing at 4:17 a.m. on a plain near Mare Frigoris in the northern hemisphere of the moon. However, around 4:30 a.m., the company reported a loss of contact with the lander and began investigating the situation. Experts concluded that the craft failed to make a soft landing.
iSpace’s previous attempt to land a lunar module in 2023 also ended in failure, with an altitude misjudgement leading to a crash. –0–
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Capitalism is in crisis, and our species’ imagination to save ourselves is sorely lacking. There are of course understandings out there, and solutions; but they are so heavily gate-kept that conversations about saving ourselves are well-nigh impossible. It remains a puzzle why those political and intellectual leaders who would most benefit from a regime of socially inclusive capitalism have been so avid in their anti-reform gatekeeping.
The missing ingredient from the capitalism that most of us know, or know of, is ‘public equity’. Capitalism is presented to us all as a system of markets, individualism, laws, and private property rights. The crisis of capitalism can be addressed through the development of a set of public property rights, which we may call ‘public equity’. It is the establishment of public property rights that is necessary to democratise capitalism.
New Zealand’s surprising history of universal income
At the end of my Zero-Sum Fiscal Narratives (22 May 2025), I suggested that we need to promote a narrative of “public equity over pay equity as an efficient means to correct destabilising inequality”.
In global capitalism, the first real narrative of public equity – even though it wasn’t called that – belongs to the New Zealand social security reforms of 1938. And the particular policy announced in those reforms, and implemented in the 1940 financial year, was known as Universal Superannuation. This was the activation of a human right; the right of a country’s citizens, once they reached a certain age, to receive a private income in the form of a public dividend. Irrespective of race, sex, or creed.
At its initial conception, the ‘Super’ was modest; but was projected to grow, in accordance with affordability constraints and fiscal prioritisation. Most good big things start with small beginnings. An annual payment of $20 was set to commence in 1940. And it commenced in 1940. And the 1938 universal welfare state came in under budget (refer Elizabeth Hanson, The Politics of Social Security, 1980).
The concept of Universal Superannuation proved to be extremely popular; a policy from the radical centre that pleased most of the public, though – until its popularity was demonstrated in 1938 – few of the politicians and other ‘opinion leaders’. The policy came to be because Michael Joseph Savage felt that his Labour Government had to come good on its most important 1935 promise, and because the ‘left’ and ‘right’ proposals favoured by each of the two main factions of the Labour Government (fortunately) cancelled out in the political numbers game.
The universal proposal came through the middle, between left-wing attempts to radically extend redistributive measures favouring working-class families and Labour right-wing attempts to bring in an actuarial pension system based on the supposed ‘miracle’ of compound interest. The latter idea, pushed by the finance industry, was to create a contributory ‘money mountain’ from which pensions from some future date would be paid to retired working men. (This idea disclaimed the obvious reality that all spending of pension income – not just public pensions – represents a slice of present [not past] economic output.)
(On the miracle of compound interest, it is useful to imagine persons born around 1920 saving regular percentages of their salaries from early adulthood until age 65. Such persons became rich from home-ownership, not from compound interest.)
This retirement-income policy based on public equity was not successfully exported to the wider world. The war got in the way, and unconditional non-means-tested payments to citizens of a certain age never caught on internationally. The post-depression environment – a relatively sexually-egalitarian time – was displaced by a post-war environment, which favoured men. The more common post-war welfare model was, in its various guises, ‘social insurance’. And even Universal Superannuation in New Zealand came to be seen, increasingly, through a ‘social insurance lens’; recipients widely believed it was a contributory scheme.
The aim of initially Labour, and subsequently National, was to gradually raise the amount of Super paid until it would render redundant (and henceforth displace) the alternative means-tested Age Benefit. National became increasingly committed to the concept of universal income support, favouring taxable universal benefits which would in practice confer more to each low-income recipient than to each high-income recipient. In the 1950s and 1960s, income tax rates were much more heavily graduated than they have been since the 1980s. (‘Graduation’ of income tax rates means higher ‘marginal tax rates’ faced by people with higher incomes.)
By 1970, the full convergence between Universal Superannuation and the Age Benefit had still not been achieved. Retired persons would still choose either US or AB. The convergence eventually took place, in 1976.
The universality of Super was lost twice, by the same man, who came from ‘working class aristocracy’: Roger Douglas.
Douglas replaced Super with an actuarial (‘money mountain’ for men) system in 1974; a system which became ‘the election issue’ in 1975. This plan was conceived in the days before Equal Pay for women; ie conceived when ‘labour’ was still a highly male-gendered word in certain Labour circles. (Equal pay for women was legislated for in 1972, when Robert Muldoon was Finance Minister.)
Robert Muldoon won a resounding victory – like Savage in 1938 – by committing to Universal Superannuation (albeit under the name National Superannuation). Muldoon, when recreating Super, did so by retiring the Age Benefit, leaving Super as the only publicly-sourced retirement income.
About Douglas’s 1974 scheme, Margaret McLure (A Civilised Community, 1998) wrote (pp.190/91): “Douglas’ plan was rooted in early and mid-twentieth century English labour history… It drew on the 1904 ideas of Joseph Rowntree which had helped shape English social insurance, and on the English Fabian Society’s promotion of a union’s industrial pension plan of 1954… It rewarded the contribution of the fulltime long-serving male worker and provided him [and his dependent wife] with comfort and security in old age.” The full earnings-related benefit would only be payable on turning 60 to life-long workers born after 1957. It was less generous to others, and represented a backward-looking “narrow vision for the late twentieth century”. While more like the current bureaucratic Australian scheme (with its many hidden costs) than today’s New Zealand Superannuation, the Douglas scheme had inbuilt disincentives for people of ‘retirement age’ to continue in some form of paid work after becoming eligible for a pension. An older population – as in the 2030s – requires older workers with work-life flexibility.
Douglas, in the later-1980s, again removed the universality of Super by introducing a ‘tax surcharge’ on superannuitants’ privately-sourced income, an indirect way of converting Super into a means-tested Age Benefit. Douglas renamed National Superannuation ‘Guaranteed Retirement Income’. (Douglas liked the word ‘guaranteed’, using it as a label for other benefits too. ‘Guaranteed’ implies a ‘safety net – ie an income top-up – rather than an unconditional private income payable to all citizens of a certain age. Income top-ups come with poverty traps; very high [sometimes 100%] ‘effective marginal tax rates’, when increased income from one source displaces [rather than adding to] income from another source.)
Super was restored in 1997 as a universal income when Winston Peters was Treasurer in a coalition government; Peters, the heir to the universalist tradition within the National Party as it once was, has enabled Savage’s enlightened ‘public equity’ reform to survive to the present day, albeit as an international outlier.
A Right. Or a Benefit?
The presumption against universalist principles has come from Generation X, the generation born either side of 1970 who have never known any form of capitalism other than 1980s’ and post-1980s’ neoliberalism. (And noting that Roger Douglas was the poster-‘child’ in New Zealand of the neoliberal revolution which acted to restore capitalism to its neoclassical basics; markets, individualism, laws, private property, and public sector minimalism).
This week I read this from Liam Dann, journalist on all matters relating to capitalism, and very much a ‘Gen Xer’, who wrote: Inside Economics: Should you take New Zealand Superannuation if you don’t need it? 4 June 2025. Dann is trying to resolve the clear view of his parents’ generation that Super is a ‘right’, against his own view that Super is an age ‘benefit’; a benefit that should be bureaucratically ‘targeted’. (A benefit in this sense is a redistributive ‘transfer’. By contrast, an income ‘right’ is a shareholder’s equity dividend; in a public context, the word ‘shareholder’ equates to the word ‘citizen’.)
Liam Dann asks an excellent question though – “Should rich people opt out of NZ Super?” – albeit by misconstruing the opting process. New Zealand Super is in fact an ‘opt-in’ benefit, as Dann comes to realise. Much of the present opposition to Super comes from people who would rather that the money paid to the rich was instead paid to bureaucrats to stop the rich from getting it. In reality, there is probably a significant number of rich older people who don’t get Super because they never bothered applying to MSD to get it. As Dann notes, the government is remiss in not collecting data on the numbers of eligible people who do not opt in to NZS. (And journalists, before Dann, have been remiss in not asking for that data.)
We should also note that, in spite of indications that ‘first-world’ life expectancies are levelling out, and indeed falling in some countries, Denmark is looking to raise its age of eligibility for a public pension to 70. In my view, this is moving in the wrong direction. Nevertheless, it is possible to both move in the direction that I am suggesting below, while raising what might be called the age of ‘privileged retirement’, meaning the age at which older people are entitled, as of right, to a higher pension or pension-like income than other citizens.
A Universal Basic-Income has come to mean an unconditional publicly-sourced private income, available to all ‘citizens’ above a certain age, which satisfies some kind of sufficiency test. Thus, a UBI is meant to be sufficient, on its own; a ‘stand-alone income’. New Zealand Super (NZS) – the present name for Universal Superannuation (from 1940) and National Superannuation (from 1976) – is such an income, designed to meet a sufficiency test. In particular, the ‘married-rate’ Super – $24,776 for a year before tax – is a UBI in Aotearoa New Zealand, payable to people aged over 65 who meet a certain definition of ‘citizenship’; a definition that neither discriminates on the basis of sex, race, nor creed.
However, a UBI is considered, by many of its advocates, to be a sufficient adult income, not just a retirement income. Just as NZS is in practice, a UBI needs to be a complement to wages, not a substitute for wages.
Technically, it is very simple to convert the ‘married-rate’ NZS into a UBI for all adults. Just two things would need to be done: lower the age of entitlement to 18, and pay for it by removing the concessionary income tax brackets (10.5%, 17.5%, 30%). (The higher ‘non-married’ rates would continue to apply to people over 65.) Under this proposal, there would no longer be MSD benefits nor student allowances, though there would still be some benefit supplements for MSD to process, such as Accommodation Supplements and NZS ‘single-rate’ supplements.
This UBI proposal would not be fiscally neutral; though it would be less unaffordable than many people would guess. (In practice, a fiscal stimulus at present could pay for itself in increased growth-revenue in just a few years; it might even ‘return New Zealand to surplus’ sooner than realistic current projections.) For present superannuitants working part-time, it would represent a small reduction in after-tax income, given that they would be paying income tax on their wages at what is commonly known today as the “secondary tax rate”.
Other than fiscal non-neutrality, two objections to such a UBI would be these: New Zealand has too many workers who would not meet the present NZS definition of ‘citizen’; and the UBI would be too generous to young people not working and living with their parents.
So, while it might be less unworkable than many people would expect, this instant-UBI policy is not one I would favour.
SUI
SUI stands for Simple Universal-Income. Self. We note that the prefix ‘sui-‘ means ‘self’; equity rights are a development of liberal individualism, not of ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’. Some people equate public property rights with Marxian collectivism, with the ‘nationalisation of the means of production’. They couldn’t be more wrong. Collectivist schemes involve full government retention of citizens’ incomes; they are schemes of government control; completely the opposite of universal income.
A universal private income drawn as a dividend from public wealth is individualism, not collectivism. Indeed, the natural political home of reformed capitalism is the political centre-right, not the left; albeit the new centre-right, not the privileged and stale centre-right politics which New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has so far represented. A ‘universal private income drawn from public wealth’ is different from a ‘privileged private income drawn from public wealth’.
It would be very simple to create an SUI in Aotearoa New Zealand. New Zealand’s income-tax scale has five rates: 10.5%, 17.5%, 30%, 33% and 39%. The 33% rate has formed the backbone of the New Zealand tax scale since 1988. As with the UBI example above, the SUI proposal simply eliminates the 10.5%, 17.5% and 30% rates. In return every adult economic citizen – effectively every ‘tax resident’ – would receive an annual SUI (ie dividend) of $10,122.50; that’s $195.66 per week. For all people receiving Benefits – including Superannuation, Student Allowances, Family Tax Credits – the first $195.66 per week of their benefit payments would be recategorised as their SUI dividend.
That’s it. (The dividend of $10,122.50 is simply a grossing-up of the maximum benefit accrued through those lower tax rates.) Unlike the UBI option, all existing benefits and bureaucratic infrastructure would be retained; at least until they can be reconfigured in an advantageous way. From an accounting viewpoint, existing Benefits would be split into unconditional and conditional components.
It means no change for all persons earning over $78,100 per year ($1,502 per week) before tax. And it means no change for all persons receiving total Benefit income (after tax) more than $195.66 per week. (These people could continue to be called ‘Beneficiaries’, but without stigma. Without stigma, Superannuitants can be happy to be classed as Beneficiaries.) People whose present total weekly Benefit income is currently less than $195.66 would cease to be called Beneficiaries; they would cease to be clients of the MSD, the Ministry of Social Development.
What this means is that most New Zealanders, on Day One, would see no change in their bank accounts. Nobody would receive a lower income. And for most who receive a higher income, it would be only higher by small amount.
This begs the question, if most people’s disposable incomes do not increase, or only increase by a trivial amount, then why bother? The important societal benefits would be dynamic; would be around incentives.
First, individuals (of all adult ages, male and female, regardless of their position in their households) would be incentivised to take employment risks – including self-employment risks – if they receive a core unconditional income that they do not stand to lose when risk doesn’t pay off. Labour supply is boosted; as is the economy’s ‘surge capacity’ (technically, the elasticity of labour supply increases).
Second, lower-paid individuals – many of whom are women – would have increased bargaining power (through unions and as individuals) and would not have to resort to contestable narratives such as ‘pay equity’ in order to achieve a fair wage.
Third, individuals would be better able to negotiate weekly hours of work to optimise their work-life balance. The SUI would minimise the present ‘twin evils’ of overwork and underwork.
Fourth, and especially for today’s high-income workers, the SUI represents an unconditional form of income insurance to facilitate the acquisition of basic needs during a period of what economists call ‘frictional unemployment’; being ‘between jobs’. Or a period of ‘voluntary unemployment’, such as attending to the health needs of another family member.
Fifth, the SUI would count as a democratic dividend, an acknowledgement that each society’s wealth arises from both (present and past) private and public enterprise, and that – for that reason – both private and public dividends should be part of societies’ income mix. All citizens would have both private ‘skin in the game’ and a sense of ‘public inclusion’, motivating all citizens to have an ‘us’ mentality, rather than a divisive and exclusionary ‘them and us’ mentality.
The SUI is my preferred option for New Zealand for the year 2026.
BUI
BUI stands for ‘Basic Universal-Income’. In the New Zealand context, it could be easily created by removing the 10.5%, 17.5%, and 33% income brackets. Thus, except for high-income-earners (say the five-percenters), there would be an effective flat tax set at 30% of production income. It would work much as the SUI.
I have calculated that, for New Zealand, the BUI would be $7,779.50 per year, effectively $150 per week.
To partially offset the tax cut that would be payable to people earning more than $78,100 per year, the income threshold for the 39% tax rate should come down (to $146,000, from $180,000). Tax cuts would be received by all persons earning between $78,100 and $180,000, with the maximum tax cut of just over $2,000 (just over $39 per week) being payable to someone earning $146,000.
With this BUI, compared to the SUI, there would be more day-one beneficiaries (ie more better-off people) on higher incomes, and fewer day-one beneficiaries on lower incomes. Nobody would be worse off. The dynamic benefits discussed in relation to the SUI would still apply.
This is a policy that the Act Party should embrace, given its stated commitments to liberal-democracy, individualism, enterprise, and the future of capitalism.
A wider benefit of BUI is that it could represent a small beginning to something bigger and better. Just as with Universal Superannuation, the ‘establishment fear-factor’ soon dissipated. And universal benefits came to be embraced in the 1950s by both ‘left’ and ‘right’ in Aotearoa New Zealand; a decade in which there were very few persons of working age relative to persons classifiable as ‘dependents’.
HUI
HUI represents Hybrid Universal-Income; a mix of UBI and SUI. What would happen is that the age of entitlement to New Zealand Superannuation would be lowered, but not all the way to age 18. Today the ‘threshold age’ is 65. Under a HUI, all adult tax residents under the new threshold age would receive a SUI, on the same basis as described above.
A variant of HUI would be more flexible; a flexible Hybrid Basic Income. Everyone between say 30 and 70 would be able to have a UBI for say ten years; otherwise they would have an SUI. (This might be a policy that would work well for Denmark.)
Today a large proportion of babies are born to mothers aged 30 to 40. Many of these mothers might prefer to have children while in their early thirties, but, for financial reasons, end up having their children later. If all adults could choose when to have their ten years UBI, I could imagine many women choosing their thirties, and many men choosing their forties. Thus, women would be able to leave paid work to a greater or lesser extent around when they would most like to have children, and their partners could take their UBI after the mothers of their children have returned to fulltime employment. For persons in their forties, parenting non-infant children fits with the life-stage when many people would like to be establishing their own businesses and becoming employers. This would create incentives to both working-class (and bourgeois) human reproduction, more enterprise, and more employment opportunities in the private sector for youngish and oldish workers.
A further variant of this variant could be to extend the SUI to a UBI for individuals over 60 who lose their jobs on account of redundancy. This would help the many women such as those who were caught out by the Labour Government’s barely-noticed 2020 decision to remove NZS entitlements to ‘non-qualifying-spouses’ (ie people who become redundant, mostly women, whose life-partners are already on New Zealand Superannuation). (We might also note that the Sixth Labour Government – 2017 to 2023 – cut the after-tax wages of all women [and men too] by not inflation-adjusting income-tax bracket thresholds. Looked at in full historical context, Labour governments in New Zealand have not been kind to women.)
GUI
We might note that the UBI case, first-mentioned above, would be very close to a Generous Universal-Income. In this case, only the 39% income-tax rate would be retained, and the UI would be an annual GUI dividend of $20,922.50 (ie $402.36 per week). All income would be taxed at 39% and all economic citizens would receive a weekly private (but publicly-sourced) dividend of just over $400.
Conclusion
The UI policies presented above (possibly excepting the GUI, and the UBI) reflect a liberal non-establishment centre or centre-right political perspective. The GUI and UBI, in practice, realistically reflect only future policy directions (given their clear fiscal non-neutrality), whereas the SUI, BUI, and HUI all represent changes that could be easily implemented in the May 2026 Budget.
My preference, for immediate implementation, is the SUI. In inclusive capitalist societies, public equity returns to individuals are a right. Much of societies’ capital resource is not privately owned.
As in 1938 to 1940, New Zealand can set an example for the democratic reformation of global capitalism. Unfortunately, the 1938 to 1940 reform – Universal Superannuation – was not taken up by an otherwise distracted world. (Sadly, New Zealand’s misguided 1989 monetary policy ‘reform’ – the Reserve Bank Act – was taken up by a then-attentive wider world. Unnecessarily high interest rates have caused huge grief on a global scale.)
We can choose to have a 2026 reform – a technically simple reform, that, through being promoted to the wider world as an example of how capitalism can be democratic and inclusive – which can have beneficial global consequences. Do our leaders have the intellect, imagination and courage that Michael Joseph Savage revealed in 1938? Hopefully ‘yes’, but realistically ‘no’.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Sanford D Bishop Jr (GA-02)
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02) and Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), the co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Job Corps Caucus, led a letter signed by 199 members of Congress to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging her to continue the Job Corps program.
On May 29, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a notice that it will begin a phased pause in operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers across the country. Job Corps is a national program with over 120 centers across the country. Job Corps offers at-risk youth varied academic opportunities and career pathways in business and industry.
In their letter, they highlighted, “Nearly 20,000 young people utilize Job Corps to learn skills for in-demand vocational and technical job training. Job Corps is one of the few national programs that specifically targets the 16-24-year-old population that is neither working, nor in school, and provides them with a direct pathway into employment openings in industries such as manufacturing and shipbuilding. The program also connects these young Americans with apprenticeships, higher education opportunities, or the military.”
The members of Congress also noted, “As companies continue to onshore and invest in the men and women of our country, a steady stream of skilled laborers will be required to meet the growing workforce demand. The Job Corps program is uniquely positioned to fill that role and provide these hardworking young Americans with the vocational and technical job training that will set them and our country up for success.”
The Jun. 5 letter to Secretary Chavez-DeRemer can be viewedhere.
BW Energy has engaged Pareto Securities as Global Coordinator together with Arctic Securities as Joint Bookrunners to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings. Fearnley Securities and Sparebank1 Markets are acting as Co-Managers. Subject to inter alia market conditions and acceptable terms, a new senior unsecured bond issue of USD 300 million with a tenor of five years may follow. The purpose of the bond issue is for general corporate purposes. Holders of BWE01 bonds will be offered to roll-over their bonds into the new contemplated bond issue.
BW Group (76.5% shareholder and primary insider through Mr. Andreas Sohmen-Pao) has the intention to subscribe and be allocated USD 100 million in the new bond including roll-over of USD 38.5 million of their existing BWE01 bonds. CEO Carl Arnet will also subscribe and be allocated USD 2.5 million in the new bond including roll-over of USD 2 million of his existing BWE01 bonds.
For further information, please contact: Brice Morlot, CFO BW Energy +33.7.81.11.41.16 ir@bwenergy.no
About BW Energy:
BW Energy is a growth E&P company with a differentiated strategy targeting proven offshore oil and gas reservoirs through low risk phased developments. The Company has access to existing production facilities to reduce time to first oil and cashflow with lower investments than traditional offshore developments. The Company’s assets are 73.5% of the producing Dussafu Marine licence offshore Gabon, 100% interest in the Golfinho and Camarupim fields, a 76.5% interest in the BM-ES-23 block, a 95% interest in the Maromba field in Brazil, a 95% interest in the Kudu field in Namibia, all operated by BW Energy. In addition, BW Energy holds approximately 6.6% of the common shares in Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. and a 20% non-operating interest in the onshore Petroleum Exploration License 73 (“PEL 73”) in Namibia. Total net 2P+2C reserves and resources were 599 million barrels of oil equivalent at the start of 2025.
This information is considered inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This stock exchange release was published by Regine Andersen, 06 June 2025
An all-party Indian Parliamentary Delegation, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on Thursday had an “excellent meeting” with the United States Vice President J.D. Vance in Washington, briefing him about Operation Sindoor, terrorism faced by India and regional security.
The delegation is on a 2-day visit to the United States as part of India’s global outreach against terrorism following Operation Sindoor.
The Indian Embassy in the United States said, “The All Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Shashi Tharoor called on Vice President J D Vance this morning. The conversation focused on strengthening the India-US partnership including cooperation in counter-terrorism domain.”
Vance was on India visit when the Pahalgam terror attack took place on April 22.
In a strong message of support and solidarity, the US Vice-President had also called Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strongly condemn the terror attack and convey that the United States is ready to provide “all assistance” in the joint fight against terrorism.
After meeting Vance, Tharoor shared on X, “Excellent meeting with Vice President J D Vance today in Washington D.C. with our delegation. We had comprehensive discussions covering a wide array of critical issues, from counter-terrorism efforts to enhancing technological cooperation. A truly constructive and productive exchange for strengthening India-US strategic partnership, with a great meeting of minds.”
Earlier on Thursday, Tharoor spoke with Ambassador Ken Juster at Council on Foreign Relations on India’s fight against terrorism.
The delegation also met Senator Andy Kim, Member of the US Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“The Indian parliamentary delegation led by Shashi Tharoor had a wonderful conversation with Senator Andy Kim, Member of the US Senate Homeland Security Committee, and briefed him on the heinous terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India’s measured and precise response during Operation Sindoor, and our firm resolve to respond swiftly to any such incidents in the future. The conversation also spanned productive areas of cooperation, including entrepreneurship, trade, technology, and counterterrorism!,” said the Indian embassy.
Later, the delegation interacted with members of various think tanks at the Indian Embassy. The conversation focused on India’s fight against terrorism and the multi-faceted India-US partnership.
Tharoor said that the delegation has received solidarity and understanding at everywhere they went.
He reiterated India’s stance that “there will be a price to pay” if terrorist attacks like the one in Pahalgam are carried out in India.
He said, “And I’m very pleased to say that everywhere we went and I could say this quite confidently without exception, we have received both of what we sought. We have received understanding and we have received solidarity. And these two things are really what we came for. We will continue to meet others during the remaining time today and tomorrow. I want to stress one thing, and then I’ll be very happy to open it up for discussions, and that thing is quite simply that this is not something we would really have wanted to spend our time on.”
“We are a country focused on growth and development. Our focus has entirely been on the economic advances that are so essential to pull a few the few people who remain below the poverty line in our country out below that and to take the rest into the developed India of our dreams. But, sadly, when this kind of thing is done to us, and for very cynical motives, which I think are pretty apparent so I won’t spell them out, it was necessary for us to show that we will not allow people to cross the border and kill our citizens with impunity. That for terror strikes like this, which show all the hallmarks of meticulous planning and military style execution, that there will be a price to pay. And that was very strongly the message that we sent,” he added.
Apart from Tharoor, the delegation includes Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas MP Shambhavi Choudhary, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Sarfaraz Ahmad, Shiv Sena’s Milind Murli Deora; BJP’s Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, and Tejasvi Surya; and Telugu Desam Party’s GM Harish Balayogi. Former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, is also accompanying the delegation.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) — China will work to remove obstacles and restrictions that hinder the circulation and consumption of automobiles to promote the healthy development of the domestic auto industry, Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yongqian said Thursday.
At the next departmental press conference, she emphasized that for the Chinese national economy, the auto industry is a strategic and supporting industry that plays an important role in ensuring stable growth and expanding consumption.
In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China has deeply implemented such measures as the trade-in program for new cars and pilot reforms in the field of car circulation and consumption, which are designed to free up even more consumer opportunities in the car market and develop a new driver for consumption growth, He Yongqian noted.
According to her, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China is ready, in coordination with other competent departments, to strengthen monitoring and studying the auto market, as well as to strengthen the political orientation of its development in order to better meet the diversified and individualized needs of the population.
As for the current phenomena of “involutionary” competition in the auto sector, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China will actively assist the relevant authorities in tightening comprehensive control in order to ensure fair and honest competition in the auto market, He Yongqian assured. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management have allocated 45 million yuan (about 6.26 million U.S. dollars) to support disaster relief efforts in several regions across the country, the ministry said Thursday.
Of the total, 15 million yuan will go to flood control in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, 10 million yuan will support rescue efforts after landslides in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region, and the remaining 20 million yuan will help fight drought in northwest China’s Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
According to the department, the funds will be used to minimize human and material losses from natural disasters, as well as to ensure the safety of life and property of the population in the affected areas. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Author: Serik Korzhumbayev
On May 30, a historic event took place in Hong Kong that could revolutionize the approach to international dispute resolution. Representatives of 32 countries signed the Convention Establishing the International Mediation Organization (IOM). Delegations from more than 85 countries and nearly 20 international organizations, including the UN, also attended the ceremony. The IOM became the world’s first intergovernmental body created exclusively for the peaceful resolution of international conflicts through mediation. China was the main initiator of this initiative, demonstrating new strategic thinking focused on dialogue, mutual respect, and joint search for solutions. In this analytical material, we examine the significance of the new body, China’s role in its development, and the IOM’s potential to promote peace and global cooperation.
The ceremony in Hong Kong’s Wanzai Business District was not just a diplomatic act, but a symbol of the beginning of a new era in international relations. In his speech, Wang Yi, member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and head of the PRC Foreign Ministry, emphasized that the IOM reflects the spirit of the UN Charter, in particular Article 33, which mentions mediation as one of the preferred instruments for the peaceful resolution of disputes. For a long time, the international community lacked a specialized legal framework focused on dialogue. The IOM fills this gap by offering a universal platform for states, investors and commercial organizations.
The establishment of the IOM is particularly relevant in the context of the current unstable situation: growing geopolitical contradictions, trade wars, regional conflicts. In 2025, the world celebrates the 80th anniversary of the creation of the UN and the victory in World War II – it is symbolic that right now a mechanism is emerging that can replace confrontation with dialogue.
China’s initiative is not accidental. In recent years, Beijing has confidently positioned itself as a supporter of peace and diplomacy, acting as a mediator in resolving crises in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The proposal to establish the IOM was put forward by China three years ago and became a logical continuation of the idea of a “community with a shared future for mankind” put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping. This idea has now received institutional embodiment – with its center in Hong Kong.
China’s role in the creation of the IOM is not only a diplomatic success, but also a testament to its growing influence as a responsible global power. Unlike Western approaches, which often rely on coercion or rigid legal procedures, the Chinese model of mediation is based on principles of harmony, Confucian ethics, and consensus-seeking.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted that mediation is a “natural continuation” of China’s historical tradition of resolving disputes through mutual respect. The effectiveness of this approach has been proven in practice. In 2023, China brokered a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which was a breakthrough for the Middle East. Beijing has also played an active role in peace processes in Sudan, Myanmar and other countries, avoiding interference and relying on trust.
The choice of Hong Kong as the IOM headquarters has symbolic and strategic significance. As Wang Yi emphasized, Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997 is an example of a successful diplomatic settlement. The city, with its Anglo-Chinese legal system, business infrastructure, and status as an arbitration center in Asia, is ideal for such a structure. According to the International Arbitration Review of Queen Mary, University of London, in 2025 Hong Kong tied with Singapore as the preferred jurisdiction for dispute resolution.
The IOM also reflects China’s broader ambition to reform the global governance system. In a context of growing great power competition, China offers an inclusive, equitable order. The support of 32 founding members, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Serbia, and Cambodia, underscores the credibility of the Chinese initiative, especially among countries in the Global South.
IOM’s mission is to create a universal platform for resolving interstate, investment and commercial disputes through dialogue and voluntary participation. Unlike courts, where one often wins at the expense of the other, mediation involves a win-win solution, strengthening trust and stability in the long term.
IOM is based on the principles of equality, fairness and respect for sovereignty. The organization takes into account the specifics of different legal systems and offers a flexible approach that reduces the costs and time spent on dispute resolution. This makes mediation attractive not only for states, but also for businesses.
The creation of the IOM also offers an alternative to existing Western institutions, such as the International Court of Justice or the Permanent Court of Arbitration. While these bodies remain important, their procedures often exacerbate conflicts. China’s concept of a “culture of harmony” offers a different path – cooperation instead of confrontation, which is especially relevant in a context of global interdependence.
Despite the bright start, IOM has a difficult path ahead. One of the main challenges will be to ensure trust from a wide range of countries, including Western powers. Some analysts are already expressing doubts about IOM’s ability to remain a neutral structure amid global turbulence. However, professional mechanisms are being created for this purpose – training of mediators, uniform protocols, procedures for implementing decisions.
Ratification of the Convention by member states and expansion of membership, including major powers, will be of great significance. China has already promised to establish a team of high-level international mediators, which will give the organization credibility.
IOM can be a key instrument for de-escalation in hot spots from the South China Sea to the Middle East. In Central Asia, where integration and sustainable development are important, mediation can be used to resolve disputes over trade, investment, water, and energy. Kazakhstan, as a strategic partner of China, can also benefit from such an approach.
In closing, Wang Yi recalled the ancient Chinese parable of the “six-foot alley”: two neighbors each gave each other three feet to walk down a narrow street. The story is a metaphor for the IOM philosophy: the path to cooperation is through compromise. In a world where conflicts are becoming chronic, this idea sounds like a call to reason.
The creation of the IOM under the auspices of China is not just a diplomatic victory. It is an invitation to the world to resolve disputes not from a position of strength, but through equal dialogue. And if this structure works effectively, it will become the basis for a new architecture of international relations – more just, peaceful and inclusive.
Note: Serik Korzhumbayev is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Business Kazakhstan”.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Xinhua News Agency. –0–
About $22 billion of SpaceX’s government contracts are at risk and multiple U.S. space programs could face dramatic changes in the fallout from Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s explosive feud on Thursday.
The disagreement, rooted in Musk’s criticism of Trump’s tax-cut and spending legislation that began last week, quickly spiraled out of control. Trump lashed out at Musk when the president spoke in the Oval Office. Then in a series of X posts, Musk launched barbs at Trump, who threatened to terminate government contracts with Musk’s companies.
Taking the threat seriously, Musk said he would begin “decommissioning” SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft used by NASA.
Hours later, however, Musk appeared to reverse course. Responding to a follower on X urging him and Trump to “cool off and take a step back for a couple of days,” Musk wrote: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
Still, Musk’s mere threat to abruptly pull its Dragon spacecraft out of service marked an unprecedented outburst from one of NASA’s leading commercial partners.
Under a roughly $5 billion contract, the Dragon capsule has been the agency’s only U.S. vessel capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station, making Musk’s company a critical element of the U.S. space program.
The feud raised questions about how far Trump, an often unpredictable force who has intervened in past procurement efforts, would go to punish Musk, who until last week headed Trump’s initiative to downsize the federal government.
If the president prioritized political retaliation and canceled billions of dollars of SpaceX contracts with NASA and the Pentagon, it could slow U.S. space progress.
NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens declined to comment on SpaceX, but said: “We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the president’s objectives in space are met.”
Musk and Trump’s tussle ruptured an extraordinary relationship between a U.S. president and industry titan that had yielded some key favors for SpaceX: a proposed overhaul of NASA’s moon program into a Mars program, a planned effort to build a gigantic missile defense shield in space, and the naming of an Air Force leader who favored SpaceX in a contract award.
Taking Dragon out of service would likely disrupt the ISS program, which involves dozens of countries under a two-decade-old international agreement. But it was unclear how quickly such a decommissioning would occur. NASA uses Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft as a secondary ride for its astronauts to the ISS.
SPACEX’S RISE
SpaceX rose to dominance long before Musk’s foray into Republican politics last year, building formidable market share in the rocket launch and satellite communications industries that could shield it somewhat from Musk’s split with Trump, analysts said.
“It fortunately wouldn’t be catastrophic, since SpaceX has developed itself into a global powerhouse that dominates most of the space industry, but there’s no question that it would result in significant lost revenue and missed contract opportunities,” said Justus Parmar, CEO of SpaceX investor Fortuna Investments.
Under Trump in recent months, the U.S. space industry and NASA’s workforce of 18,000 have been whipsawed by looming layoffs and proposed budget cuts that would cancel dozens of science programs, while the U.S. space agency remains without a confirmed administrator.
Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, Musk ally and billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, appeared to be an early casualty of Musk’s rift with the president when the White House abruptly removed him from consideration over the weekend, denying Musk his pick to lead the space agency.
Trump on Thursday explained dumping Isaacman by saying he was “totally Democrat,” in an apparent reference to reports Isaacman had donated to Democrats. Isaacman has donated to some Republican but mostly Democratic candidates for office, according to public records.
Musk’s quest to send humans to Mars has been a critical element of Trump’s space agenda. The effort has threatened to take resources away from NASA’s flagship effort to send humans back to the moon.
Trump’s budget plan sought to cancel Artemis moon missions beyond its third mission, effectively ending the over-budget Space Launch System rocket used for those missions.
But the Senate Commerce Committee version of Trump’s bill released late on Thursday would restore funding for missions four and five, providing at least $1 billion annually for SLS through 2029.
Since SpaceX’s rockets are a less expensive alternative to SLS, whether the Trump administration opposes the Senate’s changes in the coming weeks will give an indication of Musk’s remaining political power.
SpaceX, founded in 2002, has won $15 billion of contracts from NASA for the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and development of SpaceX’s Starship, a multipurpose rocket system tapped to land NASA astronauts on the moon this decade.
The company has also been awarded billions of dollars to launch a majority of the Pentagon’s national security satellites into space while it builds a massive spy satellite constellation in orbit for a U.S. intelligence agency.
In addition to not being in U.S. interests, former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said canceling SpaceX’s contracts would probably not be legal.
But she also added, “A rogue CEO threatening to decommission spacecraft, putting astronauts’ lives at risk, is untenable.”
Dassault Systèmes: Doubling EPS by 2029, 3D UNIV+RSES creating new growth opportunities
Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: FR0014003TT8, DSY.PA) hosts its 2025 Capital Markets Day at its headquarters in Vélizy-Villacoublay, France, today, June 6, 2025. The event, dedicated to financial analysts and investors, features a series of presentations by the Company’s executive management. It highlights how 3D UNIV+RSES mark a fundamental shift, providing the next generation of virtual-plus-real (V+R) environment. This unlocks the full potential for clients to leverage Gen AI, creating new possibilities and reaching meaningful productivity gains while protecting their IP. Dassault Systèmes elevates the value creation with 3D UNIV+RSES and demonstrates the reasons to believe across Industrial innovation, Mainstream and Life Sciences.
Together, these drivers form a coherent and powerful roadmap, positioning the Company to fully capitalize on significant mid to long-term opportunities. Dassault Systèmes updates its mid-term financial ambition to double non-IFRS diluted EPS by 2029. This allows the adoption of 3D UNIV+RSES to deliver its full potential.
Commencing at 12:45 PM London time / 7:45 AM New York time / 1:45 PM Paris time, the event will be webcast live and recorded. Both the live sessions and replays can be accessed via Dassault Systèmes’ investor website: https://investor.3ds.com/. The on-demand webcast of the event will be available from June 9, 2025.
“At today’s Capital Markets Day, we unveil the most strategic evolution in Dassault Systèmes’ history. AI for industry becomes our compass, while our next-generation value proposition – 3D UNIV+RSES – defines the next growth cycle of our company.
We are entering a new era: the Generative Economy, where value creation lies at the intersection of the Virtual and the Real – V+R. It is in this hybrid space that tomorrow takes shape and our mission is to empower our customers to imagine, to create and to operate in this hybrid world.
From life-saving therapies to next-generation mobility and resilient, sustainable infrastructure, 3D UNIV+RSES are not just transforming how industry functions – it is redefining what is possible. We are delivering the virtual twin of everything for everyone, infused with trusted AI, to reinvent products, enterprises and business models through the convergence of the Virtual and the Real. Our 3DEXPERIENCE platform now becomes the engine of the Generative Economy, enabling creation, management and amplification of knowledge, know-how and intellectual property – the new currency of progress.
With 3D UNIV+RSES, we are not simply envisioning the future of industry – we are building it, unlocking new performances, new possibilities and magic experiences. A future where AI is not artificial but augmented, scientific, trustable and deeply human.”
“We are building a company for the long term – one that delivers durable, high-quality growth powered by a loyal and expanding client base. Our ambition is clear: to double our earnings per share, and to keep doing so.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a strategic advantage. In the era of AI, it accelerates knowledge creation, unifies collaboration through a single source of truth, and unleashes the full potential of human talent. With the launch of 3D UNIV+RSES, we are unlocking a new phase of cloud adoption and customer engagement.
As a result, we are extending our financial horizon to double EPS by 2029. This shift reflects three key factors: a gradual acceleration in top-line growth, the scale-up of 3D UNIV+RSES, and continued strategic capital allocation, including targeted M&A.
Every move we make is guided by a single principle: creating long-term, sustainable value for our clients, our shareholders and our people, contributing to our EPS and cash generation. We are aligned and positioned to capture the full value of this opportunity.”
Investor Relations Events
Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Release: July 24, 2025
Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Release: October 23, 2025
Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Release: February 11, 2026
First Quarter 2026 Earnings Release: April 23, 2026
Forward-looking Information
Statements herein that are not historical facts but express expectations or objectives for the future, including but not limited to statements regarding the Group’s non-IFRS financial performance objectives are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on Dassault Systèmes management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results or performances may differ materially from those in such statements due to a range of factors. The Group’s actual results or performance may be materially negatively affected by numerous risks and uncertainties, as described in the “Risk Factors” section 1.9 of the 2024 Universal Registration Document (‘Document d’enregistrement universel’) filed with the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) on March 18, 2025, available on the Group’s website www.3ds.com. In particular, please refer to the risk factor “Uncertain Global Environment” in section 1.9.1.1 of the 2024 Universal Registration Document set out below for ease of reference:
“In light of the uncertainties regarding economic, business, social, health and geopolitical conditions at the global level, Dassault Systèmes’ revenue, net earnings and cash flows may grow more slowly, whether on an annual or quarterly basis, mainly due to the following factors:
the deployment of Dassault Systèmes’ solutions may represent a large portion of a customer’s investments in software technology. Decisions to make such an investment are impacted by the economic environment in which the customers operate. Uncertain global geopolitical, economic and health conditions and the lack of visibility or the lack of financial resources may cause some customers, e.g. within the automotive, aerospace, energy or natural resources industries, to reduce, postpone or cancel their investments, or to reduce or not renew ongoing paid maintenance for their installed base, which impact larger customers’ revenue with their respective sub-contractors;
the political, economic and monetary situation in certain geographic regions where Dassault Systèmes operates could become more volatile and negatively affect Dassault Systèmes’ business, and in particular its revenue, for example, due to stricter export compliance rules or the introduction of new customs barriers or controls on the exchange of goods and services;
continued pressure or volatility on raw materials and energy prices could also slow down Dassault Systèmes’ diversification efforts in new industries;
uncertainties regarding the extent and duration of costs inflation could adversely affect the financial position of Dassault Systèmes; and
the sales cycle of the Dassault Systèmes’ products – already relatively long due to the strategic nature of such investments for customers – could further lengthen.
The occurrence of crises – health and political crises in particular – could have consequences both for the health and safety of Dassault Systèmes’ employees and for the Company. It could also adversely impact the financial situation or financing and supply capabilities of Dassault Systèmes’ existing and potential customers, commercial and technology partners, some of whom may be forced to temporarily close sites or to cease operations. A deteriorating economic environment could generate increased price pressure and affect the collection of receivables, which would negatively affect Dassault Systèmes’ revenue, financial performance and market position.
Dassault Systèmes makes every effort to take into consideration this uncertain outlook. Dassault Systèmes’ business results, however, may not develop as anticipated. Furthermore, due to factors affecting sales of Dassault Systèmes’ products and services, there may be a substantial time lag between an improvement in global economic and business conditions and an upswing in the Company’s business results.
Non-IFRS Financial Information
Readers are cautioned that the supplemental non-IFRS financial information presented in this press release is subject to inherent limitations. It is not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles and should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for IFRS measurements. The supplemental non-IFRS financial information should be read only in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS. Furthermore, the Group’s supplemental non-IFRS financial information may not be comparable to similarly titled “non-IFRS” measures used by other companies. Specific limitations for individual non-IFRS measures are set forth in the Company’s 2024 Universal Registration Document filed with the AMF on March 18, 2025.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions: http://www.3ds.com
ABOUT DASSAULT SYSTÈMES Dassault Systèmes is a catalyst for human progress. Since 1981, the company has pioneered virtual worlds to improve real life for consumers, patients and citizens. With Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, 370 000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, can collaborate, imagine and create sustainable innovations that drive meaningful impact. For more information, visit www.3ds.com
London, United Kingdom (06 June 2025) – TGS, a leading global provider of energy data and intelligence has commenced a geophysical survey for the pioneering Green Volt floating offshore wind farm. Mobilization initiated in Aberdeen last week and the work scheduled throughout June will include an ultra-high resolution 3D (UHR3D) seismic survey used to deliver detailed subsurface data for the floating wind farm’s site characterization.
The Green Volt project is a joint venture between leading offshore wind developers Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn. As Europe’s first commercial-scale floating windfarm at 560 MW, the project is a catalyst for developing a highly specialized UK floating wind supply chain.
Utilizing integrated Multibeam Echo Sounder, Side Scan Sonar, Sub-bottom Profiler and Magnetometer sensors, the advanced survey will enhance geological understanding and provide critical insights for the project’s site planning and risk assessments.
Spanning the full lifecycle from acquisition planning to imaging and interpretation, this campaign for Green Volt will support employment opportunities across the UK, where TGS maintains a significant presence. TGS has 3 offices in the UK with over 200 employees. Offshore survey crews, geophysicists and onshore geoscientists will be engaged throughout the project, ensuring the delivery of high-quality processed data and interpretations.
UHR3D data will provide detailed understanding of the subsurface conditions, revealing potential risks and challenges that are not always accurately captured through traditional 2D data interpolation. The enhanced data collection will help the Green Volt project team identify geological hazards and structural complexities, contributing to improved site assessment and risk mitigation strategies. This, in turn, will form a reliable foundation for the project’s ongoing planning and execution. By leveraging the latest acquisition configurations, TGS will enhance efficiency and improve target resolutions to meet the highest industry standards.
Commenting on the start of this survey, TGS EVP New Energy Solutions, Will Ashby, said:
“This represents a key milestone for TGS to utilize our expertise, technology and resources to support the development of the first commercial floating offshore wind farm, Green Volt. This simultaneous acquisition of all sensors and the application of our cutting-edge processing techniques is reinforcing our commitment to delivering industry-leader data solutions. UHR3D will be a key aspect to developing floating wind farms.”
Matt Green, Project Director for Green Volt said:
“Green Volt is pleased to be working alongside TGS on these important geophysical site surveys, which will not only advance our project but will also further develop our understanding of how the UKCS subsea offshore landscape can support deeper, larger windfarms as we continue to develop our industry. Accurate data is vital component in our learning and will help strengthen the UK’s floating wind supply chain. This contract supports local jobs and innovation, helping to build a world-leading offshore wind sector right here in the UK.”
About TGS TGS provides advanced data and intelligence to companies active in the energy sector. With leading-edge technology and solutions spanning the entire energy value chain, TGS offers a comprehensive range of insights to help clients make better decisions. Our broad range of products and advanced data technologies, coupled with a global, extensive and diverse energy data library, make TGS a trusted partner in supporting the exploration and production of energy resources worldwide. For further information, please visit www.tgs.com (https://www.tgs.com/).
About Green Volt Green Volt is set to become Europe’s first commercial scale floating offshore wind farm, located approximately 80 kilometres off the northeast coast of Scotland.
Jointly developed by Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn, the project will feature up to 35 floating wind turbines with a total capacity of 560 megawatts. Once operational, Green Volt will provide clean power to the UK grid and facilitate the electrification of participating oil and gas platforms.
Developed under Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round, Green Volt aims to reduce carbon emissions by one million tonnes per year, significantly contributing to the UK’s and Scotland’s net-zero targets. The project has secured all necessary planning approvals and, in September 2024, was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) by the UK Government.
Domestic equity markets opened on a cautious note Friday, with benchmark indices trading flat ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy announcement. Investor sentiment remained subdued, even as select buying was observed in IT and PSU bank stocks during early trade.
At around 9:23 a.m., the BSE Sensex was down by 82.43 points, or 0.10 per cent, at 81,359.61. The NSE Nifty slipped 7.70 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 24,743.20.
The Nifty Bank index was marginally higher by 4.85 points at 55,765.70. The Nifty Midcap 100 gained 146.25 points, or 0.25 per cent, to trade at 58,449.25, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 rose 65.50 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 18,498.10.
Markets are closely watching the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcement, where a 25 basis points rate cut is widely expected and already priced in by investors.
Analysts suggest that the central bank’s commentary on growth and inflation outlook for FY26 will be a more decisive factor for market movement.
“If the inflation forecast is revised downward from 4 per cent, it could trigger a positive response in the markets,” said Dr. V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
On technical levels, analysts believe Nifty has immediate support at 24,500, followed by 24,400 and 24,300. Resistance levels are seen at 24,850, 24,900, and the key psychological mark of 25,000.
“A breach below 24,500 could trigger further selling pressure, while a breakout above 25,000 may open the door to fresh all-time highs,” said Mandar Bhojane, Equity Research Analyst at Choice Broking.
Meanwhile, the India VIX, which indicates market volatility, declined by 4.21 per cent to 15.08, suggesting reduced short-term volatility expectations. However, with the RBI policy decision due, analysts urge caution as market volatility may increase depending on the central bank’s guidance.
In the Sensex basket, top gainers included Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, ITC, NTPC, Titan, and Eternal. On the other hand, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and SBI were among the top laggards.
Across Asian markets, indices in Hong Kong, China, and Bangkok were trading in the red, while Japan was the only major market in positive territory.
In the U.S. markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 108 points lower at 42,319.74 in the previous session. The S&P 500 dropped 31.51 points to 5,939.30, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 162.04 points to 19,298.45.
On the institutional front, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers on June 5, offloading equities worth ₹208.47 crore. In contrast, Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) remained strong buyers with net purchases of ₹2,382.40 crore, offering support to the domestic markets.
MIAMI, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Defiance ETFs announces the launch of the Defiance Daily Target 2X Short PLTR ETF (Ticker: PLTZ), the first 2X short single-stock ETF designed to provide amplified daily inverse exposure to Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR).
Founded in 2003 to support U.S. intelligence operations, Palantir Technologies Inc. now provides software solutions for complex data environments across the public and private sectors.
PLTZ seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to -2 times (-200%) the daily percentage change of Palantir’s common stock price. The Fund offers active traders a tactical tool to express bearish views on Palantir’s short-term movements—without the need for margin accounts or complex derivatives.
The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. The Fund pursues a daily inverse leveraged investment objective, which means that the Fund is riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage or short strategies because the Fund magnifies the inverse performance of the Underlying Security.The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily inverse leveraged (-2X) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and short exposure, and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if the Underlying Security’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if the Underlying Security’s performance decreases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of their investment within a single day.
An investment in PLTZ is not an investment in Palantir Technologies Inc.
About Defiance ETFs
Founded in 2018, Defiance is at the forefront of ETF innovation. Defiance is a leading ETF issuer specializing in thematic, income, and leveraged ETFs. Our first-mover leveraged single-stock ETFs empower investors to take amplified positions in high-growth companies, providing precise leverage exposure without the need to open a margin account.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES
Defiance ETFs LLC is the ETF sponsor. The Fund’s investment adviser is Tidal Investments, LLC (“Tidal” or the “Adviser”).
The Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectus contain this and other important information about the investment company. Please read the prospectus and / or summary prospectus carefully before investing. Hard copies can be requested by calling 833.333.9383.
Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. As an ETF, the funds may trade at a premium or discount to NAV. Shares of any ETF are bought and sold at market price (not NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. A portfolio concentrated in a single industry or country, may be subject to a higher degree of risk.
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Total return represents changes to the NAV and accounts for distributions from the fund.
PLTR Risks: The Fund invests in swap contracts and options that are based on the share price of PLTR. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of PLTR even though it does not.
Indirect Investment Risk. PLTR is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, or the Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares.
PLTR Good Performance Risk. PLTR may meet or exceed its publicly announced expectations or guidelines regarding its business, which could potentially lead to a rise in the share price of the Underlying Security. PLTR regularly provides guidance concerning its anticipated financial and business performance, including sales and production projections, future revenues, gross margins, profitability, and cash flows.
Industry Recognition and Analyst Coverage Risk. Positive recognition from industry analysts, awards for product excellence, or inclusion in prestigious industry reports can enhance PLTR’s reputation and credibility among investors.
Risks from Industry Growth and PLTR’s Business Success. PLTR develops software platforms designed to integrate data, enhance decision-making, and support operations for both commercial enterprises and government agencies, including the defense and intelligence sectors. PLTR has the potential for significant growth driven by increasing demand for advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence, and national security-related software solutions.
Additional Risks:
Compounding and Market Volatility Risk. The Fund has a daily leveraged investment objective and the Fund’s performance for periods greater than a trading day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period, which is very likely to differ from -200% of the Underlying Security’s performance, before the Fund’s management fee and other expenses.
Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risks related to the market, leverage, imperfect daily correlations with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation, and legal restrictions.
Swap Agreements. The use of swap transactions is a highly specialized activity, which involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions.
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in derivatives which exposes the Fund to the risk that the counterparty will not fulfill its obligation to the Fund.
Fixed Income Securities Risk. When the Fund invests in fixed income securities, the value of your investment in the Fund will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in interest rates causes a decline in the value of fixed-income securities owned by the Fund.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Diversification does not ensure a profit nor protect against loss in a declining market. Brokerage Commissions may be charged on trades.
This week the US Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed two men suspected of bombing a fertility clinic in California last month allegedly used artificial intelligence (AI) to obtain bomb-making instructions. The FBI did not disclose the name of the AI program in question.
This brings into sharp focus the urgent need to make AI safer. Currently we are living in the “wild west” era of AI, where companies are fiercely competing to develop the fastest and most entertaining AI systems. Each company wants to outdo competitors and claim the top spot. This intense competition often leads to intentional or unintentional shortcuts – especially when it comes to safety.
Coincidentally, at around the same time of the FBI’s revelation, one of the godfathers of modern AI, Canadian computer science professor Yoshua Bengio, launched a new nonprofit organisation dedicated to developing a new AI model specifically designed to be safer than other AI models – and target those that cause social harm.
So what is Bengio’s new AI model? And will it actually protect the world from AI-faciliated harm?
An ‘honest’ AI
In 2018, Bengio, alongside his colleagues Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton, won the Turing Award for groundbreaking research they had published three years earlier on deep learning. A branch of machine learning, deep learning attempts to mimic the processes of the human brain by using artificial neural networks to learn from computational data and make predictions.
Bengio’s new nonprofit organisation, LawZero, is developing “Scientist AI”. Bengio has said this model will be “honest and not deceptive”, and incorporate safety-by-design principles.
According to a preprint paper released online earlier this year, Scientist AI will differ from current AI systems in two key ways.
First, it can assess and communicate its confidence level in its answers, helping to reduce the problem of AI giving overly confident and incorrect responses.
Second, it can explain its reasoning to humans, allowing its conclusions to be evaluated and tested for accuracy.
Interestingly, older AI systems had this feature. But in the rush for speed and new approaches, many modern AI models can’t explain their decisions. Their developers have sacrificed explainability for speed.
Bengio also intends “Scientist AI” to act as a guardrail against unsafe AI. It could monitor other, less reliable and harmful AI systems — essentially fighting fire with fire.
This may be the only viable solution to improve AI safety. Humans cannot properly monitor systems such as ChatGPT, which handle over a billion queries daily. Only another AI can manage this scale.
Large language models and machine learning are just small parts of today’s AI landscape.
Another key addition Bengio’s team are adding to Scientist AI is the “world model” which brings certainty and explainability. Just as humans make decisions based on their understanding of the world, AI needs a similar model to function effectively.
The absence of a world model in current AI models is clear.
One well-known example is the “hand problem”: most of today’s AI models can imitate the appearance of hands but cannot replicate natural hand movements, because they lack an understanding of the physics — a world model — behind them.
Yoshua Bengio is recognised as one of the godfathers of AI. Alex Wong/Getty Images
On the right track – but it will be bumpy
Bengio is on the right track, aiming to build safer, more trustworthy AI by combining large language models with other AI technologies.
However, his journey isn’t going to be easy. LawZero’s US$30 million in funding is small compared to efforts such as the US$500 billion project announced by US President Donald Trump earlier this year to accelerate the development of AI.
There’s also an outstanding question. Even if Bengio can build an AI system that does everything he says it can, how is it going to be able to control other systems that might be causing harm?
Still, this project, with talented researchers behind it, could spark a movement toward a future where AI truly helps humans thrive. If successful, it could set new expectations for safe AI, motivating researchers, developers, and policymakers to prioritise safety.
Perhaps if we had taken similar action when social media first emerged, we would have a safer online environment for young people’s mental health. And maybe, if Scientist AI had already been in place, it could have prevented people with harmful intentions from accessing dangerous information with the help of AI systems.
Armin Chitizadeh 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.
President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to cut off government contracts with billionaire Elon Musk’s companies, while Musk suggested Trump should be impeached, turning their bromance into an all-out brawl on social media.
The hostilities began when Trump criticized Tesla CEO Musk in the Oval Office. Within hours, the once-close relationship had disintegrated in full public view, as the world’s most powerful man and its richest launched personal barbs at one another on Trump’s Truth Social and Musk’s X.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Wall Street traders dumped shares of Musk’s electric vehicle maker and Tesla closed down 14.3%, losing about $150 billion in market value. It was Tesla’s largest single-day decline in value in its history.
Minutes after the closing bell, Musk replied, “Yes,” to a post on X saying Trump should be impeached. Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress and are highly unlikely to impeach him.
The trouble between the two started brewing days ago, when Musk denounced Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The president initially held his tongue while Musk campaigned to torpedo the bill, saying it would add too much to the nation’s $36.2 trillion in debt.
Trump broke his silence on Thursday, telling reporters in the Oval Office he was “very disappointed” in Musk.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said.
While Trump spoke, Musk responded with increasingly acerbic posts on X.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” wrote Musk, who spent nearly $300 million backing Trump and other Republicans in last year’s election. “Such ingratitude.”
In another post, Musk asserted that Trump’s signature tariffs would push the U.S. into a recession later this year.
Besides Tesla, Musk’s businesses include rocket company and government contractor SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink.
Musk, whose space business plays a critical role in the U.S. government’s space program, said that as a result of Trump’s threats he would begin decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Dragon is the only U.S. spacecraft currently capable of sending astronauts to the International Space Station.
Hours later, Musk appeared to reverse that move. Responding to a follower on X urging Musk and Trump to “cool off and take a step back for a couple of days,” Musk wrote: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
In another possible sign of de-escalation on Thursday evening, Musk separately posted, “You’re not wrong,” in response to hedge fund manager Bill Ackman saying Trump and Musk should make peace.
PUGILISTIC PAIR
The feud was not entirely unexpected. Trump and Musk are both political pugilists with sizable egos and a penchant for using social media to punch back against their perceived enemies, and many observers had predicted an eventual falling out.
Even before Musk’s departure from the administration last week, his influence had waned following a series of clashes with cabinet members over his cuts to their agencies.
For Trump, the fight was the first major rift he has had with a top adviser since taking office for a second time, after his first term was marked by numerous blow-ups.
Trump parted ways with multiple chiefs of staff, national security advisers and political strategists during his 2017-2021 White House tenure. A few, like Steve Bannon, remained in his good graces, while many others, like U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, became loud and vocal critics.
After serving as the biggest Republican donor in the 2024 campaign season, Musk became one of Trump’s most visible advisers as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which mounted a sweeping and controversial effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending.
Musk was frequently present at the White House and made multiple appearances on Capitol Hill, sometimes carrying his young son.
Only six days before Thursday’s blowup, Trump and Musk held an appearance in the Oval Office where Trump praised Musk’s government service and both men promised to continue working together.
A prolonged feud between Trump and Musk could make it more difficult for Republicans to keep control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. In addition to his campaign spending, Musk has a huge online following and helped connect Trump to parts of Silicon Valley and wealthy donors.
Musk had already said he planned to curtail his political spending in the future.
Soon after Trump’s Oval Office comments on Thursday, Musk polled his 220 million followers on X: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”
‘KILL THE BILL’
Musk targeted what Trump has named his “big, beautiful bill” this week, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that would deepen the federal deficit. His attacks amplified a rift within the Republican Party that could threaten the bill’s prospects in the Senate.
Nonpartisan analysts say Trump’s bill could add $2.4 trillion to $5 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion in debt.
Trump asserted that Musk’s true objection was the bill’s elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles. The president also suggested that Musk was upset because he missed working for the White House.
“He’s not the first,” Trump said on Thursday. “People leave my administration… then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.”
Musk wrote on X, “KILL the BILL,” adding he was fine with Trump’s planned cuts to EV credits as long as Republicans rid the bill of “mountain of disgusting pork” or wasteful spending.
He also pulled up past quotes from Trump decrying the level of federal spending, adding, “Where is this guy today?”
Musk came into government with brash plans to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. He left last week having cut only about half of 1% of total spending while causing disruption across multiple agencies.
Musk’s increasing focus on politics provoked widespread protests at Tesla sites in the U.S. and Europe, driving down sales while investors fretted that Musk’s attention was too divided.
This is a statement from City of Greater Bendigo Councillors regarding the Emergency Services Volunteer Fund.
From July 1, the Emergency Services Volunteer Fund (ESVF) replaces the Fire Services Property Levy (FSPL). It will be calculated based on a fixed charge that varies by property type and a variable charge based on property value.
The new levy will be applied to forthcoming rates notices and will be a cost increase experienced by all ratepayers.
In particular, the City of Greater Bendigo acknowledges the deep disappointment and concern of our community, including our farming community, regarding the introduction of the ESVF, under which it has been reported farmers will pay many thousands of dollars more in comparison to the FSPL.
The City cannot choose not to collect the levy. It is a legislative requirement, with the City effectively acting as a collection agency for the Victorian Government.
At the Municipal Association of Victoria May State Council Meeting the City added its voice and voted in favour of resolution 1.1a that expressed disappointment with the implementation of the ESVF and Local Government collecting the funds on the State’s behalf.
The City is also a member of Regional Cities Victoria (RCV), an alliance of regional cities, of which Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf is Deputy Chair. RCV has been consistently vocal about the adverse impacts of the ESVF.
Despite the Victorian Government’s decision to cap the 2025/2026 ESVF levy at the 2024/2025 FSPL rate for primary producers, the reality is this is just a pause.
To assist where it can, the City’s 2025/2026 Budget proposes to reduce the rate in the dollar rural landholders will pay and not increase waste charges for all ratepayers in the new financial year.
The City also recognises the ESVF is just one of many challenges rural communities in central Victoria are facing that have a direct impact on their livelihoods – the ongoing impact of flood damage now being met with drought conditions, decreased water allocations, mining expansion, proposed renewable energy zones and upgrades to energy infrastructure.
The Victorian Government’s decision to expand its drought relief package is welcome, however much more significant and longer-term support is needed if local farming businesses are to survive the current conditions.
The cooler months are generally quieter for the Bendigo Livestock Exchange but over the past few weeks the City has seen unusually high yarding numbers for the Monday sheep sales, an example of farmers de-stocking due to a lack of fodder and high feed costs.
On the plus side they are getting exceptional prices per head but the decision to sell can take a significant personal toll. Long term, they will also need to rebuild their flocks at a cost.
The City looks forward to the newly established Drought Response Taskforce making recommendations on behalf of the farming community directly to government. The committee will be chaired by Premier and Member for Bendigo East, The Hon. Jacinta Allan, and RCV and the Bendigo Bank will be represented on the group.
It is Council’s commitment to write to the Premier, relevant ministers and the taskforce to advocate for a roadmap for what comes next, asking things like is there a state fodder plan, how to do we keep money flowing to small rural businesses as farms dry up and what do ‘exceptional circumstances’ look like?
Of course, we hope we don’t have to find out, but farmers are realists and need reassurance help will be there if they need it.
