“How the Big Beautiful Bill will lower energy costs, shore up the electric grid — and unleash American prosperity”
By Chris Wright
How much would you pay for an Uber if you didn’t know when it would pick you up or where it was going to drop you off? Probably not much.
Yet this is the same effect that variable generation sources like wind and solar have on our power grids.
You never know if these energy sources will actually be able to produce electricity when you need it — because you don’t know if the sun will be shining or the wind blowing.
Even so, the federal government has subsidized these sources for decades, resulting in higher electricity prices and a less stable grid.
. . .
President Donald Trump knows what to do: Eliminate green tax credits from the Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act, including those for wind and solar power.
The One Big Beautiful Bill seeks to do that: Along with other proposals, like canceling billions in Biden Green New Deal money and making much-needed investments in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it aims to set an aggressive end date for these subsidies and build on the president’s push for affordable, abundant, and secure energy for the nation.
. . .
As Secretary of Energy — and someone who’s devoted his life to advancing energy innovation to better human lives — I, too, know how these Green New Deal subsidies are fleecing Americans.
Wind and solar subsidies have been particularly wasteful and counterproductive.
One example: The Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit was first introduced in 1992, when wind energy was a nascent industry. This tax credit, originally set to phase out in 1999, was sold on a promise of low-cost energy with fewer tradeoffs.
Since 1999, the REPTC has been extended a whopping 12 times, yet consumers continue to pay more on average for their home electric bills than in 1992, even after adjusting for inflation.
Plus, today, more than 75% of US electricity comes from natural gas, nuclear and coal — and they supply it 24/7, independent of the weather.
. . .
At 8 p.m. on Inauguration Day, amid bitter cold across much of the Eastern seaboard, we reached peak demand for electricity in the mid-Atlantic region. At that point in time, PJM Interconnection, which supplies the Mid-Atlantic United States, got approximately 44% of its power from coal, 24% from natural gas, 25% from nuclear, 3% from oil, 3% from wind, 1% from hydro and 0% from solar.
Think about that: When Americans most needed dependable power to heat their homes and businesses to stay alive, solar and wind were non-factors.
Our homes, hospitals and businesses only continued to operate because there was enough reliable, baseload energy from natural gas, coal and nuclear available to meet demand.
How valuable is a teammate who occasionally shows up for practice but is never there at game time?
And the more we load our grid with intermittent generation, the worse the grid performs during times of maximum stress and demand.
Subsidies are meant to drive prices down and boost supply. But subsidizing wind and solar has done exactly the opposite.
. . .
Bottom line: higher costs. Indeed, wind and solar subsidies not only cost taxpayers but also force providers to add more dispatchable resources to the grid, at their expense.
These costs are then passed on to ratepayers.
In other words, more wind and solar brings us the worst of two worlds: less reliable energy delivery and higher electric bills.
It’s time to stop subsidizing such insanity in perpetuity. If sources are truly economically viable, let’s allow them to stand on their own, and stop forcing Americans to pick up the tab if they’re not.
Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
Murray: “Things have never worked this way—where one party so egregiously ignores the precedent, process, and Parliamentarian, and does that all in order to wipe away trillions of dollars of costs for a bill that could just be the most expensive legislation this body ever passes.”
***VIDEO of Senator Murray’s remarks HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Budget Committee, took to the Senate floor to speak out against Republicans’ use of a so-called “current policy baseline” to hide the true cost of their deficit-busting tax cuts for billionaires.
Republicans’ 940-page reconciliation bill—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which they released in the dead of night, cuts more than $900 billion from Medicaid—$100 billion more than the House bill. More than 17 million Americans will lose their health care, more than 300 rural hospitals could close, and more than 500 nursing homes could close. The legislation makes the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history and will rip away nutrition assistance entirely from more than 5 million Americans and shift tens of billions of dollars in costs to states. The legislation also increases the debt by at least estimated $4 trillion dollars—a trillion more than the House bill. About two in three Americans oppose the bill.
Senator Murray’s full remarks are below and HERE:
“I have been here a long time. Not only have I been the Budget chair, I am the longest serving Democrat on that Committee.
“And in my 33 years here in the United States Senate, things have never—never—worked this way, where one party so egregiously ignores precedent, process, and the Parliamentarian. And does that all in order to wipe away trillions of dollars of costs for a bill that could just be the most expensive legislation this body ever passes.
“Forget Senate procedure for minute, math—Mr. President—has never worked that way.
“I taught preschool, and I’ll tell you: even our littlest kids knows the difference between a trillion and zero.
“It doesn’t take a preschooler to tell you they’re using magic math. Or that you can’t just ignore the rules you don’t like.
“How many times have my colleagues cried about the debt? How many times have they told me ‘I know you want to invest in child care, Patty—but we got to get this budget under control?’
“But now that it’s tax cuts for billionaires and corporations—suddenly the budget doesn’t matter anymore! Suddenly the rules do not matter anymore.
“Suddenly, a couple trillion goes away with a sprinkle of fairy dust, and bypassing the parliamentarian and precedent isn’t really bypassing if you just close your eyes and just pretend real hard.
“Have you no shame?
“If you think you can look the American people in the face and tell them ‘we have to bring down the debt’ after passing what might be the most expensive bill in history—if you think you can do that, and then be taken seriously?
“Well, you know what? If you believe that, maybe you are foolish enough to think that zero and a trillion are the same.
“Mr. President, I can’t believe this is what we’re doing today. Because I can tell you right now, if this happens, we will all laugh you out of the room, because we have never seen anything like this. Not in my time here in the Senate. Not in my time on this planet!
“We are not going to let anyone forget that you’re trashing the rules in order to pass this egregious bill. I yield the floor.”
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
ISLAMABAD, June 29 (Xinhua) — Seven more people have died in rain-related accidents in Pakistan in the past two days, taking the death toll to 45 since the start of the monsoon season on June 26, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Sunday.
In a statement, the ministry said the death toll had risen to 68 after six more residents were injured in heavy rains that hit almost all provinces of Pakistan.
Simultaneously, the NDMA has issued a warning of heavy rainfall and thunderstorms expected to affect large parts of the country in the next 12-24 hours. –0–
The International Business Forum (IBF) will open with a high-level gathering of Heads of State, ministers, CEOs, and global business leaders to explore solutions that unlock private finance and investments for sustainable development.
The opening of the IBF will set the tone for the importance of driving solutions that unlock private finance and investments for sustainable development. The session will feature welcome addresses by Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain, and António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, followed by remarks from Heads of State, Ministers, CEOs and global business leaders. Speakers will include John Denton, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce; Shinta Kamdani, CEO of Sintesa Group and Co-Chair of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance; and José Viñals, GISD Co-Chair and Senior Advisor to the Board of Standard Chartered. BBC presenter Rajini Vaidyanathan will serve as the moderator.
More Info: https://financing.desa.un.org/FFD4/businessforum
All the FFD4 events: https://webtv.un.org/
Source: United States Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
Trump and Republicans’ so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ will kick millions off Medicaid and SNAP, explode deficits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today proposed changes to President Trump and Senate Republicans’ disastrous One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will pay for tax cuts for billionaires by kicking millions of Americans off Medicaid and closing rural hospitals, cutting food assistance programs, and tanking the economy.
Senator Welch’s changes to the Republican tax bill would protect Vermonters’ access to health care, food assistance, and other critical programs. The Senator’s proposed changes include provisions to prevent harm to rural hospitals, strengthen access to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, block cuts and policies that weaken the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food assistance programs, protect home energy efficiency tax credits and the home efficiency workforce, and support federal public defenders.
“Republicans’ so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is a betrayal of American values and an abdication of our responsibility as United States Senators to look out for our constituents. All of us say we are here to help working families in every state succeed, but this bill will only cause bipartisan pain—all to pay for a tax break for those who need it least,” said Senator Welch. “This bill is un-fixable and needs a major rewrite. But I’ll continue to do everything I can to protect the health care, food assistance, and federal programs Vermonters need.”
Senator Welch offered amendments and changes to the Republican budget resolution to:
Protect Access to Health Care and Support Rural Hospitals:
Welch proposed requiring the Finance Committee to rewrite the bill to prevent harm to rural health care and the fiscal wellbeing of rural hospitals;
Welch proposed requiring the Finance Committee to exempt managed care programs operated by state governments like Vermont from any changes proposed to state directed payments.
Welch proposed requiring the Finance Committee to strike any changes to provider taxes, including changes that would impact states like Vermont with Medicaid expansion;
Welch proposed requiring the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee to make it easier to verify eligibility for the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits, and expand special enrollment periods under certain circumstances.
Defend Food Assistance Programs:
Welch proposed requiring the Agriculture Committee to strike any cost-shifts of administering SNAP to states, which would kick American families off the food assistance they need and strain state budgets;
Welch proposed an amendment to strike administrative cost-shifts for SNAP;
Welch proposed an amendment to adjust the Thrifty Food Plan for cities, counties, and regions where the price of food is 10% higher than the national average;
Welch proposed an amendment that places a floor on SNAP allotments to households instead of a ceiling;
Welch proposed requiring the Agriculture Committee to rewrite the bill to allow volunteer work to qualify under SNAP’s work requirements.
Protect Programs and Government Services:
Welch proposed requiring the Finance Committee to rewrite the bill to maintain the energy efficient home improvement tax credit at current levels through 2028;
Welch proposed an amendment to strike the repeal of several home energy efficiency tax credits, including credits for home energy, rooftop solar, energy efficient homes for homebuilders, and more;
Welch proposed striking language in the bill that would rescind funding for state-based contractor training grants, as required in Welch’s HOPE for HOMES Act, passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act;
Welch proposed striking language in the bill that would institute taxes on international remittances.
Welch proposed an amendment to dedicate funding for residential reentry centers, which are needed in Vermont;
Welch proposed an amendment to dedicate funding for the federal public defenders program, which is currently underfunded.
Senator Welch has been an outspoken opponent of the Republicans’ tax bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Republicans are advancing through reconciliation process without Democratic support. Welch has slammed the bill for threatening access to health care and cutting food assistance, and has sounded the alarm about how this bill will add more than $4 trillion to the national debt and tank the economy.
Learn more about Senator Welch’s work by visiting his website or by following him on social media.
SUMMARY…At least isolated large hail and severe gusts are likely, with scattered coverage possible by late afternoon. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch issuance is expected.
DISCUSSION…Initial, lower-topped convection has formed across far southeast MT towards the Black Hills. This activity is expected to strengthen over the next couple hours amid modest MLCAPE near 1000 J/kg and effective bulk shear around 40 kts. While the parameter space is a step-down from yesterday, which should mitigate overall intensity, the coverage of storms should be greater by peak heating. Additional storms should develop within the weak upslope flow regime across southeast WY. Both areas may eventually converge in the NE Panhandle to far southwest SD vicinity by early evening. A few supercells with large hail are most likely in the northern regime surrounding the Black Hills. Severe gusts may be the primary hazard farther south where multicell clustering dominates.
SUMMARY…Initially isolated severe wind/hail threats are anticipated along the I-25 corridor in Colorado. A slow-moving QLCS, with an increasing wind threat, should evolve eastward across northeast Colorado into northwest Kansas this evening.
DISCUSSION…Persistent surface northeasterlies are aiding in the advection of 50s dew points westward towards the Foothills north of the Palmer Divide. This will aid in increasing convective development off the higher terrain and across the I-25 corridor into the adjacent High Plains through this evening. Mid-level westerlies are weak to modest, but sufficient for transient mid-level rotation amid substantial veering of the wind profile with height. This type of flow regime should support outflow-dominated convection. Colliding outflows and amalgamating cells will likely yield a slow-moving MCS as they shift east towards the KS border. As this occurs, a mix of severe wind/hail may transition to primarily a severe gust threat.
Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
MD 1511 CONCERNING SEVERE POTENTIAL…WATCH UNLIKELY FOR SOUTHEAST CO AND NORTHEAST NM
Mesoscale Discussion 1511 NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 0300 PM CDT Sun Jun 29 2025
Areas affected…southeast CO and northeast NM
Concerning…Severe potential…Watch unlikely
Valid 292000Z – 292130Z
Probability of Watch Issuance…20 percent
SUMMARY…Isolated severe gusts and small to marginally severe hail will be possible through late afternoon across southeast Colorado into northeast New Mexico. After coordination with WFO PUB, watch issuance in the near-term is unlikely, but may increase later towards the Kansas border.
DISCUSSION…Several cells have formed from the Pikes Peak region southward along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Much of this region lies on the fringe of meager buoyancy with a deep, well-mixed boundary layer across the adjacent High Plains. PUB VWP data sampled slightly stronger low-level northeasterlies relative to mid-level westerlies, indicative of the modest deep-layer flow and shear environment. Nevertheless, the large surface temperature-dew point spreads will be favorable for microbursts capable of strong to severe gusts. Convection is expected to remain disorganized over the next few hours. There is signal that some uptick may occur into early evening as outflows impinge on increasingly greater buoyancy towards the KS border.
This morning, Members of Congress joined President Donald J. Trump on the Sunday shows to discuss the overwhelmingly positive impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill — which will deliver unprecedented tax relief, generational welfare reform, and historic spending cuts for the American people.
Here’s what you missed:
President Trump on Sunday Morning Futures
“We’re cutting $1.7 trillion … We’re going to have growth like we’ve never seen before.” (Watch)
“It takes care of the border. There’s also No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Social Security, No Tax on Overtime.” (Watch)
Senator Markwayne Mullin on Meet the Press
“This cuts spending. It’s the largest deficit cut by any Congress ever in history. It makes tax cuts permanent — which, instead of taxes going up January 1 by $4 trillion, it actually restores the tax cuts and the average household of four is going to bring home pay over $10,000 more a year.” (Watch)
“What we’re doing is cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse out of the Medicaid system and make sure it’s for the people that it was originally intended for.” (Watch)
Senator Jim Banks on Fox News Sunday
“This is the biggest spending cut in American history — a $1.6 trillion spending cut, getting rid of the Green New Deal scams from the Biden Administration, and it’s the biggest tax cut in American history for working class families.” (Watch)
“Everyone in my family is blue collar, working class. They’re all going to get socked by another $2,000, on average, every year. They already tell me they can’t keep up right now, and the Democrats want them to pay more in taxes? … Democrats are focused on screwing the working class with higher taxes … President Trump and Republicans are serious about cutting taxes on the people who need it the most.” (Watch)
Senator Katie Britt on State of the Union
“We’re going to make sure that hardworking people can keep more of their money. We’re going to make sure that we have secure borders — not just now, but for generations to come. We’re going to make sure that we have a strong national defense so that our warfighter is the best trained, equipped, and ready across the planet. We’re going to unleash American energy … We want to make sure that these programs are available for the people who need them and we want to make sure that people who are working know that we see them and that they have a great opportunity to achieve the American Dream — and that’s what this bill does.” (Watch)
“The reforms in this bill are necessary and we’re going to deliver actual solutions to the American people … This bill does No Tax on Tips, it does No Tax on Overtime. Real, hardworking Americans are going to see results from this.” (Watch)
The Secretary-General met with H.M. King Felipe VI of Spain. They discussed ongoing efforts to advance the international financing for development agenda.
The Secretary-General expressed his deep gratitude for Spain’s unwavering commitment to multilateralism and the UN system, as well as its leadership role in international cooperation and as a permanent bridge builder between the North and the South.
****
El Secretario General se reunió con S.M. el Rey Felipe VI de España y ambos hablaron de los esfuerzos para avanzar en la agenda de la financiación internacional para el desarrollo.
El Secretario General expresó su profunda gratitud por el compromiso inquebrantable de España con el multilateralismo y con las Naciones Unidas, así como por su papel de liderazgo en la cooperación internacional y como constructor de puentes entre el Norte y el Sur.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
NANNING, June 29 (Xinhua) — Judicial and administrative organs of China and Vietnam held a border meeting from Saturday to Sunday in Nanning, capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to strengthen bilateral cooperation.
This was the first meeting of its kind. It was attended by about 150 people from both countries, including representatives of justice departments and local judicial and administrative bodies, as well as legal professionals.
During the talks, the parties reached broad consensus on issues such as the creation of diversified mechanisms for settling civil and commercial disputes at the border, expanding and deepening cooperation in the provision of legal services and joint training of highly qualified legal personnel.
According to Chinese Justice Minister He Rong, relevant departments of the two countries should work together to strengthen exchanges and practical cooperation in various fields, including legislation, legal services, legal assistance, training of highly qualified specialists and the introduction of digital technologies.
For his part, Vietnamese Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh pointed out that the meeting would contribute to building a peaceful and friendly border, deepening bilateral relations of comprehensive strategic cooperation and partnership, and jointly promoting the construction of a Vietnamese-Chinese community of shared destiny, which is of strategic importance.
The participants discussed in detail issues of advocacy, conciliation procedures, international cooperation, legal assistance in civil and commercial cases, and training of personnel in the field of jurisprudence.
During the meeting, a number of cooperation agreements were signed. –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
GAZA, June 29 (Xinhua) — Palestinian Hamas movement on Sunday denied reports that it had set conditions for a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip.
In its press release, Hamas said that the information from the Sky News Arabia news channel about the alleged conditions it had put forward for accepting a deal on prisoner exchange and a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave were “baseless and full of lies.”
“We reject this completely and utterly. The purpose of this is to divert attention from war crimes and cheap incitement against Hamas and the Palestinian resistance, and to distort their positions and declared positions,” Hamas stressed.
Hamas is demanding that its political bureau not be harmed and that its assets not be confiscated, detained or restricted abroad, Sky News Arabia reported on Saturday, citing a Palestinian source.
According to the same source, Hamas also insists on including its representatives or people associated with the movement and close to it in the future administration and security apparatus of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardavi accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “setting impossible conditions aimed at derailing any swap deal and refusing to honor what he had previously agreed to.”
On June 27, US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire agreement in Gaza could be reached within the next week. –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
TEHRAN, June 29 (Xinhua) — At least 71 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Evin prison in the Iranian capital Tehran last week, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on Sunday.
As reported by the Mizan news agency, which is linked to the Iranian judicial system, citing A. Jahangir, the victims of the attack on June 23 were prison staff, conscript soldiers, prisoners and visiting family members, and residents of nearby houses.
The spokesman noted that Israel had once again demonstrated its lack of commitment to international law with its “terrorist and brutal” attack on the prison. According to Jahangir, the infirmary, technical and engineering departments and the visiting area inside the prison complex were hit.
He called the attack a “total crime,” adding that nearby homes were badly damaged and residents were seriously injured. -0-
If you want to advertise a house online in Australia, you don’t have many options. Just two companies dominate the market.
Australia’s largest property listings platform, realestate.com.au, belongs to digital media company REA Group, which is majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s US-based media conglomerate News Corporation (News Corp).
REA claims average traffic of 11.9 million viewers per month, substantially more than that of its nearest rival, Domain.
That’s led to widespread concern about REA’s dominant market power and the potential for price-gouging, which are currently subject to an ongoing probe by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Meanwhile, my research has revealed that REA has expanded into mortgage lending, an important new direction which, until now, has escaped attention.
The implications here are worth considering. News Corp, a foreign-owned media company, now has a direct stake in framing the Australian housing narrative and influencing policy, while profiting through its property platform from listings, data, and its own mortgages.
It’s a shrewd business strategy. But Australia currently doesn’t have a regulator fit for overseeing such a hybrid entity, raising serious questions about who is keeping watch.
‘Good debt’
Australian households have long accepted the prevailing narrative, promoted by the media, that housing investment is their “path to wealth”. Mortgages are endorsed as the way to manage the growing gap between flatlined wages and rising house prices.
Primed for finance in this way, many households have come to embrace mortgages as an aspirational form of “good debt”, the mark of a savvy player rather than a long-term financial burden.
This has helped fuel what could be described as a housing “frenzy”, a volatile situation in which escalating housing prices and indebtedness undermine household wellbeing. Younger generations and the disadvantaged, among others, are left out in the cold.
From newspapers to platforms to finance
As digitisation has forced legacy media players such as News Corp to seek new strategies to stay viable, so too has it disrupted the finance industry by opening it up to non-bank players.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, REA Group entered the mortgage market in 2016, starting with a partnership with National Australia Bank. It purchased mortgage brokerages the following year.
The realestate.com.au platform was then redesigned to include a mortgage portal to direct millions of Australian homeseekers to lending through those channels. This provides REA with revenue from platform leads to the bank, as well as up-front and trailing mortgage commissions from their brokers.
REA also harvests the extensive financial data supplied by millions of users via their financial profiles and the calculator tools embedded in the website.
That data, an increasingly valuable asset, can be monetised through the platform’s advertiser and homebuyer markets, and News Corp’s extensive partnerships with data broker and analytics companies.
Selling mortgages
Most recently, REA Group has taken its finance strategy one step further. In October 2024, it purchased a 19.9% stake in digital non-bank lender Athena Home Loans.
This allows REA to profit directly from its own mortgages offered to platform users through its current brokerage, Mortgage Choice.
For REA Group (and its owner, News Corp), this move is both logical and strategically compelling in a challenging media environment. As well as influencing policy, REA Group and News Corp are proficient in crafting and cross-promoting a powerful message about housing and debt to the public.
With their profit now even more directly tied to the housing mortgage market – and thereby customers’ debt – the Athena acquisition can only strengthen REA’s vested interest in the continued rise in house prices and household indebtedness. This has the potential to undermine policies to improve housing affordability.
The law can’t keep up
The power imbalance against consumers is stark. So which regulator is keeping an eye on it?
Such an initiative combining housing, finance and media can slip through the cracks in Australia’s fragmented regulatory system with its narrowly-focused legislation.
The legislation lags behind the technology as well. A platform’s persuasive design, with its algorithmic tools, predetermined paths and data harvesting, obscures its prioritisation of commercial interests over that of consumers.
Players from different industries interacting through the “black box” of a platform appear to come under looser regulatory oversight than those from a single industry or operating outside a platform.
the legislation isn’t updated in the way that […] keeps pace with the evolving technology, trends and emerging markets.
In a landscape where such complex digital initiatives are becoming the norm, regulators urgently need to update their understanding and broaden their jurisdiction to include them.
And not just in Australia. REA has confirmed that a successful trial of its initiative here will lead to its rollout across its broad global property platform network.
Nor just REA. Other companies are eyeing this space. REA’s closest competitor, Domain, is currently under acquisition by CoStar, a major digital real estate player in the United States, with the aim to challenge REA.
The rapid and major disruptions caused by such initiatives, such as Airbnb’s negative impact on housing affordability globally, can be difficult to redress retrospectively.
Somebody needs to keep watch.
REA Group declined to comment on this article.
Roberta Esbitt 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.
If you want to advertise a house online in Australia, you don’t have many options. Just two companies dominate the market.
Australia’s largest property listings platform, realestate.com.au, belongs to digital media company REA Group, which is majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s US-based media conglomerate News Corporation (News Corp).
REA claims average traffic of 11.9 million viewers per month, substantially more than that of its nearest rival, Domain.
That’s led to widespread concern about REA’s dominant market power and the potential for price-gouging, which are currently subject to an ongoing probe by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Meanwhile, my research has revealed that REA has expanded into mortgage lending, an important new direction which, until now, has escaped attention.
The implications here are worth considering. News Corp, a foreign-owned media company, now has a direct stake in framing the Australian housing narrative and influencing policy, while profiting through its property platform from listings, data, and its own mortgages.
It’s a shrewd business strategy. But Australia currently doesn’t have a regulator fit for overseeing such a hybrid entity, raising serious questions about who is keeping watch.
‘Good debt’
Australian households have long accepted the prevailing narrative, promoted by the media, that housing investment is their “path to wealth”. Mortgages are endorsed as the way to manage the growing gap between flatlined wages and rising house prices.
Primed for finance in this way, many households have come to embrace mortgages as an aspirational form of “good debt”, the mark of a savvy player rather than a long-term financial burden.
This has helped fuel what could be described as a housing “frenzy”, a volatile situation in which escalating housing prices and indebtedness undermine household wellbeing. Younger generations and the disadvantaged, among others, are left out in the cold.
From newspapers to platforms to finance
As digitisation has forced legacy media players such as News Corp to seek new strategies to stay viable, so too has it disrupted the finance industry by opening it up to non-bank players.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, REA Group entered the mortgage market in 2016, starting with a partnership with National Australia Bank. It purchased mortgage brokerages the following year.
The realestate.com.au platform was then redesigned to include a mortgage portal to direct millions of Australian homeseekers to lending through those channels. This provides REA with revenue from platform leads to the bank, as well as up-front and trailing mortgage commissions from their brokers.
REA also harvests the extensive financial data supplied by millions of users via their financial profiles and the calculator tools embedded in the website.
That data, an increasingly valuable asset, can be monetised through the platform’s advertiser and homebuyer markets, and News Corp’s extensive partnerships with data broker and analytics companies.
Selling mortgages
Most recently, REA Group has taken its finance strategy one step further. In October 2024, it purchased a 19.9% stake in digital non-bank lender Athena Home Loans.
This allows REA to profit directly from its own mortgages offered to platform users through its current brokerage, Mortgage Choice.
For REA Group (and its owner, News Corp), this move is both logical and strategically compelling in a challenging media environment. As well as influencing policy, REA Group and News Corp are proficient in crafting and cross-promoting a powerful message about housing and debt to the public.
With their profit now even more directly tied to the housing mortgage market – and thereby customers’ debt – the Athena acquisition can only strengthen REA’s vested interest in the continued rise in house prices and household indebtedness. This has the potential to undermine policies to improve housing affordability.
The law can’t keep up
The power imbalance against consumers is stark. So which regulator is keeping an eye on it?
Such an initiative combining housing, finance and media can slip through the cracks in Australia’s fragmented regulatory system with its narrowly-focused legislation.
The legislation lags behind the technology as well. A platform’s persuasive design, with its algorithmic tools, predetermined paths and data harvesting, obscures its prioritisation of commercial interests over that of consumers.
Players from different industries interacting through the “black box” of a platform appear to come under looser regulatory oversight than those from a single industry or operating outside a platform.
the legislation isn’t updated in the way that […] keeps pace with the evolving technology, trends and emerging markets.
In a landscape where such complex digital initiatives are becoming the norm, regulators urgently need to update their understanding and broaden their jurisdiction to include them.
And not just in Australia. REA has confirmed that a successful trial of its initiative here will lead to its rollout across its broad global property platform network.
Nor just REA. Other companies are eyeing this space. REA’s closest competitor, Domain, is currently under acquisition by CoStar, a major digital real estate player in the United States, with the aim to challenge REA.
The rapid and major disruptions caused by such initiatives, such as Airbnb’s negative impact on housing affordability globally, can be difficult to redress retrospectively.
Somebody needs to keep watch.
REA Group declined to comment on this article.
Roberta Esbitt 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.
Stand on any car park on a sunny day in February and the heat will radiate through your shoes. At 30°C air temperature, that asphalt hits 50–55°C – hot enough to cause second-degree burns to skin in seconds.
Right now, in the northern hemisphere summer, 100 million Americans are dealing with 38°C temperatures. Britain is preparing for hundreds of heat deaths. In New Zealand, of course, we’re still lighting fires and complaining about the cold.
But that gives us time to prepare for our own heatwaves. Open-air car parks that sit empty for 20 hours a day could become cooling infrastructure instead. Transport routes can become cooling corridors.
Replace asphalt with trees, grass and permeable surfaces, and you can drop surface temperatures by 12°C. It’s not complicated. It’s not even expensive.
It’s getting hotter
NIWA data shows New Zealand is already experiencing extreme temperatures five times more frequently than historical baselines. Wellington hit 30.3°C and Hamilton 32.9°C in January, both all-time records. Marine heatwaves are persisting around South Island coasts months longer than usual.
A quarter of New Zealand’s population will be over 65 by 2043, an age when heat regulation becomes harder and fixed incomes make cooling costs a real burden.
Currently, 14 heat-related deaths occur annually among Auckland’s over-65 population when temperatures exceed just 20°C. As the mercury rises, our older population will be at a greater risk.
Summer in the city: a vendor sells drinks and ice cream during a severe heat wave in Washington DC, June 23. Getty Images
Greener is cooler
While global average temperature increases of 1.5°C might appear modest, the actual temperatures we experience in our cities is far more extreme. The built environment – all that concrete and asphalt – traps heat like an oven.
But converting car parks back to green space can knock the temperature down dramatically.
Research from Osaka Prefecture in Japan recorded surface temperature reductions of up to 14.7°C when comparing asphalt to grass-covered parking during sunny summer conditions.
Trees are the heavy lifters here. Stand under a tree on a hot day, and it can feel 17°C cooler than standing in the sun. Add rain gardens (shallow, planted areas designed to capture and filter stormwater) and ground cover for another 2-4°C reduction. Layer these elements together, and you get cooling that works even on overcast days.
Roads as cooling corridors
Grassy and tree-covered car parks are just a starting point. Auckland’s 7,800 kilometres of roads could become the city’s cooling system. Every bus lane, cycleway and walking path is an opportunity for green infrastructure.
If we stop thinking of transport corridors as merely a way to get from one place to another, and see them as multifunctional cooling networks, the possibilities multiply while the costs remain relatively low.
Melbourne’s COVID-era parklet program proved this works: 594 small conversions created 15,000 square metres of public space at just A$300–900 per square metre.
Converting even a small percentage of New Zealand’s parking infrastructure could create connected cooling corridors throughout our cities.
Protecting cycleways with a tree canopy would encourage active transport while cooling neighbourhoods. Bus lanes with rain garden medians would improve service reliability while managing stormwater.
5 things councils can do
Summer is six months away – maybe not enough time to do all the work needed, but certainly enough to get a plan in place. Here are five things councils could do.
Plant trees now: winter is planting season. Focus on car parks and heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods. Use fast-growing natives and protective rings to ensure survival. Trees planted now will provide shade by December.
Install modular planters: test cooling locations with movable infrastructure before committing to permanent changes. Order now for spring placement when residents can see the benefits.
Schedule paving replacements: when resurfacing is needed, switch to permeable options and get heat-reducing surfaces in place before summer.
Design shade structures: plan and budget pop-up shade for the hottest areas. Having designs ready means quick installation when temperatures spike.
Organise spring planting days: line up community groups now, source trees through winter nursery contracts, and hit the ground running in September. Small investments in coordination yield big cooling dividends.
Auckland Council’s NZ$1 billion climate action package includes grants of $1,000 to $50,000 for climate projects. Wellington’s Climate and Sustainability Fund and Christchurch’s 50-year Urban Forest Plan provide similar frameworks.
The Ministry for the Environment’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development creates opportunity by removing minimum parking requirements. This frees up land for trees, gardens and public spaces instead of underused asphalt, maximising climate co-benefits: cooler surfaces, better stormwater management and more pleasant streetscapes.
By next February, we can either be thanking ourselves for planting trees and converting car parks, or feeling the heat from that 50°C asphalt.
Timothy Welch 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.
When you went to school, did you call your teacher Mrs, Ms or Mr, followed by their surname? Perhaps you even called them Sir or Miss.
The tradition of addressing teachers in a formal manner goes back centuries. For many of us, calling a teacher by their first name would have been unthinkable.
But that’s not automatically the case anymore. Some teachers in mainstream schools now ask students to call them by their first name.
Why is this? And what impact can teachers’ names have in the classroom?
There’s no rule
There’s no official rule in Australia on what students should call teachers.
Naming is usually decided by schools or individual teachers. This is no official training on this topic before teachers start in classrooms.
Some primary school teachers now use first names or a less formal name such as “Mr D”. Teachers say this helps break down barriers, especially for young students or those who are learning English as an additional language.
High schools are more likely to stick with tradition, partly to maintain structure and boundaries, especially with teenagers. Using formal titles can also support early-career teachers or those from minority
backgrounds assert their authority in a classroom.
But even so, some high school teachers are using their first names to foster a sense of trust and encourage students to see them as a partner in learning, rather than simply an authority figure.
What does the research say?
Research – which is mainly from the United States – suggests names have an impact on how students perceive their teachers and feel about school.
In one study of US high school students, teenagers described teachers they addressed with formal titles as more distant and harder to connect with. Teachers who invited students to use their first name were seen as more supportive, approachable and trustworthy.
A secondary school principal in the state of Maryland reported students felt more included and respected when they could use teachers’ first names. It made classrooms feel less hierarchical and more collaborative.
A 2020 US study on teaching students doing practical placements found those who used their first name observed greater student engagement than those who did not. This came as a surprise to the student teachers who expected students would not respect them if they used their first names.
These findings don’t necessarily mean titles are bad. Rather, they show first names can support stronger teacher-student relationships.
It’s important to note society in general has become less formal in recent decades in terms of how we address and refer to each other.
So, what should students call their teachers?
What works in one school, or even one classroom, may not work in another.
For example, for Indigenous students or students from non-English speaking households, name practices that show cultural respect and mutual choice can be vital. They help create a sense of safety and inclusion.
But for other teachers, being called by their title may be a key part of their professional persona.
That’s why it’s important for naming decisions to be thoughtful and based on the needs of the teacher, students and broader school community.
The key is to treat naming as part of the broader relationship, not just a habit or automatic tradition. Whether students say “Mrs Lee” or “Jess” matters less than whether they feel safe, respected and included. It’s about the tone and relationship behind the name, not simply what someone is called.
Nicole Brownlie 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.
Australia is spending more than ever on disability services – and yet many people with disability still aren’t receiving the support they need.
Since the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began in 2013, it has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of disabled Australians and their families.
New “foundational supports” – disability-specific services outside individual NDIS packages – are part of the answer to reduce demand on the NDIS and make the scheme sustainable. They were supposed to be operational from July 1 2025. That’s tomorrow, but they are nowhere to be seen.
A new Grattan Institute report shows how the government can fund these vital supports and save the NDIS – without spending more money.
Spending is too concentrated in the NDIS
All Australian governments are spending more on disability services than they were before the NDIS.
Note: Includes all expenditure on direct disability service delivery by Australian governments. Sources: Productivity Commission Return on Government Services report 2025/Grattan Institute
This is a good thing. But most of this expenditure is for individual NDIS funding packages. The NDIS funds packages for about 700,000 Australians.
Many other disabled Australians might only require occasional or low-intensity support such as peer support, supported decision-making, or self-advocacy – supports which are poorly funded and targeted under current arrangements.
So there’s a huge incentive for people to get into the NDIS, regardless of whether an individualised funding package best meets their needs.
The NDIS supports more people than intended
We’re seeing this incentive play out in ballooning numbers of people entering the NDIS.
The number of adults in the scheme is only a little higher than originally expected, but the number of children is nearly double.
Note: Productivity Commission estimates have been inflated based on population growth for 0-64 year-olds between the reference year (2009) and 2024, using Australian Bureau of Statistics Estimated Resident Population data. Sources: Productivity Commission Disability Care and Support 2011, National Disability Insurance Agency Explore Data 2024, Australian Bureau of Statistics Estimated Resident Population 2024/Grattan Institute
About 10% of children aged five to seven are now in the NDIS, including 15% of six-year-old boys.
The expectation was that many children would only require short-term early intervention supports. Instead, most children are staying in the scheme long term.
Our research shows the current NDIS design is poorly suited to delivering early intervention, which works best for children when it is delivered in the places they live, learn and play. This includes in playgroups, libraries and early childhood education settings.
An individualised funding model makes this difficult. Yet this is the only option available for most families, because the NDIS has led to reduced investment in services that could work far better for their children.
Support more Australians with disability
The problem isn’t the amount of funding in the system, but the way it is used.
Foundational supports are services and supports for people with disability that do not involve individualised funding from the NDIS.
To meet the needs of more disabled Australians and take pressure off the NDIS, it is imperative that governments establish an ambitious program of these lower-intensity supports.
These should include supports available to all disabled Australians who need them, such as information and advice, support with decision-making, and access to peer support or self-advocacy.
They should also include evidence-based early intervention supports for children with disability and/or developmental delay. And they should include psychosocial supports for people with severe mental illness who don’t meet the threshold for an individualised NDIS package.
The current impasse in Commonwealth-state funding negotiations could be overcome by governments agreeing to repurpose a small portion – about 10% – of their existing NDIS contributions.
Our report outlines a plan to fully fund foundational supports using this repurposed funding and better allocate individualised funding. This would ensure more people get the support they need within an affordable NDIS that grows more slowly.
Don’t save money by delaying access
NDIS growth has fallen in recent quarters and is on track to be 10.6% in 2024-25.
This compares with an average growth rate of more than 24% a year over the past five years.
But it is too early to attribute that reduction in growth to policy changes.
A significant downturn in operational performance is very likely to be a contributing factor. The NDIS is groaning under the weight of unsustainable work volumes.
Since September 2023, it has been taking longer to approve new applicants trying to get access to the NDIS, and to reassess the plans of people already on the scheme.
Notes: Data is unavailable for December 2023 due to the NDIA upgrading to a new computer system. Sources: NDIA Quarterly reports, Q4 2021-22 to Q3 2024-25/Grattan Institute
We know what drives growth in NDIS expenditure: more people joining the scheme, and existing NDIS participants’ plans increasing over time.
At the moment, slowing down how fast the NDIS is growing is coming at the expense of the disabled people who need support from the NDIS and are waiting too long to get it.
It is important that necessary growth moderation is achieved through measures that do not result in vital supports being delayed, or disabled peoples’ experience of, and results from, the NDIS being undermined.
The NDIS is worth saving. Making necessary policy changes now to rebalance the NDIS will ensure it endures for future generations.
Grattan Institute’s Disability Program has support from the Summer Foundation.
As the ceasefire between Israel and Iran seems to be holding for now, it is important to reflect on whether this whole episode was worth the risks.
Wider escalation was (and remains) possible, and we do not know whether Iran will seek a nuclear weapon with renewed vigour in the future.
So, could we live with a nuclear-armed Iran, if it does indeed continue to pursue a bomb?
Is an Iranian bomb an existential threat?
The conventional wisdom, at least in the Western world, is that an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose an existential threat to Israel, and possibly the United States as well.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were aimed at rolling back “the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described an Iranian bomb as “an existential threat, not just to Israel, but to the United States, and to the entire world”.
Iran, of course, did not yet possess a nuclear weapon when the strikes occurred, as the UN nuclear watchdog attested. The strikes were aimed at preventing Iran from being able to do so in the future – a prospect seen by Israel and the US as simply “unthinkable”.
But if Iran had built a nuclear weapon before the Israeli and US strikes – or manages to do so in the future – would this pose an existential threat to Israel or the US?
The Israeli government officially neither confirms nor denies the existence of its nuclear arsenal. But thanks to leaks from inside the Israeli nuclear program – as well as the best assessments from around the world – we can be quite sure they exist. It also explains why Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty – it can’t without giving up this stockpile.
The US, of course, has been nuclear-armed since 1945 and openly maintains an inventory of thousands of nuclear warheads. These provide a deterrent against nuclear attacks on the United States.
Washington also provides extended nuclear deterrence guarantees to over 30 states, including members of NATO, Japan, South Korea and Australia. It does not need to provide this for Israel given the Israeli arsenal. But if there was ever any doubt about Israel’s stockpile, it certainly could.
After 80 years of living with nuclear weapons, we know the deterrent effect of assured nuclear retaliation is very powerful. It deterred both the Soviets and Americans from using nuclear weapons against each other through multiple Cold War crises. It has deterred both India and Pakistan from using them in multiple standoffs, including quite recently. It has deterred both North Korea and the US from striking each other.
Similarly, Iran would no doubt be deterred from using a nuclear weapon by a certain Israeli or American response.
Iranian leaders have called for the destruction of Israel, and the chants of “death to Israel” and “death to America” are a common occurrence at rallies held by supporters of the regime.
But beneath the fiery rhetoric lies a truism: no Iranian leader would destroy Israel with a nuclear weapon if it came at the expense of the destruction of Iran.
In the history of the nation-state, not a single one has ever knowingly committed suicide. Not for any reason – ideological, religious, political or any other. All nations value survival over everything else because this allows for the achievement of other goals, such as power and prosperity.
Further, Iran is ruled by a brutally authoritarian, theocratic regime. And for authoritarian regimes, staying in power is the number one priority. There is no staying in power the day after a nuclear exchange.
Not a panacea
This does not mean an Iranian nuclear weapon would be a welcome development. Far from it.
There is no doubt the existence of over 12,000 nuclear weapons globally poses a potentially existential risk to all of humanity.
But the idea that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a unique risk to Israel or the United States simply does not stand up to scrutiny. If we can live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, nuclear-armed Pakistan, and for that matter, a nuclear-armed Israel, we can live, however reluctantly, with a nuclear-armed Iran.
Regardless of whether the current proposed ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds, the military operation initiated by Israel and bolstered by the United States was extremely dangerous and unnecessary, based on both countries’ justification.
The regime in Tehran is brutal, authoritarian, openly antisemitic and worthy of our disdain. But there is no evidence it is suicidal.
The claim an Iranian nuclear bomb would pose an existential threat to Israel or the United States and justifies unilateral, preventive military attacks makes no sense.
It is time to stop repeating it.
Benjamin Zala has received funding from the Stanton Foundation, a US philanthropic group that funds nuclear research. He is an honorary fellow at the University of Leicester on a project that is funded by the European Research Council.
The scientists who precisely measure the position of Earth are in a bit of trouble. Their measurements are essential for the satellites we use for navigation, communication and Earth observation every day.
But you might be surprised to learn that making these measurements – using the science of geodesy – depends on tracking the locations of black holes in distant galaxies.
The problem is, the scientists need to use specific frequency lanes on the radio spectrum highway to track those black holes.
Satellites and the services they provide have become essential for modern life. From precision navigation in our pockets to measuring climate change, running global supply chains and making power grids and online banking possible, our civilisation cannot function without its orbiting companions.
To use satellites, we need to know exactly where they are at any given time. Precise satellite positioning relies on the so-called “global geodesy supply chain”.
This supply chain starts by establishing a reliable reference frame as a basis for all other measurements. Because satellites are constantly moving around Earth, Earth is constantly moving around the Sun, and the Sun is constantly moving through the galaxy, this reference frame needs to be carefully calibrated via some relatively fixed external objects.
These black holes are the most distant and stable objects we know. Using a technique called very long baseline interferometry, we can use a network of radio telescopes to lock onto the black hole signals and disentangle Earth’s own rotation and wobble in space from the satellites’ movement.
Different lanes on the radio highway
We use radio telescopes because we want to detect the radio waves coming from the black holes. Radio waves pass cleanly through the atmosphere and we can receive them during day and night and in all weather conditions.
Radio waves are also used for communication on Earth – including things such as wifi and mobile phones. The use of different radio frequencies – different lanes on the radio highway – is closely regulated, and a few narrow lanes are reserved for radio astronomy.
However, in previous decades the radio highway had relatively little traffic. Scientists commonly strayed from the radio astronomy lanes to receive the black hole signals.
To reach the very high precision needed for modern technology, geodesy today relies on more than just the lanes exclusively reserved for astronomy.
Radio traffic on the rise
In recent years, human-made electromagnetic pollution has vastly increased. When wifi and mobile phone services emerged, scientists reacted by moving to higher frequencies.
However, they are running out of lanes. Six generations of mobile phone services (each occupying a new lane) are crowding the spectrum, not to mention internet connections directly sent by a fleet of thousands of satellites.
Today, the multitude of signals are often too strong for geodetic observatories to see through them to the very weak signals emitted by black holes. This puts many satellite services at risk.
What can be done?
To keep working into the future – to maintain the services on which we all depend – geodesy needs some more lanes on the radio highway. When the spectrum is divided up via international treaties at world radio conferences, geodesists need a seat at the table.
Other potential fixes might include radio quiet zones around our essential radio telescopes. Work is also underway with satellite providers to avoid pointing radio emissions directly at radio telescopes.
Any solution has to be global. For our geodetic measurements, we link radio telescopes together from all over the world, allowing us to mimic a telescope the size of Earth. The radio spectrum is primarily regulated by each nation individually, making this a huge challenge.
But perhaps the first step is increasing awareness. If we want satellite navigation to work, our supermarkets to be stocked and our online money transfers arriving safely, we need to make sure we have a clear view of those black holes in distant galaxies – and that means clearing up the radio highway.
Lucia McCallum 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.
ADVISORY – DAUPHIN COUNTY – Governor Shapiro, Revenue Secretary Browne to Announce Property Tax/Rent Rebates to Start Going Out on July 1
Governor Josh Shapiro and Secretary of Revenue Pat Browne will visit the East Shore YMCA in Harrisburg to announce that rebates on property taxes and rent paid in 2024 as part of the Property Tax/Rent Rebate (PTRR) program will start to be distributed on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, as required by law.
This initial distribution will include approximately 425,000 rebates totaling $258 million – critical relief that is going to older homeowners, renters, and people with disabilities all across Pennsylvania.
During his first year in office, Governor Shapiro signed into law a historic expansion of the PTRR program, making good on the commitment he made to Pennsylvania seniors and people with disabilities to ease the burden of rising costs. Based on the latest data from the past two years, this has already opened the door for approximately 150,000 first-time filers of the PTRR program to receive a rebate for the very first time.
WHO: Governor Josh Shapiro Secretary of Revenue Pat Browne Eric Rothermel, Vice President of Government Relations, Harrisburg Area YMCA Bill Johnston-Walsh, AARP Pennsylvania State Director Representative Nate Davidson
WHEN: Monday, June 30, 2025, at 11:00 AM
WHERE: East Shore YMCA 701 N. Front Street Harrisburg, PA 17101
LIVE STREAM: pacast.com/live/gov governor.pa.gov/live/
RSVP: Press who are interested in attending must RSVP with the names and phone numbers for each member of their team to ra-gvgovpress@pa.gov.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
ULAN BATOR, June 29 (Xinhua) — The Spanish men’s team and the Netherlands women’s team won gold medals at the 2025 FIBA 3×3 Basketball World Cup, which concluded Sunday evening in the capital of Mongolia.
The Spanish men’s team beat Switzerland 21-17 in the final, while the Dutch women’s team defeated Mongolia 15-9.
The 9th 3×3 Basketball World Championship, held from June 23 to 29 in Ulaanbaatar, featured 20 men’s and 20 women’s teams. –0–
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
In response to media enquiries about the relaxation of import control measures on Japanese food products by the Mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government issued the following statement today (June 30):
The General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China issued on June 29, 2025 the “Notice on Conditional Resumption of the Import of Aquatic Products from Certain Regions in Japan” (the Notice), announcing that the import of some aquatic products of Japanese origin will be resumed with immediate effect, except for 10 metropolis/prefectures. According to the Notice, the import must comply with the relevant national laws and regulations, and food safety standards, and that the Japanese authority must effectively discharge its official regulatory responsibilities.
In response to the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima into the sea by the Japanese government, the HKSAR Government has since August 24, 2023 banned the import of aquatic products from 10 higher-risk metropolis/prefectures, including Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, to safeguard food safety and protect public health in Hong Kong.
The duration and scale of the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station are unprecedented. Therefore, we must act in a prudent manner.
The HKSAR Government has been maintaining communication with the Japanese authority on the relevant issues, including requesting Japan to provide information on the latest development and scientific evidence concerning the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water, to assess whether there are conditions for relaxing the current precautionary measures. The HKSAR Government will make a public announcement if there is any policy adjustment.
overnor Kathy Hochul today announced several expanded initiatives designed to increase support for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, including additional investments in the transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming communities and for LGBTQ+ hubs in New York City. As part of this year’s enacted budget, funding for the Lorena Borjas Transgender and Nonbinary Wellness and Equity Fund increased by half a million dollars for crucial health and human services, bringing the total of the fund to over $15 million and making it the largest fund of its kind in the nation. Building on this support, Governor Hochul made additional investments of $1 million in capital funding to support the continued preservation of the LGBT Center of NYC, which provides recovery and wellness programs, economic advancement initiatives, family and youth support, advocacy, arts and cultural programming, and space for community organizing, connection, and celebration.
“New York is the birthplace of the LGBTQ+ movement, and today, we continue pushing this legacy forward,” Governor Hochul said. “This month and every month, we will continue to honor the contributions of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers and will work to protect, support, and celebrate the vibrancy they bring to New York.”
To further address the needs of transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNB) New Yorkers, the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) is awarding $960,000 in workforce development grants to support programming designed to help TGNCNB individuals enter the workforce. TWEF grants support organizations committed to promoting health and employment equity for the TGNCNB community. This funding directly addresses critical workforce issues uncovered in NYSDOL’s 2023 TGNCNB Employment Report, which found that TGNCNB New Yorkers experience lower incomes and higher unemployment due to several factors, most notably, discrimination.
Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick said, “Increased federal attacks on the LGBTQ community have undermined our safety and systematically eliminated crucial supports for a variety of essential services from healthcare to mental health services to workforce development programs. LGBTQ Americans pay taxes and rightfully expect their needs will be addressed. Fortunately for LGBTQ New Yorkers, our Governor Kathy Hochul not only believes in the importance of equality, but is demonstrating her commitment by providing funding for many services upon which we depend.”
Assemblymember Harry B. Bronson said, “In New York we pride ourselves on being inclusive, with laws that are not predicated on hate, fear or exclusion, but laws that honor the dignity and humanity of all people so they may live securely as their authentic selves. In the face of unprecedented attacks at the federal level and from other states, I am proud to stand with Governor Hochul in celebrating Pride this year, by reaffirming New York’s steadfast commitment to the rights of LGBTQIA+ people – my community – with significant policy and funding initiatives that protect the rights of all New Yorkers. No matter who you are, where you come from, what your abilities, who you love, or how you identify – we all have dignity and deserve equity, justice and opportunity.”
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas said, “I’m proud to see New York deepen its commitment to our LGBTQ+ communities, especially trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming New Yorkers who continue to face systemic barriers. The expansion of the Lorena Borjas Wellness and Equity Fund—named after our beloved trans Latina immigrant trailblazer from Queens—is both historic and deeply personal. These investments affirm that New York can and must be a sanctuary for queer and trans people to live, thrive, and lead. I applaud Governor Hochul and our State Legislature for these meaningful steps during Pride Month and urge continued action to meet the urgent needs of our communities year-round.”
Today’s announcement highlights the opening of the 2026-2028 Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Edie Windsor LGBTQ+ Fellowship. The fellowship is named after LGBTQ+ leaders who have — with their courage, tenacity and perseverance — raised awareness of LGBTQ+ issues and made a lasting difference in the LGBTQ+ community: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera for their movement leading advocacy on behalf of the transgender community in New York, and Edie Windsor for her advocacy and groundbreaking work in successfully challenging the federal defense of marriage act. Awarded every two years, the LGBTQ+ Fellow serves in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and assists the Chief Diversity Officer in achieving New York State’s diversity and inclusion goals, which includes continuing to build the State’s leadership as a champion of antidiscrimination and equal access for all. In collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, and in furtherance of the State’s continued goal to serve as a model employer for New Yorkers of all gender identities and sexual orientations the Fellow also will work to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion across New York State government and services through drafting policy proposals and providing content expertise, managing statewide initiatives and projects, composing strategic communications, and tracking key legislation.
The Governor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs is also now accepting requests for workshop proposals for the 2025 LGBTQIA+ Convening, which will occur on Tuesday, September 9, 2025 in Albany, New York at the Empire State Plaza Concourse. This fourth annual event brings together policymakers and government officials from across state agencies to hear directly from advocates about the most pressing needs for our community and proposed or current efforts to meet those needs and build support.
New York City LGBT Community Center Chief Executive Officer Dr. Carla Smith said, “We are excited to receive this capital allocation, and are grateful to Governor Hochul for prioritizing this investment into our building, which will allow us to continue improving The Center. Over the last four decades, The Center has worked to ensure our landmark building meets the increasing needs of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers and to serve as a site of pride for LGBTQ+ people all over the world. Right now, our community is under attack by harmful government actions and rhetoric that seek to erase trans people and queer youth, funding cuts to critical services, and a growing mental health crisis. We look forward to working with Governor Hochul and her administration over the coming months to secure deeper investments in services to meet the needs of New York State’s LGBTQ+ community, all 365 days of the year.”
Current Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Edie Windsor Fellow Daniel Dobies (we/us/ours) said, “The fellowship has provided us opportunities to lead and advance policies and programs, like the Lorena Borjas TGNB Wellness and Equity Fund and the annual LGBTQIA+ Convening, that improve the lives of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. The three trailblazing, queer women for whom the fellowship is named led with a courage, conviction, and joy that we strive to bring into state service every day. We are supported by their bravery and are honored to continue their work to make New York State a place where everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community, can thrive.”
Earlier this month, Governor Kathy Hochul issued a proclamation designating June 2025 as LGBTQ+ Pride Month to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in New York State. State landmarks will be illuminated tonight in the colors pink, white and light blue and red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple on June 30th and the progress pride flag was raised at State office buildings and State Parks across New York.
The following State landmarks will illuminate various colors of the Pride flag tonight and tomorrow June 30th:
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
KYIV, June 29 (Xinhua) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Sunday that puts into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the country’s withdrawal from the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Convention). The text of the decree was published on the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
As the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry explained later in its statement, official Kyiv took this step because Russia, not being a signatory to the Ottawa Convention, has been widely using anti-personnel mines in the armed conflict against Ukraine since 2022. The statement points out that because of this, Ukraine has found itself in an unequal and unfair situation that limits its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
Verkhovna Rada deputy Roman Kostenko, in turn, stated on Facebook that in order for V. Zelensky’s decree on Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention to come into force, the relevant bill must be approved by the country’s parliament.
The Ottawa Convention was signed in December 1997. Ukraine acceded to the treaty in February 1999 and ratified it in May 2005. –0–
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (8th District of New York)
Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on ABC’s This Week where he emphasized that while Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one, he is instead crashing the economy and marching us toward a recession.
JON KARL: I’m joined now by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Let’s start with the big news, Leader Jeffries, out of your home town. Mamdani won a big victory. Have you endorsed him yet?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I have not. We had a conversation on Wednesday morning where I congratulated him on the campaign that he ran, a campaign that clearly was relentlessly focused on the high cost of living in New York City and the economy. He outworked, he out-communicated and out-organized the opposition. And that’s clearly why he was successful.
JON KARL: So what’s holding you back from endorsing him right now?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we don’t really know each other well. Our districts don’t overlap. I have never had a substantive conversation with him. And so that’s the next step in terms of this process to be able to sit down, which we agreed to do in Central Brooklyn, discuss his vision for moving the city forward and addressing the issues that are important to the communities that I represent—a very diverse district that I represent in Brooklyn, including many African Americans, many Jewish Americans, many Caribbean Americans, who are dealing with a lot of challenges in the city and want to make sure that the next mayor of the City of New York, whoever that may be, is prepared to tackle them.
JON KARL: Mamdani calls himself a Democratic Socialist. He proposed obviously big tax increases, free mass transit, free bus fares, government-run grocery stores. Is this the kind of progressive socialism that is, we’re going to see as the future of the Democratic Party? Or is this unique to New York City?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I think that one of the things we’ve been clear about from the very beginning, as House Democrats, is that we need to relentlessly focus on addressing the high cost of living in the United States of America. This country is far too expensive for working-class Americans, for middle-class Americans, for all those who aspire to be part of the middle class. Imagine a country where every single hardworking American taxpayer can afford to live the good life, work hard, play by the rules, have a good-paying job, good healthcare, be able to afford a home, educate your children, go on vacation every now and then and one day retire with grace and dignity. The good life, the American Dream. That is not accessible to everyone. And so I think it will continue to be important for all of us on the Democratic side to address relentlessly the issue of the lack of affordability in this country. Donald Trump promised to lower cost on day one. Costs haven’t gone down, they’re going up. In fact, the guy is crashing the economy in real time, imposing these reckless Trump tariffs that are going to increase costs by thousands of dollars a year and he may even drive us toward a recession.
JON KARL: You mentioned the diversity of your district, including a lot of Jewish constituents. Mamdani has made comments that some have said gear towards antisemitism. His initial statement after October 7, he criticized the Israeli government but didn’t criticize Hamas. He defended the use of the word globalize—the phrase globalize the intifada and he even said that the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu should be arrested, or he would if he were mayor, he would arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York City. Do these things concern you?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Globalizing the intifada, by way of example, is not an acceptable phrase, and he’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward. With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the City of New York, which has been an unacceptable development. And any mayor, whether you’re a Democratic mayor, a Republican mayor, an independent mayor, has got to commit to the safety and well-being of all of the people of the City of New York. And when there are moments of crisis and a rise in anti-Jewish hate, that’s a threshold, of course, needs to be crossed. With respect to the African American and Caribbean American communities that I represent, it’s going to be important for our nominee to articulate the case for dramatically and decisively addressing the rise in gentrification and the housing displacement that threatens to continue to wipe out low and moderate income Black and Latino communities in New York City. It’s an unacceptable phenomenon, and the next mayor of the City of New York has to be able to articulate a clear plan and commitment to address these concerns, for the people that I represent and folks all across the great City of New York.
JON KARL: Alright, let’s turn to developments here in Washington. The Supreme Court’s big decision, empowering Donald Trump by limiting the power of judges to stop his executive orders or to freeze his executive orders. How big a deal is this? This was really the one way, the one restraint on his actions that’s been effective so far.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it was an unfortunate decision from a procedural standpoint as it relates to what should have been a very clear case. If there is any instance where nationwide injunctions are appropriate, it would be in a manner like what we’ve just experienced in terms of birthright citizenship, which is clearly a part of the Constitution. If you are born as a child in the United States of America, you are a citizen. So it was a procedural setback that was quite unfortunate. And it was a reckless decision in my view. However, in terms of the fight judicially to protect birthright citizenship—that remains alive and well. And we’re just going to have to intensify our efforts now in district court after district court, or to get a class action certified on behalf of people who may be adversely impacted by this reckless Trump executive order.
JON KARL: And you were at the briefing, the classified briefing Friday on Iran and on the U.S. airstrikes. Did you get satisfactory answers? And do you have a sense now, was the program really—I mean, the President says “obliterated,” but what did you learn?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, let’s be clear. Iran is a sworn enemy of the United States of America, as well as our allies in the Middle East,like Israel and Jordan. And we can never allow Iran to be a nuclear-capable power. That said, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered, in my view, as it relates to the actions that the Trump administration took relative to Iran. Why did they not seek the congressional authorization required by the Constitution for this type of preemptive strike? I still haven’t seen facts presented to us as a Congress to justify that step, and I certainly haven’t seen facts to justify the statement that Donald Trump made that Iran’s nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated. We also need the case to be made by the administration, to the American people, as to how to best accomplish the objective of preventing Iran from becoming nuclear capable. Why did they abandon the aggressive diplomacy that was successful under the Obama administration? And what is their plan to stop us from getting into another failed Middle Eastern war? A lot of questions that need to be answered, and those answers haven’t been compelling to date.
JON KARL: All right. A lot of questions for sure. Leader Jeffries, thank you for joining us.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (8th District of New York)
Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on ABC’s This Week where he emphasized that while Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one, he is instead crashing the economy and marching us toward a recession.
JON KARL: I’m joined now by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Let’s start with the big news, Leader Jeffries, out of your home town. Mamdani won a big victory. Have you endorsed him yet?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I have not. We had a conversation on Wednesday morning where I congratulated him on the campaign that he ran, a campaign that clearly was relentlessly focused on the high cost of living in New York City and the economy. He outworked, he out-communicated and out-organized the opposition. And that’s clearly why he was successful.
JON KARL: So what’s holding you back from endorsing him right now?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we don’t really know each other well. Our districts don’t overlap. I have never had a substantive conversation with him. And so that’s the next step in terms of this process to be able to sit down, which we agreed to do in Central Brooklyn, discuss his vision for moving the city forward and addressing the issues that are important to the communities that I represent—a very diverse district that I represent in Brooklyn, including many African Americans, many Jewish Americans, many Caribbean Americans, who are dealing with a lot of challenges in the city and want to make sure that the next mayor of the City of New York, whoever that may be, is prepared to tackle them.
JON KARL: Mamdani calls himself a Democratic Socialist. He proposed obviously big tax increases, free mass transit, free bus fares, government-run grocery stores. Is this the kind of progressive socialism that is, we’re going to see as the future of the Democratic Party? Or is this unique to New York City?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I think that one of the things we’ve been clear about from the very beginning, as House Democrats, is that we need to relentlessly focus on addressing the high cost of living in the United States of America. This country is far too expensive for working-class Americans, for middle-class Americans, for all those who aspire to be part of the middle class. Imagine a country where every single hardworking American taxpayer can afford to live the good life, work hard, play by the rules, have a good-paying job, good healthcare, be able to afford a home, educate your children, go on vacation every now and then and one day retire with grace and dignity. The good life, the American Dream. That is not accessible to everyone. And so I think it will continue to be important for all of us on the Democratic side to address relentlessly the issue of the lack of affordability in this country. Donald Trump promised to lower cost on day one. Costs haven’t gone down, they’re going up. In fact, the guy is crashing the economy in real time, imposing these reckless Trump tariffs that are going to increase costs by thousands of dollars a year and he may even drive us toward a recession.
JON KARL: You mentioned the diversity of your district, including a lot of Jewish constituents. Mamdani has made comments that some have said gear towards antisemitism. His initial statement after October 7, he criticized the Israeli government but didn’t criticize Hamas. He defended the use of the word globalize—the phrase globalize the intifada and he even said that the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu should be arrested, or he would if he were mayor, he would arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York City. Do these things concern you?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Globalizing the intifada, by way of example, is not an acceptable phrase, and he’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward. With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the City of New York, which has been an unacceptable development. And any mayor, whether you’re a Democratic mayor, a Republican mayor, an independent mayor, has got to commit to the safety and well-being of all of the people of the City of New York. And when there are moments of crisis and a rise in anti-Jewish hate, that’s a threshold, of course, needs to be crossed. With respect to the African American and Caribbean American communities that I represent, it’s going to be important for our nominee to articulate the case for dramatically and decisively addressing the rise in gentrification and the housing displacement that threatens to continue to wipe out low and moderate income Black and Latino communities in New York City. It’s an unacceptable phenomenon, and the next mayor of the City of New York has to be able to articulate a clear plan and commitment to address these concerns, for the people that I represent and folks all across the great City of New York.
JON KARL: Alright, let’s turn to developments here in Washington. The Supreme Court’s big decision, empowering Donald Trump by limiting the power of judges to stop his executive orders or to freeze his executive orders. How big a deal is this? This was really the one way, the one restraint on his actions that’s been effective so far.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it was an unfortunate decision from a procedural standpoint as it relates to what should have been a very clear case. If there is any instance where nationwide injunctions are appropriate, it would be in a manner like what we’ve just experienced in terms of birthright citizenship, which is clearly a part of the Constitution. If you are born as a child in the United States of America, you are a citizen. So it was a procedural setback that was quite unfortunate. And it was a reckless decision in my view. However, in terms of the fight judicially to protect birthright citizenship—that remains alive and well. And we’re just going to have to intensify our efforts now in district court after district court, or to get a class action certified on behalf of people who may be adversely impacted by this reckless Trump executive order.
JON KARL: And you were at the briefing, the classified briefing Friday on Iran and on the U.S. airstrikes. Did you get satisfactory answers? And do you have a sense now, was the program really—I mean, the President says “obliterated,” but what did you learn?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, let’s be clear. Iran is a sworn enemy of the United States of America, as well as our allies in the Middle East,like Israel and Jordan. And we can never allow Iran to be a nuclear-capable power. That said, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered, in my view, as it relates to the actions that the Trump administration took relative to Iran. Why did they not seek the congressional authorization required by the Constitution for this type of preemptive strike? I still haven’t seen facts presented to us as a Congress to justify that step, and I certainly haven’t seen facts to justify the statement that Donald Trump made that Iran’s nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated. We also need the case to be made by the administration, to the American people, as to how to best accomplish the objective of preventing Iran from becoming nuclear capable. Why did they abandon the aggressive diplomacy that was successful under the Obama administration? And what is their plan to stop us from getting into another failed Middle Eastern war? A lot of questions that need to be answered, and those answers haven’t been compelling to date.
JON KARL: All right. A lot of questions for sure. Leader Jeffries, thank you for joining us.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
HAIKOU, June 29 (Xinhua) — The passenger traffic through two major airports in southern China’s island province of Hainan is expected to exceed 8.3 million during the summer tourism season that starts on July 1 this year, airport authorities said.
Haikou Meilan International Airport is expected to handle nearly 4.6 million air passengers in the next two months, with about 30,400 flights scheduled to operate through the airport.
The airport has expanded its international network with new routes to Tokyo, London and Jakarta to meet growing demand for travel to these destinations. It is expected to operate 2,196 international flights this summer, carrying some 254,000 passengers, an estimated 13.3 percent increase from a year earlier.
Sanya’s Phoenix International Airport is expected to handle about 3.73 million passenger trips and 22,900 flights during the period.
To fully respond to the summer rush, Phoenix Airport has increased domestic capacity to major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen by using wide-body aircraft.
Hainan Island, known for its year-round sunshine and pristine beaches, is looking to revive its tourism industry. China aims to turn the island into a globally renowned tourism and consumption destination by 2035.
In all of 2024, Hainan received more than 97.2 million tourists, both domestic and foreign, up 8 percent from 2023. Total tourism revenue grew 12.5 percent to 204 billion yuan (about $28.48 billion), according to official data.
More than 100 million Chinese and foreign tourists plan to visit Hainan Province this year.
As part of its broader economic strategy, China is pursuing a plan to transform Hainan into a free trade port (FTP). With the Hainan FTP set to launch a separate customs regime by the end of the year, it aims to become not only a tourist haven but also an important gateway to China’s high-level opening-up. -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
HARBIN, June 29 (Xinhua) — The 37th Harbin Summer Music Festival, jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China and the Harbin Municipal People’s Government, opened in Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Thursday.
The festival will include three international music tournaments, namely the 2025 Alisa and Eleonora Shenfeld International String Competition, the 20th World Saxophone Congress and the 7th International Bayan and Accordion Art Week, which attracted more than 800 participants from 39 countries and regions of the world.
Peter Paul Kainrath, President of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC), said that Harbin has a century-long musical history, where Eastern and Western cultural traditions are synthesized. Music has given this city a special charm and uniqueness. By holding the annual assembly of the WFIMC in Harbin, the federation hopes to continue friendly and close contacts with Harbin and other Chinese cities, to develop dialogue and deepen cooperation in a wider range of areas.
The current festival is held under the motto “Let the World Hear the Harbin Summer”. Its program is presented in seven blocks: performances at the opening ceremony, performances from all over China, the art week of the “Cultural Capital of East Asia”, etc. In addition to three international competitions, the festival, which will last until September, also includes 79 performances by Chinese and foreign groups and over 3 thousand mass cultural and artistic events.
Harbin is one of the cradles of modern Chinese music, and the Harbin Summer Festival is a national music event with a long history. -0-
