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Category: Education

  • MIL-Evening Report: Confusing for doctors, inequitable for patients: why Australia’s medicinal cannabis system needs urgent reform

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Mary Hallinan, Senior Research Fellow, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne

    Vanessa Nunes/Getty Images

    In 2024 alone, Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), authorised at least 979,000 prescription applications for medicinal cannabis through its specialised access pathways.

    These “specialised access” mechanisms were originally designed for occasional, case-by-case use of unapproved drugs. But they have become mainstream.

    As more and more people receive medicinal cannabis prescriptions, we’re left with a system that is misaligned with its original purpose.

    The current prescribing landscape for medicinal cannabis is confusing for doctors, inequitable for patients, and difficult to regulate.

    The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) recently announced it’s going to crack down on unsafe prescribing. But this doesn’t go far enough. The system needs urgent reform.

    What is medicinal cannabis used for?

    Medicinal cannabis was legalised in Australia in 2016. Products come in different forms including oils, liquids, capsules, gels (which can be applied to the skin), dried flower (which can be inhaled using a vapouriser) and gummies.

    Key ingredients include THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol). THC is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, and is responsible if a “high” is experienced.

    When it was first legalised, medicinal cannabis was intended for patients with complex needs and severe, treatment-resistant conditions.

    The TGA clearly indicated medicinal cannabis should not be considered a first-line treatment for any condition, and should be administered with a “start low, go slow” dosage approach.

    Patients for whom it might be deemed appropriate included those receiving palliative care, or suffering with intractable epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, or chronic pain unresponsive to standard care.

    But over time, prescribing has expanded well beyond these cases. Today, most medicinal cannabis prescriptions are given for relatively common conditions such as chronic pain, anxiety and sleep disorders.

    What does the evidence say?

    The evidence remains inconsistent. Chronic pain – the most common reason medicinal cannabis is prescribed in Australia – offers a key example.

    According to a recent TGA review, some randomised trials suggest medicinal cannabis may help a subset of patients achieve moderate reductions in pain. However, many studies are small, of variable quality, and don’t account for long-term effects.

    And like all medicines, medicinal cannabis carries risks. Products containing THC have been linked to side-effects such as sedation, dizziness and cognitive impairment.

    While generally better tolerated, CBD is not risk-free. For example, both CBD and THC can interact with certain medications, heightening the likelihood of adverse effects.

    Access over evidence

    In Australia, approved medicines undergo rigorous clinical testing before they’re registered. Drug manufacturers’ applications to the TGA normally include detailed data on efficacy as well as long-term safety monitoring and quality controls.

    But driven by patient advocacy, political responsiveness, and commercial momentum, medicinal cannabis has come to reflect a different model.

    Most medicinal cannabis products – bar two which have TGA approval – lack the evidence demonstrating safety, quality and efficacy required of registered pharmaceuticals.

    In other words, the majority are not subject to the rigorous trials or data standards required for formal registration with the TGA’s Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.

    For many doctors, whose prescribing has traditionally been guided by strong trial data and rigorous regulatory review, this doesn’t sit well.

    Doctors are often flying blind

    While companies can legally sell cannabis products via access schemes without investing in clinical research, doctors are expected to prescribe without consistent information on what works, for whom, and at what dose.

    The TGA oversees access pathways but is neither resourced nor mandated to provide clinical oversight or direct support to prescribers, leaving many clinicians to navigate the system alone.

    Prescriptions are frequently granted via telehealth and posted to patients.

    Growing concerns have emerged that some care models – particularly high-volume telehealth services – are prioritising patient throughput over clinical judgment, and not spending enough time with patients.

    For example, Ahpra reported eight practitioners issued more than 10,000 medicinal cannabis scripts in a six-month period, while one appeared to have issued in excess of 17,000.

    The surge in prescribing has been further shaped by active marketing from some cannabis companies, outpacing the development of coordinated clinical guidance and safety monitoring infrastructure.

    Many people who get a script for medicinal cannabis do so via telehealth.
    Geber86/Shutterstock

    Access and affordability: a system failing patients

    Some people, including those living in rural and remote areas, can find it difficult to navigate medicinal cannabis prescribing processes. This can be due to limited digital access and fewer opportunities for follow-up with a local GP. These challenges make it harder for people to make informed decisions about their care.

    Cost is also a major issue, particularly where bulk billing is unavailable or multiple consultations are needed. This is on top of the cost of the products.

    One of the two TGA-approved medicinal cannabis products, Sativex, used to treat muscle stiffness in multiple sclerosis, is not currently subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. This means patients pay the full cost, which ranges between A$700 and $800 for a 6–8 week supply.



    Read more:
    We looked at 54 medicinal cannabis websites to see if they followed the rules. Here’s what we found

    What needs to change?

    Australia’s medicinal cannabis system is based on a fragmented evidence base and a fast-growing market operating with limited visibility into how products are used or evaluated. Addressing these challenges will require coordinated reform across multiple fronts.

    1. Capture real-world data

    Most urgently, we need robust, real-world data. To deliver safe and equitable care, we must know how medicinal cannabis is being prescribed, for what conditions, under what circumstances, and with what outcomes.

    Without this, we cannot answer the most basic questions about clinical benefits or track adverse events.

    Real-world data, such as de-identified health information from clinics, could help inform better clinical and policy decisions.

    2. Build a national accreditation model

    Australia needs a national prescriber accreditation model for medicinal cannabis, developed in collaboration with clinicians, regulators and professional bodies.

    Such a model would help ensure prescribing is clinically appropriate, evidence-informed, and consistent with evolving standards of care. In practice, this would mean health professionals would need to complete specific training before prescribing medicinal cannabis.

    This approach is not without precedent. For example, some health professionals must undergo immuniser accreditation before they can administer vaccines independently.

    3. Tackle inequity

    Finally, we must confront persistent access inequities. That includes exploring government subsidies for TGA-approved medicinal cannabis products. No one should have to choose between financial hardship and safe access.

    Dr Christine Hallinan, Senior Reseach Fellow, conducted research on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal cannabis at the University of Melbourne as part of the Pharmacovigilance theme within the Australian Centre for Cannabinoid Clinical and Research Excellence (ACRE), which was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) through the Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) scheme. She served as an Associate Investigator on ACRE from 2017 to 2023. Christine Hallinan is also a member of an Expert Roundtable on medicinal cannabis, chaired by Ian Freckelton AO KC and facilitated by Montu. The Roundtable brings together experts from medicine, law, research, and policy to contribute recommendations for a more evidence-based and fit-for-purpose regulatory framework. These roles are disclosed in the interest of transparency and do not influence the content or conclusions of this work.

    – ref. Confusing for doctors, inequitable for patients: why Australia’s medicinal cannabis system needs urgent reform – https://theconversation.com/confusing-for-doctors-inequitable-for-patients-why-australias-medicinal-cannabis-system-needs-urgent-reform-257249

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: The beginning of a new era for EIT

    Source: Eastern Institute of Technology

    17 seconds ago

    Today the Minister for Vocational Education announced that EIT is one of the Polytechnics which will be standing up as independent institution from January 2026. This is great news for the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti regions as EIT will have the autonomy once again to make decisions that are best for ākonga and the diverse communities we serve.

    For the past three years, EIT has been a business division of Te Pūkenga, which was an amalgamation of 16 Polytechnics and 9 industry training organisations.  

    This year, EIT proudly celebrates 50 years of providing education and training to the community. What was originally the Hawke’s Bay Community College first opened its doors in 1975. EIT consolidated itself as the preeminent educational provider on the East Coast when it merged with Tairāwhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne in 2011.  EIT has thrived over the last 50 years, now offering more than 160 postgraduate, degree, diploma and certificate-level programmes.

    Glen Harkness, Acting Operations Lead for EIT, is thrilled by the announcement

    “We are focused on ensuring we are an institution that is financially viable, academically rigorous, founded on strong and enduring industry engagement and community connections within our region. We will do this by making sure our EIT values are at the heart of what we do. This is to ensure we are fit for purpose in a modern, digital age where our ākonga learn in different ways and have expectations around what we deliver and how we do this.  I want to acknowledge our kaimahi who have been through so much change over the past few years and have stuck at it due to their commitment and passion for our ākonga and communities,” he said.

    “We are currently going through a consultation process with kaimahi (staff) to ensure that we are financially viable and can have a long, bright future as an independent organisation.  This may mean some roles are disestablished in the process; however, we are still going through feedback, and no decisions have yet been made”, notes Glen.

    “Nothing changes in terms of us continuing to provide quality education and training to our communities. We are looking forward to engaging even more closely with Iwi, Industry, Employers, Schools and other partners as we look towards a bright future as an institution that supports our regions with their workforce needs.”

    Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst welcomed the announcement, after what has been an incredibly difficult few years for the institution.

    “Our region’s leaders have met with the Minister to highlight the importance of EIT to our region. As our only tertiary provider, it has had a strong, functioning model with good governance, and the Te Pūkenga reform process has been very challenging.

    “It’s extremely important for our region to have a local provider that gives our people accessible and affordable training opportunities, saving them the costs involved with studying outside the region, while at the same time helping develop a skilled workforce that meets the needs of multiple sectors in our community.

    “We look forward to EIT having further opportunities to build on its local leadership in our region.”

    Doug Jones, Trust Tairāwhiti Chief Executive, welcomed the announcement.

    “It’s positive news that the Government has backed EIT to operate independently and continue delivering quality education and training opportunities,” he said.

    “As the regional Economic Development Agency, Trust Tairāwhiti understands the importance of EIT to our region and people in supporting workforce development and addressing future skills challenges. The local institute is also incredibly valuable to our young people, enabling them to stay in the region while completing tertiary training.”

    Karla Lee, Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO, said the decision builds on EIT’s strong regional track record.

    “EIT has long played a key role in developing a skilled workforce for our region. Returning to local governance strengthens that connection and gives EIT even more flexibility to work alongside businesses, respond to sector needs, and support economic growth across Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI: Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (“Falcon”) – Another Stellar IP60 Flow Test Result in the Beetaloo and 2025 Drilling Campaign Commences

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (“Falcon”)

    Another Stellar IP60 Flow Test Result in the Beetaloo

    And

    2025 Drilling Campaign Commences

    14 July 2025 – Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. (TSXV: FO, AIM: FOG) is pleased to announce that Shenandoah S2-2H ST1 (“SS-2H ST1”) achieved an average 60-day initial production (“IP60”) flow rate of 6.8 million cubic feet per day (“MMcf/d”) over 1,671-metres (5,483-foot) across a 35 stage stimulated horizontal within the Amungee Member B-Shale in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, Northern Territory, Australia, making it the highest IP60 result in the Beetaloo to date.

    Points to note:

    • The average flow rate of 12.4 MMcf/d over a normalized 10,000-foot horizontal section remains in-line with an average of more than 11,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale dry gas area on production over a 12-month period. The results demonstrate the commercial deliverability of gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin to the Australian domestic East Coast gas market that typically sells at a premium to Henry Hub in the United States. 
    • The exit rate maintains a steady, low-declining curve at 6.4 MMcf/d with a flowing wellhead pressure of ~720 psi and has exhibited less decline than that of the Shenandoah South 1H well (“SS-1H”) over the last 30 days of testing.
    • For further details on the SS-2H ST1 flow test including a table, and charts please refer to Appendix A.

    Drilling Campaign Gets Underway

    • The 2025 drilling campaign has now commenced targeting up to three 10,000-foot horizontal wells to be drilled back-to-back over the next few months. This will complete the drilling phase of the five well Shenandoah South pilot program.
    • As previously announced, Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited (“Falcon Australia”) has no cost exposure to the drilling of these three wells as it opted to reduce its participating interest in the three wells to 0%.

    Philip O’Quigley, CEO of Falcon commented:

    “The IP60 flow rate results announced today of 6.8 MMcf/d are truly stellar and mark another major data point in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, again demonstrating that it compares to the best shale wells in the United States. These results, coupled with the average 30-day initial production exceeding Falcon’s pre-drill commercial threshold of a normalised flow rate of 3 MMcf/d per 1,000 metres, all point towards the significant resource potential of the Beetaloo.

    The commencement of the 2025 three well drilling campaign, which is the largest drilling campaign in the Beetaloo to date, will hopefully provide further evidence of the real commercial potential of the Beetaloo.

    We look forward to updating the market as soon as these drilling results become available.”

    Ends.

    CONTACT DETAILS:

    Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd.          +353 1 676 8702
    Philip O’Quigley, CEO +353 87 814 7042
    Anne Flynn, CFO +353 1 676 9162
     
    Cavendish Capital Markets Limited (NOMAD & Broker)
    Neil McDonald / Adam Rae +44 131 220 9771

     

    This announcement has been reviewed by Dr. Gábor Bada, Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd’s Technical Advisor. Dr. Bada obtained his geology degree at the Eötvös L. University in Budapest, Hungary and his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is a member of AAPG.

    About Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd.
    Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd is an international oil & gas company engaged in the exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas assets, with the current portfolio focused in Australia. Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd is incorporated in British Columbia, Canada and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

    Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited is a c. 98% subsidiary of Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd.

    For further information on Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. Please visit www.falconoilandgas.com

    About Beetaloo Joint Venture (EP 76, 98 and 117)   

    Company Interest
    Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited (Falcon Australia) 22.5%
    Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited (“Tamboran”) 77.5%
    Total 100.0%

    Shenandoah South Pilot Project -2 Drilling Space Units – 46,080 acres1

    Company Interest
    Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited (Falcon Australia) 5.0%
    Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited 95.0%
    Total 100.0%

    1Subject to the completion of SS–4H wells on the Shenandoah South pad 2.

    About Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited
    Tamboran (B1) Pty Limited (“Tamboran B1”) is the 100% holder of Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited, with Tamboran B1 being a 50:50 joint venture between Tamboran Resources Corporation and Daly Waters Energy, LP.

    Tamboran Resources Corporation is a natural gas company listed on the NYSE (TBN) and ASX (TBN). Tamboran is focused on playing a constructive role in the global energy transition towards a lower carbon future, by developing the significant low CO2 gas resource within the Beetaloo Sub-basin through cutting-edge drilling and completion design technology as well as management’s experience in successfully commercialising unconventional shale in North America.

    Bryan Sheffield of Daly Waters Energy, LP is a highly successful investor and has made significant returns in the US unconventional energy sector in the past. He was Founder of Parsley Energy Inc. (“PE”), an independent unconventional oil and gas producer in the Permian Basin, Texas and previously served as its Chairman and CEO. PE was acquired for over US$7 billion by Pioneer Natural Resources Company.

     

    Appendix A – SS-2H ST1 Flow Test Details

    Note to reader: Please refer to the PDF attachment included at the end of this press release for further details including a table and charts related to the SS-2H ST1 flow test results.

    Advisory regarding forward-looking statements

    Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking information. Forward-looking information typically contains statements with words such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “projects”, “dependent”, “consider” “potential”, “scheduled”, “forecast”, “anticipated”, “outlook”, “budget”, “hope”, “suggest”, “support” “planned”, “approximately”, “potential” or the negative of those terms or similar words suggesting future outcomes.  In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, details on the IP60 flow test results of SS-2H ST1 including assumptions that the results are in line with average of more than 11,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale dry gas area on production over a 12-month period and that they demonstrate the commercial deliverability of gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin in the Australian Domestic East Coast gas market that typically sells at a premium to Henry Hub in the United States; consistency of the results of SS-2H ST1 with SS-1H; belief the average 30-day initial production of a normalised flow rate of 3 MMcf/d per 1,000 metres is a commercial threshold and coupled with the IP60 flow rate points towards the significant resource potential of the Beetaloo; and details on the 2025 three well drilling campaign which has commenced.

    This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. The risks, assumptions and other factors that could influence actual results include risks associated with fluctuations in market prices for shale gas; risks related to the exploration, development and production of shale gas reserves; general economic, market and business conditions; substantial capital requirements; uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of reserves and resources; extent of, and cost of compliance with, government laws and regulations and the effect of changes in such laws and regulations; the need to obtain regulatory approvals before development commences; environmental risks and hazards and the cost of compliance with environmental regulations; aboriginal claims; inherent risks and hazards with operations such as mechanical or pipe failure, cratering and other dangerous conditions; potential cost overruns, drilling wells is speculative, often involving significant costs that may be more than estimated and may not result in any discoveries; variations in foreign exchange rates; competition for capital, equipment, new leases, pipeline capacity and skilled personnel; the failure of the holder of licenses, leases and permits to meet requirements of such; changes in royalty regimes; failure to accurately estimate abandonment and reclamation costs; inaccurate estimates and assumptions by management and/or their joint venture partners; effectiveness of internal controls; the potential lack of available drilling equipment; failure to obtain or keep key personnel; title deficiencies; geo-political risks; and risk of litigation.

    Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive and that these factors and risks are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. Falcon assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to Falcon. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in Falcon’s filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedarplus.com, including under “Risk Factors” in the Annual Information Form.

    Any references in this news release to initial production rates are useful in confirming the presence of hydrocarbons; however, such rates are not determinative of the rates at which such wells will continue production and decline thereafter and are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance or ultimate recovery. While encouraging, readers are cautioned not to place reliance on such rates in calculating the aggregate production for Falcon. Such rates are based on field estimates and may be based on limited data available at this time.

    Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (“Falcon”) – Another Stellar IP60 Flow Test Result in the Beetaloo and 2025 Drilling Campaign Commences

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd (“Falcon”)

    Another Stellar IP60 Flow Test Result in the Beetaloo

    And

    2025 Drilling Campaign Commences

    14 July 2025 – Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. (TSXV: FO, AIM: FOG) is pleased to announce that Shenandoah S2-2H ST1 (“SS-2H ST1”) achieved an average 60-day initial production (“IP60”) flow rate of 6.8 million cubic feet per day (“MMcf/d”) over 1,671-metres (5,483-foot) across a 35 stage stimulated horizontal within the Amungee Member B-Shale in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, Northern Territory, Australia, making it the highest IP60 result in the Beetaloo to date.

    Points to note:

    • The average flow rate of 12.4 MMcf/d over a normalized 10,000-foot horizontal section remains in-line with an average of more than 11,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale dry gas area on production over a 12-month period. The results demonstrate the commercial deliverability of gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin to the Australian domestic East Coast gas market that typically sells at a premium to Henry Hub in the United States. 
    • The exit rate maintains a steady, low-declining curve at 6.4 MMcf/d with a flowing wellhead pressure of ~720 psi and has exhibited less decline than that of the Shenandoah South 1H well (“SS-1H”) over the last 30 days of testing.
    • For further details on the SS-2H ST1 flow test including a table, and charts please refer to Appendix A.

    Drilling Campaign Gets Underway

    • The 2025 drilling campaign has now commenced targeting up to three 10,000-foot horizontal wells to be drilled back-to-back over the next few months. This will complete the drilling phase of the five well Shenandoah South pilot program.
    • As previously announced, Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited (“Falcon Australia”) has no cost exposure to the drilling of these three wells as it opted to reduce its participating interest in the three wells to 0%.

    Philip O’Quigley, CEO of Falcon commented:

    “The IP60 flow rate results announced today of 6.8 MMcf/d are truly stellar and mark another major data point in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, again demonstrating that it compares to the best shale wells in the United States. These results, coupled with the average 30-day initial production exceeding Falcon’s pre-drill commercial threshold of a normalised flow rate of 3 MMcf/d per 1,000 metres, all point towards the significant resource potential of the Beetaloo.

    The commencement of the 2025 three well drilling campaign, which is the largest drilling campaign in the Beetaloo to date, will hopefully provide further evidence of the real commercial potential of the Beetaloo.

    We look forward to updating the market as soon as these drilling results become available.”

    Ends.

    CONTACT DETAILS:

    Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd.          +353 1 676 8702
    Philip O’Quigley, CEO +353 87 814 7042
    Anne Flynn, CFO +353 1 676 9162
     
    Cavendish Capital Markets Limited (NOMAD & Broker)
    Neil McDonald / Adam Rae +44 131 220 9771

     

    This announcement has been reviewed by Dr. Gábor Bada, Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd’s Technical Advisor. Dr. Bada obtained his geology degree at the Eötvös L. University in Budapest, Hungary and his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is a member of AAPG.

    About Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd.
    Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd is an international oil & gas company engaged in the exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas assets, with the current portfolio focused in Australia. Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd is incorporated in British Columbia, Canada and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

    Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited is a c. 98% subsidiary of Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd.

    For further information on Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. Please visit www.falconoilandgas.com

    About Beetaloo Joint Venture (EP 76, 98 and 117)   

    Company Interest
    Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited (Falcon Australia) 22.5%
    Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited (“Tamboran”) 77.5%
    Total 100.0%

    Shenandoah South Pilot Project -2 Drilling Space Units – 46,080 acres1

    Company Interest
    Falcon Oil & Gas Australia Limited (Falcon Australia) 5.0%
    Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited 95.0%
    Total 100.0%

    1Subject to the completion of SS–4H wells on the Shenandoah South pad 2.

    About Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited
    Tamboran (B1) Pty Limited (“Tamboran B1”) is the 100% holder of Tamboran (B2) Pty Limited, with Tamboran B1 being a 50:50 joint venture between Tamboran Resources Corporation and Daly Waters Energy, LP.

    Tamboran Resources Corporation is a natural gas company listed on the NYSE (TBN) and ASX (TBN). Tamboran is focused on playing a constructive role in the global energy transition towards a lower carbon future, by developing the significant low CO2 gas resource within the Beetaloo Sub-basin through cutting-edge drilling and completion design technology as well as management’s experience in successfully commercialising unconventional shale in North America.

    Bryan Sheffield of Daly Waters Energy, LP is a highly successful investor and has made significant returns in the US unconventional energy sector in the past. He was Founder of Parsley Energy Inc. (“PE”), an independent unconventional oil and gas producer in the Permian Basin, Texas and previously served as its Chairman and CEO. PE was acquired for over US$7 billion by Pioneer Natural Resources Company.

     

    Appendix A – SS-2H ST1 Flow Test Details

    Note to reader: Please refer to the PDF attachment included at the end of this press release for further details including a table and charts related to the SS-2H ST1 flow test results.

    Advisory regarding forward-looking statements

    Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking information. Forward-looking information typically contains statements with words such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “projects”, “dependent”, “consider” “potential”, “scheduled”, “forecast”, “anticipated”, “outlook”, “budget”, “hope”, “suggest”, “support” “planned”, “approximately”, “potential” or the negative of those terms or similar words suggesting future outcomes.  In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, details on the IP60 flow test results of SS-2H ST1 including assumptions that the results are in line with average of more than 11,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale dry gas area on production over a 12-month period and that they demonstrate the commercial deliverability of gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin in the Australian Domestic East Coast gas market that typically sells at a premium to Henry Hub in the United States; consistency of the results of SS-2H ST1 with SS-1H; belief the average 30-day initial production of a normalised flow rate of 3 MMcf/d per 1,000 metres is a commercial threshold and coupled with the IP60 flow rate points towards the significant resource potential of the Beetaloo; and details on the 2025 three well drilling campaign which has commenced.

    This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. The risks, assumptions and other factors that could influence actual results include risks associated with fluctuations in market prices for shale gas; risks related to the exploration, development and production of shale gas reserves; general economic, market and business conditions; substantial capital requirements; uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of reserves and resources; extent of, and cost of compliance with, government laws and regulations and the effect of changes in such laws and regulations; the need to obtain regulatory approvals before development commences; environmental risks and hazards and the cost of compliance with environmental regulations; aboriginal claims; inherent risks and hazards with operations such as mechanical or pipe failure, cratering and other dangerous conditions; potential cost overruns, drilling wells is speculative, often involving significant costs that may be more than estimated and may not result in any discoveries; variations in foreign exchange rates; competition for capital, equipment, new leases, pipeline capacity and skilled personnel; the failure of the holder of licenses, leases and permits to meet requirements of such; changes in royalty regimes; failure to accurately estimate abandonment and reclamation costs; inaccurate estimates and assumptions by management and/or their joint venture partners; effectiveness of internal controls; the potential lack of available drilling equipment; failure to obtain or keep key personnel; title deficiencies; geo-political risks; and risk of litigation.

    Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive and that these factors and risks are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. Falcon assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to Falcon. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in Falcon’s filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedarplus.com, including under “Risk Factors” in the Annual Information Form.

    Any references in this news release to initial production rates are useful in confirming the presence of hydrocarbons; however, such rates are not determinative of the rates at which such wells will continue production and decline thereafter and are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance or ultimate recovery. While encouraging, readers are cautioned not to place reliance on such rates in calculating the aggregate production for Falcon. Such rates are based on field estimates and may be based on limited data available at this time.

    Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Author condemns ‘callous’ health legacy of French, US nuclear bomb tests in Pacific

    Asia Pacific Report

    A journalist who was on the Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap last night condemned France for its “callous” attack of an environmental ship, saying “we haven’t forgotten, or forgiven this outrage”.

    David Robie, the author of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior, said at the launch that the consequences of almost 300 US and French nuclear tests – many of them “dirty bombs” — were still impacting on indigenous Pacific peoples 40 years after the bombing of the ship.

    French saboteurs had killed “our shipmate Fernando Pereira” on 10 July 1985 in what the New Zealand prime minister at the time, David Lange, called a “sordid act of international state-backed terrorism”.

    Although relations with France had perhaps mellowed over time, four decades ago there was a lot of hostility towards the country, Dr Robie said.

    “And that act of mindless sabotage still rankles very deeply in our psyche,” he said at the launch in Auckland Central’s Ellen Melville Centre on the anniversary of July 10.

    About 100 people gathered in the centre’s Pioneer Women’s Hall for the book launch as Dr Robie reflected on the case of state terrorism after Greenpeace earlier in the day held a memorial ceremony on board Rainbow Warrior III.

    “One of the celebrated French newspapers, Le Monde, played a critical role in the investigation into the Rainbow Warrior affair — what I brand as ‘Blundergate’, in view of all the follies of the bumbling DGSE spy team,” he said.

    Plantu cartoon
    “And one of the cartoons in that newspaper, by Plantu, who is a sort of French equivalent to Michael Leunig, caught my eye.

    “You will notice it in the background slide show behind me. It shows François Mitterrand, the president of the French republic at the time, dressed in a frogman’s wetsuit lecturing to school children during a history lesson.

    “President Mitterrand says, in French, ‘At that time, only presidents had the right to carry out terrorism!’

    Tahitian advocate Ena Manurevia . . . the background Plantu cartoon is the one mentioned by the author. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    He noticed that in the Mitterrand cartoon there was a “classmate” sitting in the back of the room with a moustache. This was none other than Edwy Plenel, the police reporter for Le Monde at the time, who scooped the world with hard evidence of Mitterrand and the French government’s role at the highest level in the Rainbow Warrior sabotage.

    Dr Robie said that Plenel now published the investigative website Mediapart, which had played a key role in 2015 revealing the identity of the bomber that night, “the man who had planted the limpet mines on the Rainbow Warrior — sinking a peace and environmental ship, and killing Fernando Pereira.”

    Jean-Luc Kister, a retired French colonel and DGSE secret agent, had confessed to his role and “apologised”, claiming the sabotage operation was “disproportionate and a mistake”.

    “Was he sincere? Was it a genuine attempt to come to terms with his conscience. Who knows?” Dr Robie said, adding that he was unconvinced.

    Hilari Anderson (right on stage), one of the speakers, with Del Abcede and MC Antony Phillips (obscured) . . . the background image shows Helen Clark meeting Fernando Pereira’s daughter Marelle in 2005. Image: Greenpeace

    French perspective
    Dr Robie said he had asked Plenel for his reflections from a French perspective 40 years on. Plenel cited three main take ways.

    “First, the vital necessity of independent journalism. Independent of all powers, whether state, economic or ideological. Journalism that serves the public interest, the right to know, and factual truths.

    “Impactful journalism whose revelations restore confidence in democracy, in the possibility of improving it, and in the usefulness of counterbalancing powers, particularly journalism.”

    Secondly, this attack had been carried out by France in an “allied country”, New Zealand, against a civil society organisation. This demonstrated that “the thirst for power is a downfall that leads nations astray when they succumb to it.

    “Nuclear weapons epitomise this madness, this catastrophe of power.”

    Finally, Plenel expressed the “infinite sadness” for a French citizen that after his revelations in Le Monde — which led to the resignations of the defence minister and the head of the secret services — nothing else happened.

    “Nothing at all. No parliamentary inquiry, no questioning of François Mitterrand about his responsibility, no institutional reform of the absolute power of the president in a French republic that is, in reality, an elective monarchy.”

    ‘Elective monarchy’ trend
    Dr Robie compared the French outcome with the rapid trend in US today, “a president who thinks he is a monarch, a king – another elective monarchy.”

    He also bemoaned that “catastrophe of power” that “reigns everywhere today – from the horrendous Israeli genocide in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from Trump to Putin to Netanyahu, and so many others.”

    The continuous Gaza massacres were a shameful indictment of the West that had allowed it to happen for more than 21 months.

    Dr Robie thanked many collaborators for their help and support, including drama teacher Hilari Anderson, an original crew member of the Rainbow Warrior, and photographer John Miller, “who have been with me all the way on this waka journey”.

    He thanked his wife, Del, and family members for their unstinting “patience and support”, and also publisher Tony Murrow of Little Island Press.

    Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior . . . published 10 July 2025. Image: David Robie/Little Island Press

    Launching the book, Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh O’Flynn said one thing that had stood out for her was how the legacy of the Rainbow Warrior had continued despite the attempt by the French government to shut it down 40 years ago.

    “We said then that ‘you can’t sink a rainbow’, and we went on to prove it.

    “When the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland harbour, it was getting ready to set sail to Moruroa Atoll, to enter the test exclusion zone and confront French nuclear testing head-on.”

    So threatened
    The French government had felt so threatened by that action that it had engaged in a state-sanctioned terror attack to prevent the mission from going ahead.

    “But we rebuilt, and the Rainbow Warrior II carried on with that mission, travelling to Moruroa three times before the French finally stopped nuclear testing in the Pacific.

    “That spirit and tenacity is what makes Greenpeace and what makes the Rainbow Warrior so special to everyone who has sailed on her,” she said.

    “It was the final voyage of the Rainbow Warrior to Rongelap before the bombing that is the focus of David Robie’s book, and in many ways, it was an incredibly unique experience for Greenpeace — not just here in Aotearoa, but internationally.

    “And of course David was a key part in that.”

    O’Flynn said that as someone who had not even been born yet when the Rainbow Warrior was bombed, “I am so grateful that the generation of nuclear-free activists took the time to pass on their knowledge and to build our organisation into what it is today.

    “Just as David has by writing down his story and leaving us with such a rich legacy.”

    Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh O’Flynn . . . “That spirit and tenacity is what makes Greenpeace and what makes the Rainbow Warrior so special to everyone who has sailed on her.” Image: APR

    Other speakers
    Among other speakers at the book launch were teacher Hilari Anderson, publisher Tony Murrow of Little Island Press, Ena Manuireva, a Mangarevian scholar and cultural adviser, and MC Antony Phillips of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

    Anderson spoke of the Warrior’s early campaigns and acknowledged the crews of 1978 and 1985.

    “I have been reflecting what these first and last crews of the original Rainbow Warrior had in common, realising that both gave their collective, mostly youthful energy — to transformation.

    “This has involved the bonding of crews by working hands-on together. Touching surfaces, by hammer and paint, created a physical connection to this beloved boat.”

    She paid special tribute to two powerful women, Denise Bell, who tracked down the marine research vessel in Aberdeen that became the Rainbow Warrior, and the indomitable Susi Newborn, who “contributed to naming the ship and mustering a crew”.

    Manuireva spoke about his nuclear colonial experience and that of his family as natives of Mangareva atoll, about 400 km from Muroroa atoll, where France conducted most of its 30 years of tests ending in 1995.

    He also spoke of Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru’s pioneering role in the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, and played haunting Tahitian songs on his guitar.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Author condemns ‘callous’ health legacy of French, US nuclear bomb tests in Pacific

    Asia Pacific Report

    A journalist who was on the Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap last night condemned France for its “callous” attack of an environmental ship, saying “we haven’t forgotten, or forgiven this outrage”.

    David Robie, the author of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior, said at the launch that the consequences of almost 300 US and French nuclear tests – many of them “dirty bombs” — were still impacting on indigenous Pacific peoples 40 years after the bombing of the ship.

    French saboteurs had killed “our shipmate Fernando Pereira” on 10 July 1985 in what the New Zealand prime minister at the time, David Lange, called a “sordid act of international state-backed terrorism”.

    Although relations with France had perhaps mellowed over time, four decades ago there was a lot of hostility towards the country, Dr Robie said.

    “And that act of mindless sabotage still rankles very deeply in our psyche,” he said at the launch in Auckland Central’s Ellen Melville Centre on the anniversary of July 10.

    About 100 people gathered in the centre’s Pioneer Women’s Hall for the book launch as Dr Robie reflected on the case of state terrorism after Greenpeace earlier in the day held a memorial ceremony on board Rainbow Warrior III.

    “One of the celebrated French newspapers, Le Monde, played a critical role in the investigation into the Rainbow Warrior affair — what I brand as ‘Blundergate’, in view of all the follies of the bumbling DGSE spy team,” he said.

    Plantu cartoon
    “And one of the cartoons in that newspaper, by Plantu, who is a sort of French equivalent to Michael Leunig, caught my eye.

    “You will notice it in the background slide show behind me. It shows François Mitterrand, the president of the French republic at the time, dressed in a frogman’s wetsuit lecturing to school children during a history lesson.

    “President Mitterrand says, in French, ‘At that time, only presidents had the right to carry out terrorism!’

    Tahitian advocate Ena Manurevia . . . the background Plantu cartoon is the one mentioned by the author. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    He noticed that in the Mitterrand cartoon there was a “classmate” sitting in the back of the room with a moustache. This was none other than Edwy Plenel, the police reporter for Le Monde at the time, who scooped the world with hard evidence of Mitterrand and the French government’s role at the highest level in the Rainbow Warrior sabotage.

    Dr Robie said that Plenel now published the investigative website Mediapart, which had played a key role in 2015 revealing the identity of the bomber that night, “the man who had planted the limpet mines on the Rainbow Warrior — sinking a peace and environmental ship, and killing Fernando Pereira.”

    Jean-Luc Kister, a retired French colonel and DGSE secret agent, had confessed to his role and “apologised”, claiming the sabotage operation was “disproportionate and a mistake”.

    “Was he sincere? Was it a genuine attempt to come to terms with his conscience. Who knows?” Dr Robie said, adding that he was unconvinced.

    Hilari Anderson (right on stage), one of the speakers, with Del Abcede and MC Antony Phillips (obscured) . . . the background image shows Helen Clark meeting Fernando Pereira’s daughter Marelle in 2005. Image: Greenpeace

    French perspective
    Dr Robie said he had asked Plenel for his reflections from a French perspective 40 years on. Plenel cited three main take ways.

    “First, the vital necessity of independent journalism. Independent of all powers, whether state, economic or ideological. Journalism that serves the public interest, the right to know, and factual truths.

    “Impactful journalism whose revelations restore confidence in democracy, in the possibility of improving it, and in the usefulness of counterbalancing powers, particularly journalism.”

    Secondly, this attack had been carried out by France in an “allied country”, New Zealand, against a civil society organisation. This demonstrated that “the thirst for power is a downfall that leads nations astray when they succumb to it.

    “Nuclear weapons epitomise this madness, this catastrophe of power.”

    Finally, Plenel expressed the “infinite sadness” for a French citizen that after his revelations in Le Monde — which led to the resignations of the defence minister and the head of the secret services — nothing else happened.

    “Nothing at all. No parliamentary inquiry, no questioning of François Mitterrand about his responsibility, no institutional reform of the absolute power of the president in a French republic that is, in reality, an elective monarchy.”

    ‘Elective monarchy’ trend
    Dr Robie compared the French outcome with the rapid trend in US today, “a president who thinks he is a monarch, a king – another elective monarchy.”

    He also bemoaned that “catastrophe of power” that “reigns everywhere today – from the horrendous Israeli genocide in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from Trump to Putin to Netanyahu, and so many others.”

    The continuous Gaza massacres were a shameful indictment of the West that had allowed it to happen for more than 21 months.

    Dr Robie thanked many collaborators for their help and support, including drama teacher Hilari Anderson, an original crew member of the Rainbow Warrior, and photographer John Miller, “who have been with me all the way on this waka journey”.

    He thanked his wife, Del, and family members for their unstinting “patience and support”, and also publisher Tony Murrow of Little Island Press.

    Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior . . . published 10 July 2025. Image: David Robie/Little Island Press

    Launching the book, Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh O’Flynn said one thing that had stood out for her was how the legacy of the Rainbow Warrior had continued despite the attempt by the French government to shut it down 40 years ago.

    “We said then that ‘you can’t sink a rainbow’, and we went on to prove it.

    “When the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland harbour, it was getting ready to set sail to Moruroa Atoll, to enter the test exclusion zone and confront French nuclear testing head-on.”

    So threatened
    The French government had felt so threatened by that action that it had engaged in a state-sanctioned terror attack to prevent the mission from going ahead.

    “But we rebuilt, and the Rainbow Warrior II carried on with that mission, travelling to Moruroa three times before the French finally stopped nuclear testing in the Pacific.

    “That spirit and tenacity is what makes Greenpeace and what makes the Rainbow Warrior so special to everyone who has sailed on her,” she said.

    “It was the final voyage of the Rainbow Warrior to Rongelap before the bombing that is the focus of David Robie’s book, and in many ways, it was an incredibly unique experience for Greenpeace — not just here in Aotearoa, but internationally.

    “And of course David was a key part in that.”

    O’Flynn said that as someone who had not even been born yet when the Rainbow Warrior was bombed, “I am so grateful that the generation of nuclear-free activists took the time to pass on their knowledge and to build our organisation into what it is today.

    “Just as David has by writing down his story and leaving us with such a rich legacy.”

    Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh O’Flynn . . . “That spirit and tenacity is what makes Greenpeace and what makes the Rainbow Warrior so special to everyone who has sailed on her.” Image: APR

    Other speakers
    Among other speakers at the book launch were teacher Hilari Anderson, publisher Tony Murrow of Little Island Press, Ena Manuireva, a Mangarevian scholar and cultural adviser, and MC Antony Phillips of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

    Anderson spoke of the Warrior’s early campaigns and acknowledged the crews of 1978 and 1985.

    “I have been reflecting what these first and last crews of the original Rainbow Warrior had in common, realising that both gave their collective, mostly youthful energy — to transformation.

    “This has involved the bonding of crews by working hands-on together. Touching surfaces, by hammer and paint, created a physical connection to this beloved boat.”

    She paid special tribute to two powerful women, Denise Bell, who tracked down the marine research vessel in Aberdeen that became the Rainbow Warrior, and the indomitable Susi Newborn, who “contributed to naming the ship and mustering a crew”.

    Manuireva spoke about his nuclear colonial experience and that of his family as natives of Mangareva atoll, about 400 km from Muroroa atoll, where France conducted most of its 30 years of tests ending in 1995.

    He also spoke of Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru’s pioneering role in the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, and played haunting Tahitian songs on his guitar.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron J. Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow in AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology

    Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy & AI4Media, CC BY

    Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot embedded in X (formerly Twitter) and built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, is back in the headlines after calling itself “MechaHitler” and producing pro-Nazi remarks.

    The developers have apologised for the “inappropriate posts” and “taken action to ban hate speech” from Grok’s posts on X. Debates about AI bias have been revived too.

    But the latest Grok controversy is revealing not for the extremist outputs, but for how it exposes a fundamental dishonesty in AI development. Musk claims to be building a “truth-seeking” AI free from bias, yet the technical implementation reveals systemic ideological programming.

    This amounts to an accidental case study in how AI systems embed their creators’ values, with Musk’s unfiltered public presence making visible what other companies typically obscure.

    What is Grok?

    Grok is an AI chatbot with “a twist of humor and a dash of rebellion” developed by xAI, which also owns the X social media platform.

    The first version of Grok launched in 2023. Independent evaluations suggest the latest model, Grok 4, outpaces competitors on “intelligence” tests. The chatbot is available standalone and on X.

    xAI states “AI’s knowledge should be all-encompassing and as far-reaching as possible”. Musk has previously positioned Grok as a truth-telling alternative to chatbots accused of being “woke” by right-wing commentators.

    But beyond the latest Nazism scandal, Grok has made headlines for generating threats of sexual violence, bringing up “white genocide” in South Africa, and making insulting statements about politicians. The latter led to its ban in Turkey.

    So how do developers imbue an AI with such values and shape chatbot behaviour? Today’s chatbots are built using large language models (LLMs), which offer several levers developers can lean on.

    What makes an AI ‘behave’ this way?

    Pre-training

    First, developers curate the data used during pre-training – the first step in building a chatbot. This involves not just filtering unwanted content, but also emphasising desired material.

    GPT-3 was shown Wikipedia up to six times more than other datasets as OpenAI considered it higher quality. Grok is trained on various sources, including posts from X, which might explain why Grok has been reported to check Elon Musk’s opinion on controversial topics.

    Musk has shared that xAI curates Grok’s training data, for example to improve legal knowledge and to remove LLM-generated content for quality control. He also appealed to the X community for difficult “galaxy brain” problems and facts that are “politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true”.

    We don’t know if these data were used, or what quality-control measures were applied.

    Fine-tuning

    The second step, fine-tuning, adjusts LLM behaviour using feedback. Developers create detailed manuals outlining their preferred ethical stances, which either human reviewers or AI systems then use as a rubric to evaluate and improve the chatbot’s responses, effectively coding these values into the machine.

    A Business Insider investigation revealed xAI’s instructions to human
    “AI tutors” instructed them to look for “woke ideology” and “cancel culture”. While the onboarding documents said Grok shouldn’t “impose an opinion that confirms or denies a user’s bias”, they also stated it should avoid responses that claim both sides of a debate have merit when they do not.

    System prompts

    The system prompt – instructions provided before every conversation – guides behaviour once the model is deployed.

    To its credit, xAI publishes Grok’s system prompts. Its instructions to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” and “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated” were likely key factors in the latest controversy.

    These prompts are being updated daily at the time of writing, and their evolution is a fascinating case study in itself.

    Guardrails

    Finally, developers can also add guardrails – filters that block certain requests or responses. OpenAI claims it doesn’t permit ChatGPT “to generate hateful, harassing, violent or adult content”. Meanwhile, the Chinese model DeepSeek censors discussion of Tianamen Square.

    Ad-hoc testing when writing this article suggests Grok is much less restrained in this regard than competitor products.

    The transparency paradox

    Grok’s Nazi controversy highlights a deeper ethical issue: would we prefer AI companies to be explicitly ideological and honest about it, or maintain the fiction of neutrality while secretly embedding their values?

    Every major AI system reflects its creator’s worldview – from Microsoft Copilot’s risk-averse corporate perspective to Anthropic Claude’s safety-focused ethos. The difference is transparency.

    Musk’s public statements make it easy to trace Grok’s behaviours back to Musk’s stated beliefs about “woke ideology” and media bias. Meanwhile, when other platforms misfire spectacularly, we’re left guessing whether this reflects leadership views, corporate risk aversion, regulatory pressure, or accident.

    This feels familiar. Grok resembles Microsoft’s 2016 hate-speech-spouting Tay chatbot, also trained on Twitter data and set loose on Twitter before being shut down.

    But there’s a crucial difference. Tay’s racism emerged from user manipulation and poor safeguards – an unintended consequence. Grok’s behaviour appears to stem at least partially from its design.

    The real lesson from Grok is about honesty in AI development. As these systems become more powerful and widespread (Grok support in Tesla vehicles was just announced), the question isn’t whether AI will reflect human values. It’s whether companies will be transparent about whose values they’re encoding and why.

    Musk’s approach is simultaneously more honest (we can see his influence) and more deceptive (claiming objectivity while programming subjectivity) than his competitors.

    In an industry built on the myth of neutral algorithms, Grok reveals what’s been true all along: there’s no such thing as unbiased AI – only AI whose biases we can see with varying degrees of clarity.

    Aaron J. Snoswell previously received research funding from OpenAI in 2024–2025 to develop new evaluation frameworks for measuring moral competence in AI agents.

    – ref. How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training – https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-stop-an-ai-model-turning-nazi-what-the-grok-drama-reveals-about-ai-training-261001

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron J. Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow in AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology

    Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy & AI4Media, CC BY

    Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot embedded in X (formerly Twitter) and built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, is back in the headlines after calling itself “MechaHitler” and producing pro-Nazi remarks.

    The developers have apologised for the “inappropriate posts” and “taken action to ban hate speech” from Grok’s posts on X. Debates about AI bias have been revived too.

    But the latest Grok controversy is revealing not for the extremist outputs, but for how it exposes a fundamental dishonesty in AI development. Musk claims to be building a “truth-seeking” AI free from bias, yet the technical implementation reveals systemic ideological programming.

    This amounts to an accidental case study in how AI systems embed their creators’ values, with Musk’s unfiltered public presence making visible what other companies typically obscure.

    What is Grok?

    Grok is an AI chatbot with “a twist of humor and a dash of rebellion” developed by xAI, which also owns the X social media platform.

    The first version of Grok launched in 2023. Independent evaluations suggest the latest model, Grok 4, outpaces competitors on “intelligence” tests. The chatbot is available standalone and on X.

    xAI states “AI’s knowledge should be all-encompassing and as far-reaching as possible”. Musk has previously positioned Grok as a truth-telling alternative to chatbots accused of being “woke” by right-wing commentators.

    But beyond the latest Nazism scandal, Grok has made headlines for generating threats of sexual violence, bringing up “white genocide” in South Africa, and making insulting statements about politicians. The latter led to its ban in Turkey.

    So how do developers imbue an AI with such values and shape chatbot behaviour? Today’s chatbots are built using large language models (LLMs), which offer several levers developers can lean on.

    What makes an AI ‘behave’ this way?

    Pre-training

    First, developers curate the data used during pre-training – the first step in building a chatbot. This involves not just filtering unwanted content, but also emphasising desired material.

    GPT-3 was shown Wikipedia up to six times more than other datasets as OpenAI considered it higher quality. Grok is trained on various sources, including posts from X, which might explain why Grok has been reported to check Elon Musk’s opinion on controversial topics.

    Musk has shared that xAI curates Grok’s training data, for example to improve legal knowledge and to remove LLM-generated content for quality control. He also appealed to the X community for difficult “galaxy brain” problems and facts that are “politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true”.

    We don’t know if these data were used, or what quality-control measures were applied.

    Fine-tuning

    The second step, fine-tuning, adjusts LLM behaviour using feedback. Developers create detailed manuals outlining their preferred ethical stances, which either human reviewers or AI systems then use as a rubric to evaluate and improve the chatbot’s responses, effectively coding these values into the machine.

    A Business Insider investigation revealed xAI’s instructions to human
    “AI tutors” instructed them to look for “woke ideology” and “cancel culture”. While the onboarding documents said Grok shouldn’t “impose an opinion that confirms or denies a user’s bias”, they also stated it should avoid responses that claim both sides of a debate have merit when they do not.

    System prompts

    The system prompt – instructions provided before every conversation – guides behaviour once the model is deployed.

    To its credit, xAI publishes Grok’s system prompts. Its instructions to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” and “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated” were likely key factors in the latest controversy.

    These prompts are being updated daily at the time of writing, and their evolution is a fascinating case study in itself.

    Guardrails

    Finally, developers can also add guardrails – filters that block certain requests or responses. OpenAI claims it doesn’t permit ChatGPT “to generate hateful, harassing, violent or adult content”. Meanwhile, the Chinese model DeepSeek censors discussion of Tianamen Square.

    Ad-hoc testing when writing this article suggests Grok is much less restrained in this regard than competitor products.

    The transparency paradox

    Grok’s Nazi controversy highlights a deeper ethical issue: would we prefer AI companies to be explicitly ideological and honest about it, or maintain the fiction of neutrality while secretly embedding their values?

    Every major AI system reflects its creator’s worldview – from Microsoft Copilot’s risk-averse corporate perspective to Anthropic Claude’s safety-focused ethos. The difference is transparency.

    Musk’s public statements make it easy to trace Grok’s behaviours back to Musk’s stated beliefs about “woke ideology” and media bias. Meanwhile, when other platforms misfire spectacularly, we’re left guessing whether this reflects leadership views, corporate risk aversion, regulatory pressure, or accident.

    This feels familiar. Grok resembles Microsoft’s 2016 hate-speech-spouting Tay chatbot, also trained on Twitter data and set loose on Twitter before being shut down.

    But there’s a crucial difference. Tay’s racism emerged from user manipulation and poor safeguards – an unintended consequence. Grok’s behaviour appears to stem at least partially from its design.

    The real lesson from Grok is about honesty in AI development. As these systems become more powerful and widespread (Grok support in Tesla vehicles was just announced), the question isn’t whether AI will reflect human values. It’s whether companies will be transparent about whose values they’re encoding and why.

    Musk’s approach is simultaneously more honest (we can see his influence) and more deceptive (claiming objectivity while programming subjectivity) than his competitors.

    In an industry built on the myth of neutral algorithms, Grok reveals what’s been true all along: there’s no such thing as unbiased AI – only AI whose biases we can see with varying degrees of clarity.

    Aaron J. Snoswell previously received research funding from OpenAI in 2024–2025 to develop new evaluation frameworks for measuring moral competence in AI agents.

    – ref. How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training – https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-stop-an-ai-model-turning-nazi-what-the-grok-drama-reveals-about-ai-training-261001

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Aaron J. Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow in AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology

    Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy & AI4Media, CC BY

    Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot embedded in X (formerly Twitter) and built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, is back in the headlines after calling itself “MechaHitler” and producing pro-Nazi remarks.

    The developers have apologised for the “inappropriate posts” and “taken action to ban hate speech” from Grok’s posts on X. Debates about AI bias have been revived too.

    But the latest Grok controversy is revealing not for the extremist outputs, but for how it exposes a fundamental dishonesty in AI development. Musk claims to be building a “truth-seeking” AI free from bias, yet the technical implementation reveals systemic ideological programming.

    This amounts to an accidental case study in how AI systems embed their creators’ values, with Musk’s unfiltered public presence making visible what other companies typically obscure.

    What is Grok?

    Grok is an AI chatbot with “a twist of humor and a dash of rebellion” developed by xAI, which also owns the X social media platform.

    The first version of Grok launched in 2023. Independent evaluations suggest the latest model, Grok 4, outpaces competitors on “intelligence” tests. The chatbot is available standalone and on X.

    xAI states “AI’s knowledge should be all-encompassing and as far-reaching as possible”. Musk has previously positioned Grok as a truth-telling alternative to chatbots accused of being “woke” by right-wing commentators.

    But beyond the latest Nazism scandal, Grok has made headlines for generating threats of sexual violence, bringing up “white genocide” in South Africa, and making insulting statements about politicians. The latter led to its ban in Turkey.

    So how do developers imbue an AI with such values and shape chatbot behaviour? Today’s chatbots are built using large language models (LLMs), which offer several levers developers can lean on.

    What makes an AI ‘behave’ this way?

    Pre-training

    First, developers curate the data used during pre-training – the first step in building a chatbot. This involves not just filtering unwanted content, but also emphasising desired material.

    GPT-3 was shown Wikipedia up to six times more than other datasets as OpenAI considered it higher quality. Grok is trained on various sources, including posts from X, which might explain why Grok has been reported to check Elon Musk’s opinion on controversial topics.

    Musk has shared that xAI curates Grok’s training data, for example to improve legal knowledge and to remove LLM-generated content for quality control. He also appealed to the X community for difficult “galaxy brain” problems and facts that are “politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true”.

    We don’t know if these data were used, or what quality-control measures were applied.

    Fine-tuning

    The second step, fine-tuning, adjusts LLM behaviour using feedback. Developers create detailed manuals outlining their preferred ethical stances, which either human reviewers or AI systems then use as a rubric to evaluate and improve the chatbot’s responses, effectively coding these values into the machine.

    A Business Insider investigation revealed xAI’s instructions to human
    “AI tutors” instructed them to look for “woke ideology” and “cancel culture”. While the onboarding documents said Grok shouldn’t “impose an opinion that confirms or denies a user’s bias”, they also stated it should avoid responses that claim both sides of a debate have merit when they do not.

    System prompts

    The system prompt – instructions provided before every conversation – guides behaviour once the model is deployed.

    To its credit, xAI publishes Grok’s system prompts. Its instructions to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” and “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated” were likely key factors in the latest controversy.

    These prompts are being updated daily at the time of writing, and their evolution is a fascinating case study in itself.

    Guardrails

    Finally, developers can also add guardrails – filters that block certain requests or responses. OpenAI claims it doesn’t permit ChatGPT “to generate hateful, harassing, violent or adult content”. Meanwhile, the Chinese model DeepSeek censors discussion of Tianamen Square.

    Ad-hoc testing when writing this article suggests Grok is much less restrained in this regard than competitor products.

    The transparency paradox

    Grok’s Nazi controversy highlights a deeper ethical issue: would we prefer AI companies to be explicitly ideological and honest about it, or maintain the fiction of neutrality while secretly embedding their values?

    Every major AI system reflects its creator’s worldview – from Microsoft Copilot’s risk-averse corporate perspective to Anthropic Claude’s safety-focused ethos. The difference is transparency.

    Musk’s public statements make it easy to trace Grok’s behaviours back to Musk’s stated beliefs about “woke ideology” and media bias. Meanwhile, when other platforms misfire spectacularly, we’re left guessing whether this reflects leadership views, corporate risk aversion, regulatory pressure, or accident.

    This feels familiar. Grok resembles Microsoft’s 2016 hate-speech-spouting Tay chatbot, also trained on Twitter data and set loose on Twitter before being shut down.

    But there’s a crucial difference. Tay’s racism emerged from user manipulation and poor safeguards – an unintended consequence. Grok’s behaviour appears to stem at least partially from its design.

    The real lesson from Grok is about honesty in AI development. As these systems become more powerful and widespread (Grok support in Tesla vehicles was just announced), the question isn’t whether AI will reflect human values. It’s whether companies will be transparent about whose values they’re encoding and why.

    Musk’s approach is simultaneously more honest (we can see his influence) and more deceptive (claiming objectivity while programming subjectivity) than his competitors.

    In an industry built on the myth of neutral algorithms, Grok reveals what’s been true all along: there’s no such thing as unbiased AI – only AI whose biases we can see with varying degrees of clarity.

    Aaron J. Snoswell previously received research funding from OpenAI in 2024–2025 to develop new evaluation frameworks for measuring moral competence in AI agents.

    – ref. How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training – https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-stop-an-ai-model-turning-nazi-what-the-grok-drama-reveals-about-ai-training-261001

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI USA: SCHUMER DEMANDS TRUMP ADMIN IMMEDIATELY REVERSE RIPPING AWAY FUNDING FOR UALBANY’S MESONET, NEW YORK’S STATE OF THE ART WEATHER TRACKING SYSTEM THAT HELPS KEEP UPSTATE NY COMMUNITIES PREPARED & SAFE…

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Charles E Schumer
    Trump’s DHS Abruptly Cut Funding For NY’s Mesonet Program, Based At UAlbany, Which Covers Storm Tracking For Every County In NY & Plays Critical Role In Storm Data Gathering For Emergency Response & Safety Across The State
    After Devastating Flooding In Texas, Schumer Says We Need More – Not Less – Investment In Weather Tracking To Warn And To Mitigate Damage When Disaster Strikes; Senator Slams Dangerous Cuts That Risk Ongoing Project To Improve Storm Monitoring
    Schumer: Cutting Funding For NY Weather Tracking Is A Recipe For Disaster
    After Trump abruptly canceled a $3 million grant project for New York State’s advanced regional weather early warning systems program, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer slammed the unexplained cuts and demanded the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reverse this harmful decision, which will weaken New York State’s ability to track and monitor extreme weather. As New York faces more extreme weather than ever, and in the wake of devastating flooding in Texas, Schumer said the federal government should invest more, not less, in systems that keep regions like Upstate NY safe and prepared for extreme storms.
    “Cutting funding for New York’s weather tracking system is a recipe for disaster. With a record-breaking tornado season last summer and New York seeing more extreme weather than ever, we can’t afford to rip away resources for the program that tells us when a storm is going to hit and how bad it’s going to be,” said Senator Schumer. “Our state-of-the-art network of weather observation stations gathers real-time hyper-local data that keeps New Yorkers across the state safe and informed. We need to make sure New Yorkers are prepared for whatever punches Mother Nature delivers, to hinder their advancement. I’m calling on Secretary Noem to immediately reverse these cruel unexplained cuts to keep New Yorkers safe when the next storm comes.”
    Schumer explained University at Albany’s Mesonet program was awarded a $3 million grant program in 2023 to support its Exploitation of Mesonets for Emergency Preparedness and Response in Weather Extremes (EMPOWER) program. The EMPOWER program is a partnership between researchers, higher education, emergency managers, and the federal government. This program works to upgrade technology to produce better, more accurate weather hazard impact warning and emergency response capabilities to keep New Yorkers—and ultimately the nation—safe.
    Schumer explained the University at Albany hosts NYS’s Mesonet Program, a network of weather observation stations which unlock key data from the clouds using advanced instruments at 127 sites around New York, with at least one station located in each of New York’s 62 counties, and laser technology to monitor the atmosphere. Schumer said amid record-breaking extreme weather, including devastating flooding in Texas, we need sharper forecasts to better understand storms as they develop and approach communities. Schumer warned that without upgrades or with delayed investment in NY’s system, local forecasting ability could be hampered by deferred systems maintenance and decreased federal operations support, which could impact both storm prediction and public safety. These are not the first cuts to weather forecasting in NY under the Trump Administration, earlier this year it was revealed that firings and staff reductions at the National Weather Service offices in Albany would mean they would not be able to fly all their weather balloons, among other cuts.
    According to the University at Albany, data from the NYS Mesonet informs forecasters and emergency managers (including those at the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services) to help mitigate the harmful effects from high-impact, extreme weather-related disasters. The NYS Mesonet provides real-time data to operational forecasters and emergency managers from across the state with updates every five minutes and an average station spacing of about 19 miles. These data points are combined with data from other surface networks, weather radars, and satellites to provide real-time weather information and to improve numerical weather prediction models for even greater accuracy and precision than ever before, giving emergency managers, first responders, and forecasters much greater confidence in their warning products and in subsequent protective action.
    Schumer’s letter can to DHS Secretary Noem can be found HERE or below:
    Dear Secretary Noem:
    I write to urge you to swiftly reinstate the $3 million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant supporting the Exploiting Mesonets for Emergency Preparedness and Response to Weather Extremes (EMPOWER) project.  DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has partnered with the University at Albany (UAlbany) since 2023 to build out a better, more accurate weather hazard impact warning and emergency response capability to keep New Yorkers—and ultimately the nation—safe.  Until yesterday, the project focused on extreme weather, such as rapid and severe flooding, similar to what communities in Central Texas are tragically dealing with today, and any funding that is rescinded or stalled could put lives at risk.  
    Just last week, you acknowledged in remarks that “everybody wants more warning time, and that’s why we’re working to upgrade the technologies that have been neglected for far too long, to make sure that families have as much advanced notice as possible.”   This project – a regional pilot with the potential to be deployed nationwide – does just that.  It has been considered highly successful by DHS S&T, already having significant operational impact.  Co-developed with the NY Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (among many other engaged end-users), the EMPOWER prototype extreme weather decision support dashboard is currently operational within the New York State Office of Emergency Management Watch Center.  Furthermore, the project has brought direct access to high fidelity, real-time weather data covering all of New York State to the FEMA Geospatial Response Office for the first time.
    The New York State Mesonet is a network of 127 weather stations across the state that supplement National Weather Service modeling and observations to provide more accurate and real-time weather information, helping improve forecasts and inform weather alerts. The EMPOWER project utilizes the Mesonet’s real-time data to develop cutting-edge tools designed specifically for emergency managers and first responders. In a world with increasingly frequent and unpredictable severe weather, these new tools will provide our community safety professionals with unparalleled information to make the fastest, most well-informed decisions when disasters strike, helping to alert communities of imminent threats and better protect lives and property. 
    The EMPOWER program exemplifies a successful partnership between researchers, higher education, emergency managers, and the Federal government. This program has tangible outcomes – emergency alert systems greatly benefit the public and upgrading our technology is necessary to mitigate risk and loss of life when disaster strikes. I cannot underline how important this program is to New York’s emergency response, as well as to the entire Nation. As our researchers better develop emergency management technology, we can count on the implementation of this technology across America in the near future to save lives. Not only does the public benefit, but improved emergency warning system technology and data about weather events helps our first responders, who put their lives on the line for their communities, better determine the risk to the area they serve. This $3 million grant is essential to supporting the completion of this vital work.
    In the wake of the devastating flooding in Texas we have a responsibility to do everything we can to mitigate the risks of extreme weather and ensure that tragedies like this never happen again. The federal government should be investing in better technologies to improve hazard impact warning systems and provide emergency managers more timely and accurate information to ensure they can put out emergency alerts and evacuation orders to save lives and take other crucial actions to protect community lifelines. Cancelling this grant does exactly the opposite, and stifles emerging tools and technologies that have the potential to save lives. 
    I urge you to reinstate the $3 million DHS EMPOWER grant to support the project and its researchers so they can deliver groundbreaking technology to save Americans from avoidable weather-related harm. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. Please do not hesitate to contact my staff if you have any questions.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • Union Minister Raksha Khadse inaugurates final round of Mann Ki Baat Talent Hunt Season 5 in Thiruvananthapuram

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Raksha Nikhil Khadse inaugurated the final round of the “Mann Ki Baat Talent Hunt Season 5” on Sunday at Jyothis Central School in Thiruvananthapuram.

    Organised by the Global Givers Foundation in collaboration with Mera Yuva Bharat (MyBharat), Kerala, the talent hunt aims to inspire students by encouraging them to engage with the themes and messages shared in the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat. The initiative is designed to identify and nurture diverse talents, while also promoting national pride and youth-led development.

    In her address, the minister highlighted the transformative role of the Mann Ki Baat Talent Hunt in empowering young minds. “This platform connects our youth with the nation’s heartbeat, cultivates critical thinking, and enhances communication skills. Through engaging with Mann Ki Baat, students not only learn about India but also grow into informed and responsible citizens ready to contribute to a developed India,” she said.

    The competitions eatured participants from high schools, higher secondary schools, and colleges, showcasing their skills in formats such as radio jockeying, debates, reel creation, and project presentations. Each activity drew inspiration from themes and ideas discussed in Mann Ki Baat broadcasts.

    The radio programme itself, aired on All India Radio, is among the world’s most widely broadcast and listened-to shows. It covers a broad range of topics including Indian traditions, culture, history, the freedom struggle, and citizen-led initiatives. The talent hunt leverages this content to motivate youth to engage with India’s rich heritage and ongoing progress.

    As with previous seasons, winners of Season 5 will be given the opportunity to visit Delhi during the 2025 Independence Day celebrations, where they will witness national events and interact with leaders, gaining invaluable exposure and inspiration.

     

  • Union Minister Raksha Khadse inaugurates final round of Mann Ki Baat Talent Hunt Season 5 in Thiruvananthapuram

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Raksha Nikhil Khadse inaugurated the final round of the “Mann Ki Baat Talent Hunt Season 5” on Sunday at Jyothis Central School in Thiruvananthapuram.

    Organised by the Global Givers Foundation in collaboration with Mera Yuva Bharat (MyBharat), Kerala, the talent hunt aims to inspire students by encouraging them to engage with the themes and messages shared in the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat. The initiative is designed to identify and nurture diverse talents, while also promoting national pride and youth-led development.

    In her address, the minister highlighted the transformative role of the Mann Ki Baat Talent Hunt in empowering young minds. “This platform connects our youth with the nation’s heartbeat, cultivates critical thinking, and enhances communication skills. Through engaging with Mann Ki Baat, students not only learn about India but also grow into informed and responsible citizens ready to contribute to a developed India,” she said.

    The competitions eatured participants from high schools, higher secondary schools, and colleges, showcasing their skills in formats such as radio jockeying, debates, reel creation, and project presentations. Each activity drew inspiration from themes and ideas discussed in Mann Ki Baat broadcasts.

    The radio programme itself, aired on All India Radio, is among the world’s most widely broadcast and listened-to shows. It covers a broad range of topics including Indian traditions, culture, history, the freedom struggle, and citizen-led initiatives. The talent hunt leverages this content to motivate youth to engage with India’s rich heritage and ongoing progress.

    As with previous seasons, winners of Season 5 will be given the opportunity to visit Delhi during the 2025 Independence Day celebrations, where they will witness national events and interact with leaders, gaining invaluable exposure and inspiration.

     

  • MIL-Evening Report: Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse committing to a hypothetical conflict with China over Taiwan

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

    Andy. LIU/Shutterstock

    The United States can count on Australia as one of its closest allies.

    Dating back to the shared experiences in the second world war and the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951, Australia has steadfastly worked to help ensure the US remains the principal security guarantor in the Indo-Pacific.

    Australia’s track record speaks for itself. Yet additional demands are being placed that rankle.

    The Pentagon wants to know how Australia – and other allies such as Japan – would respond in the event of a war with China over Taiwan.

    Making these demands – which are being sought as part of the review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement – is both unjustified and unreasonable.

    ‘100 years of mateship’

    Since federation in 1901, Australians have found themselves alongside US counterparts in almost all the major conflicts of the 20th century and beyond.

    It is this shared experience that led former Ambassador to Washington, Joe Hockey, to coin the term “100 years of mateship”.

    The pinnacle of the security relationship is the ANZUS Treaty which is a loosely worded document barely 800 words long.

    However, it is important to remember AUKUS is just that – a technical agreement, albeit premised on the century-spanning trusted collaboration across the full spectrum of national security ties.

    Goldilocks solution

    More recently, the US administration has made demands of allies, including Australia, the likes of which have not been seen in living memory.

    This spans not just tariffs, but also increased defence spending. American policymakers appear oblivious or unconcerned about the blowback they are generating.

    It is this context which makes the US demands for a broad-ranging and largely open-ended commitment over the defence of Taiwan, in advance of any conflict, so extraordinary and unhelpful.

    Under-secretary of defence for policy Elbridge Colby who wants a clear sense of how Australia would act in a potential war over Taiwan.
    Supplied by US Department of Defence, CC BY

    Australia has long had a fear of abandonment. Ever since the searing experience of the fall of Singapore in 1942, officials have been eager to burnish ties with US counterparts. Conversely, there has always been a strong element in the community that has feared entrapment in yet another US-led war in Asia.

    The experience in the Korean and Vietnam wars, let alone Afghanistan and Iraq, left many guarded about the efficacy of hitching the wagon to US-led military campaigns.

    In essence, though, Australian policymakers have long sought the Goldilocks solution: not too enthusiastic to trigger entrapment and not too lukewarm to trigger abandonment.

    No guarantees

    Now Australia, Japan and others face a surprising new push by American officials for a commitment to a hypothetical conflict, under open-ended circumstances.

    The irony is that American demands for a commitment fly in the face of the loosely worded ANZUS alliance – which stipulates an agreement to consult, but little more than that.

    The AUKUS agreement includes no such guarantees either. The overt and confronting nature of Washington’s demands means Prime Minister Anthony Albanese effectively has no option but to push back:

    We support the status quo when it comes to Taiwan. We don’t support any unilateral action […] we want peace and security in our region.

    Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy was adamant Australia would not be committing forces ahead of any “hypothetical” conflict:

    The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance, but by the government of the day.

    A further irony is Australia, like Japan, is already hugely invested in its US military relationship, particularly through its military technology.

    The purchase of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, for instance, was meant to help enable the generation of interoperable forces, yet no such demand has been made when it comes to an advance commitment over their use in support of US ambitions.

    So why invoke AUKUS in such a way?

    Evidently, the way the US is trying to stand over Japan and Australia is harmful to its own interests. Such adversarial and unduly transactional behaviour could provoke a popular backlash in Australia and elsewhere.

    The government has rightly rebuffed the calls saying it would be up to the government of the day to make such a decision. It is likely this will not be well received by the Trump administration. The PM is right though, to say it’s hypothetical and not worthy of a public endorsement.

    Strategic ambiguity

    Yet a further irony is that this is mostly a moot point.

    The key benefit of alliance collaboration is already in place – and that relates to the efforts to deter China from ever acting on its desire to change the status quo in the first place.

    As former PM and now ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd explained in his book, The Avoidable War, geo-political disaster is still avoidable, particularly if the US and China can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through managed strategic competition.

    This strategic ambiguity is meant to complicate a potential adversary’s military planners and political decision makers’ thought processes over the advantages and disadvantages of going to war.

    China already knows a clash over Taiwan would mean US allies like Japan and Australia would find it virtually impossible to avoid being entangled. The strategic ambiguity can be maintained ad infinitum, so long as an outright invasion is averted.

    And the likelihood of conflict over Taiwan? I remain sanguine that conflict can be avoided.

    But to do so would involve clear and compelling messaging: both through diplomatic channels and through the demonstration of robust military capabilities that war would be too costly.

    John Blaxland received funding (2015–2018) from the US DoD Minerva Research Initiative.

    – ref. Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse committing to a hypothetical conflict with China over Taiwan – https://theconversation.com/washingtons-war-demands-australia-right-to-refuse-committing-to-a-hypothetical-conflict-with-china-over-taiwan-261076

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Making NZ top destination for international students

    Source: New Zealand Government

    The Government’s going for growth in international education, releasing its plan to double the sector’s economic contribution to $7.2 billion by 2034. 
    “International education is one of our largest exports, injecting $3.6 billion into our economy in 2024. It also provides opportunities for research, strengthening trade and people-to-people connections, which are important to drive investment, productivity and innovation in New Zealand.
    “On average in 2024, an international student spent $45,000 across the year. That means more visits to our cafes and restaurants, more people visiting our iconic attractions and ultimately more jobs being created.
    “With international student enrolments steadily increasing since 2023, we want to supercharge that growth track and make New Zealand the destination of choice for international students,” says Education Minister Erica Stanford.
    To support this, from November the Government will:

    Increase in-study work rights from 20 to 25 hours per week for eligible student visa holders.
    Extend eligibility for in-study work rights to all tertiary students in approved exchange or Study Abroad programmes, including programmes one-semester long.

    In addition, the following will be investigated:

    Introduce a short-duration work visa of up to six months to provide some international graduates who do not qualify for post-study work rights, allowing time to seek employment in their field of study under the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) pathway.
    Updates to make it easier for students to apply for multi-year visas. 

    The International Education Going for Growth Plan sets out short, medium and long-term actions for agencies to boost New Zealand’s presence in overseas markets, attract talented students, build sector capacity and capability, and support the university sector through system improvements.
    Its objectives are:

    raise awareness of New Zealand as a study destination from 38% in 2024, to 42% in 2027 and 44% by 2034.
    grow student enrolments from 83,700 in 2024 to 105,000 in 2027 and 119,000 by 2034.
    increase the proportion of prospective students rating NZ among their top 3 choices of study destination from 18% in 2024 to 20% in 2027 and 22% in 2034.

    “In the short term, Education New Zealand will focus its promotional efforts on markets with the highest potential for growth. Across all markets, promotional activities will aim to elevate awareness of New Zealand as a premier study destination that is a safe and welcoming place to live and learn.
    “To achieve our ambitious target, we’re taking a considered and strategic approach. It’s important to strike the right balance between increasing student numbers, maintaining the quality of education, and managing broader impacts on New Zealanders. Our plan will deliver that,” says Ms Stanford. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Regional governance will return to ten polytechnics

    Source: New Zealand Government

    Ten polytechnics will be re-established from 1 January 2026, restoring regional decision-making that supports strong communities and economic growth, Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds says.
    “This is a major milestone in building a vocational education system that’s locally led, regionally responsive, and future focused. We’ve listened to extensive industry feedback and I’m confident our plan will set the sector up for long-term economic and learning success.
    “We campaigned vigorously against Labour’s reforms which saw all New Zealand polytechnics merged into one unwieldy and uneconomic central institution, Te Pūkenga, taking away the ability of regions to respond to local training and employer needs.  
    “Labour dismantled regionally-led vocational education – and we are restoring it,” Ms Simmonds says. 
    The ten polytechnics returning to regional governance are:
     

    Ara Institute of Canterbury (Ara)
    Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT)
    Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT)
    Southern Institute of Technology (SIT)
    Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology
    Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec)
    Unitec Institute of Technology (Unitec) and Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), which will stand up as a single entity
    Otago Polytechnic
    Universal College of Learning (UCOL)
    The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

     
    The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand will be the anchor polytechnic of the new federation, which includes Otago Polytechnic and UCOL. The federation will coordinate programmes and other services, including shared academic boards. It will provide a low overhead way for polytechnics to create more efficient business models than they could on their own through the use of on online learning resources and programmes.
    Four other polytechnics — NorthTec, Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT), Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Wellington Institute of Technology (Whitireia and WelTec), and Tai Poutini Polytechnic (TPP) — will remain within Te Pūkenga for now as they work toward viability, with decisions due in the first half of 2026.
    These changes are part of legislation before Parliament. The Education and Workforce Select Committee is reviewing the Bill, which is expected to pass in October. The ten new polytechnics will begin operating from 1 January 2026.
    “I want to thank everyone who made submissions. Your feedback helped shape a better way forward,” Ms Simmonds says.
    Te Pūkenga will act as a transitional entity for up to a year to manage unallocated programmes and support a smooth handover. The legislation also allows mergers or closures if any polytechnic cannot achieve viability.
    “With more than 250,000 students in the vocational education system each year, these changes offer greater flexibility, financial sustainability, and ensure training remains relevant to employment needs,” Ms Simmonds says.
    “Industry will have a stronger role, communities will regain local control, and polytechnics will be financially sustainable.
    “We’re rebuilding our incredibly important vocational education system so that it delivers — for students, for employers, and for the future of New Zealand.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Enrolment – Youth Guarantee

    Source: Tertiary Education Commission

    Definition of an EFTS
    From 1 January 2023, we are defining an equivalent full-time student (EFTS) of YG provision leading to:

    a Level 1 or 2 qualification as 80 credits, and
    a Level 3 qualification as 120 credits (no change).

    This means that 0.5 EFTS (or 50% of a full-time, full-year learner workload) is equivalent to a:

    40-credit workload for learners enrolled in Level 1 and 2 Youth Guarantee qualifications, and
    60-credit workload for learners enrolled in Level 3 Youth Guarantee qualifications.

    No change to reporting systems or requirements
    Mixes of Provision, Single Data Return (SDR) reports and Ngā Kete information products will continue to calculate all YG funding and delivery volumes using the 1 EFTS = 120 credit definition.
    Track learner consumption of EFTS carefully
    We do not require tertiary education organisations (TEOs) to change their programmes for 2023.
    However, TEO tracking of consumption using course enrolments starting on or after 1 January 2023 needs to reflect:

    80 credits per EFTS for Level 1 and 2 qualifications; and
    120 credits per EFTS for Level 3 qualifications.

    Track learner consumption of their 2.5 EFTS per learner entitlement carefully
    You should not enrol a learner in a programme if the enrolment will take them over the 2.5 EFTS per learner limit for YG.
    Consider course re-enrolments and learner EFTS consumption
    Similarly, consider a learner’s course re-enrolments before you enrol them in a further programme. Where a learner does not complete a course successfully and you re-enrol them and claim funding, they consume additional EFTS towards their entitlements.
    Admission and enrolment process
    We recommend that a tertiary education organisation’s (TEO’s) admission and enrolment process for YG includes the steps below: 

    Youth Guarantee process

    Step

    Responsibility

    Action

    1

    TEO

    Provides information on qualification programmes of study (including courses), the admission and enrolment process, and the withdrawal process.

    2

    Learner

    Applies to the TEO for admission and enrolment (separately or together)

    3

    TEO

    Verifies the learner’s identity

    4

    TEO

    Confirms the learner’s eligibility to study (and eligibility for provision funded through YG, including prior achievement)

    5

    TEO

    Recognises prior learning

    6

    TEO

    Makes a formal offer to enrol the learner on a course or programme, excluding recognised prior learning

    7

    Learner

    Formally accepts the offer

    8

    TEO

    Records the enrolment

    9

    TEO

    Invoices the learner for any charges for personal items

    10

    Learner

    Pays any charges for personal items, or arranges for them to be paid

    11

    TEO

    Records payment of any charges

    12

    TEO

    Provides the learner with information about all planned learning activities in their programme

    13

    TEO

    Records the learner as a valid domestic enrolment once the 10% or one month (whichever is earlier) period for eligibility for TEC funding has passed

    Note: We expect the TEO to inform each learner during the enrolment process about all planned learning activities leading to the award of the qualification the learner has enrolled in. “Planned learning activities” includes self-directed learning activities the TEO expects the learner to engage with/participate in. It does not include self-directed activities the learner initiates.
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners in YG provision, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Admission
    We expect you to publish admission information before the start of each programme. This information should include: 

    admission requirements
    criteria and process for selecting learners for entry into restricted entry courses (if relevant)
    criteria and process for assessing and recognising a learner’s prior learning
    criteria and process for cross-crediting courses across multiple programmes
    documents that a learner must submit (for example, a learner’s academic transcript or record from another TEO)
    the enrolment process
    minimum attendance and code of conduct requirements
    withdrawal requirements and process, including refunds
    process for travel assistance funding, and
    student support services available including pastoral care.

    Fees
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners in YG provision, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Inducement to enrol
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners in YG provision, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year. An enrolment is not a valid domestic enrolment if the learner has been induced to enrol.
    We recommend that you contact us to discuss this before offering items or activities to learners for enrolling with you.
    Enrolment
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners in YG provision, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Enrolment form
    An enrolment form should collect all of the information you are required to report in the Single Data Return (SDR) to determine whether the learner is eligible for YG. 
    To ensure an enrolment form collects all of the necessary information, you need to be familiar with the SDR Manual. You can also use the Ministry of Education’s generic enrolment form.
    We recommend that you publish your enrolment form.
    Enrolment application
    To enrol in a programme leading to award of a qualification, a learner needs to apply to the TEO by completing and submitting the TEO’s enrolment form, and providing evidence to enable the TEO to:

    verify the learner’s identity, and
    determine the learner’s eligibility. 

    Enrolment changes
    If a learner’s enrolment changes for any reason, you must update your records to reflect the changes. We recommend you send updated enrolment information to the learner.
    We suggest you specify the period in which a learner can change their enrolment or withdraw from a course (so it is clear on their academic record, and they do not incur unnecessary course-related costs). 
    Verification of learner identity
    For the full requirements for verification of learner identity and eligibility, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year. Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) must ensure that learners are eligible to be enrolled in YG funded programmes. To comply with the reporting requirements under clause 13 of Schedule 18, clause 13 of the Education and Training Act 2020, a TEO must verify the learner’s identity when the learner enrols for the first time.
    Note: The TEO must sight either an original or a certified copy of the original.

    Originals must be in hard copy format.
    Certified copies can be either in hard copy format or digital format (photograph or scan).

    For audit purposes, the TEO must retain copies of the Record of Achievement (ROA) that was used on first enrolment to determine eligibility.
    Recognition of learning/prior achievement
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners into Youth Guarantee provision, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year. For information on the prior achievement requirements refer to Learner eligibility – Youth Guarantee – Limit on qualification prior achievement.
    Recognition of learning/prior achievement refers to previous study or experience (prior achievement) relevant to the programme the learner is about to enrol in or is currently studying. It enables a learner to proceed with their study without repeating aspects of the programme previously studied, or re-learning skills the learner has already achieved through past work or other experience.
    Recognition of prior learning (RPL), and credit recognition and transfer (CRT), are forms of recognising learning/prior achievement. For information and guidelines for TEOs, see Guidelines for the recognition and award of learning for credit – NZQA.
    It is the TEO’s responsibility to recognise each learner’s prior learning and adjust the courses in their programme. A TEO cannot claim YG funding for RPL or CRT, or for delivering tuition where the learner already has prior learning (ie, skills and/or knowledge).
    This means the TEO is responsible for:

    undertaking a preliminary evaluation of the learner and identifying whether they are likely to have the knowledge, skills, and attributes that can contribute to the graduate outcomes of the qualification
    seeking evidence of prior academic achievement, including using an NZQA Record of Achievement, when each learner enrols, and
    for Level 3 qualifications, carrying out a National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) qualification check with NZQA to see each learner’s full NCEA achievement and paid and unpaid credits.

    If you have any questions about the process, please contact the NZQA Qualifications Data and Data Analysis team on 0800 697 296.
    Unpaid NZQA fees for credits
    The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) administers a process for clearing unpaid credits achieved at secondary school. We supply NZQA with enrolment information after each Single Data Return (SDR) and this information is used to match national student numbers (NSNs) with NZQA records.
    To see a learner’s paid and unpaid credits, NZQA recommends doing an NCEA qualification check prior to enrolment.
    If you have any questions about the process, please contact the NZQA Qualifications Data and Data Analysis team on 0800 697 296.
    Student Loans and Allowances
    A TEO that provides YG programmes must not charge tuition fees to any learner. 
    A Youth Guarantee learner who is under 18 years old is not eligible for a Student Loan under the Student Loan Scheme. A learner who is 18 to 24 years old, however, may be eligible to access course-related costs and living costs as part of the Student Loan Scheme.
    Note: Learners who turn 18 while enrolled in a Youth Guarantee funded programme are not eligible for course-related costs or living costs until their next programme (qualification) enrolment.
    TEOs must ensure that YG learners understand they need to confirm their eligibility for a Student Loan or Student Allowance with StudyLink as part of deciding to undertake study (using the tools on the StudyLink website). It is important that learners make good study decisions based on all the relevant information. 
    Notes:

    For learners to be able to access any part of the Student Loan or Student Allowance Schemes, the programme(s) the learner is enrolled in must meet the loan entry threshold (LET) and be approved in Services for Tertiary Education Organisations (STEO) by the TEC.
    TEOs must add the appropriate source of funding to the Verification of Study (VoS) to StudyLink. For all YG enrolments code 22 should be added to the VoS.
    TEOs are no longer required to use concurrent qualifications to indicate to StudyLink the type and age of learners enrolled. Concurrent qualifications will only be used where a learner is enrolled in multiple programmes simultaneously and the full study load (EFTS value of the programmes) needs to be advised to StudyLink. 

    Withdrawals
    For the full withdrawal requirements, see the Youth Guarantee funding conditions for the relevant year. A “withdrawal” is when a learner ceases to participate in a course or programme, either:

    by providing notice to the TEO that they wish to withdraw participation, or
    as a result of non-attendance or non-participation for any reason.

    Disengaged learners who have not formally withdrawn
    A learner may have disengaged from the programme but not have formally withdrawn. For example, they may have failed to attend face-to-face courses. 
    Determine at the earliest opportunity if a disengaged learner is withdrawing from a course. If the enrolment continues to be reported and is unsuccessful, it will be counted as a course non-completion for the calculation of Educational Performance Indicators (EPIs). 
    Setting a withdrawal date for a withdrawn learner
    TEOs need to apply a “withdrawal date” to any enrolment in the Single Data Return (SDR) where a learner withdraws.
    Advising StudyLink and other parties of learner withdrawal
    When a learner in receipt of a loan and/or allowance withdraws from a programme, the date of withdrawal that the TEO must notify to StudyLink is the date the TEO determined that the learner had ceased to participate (eg, for non-attendance or non-participation).

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Enrolment – DQ1-2

    Source: Tertiary Education Commission

    On this page: 

    Enrolment process
    We recommend that your tertiary education organisation’s (TEO’s) admission and enrolment process for DQ1-2 includes the steps below:

    Step
    Responsibility
    Action

    1
    TEO
    Provides information on qualifications (including courses), the admission and enrolment process, and the withdrawal and fees refund process

    2
    Learner
    Applies to the TEO for admission and enrolment (separately or together)

    3
    TEO
    Verifies the learner’s identity

    4
    TEO
    Confirms the learner’s eligibility to study (and eligibility for provision funded through DQ1-2)

    5
    TEO
    Recognises prior learning

    6
    TEO
    Makes a formal offer to enrol the learner in a course or programme of study, excluding recognised prior learning

    7
    Learner
    Formally accepts the offer

    8
    TEO
    Records the enrolment

    9
    TEO
    Invoices the learner for any student services fees

    10
    Learner
    Pays any student services fees, or arranges for them to be paid

    11
    TEO
    Records payment of any student services fees

    12
    TEO
    Provides the learner with information about all planned learning activities in their programme

    13
    TEO
    Records the learner as a valid domestic enrolment once the 10% or one month (whichever is earlier) period for eligibility for TEC funding has passed

    We expect you to inform each learner during the enrolment process about all planned learning activities leading to the award of the qualification they have enrolled in. “Planned learning activities” includes self-directed learning activities you expect the learner to engage with/participate in. It does not include self-directed activities the learner initiates. 
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners in DQ1-2 provision, see the funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Admission
    We expect you to publish admission information before the start of each programme. This information should include:

    admission requirements
    criteria and processes for assessing and recognising a learner’s prior learning
    criteria and process for cross-crediting courses across multiple programmes
    documents that a learner must submit; for example, an academic transcript or record from another TEO
    the enrolment process
    minimum attendance and code of conduct requirements
    withdrawal requirements and process, including refunds
    student support services available, and
    student services fees information.

    Inducement to enrol
    An enrolment is not a valid domestic enrolment if the learner has been induced to enrol.
    We recommend that you contact our Customer Contact Group, phone 0800 601 301 or email customerservice@tec.govt.nz, before offering any incentive to learners to enrol with you.
    Enrolment application
    To enrol in a programme leading to the award of a qualification, a learner needs to apply to your TEO by completing and submitting an enrolment form, and providing evidence to enable you to:

    verify their identity, and
    determine their eligibility.

    To ensure an enrolment form collects all of the necessary information, you need to be familiar with the SDR Manual. Your enrolment form should collect all of the information you are required to report in the Single Data Return (SDR) to determine whether the learner is eligible for DQ1-2.
    Single Data Return (SDR)
    If you wish, you can use the generic enrolment form at Single Data Return.
    We recommend that you publish your enrolment form.
    Verification of learner identity
    For the full requirements for verification of learner identity, see the Funding Conditions Catalogue for the relevant year.
    Note the base funding conditions and specific DQ1-2 funding conditions.
    A TEO must verify the learner’s identity when the learner enrols for the first time, to comply with reporting requirements under clause 13 of Schedule 18 of the Education and Training Act 2020.
    You must sight either an original or a certified copy of the original identification document. A certified copy can be a photocopy, photograph or scanned copy that has been endorsed as a true copy of the original by an authorised person. For more information see the relevant year’s Funding Conditions Catalogue.
    Once you have verified the learner’s identity, you can then check if they are eligible to be a valid domestic enrolment.
    Privacy statement
    Once you have assessed a learner as eligible, you must provide them with a privacy statement explaining that you are holding their personal information for specified purposes and that you have disclosure obligations.
    For guidance about the information you must provide in your privacy statement, see the base funding conditions in the Funding Conditions Catalogue for the relevant year.
    You may wish to use the TEC template privacy statement.
    Variations to standard enrolments
    Recognition of learning/prior achievement
    For the full requirements when enrolling learners into DQ1-2 provision, see the DQ1-2 funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Recognition of learning/prior achievement refers to previous study or experience relevant to the programme that the learner is about to enrol in or is currently studying. It enables a learner to proceed with their study without repeating aspects of their previous qualification, or re-learning skills they have already achieved through past work or other experience.
    Recognition of prior learning (RPL), and credit recognition and transfer (CRT), are forms of recognising learning/prior achievement. For information and guidelines for TEOs, see Guidelines for the recognition and award of learning for credit – NZQA.
    It is your responsibility to recognise each learner’s prior learning and adjust the courses in your programme. You cannot claim DQ1-2 funding for RPL or CRT, or for delivering tuition where the learner already has prior learning (ie, skills and/or knowledge). This means you are responsible for:

    undertaking a preliminary evaluation and identifying whether a learner is likely to have the knowledge, skills and attributes that can contribute to the graduate outcomes of the qualification
    seeking evidence of prior academic achievement using the NZQA Record of Achievement (ROA) when the learner enrols, and

    For questions about recognition of prior learning, please contact NZQA.
    Learners wanting to defer their start date
    You may agree to defer a learner’s enrolment start date, but you should have a policy for the circumstances under which a learner may defer their start date.
    Note: No DQ1-2 funding can be claimed unless the learner has started their study and the 10% or one month date for accessing funding has passed. This is calculated from the date the learner starts their deferred enrolment.
    Learners wanting to accelerate their study (undertake additional learning)
    You should not enrol a learner in an additional course or qualification unless they elect to exceed the equivalent full-time student (EFTS) value of the qualification (eg, if they need to re-do a course that they previously did not pass). In this case, the total EFTS value of the learner’s enrolments for the qualification will be greater than the EFTS value of the qualification they achieve.
    In that instance the additional learning hours should be matched by an appropriate number of additional teaching hours.
    Learners enrolling concurrently with another tertiary education organisation (TEO)
    Concurrent enrolments at another TEO are not prohibited. However, it is unlikely a learner enrolled in foundation level education would successfully manage concurrent enrolments at separate TEOs, and complete their courses and qualifications.
    If your TEO has a foundation level learner in this situation, you should work with the other TEO to ensure their study workload is manageable.
    Enrolment changes
    If a learner’s enrolment changes for any reason, you must update your records to reflect the changes. We recommend you send updated enrolment information to the learner. 
    We suggest you specify the period in which a learner can change their enrolment or withdraw from a course (so it is clear on their academic record and they do not incur unnecessary costs). 
    Student services fees refund when the enrolment changes
    You must inform the learner at the time of enrolment what the period is given for them to change their enrolment or withdraw from a course or programme with a refund of student services fees, if applicable (excluding any administration charge). You must process student services fees refunds in a timely manner for the learner. 
    If you refund all or some of a learner’s student services fees, you must refund them in the manner in which the original fee was paid. 
    If the learner is entitled to a refund, you cannot hold the refund as a credit (for enrolling or re-enrolling at your TEO in the future) unless you can demonstrate that the learner has understood their refund entitlement and agreed to waive their entitlement.
    The above also applies when you pay the learner’s student services fees through a scholarship.
    Withdrawals
    For full withdrawal requirements, see the Funding Conditions Catalogue for the relevant year.
    Note the base funding conditions and DQ1-2 specific conditions.
    A withdrawal is when a learner ceases to participate in a course, programme or micro-credential (regardless of whether they have been refunded any student services fees), either:

    by providing notice to the TEO that they wish to withdraw participation, or
    as a result of non-attendance or non-participation for any reason.

    Disengaged learners who have not formally withdrawn
    A learner may have disengaged from their programme or micro-credential but not have formally withdrawn. For example, they may fail to attend a face-to-face course or not log in for online learning.
    You should determine at the earliest opportunity if a disengaged learner is withdrawing from a course. If their enrolment continues to be reported and is unsuccessful, it will be counted as a course non-completion for the calculation of Educational Performance Indicators (EPIs).
    Setting the withdrawal date for a withdrawn learner
    You need to apply a deemed withdrawal date to any enrolment that meets the criteria above, and report it in in the Single Data Return (SDR).
    Note: A TEO is not eligible to receive funding for an enrolment with a withdrawal date that occurs before 10% or one month of the course has passed (rounded up to the nearest whole day), whichever is earlier.
    Advising StudyLink and other parties of learner withdrawal
    When a learner in receipt of a loan and/or allowance withdraws from a programme, you must notify to StudyLink of the withdrawal date (or the date you deem that the learner withdrew, e.g., by non-attendance or non-participation).
    Withdrawal date and student services fees refund period
    All TEOs need to apply a student services fees refund period. If a learner withdraws from a course or programme within this period, you must provide the learner with a refund of the student services fees (or waiver of fee payment).
    Note: The refund period requirements are different for private training establishments (PTEs) and tertiary education institutions (TEIs).
    Requesting fees payment from StudyLink
    Student services fees cannot be paid for through the Student Loan Scheme.
    Learners with unpaid student services fees
    A learner becomes a valid domestic enrolment when they have paid or committed to pay student services fees, and the student services fees refund period has passed.
    If the learner does not pay the student services fees they committed to, then they cease to be a valid domestic enrolment. You cannot claim DQ1-2 funding for them.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Learner eligibility – DQ3-7

    Source: Tertiary Education Commission

    On this page:

    Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) must ensure that learners are eligible to be enrolled in DQ3-7 funded programmes.
    Learner eligibility requirements 
    Learner eligibility verification 
    You must verify a learner’s eligibility for enrolment as a domestic learner. Specific verification methods and eligibility criteria can be found in the Funding Conditions Catalogue for the relevant year. 
    Learner identity
    For information on verification of learner identity requirements, see the DQ3-7 funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Learners enrolled with more than one TEO
    A learner may be concurrently enrolled at more than one TEO and therefore undertaking a high study load. While this is not prohibited, take care to identify these learners and ensure that they are supported to successfully complete their courses and qualifications.  
    Literacy and numeracy requirements 
    Learners should not be enrolled in a programme funded under DQ3-7 until their literacy and numeracy skills are sufficient for them to be successful. For example, until they present at Step 3 or higher on the Learning Progressions.
    Learning Progression Frameworks – Ministry of Education.
    Literacy and numeracy skills can be built through programmes funded under a variety of funds, including the Intensive Literacy and Numeracy Fund, the Workplace Literacy and Numeracy Fund, or Delivery at Levels 1 and 2 on the NZQCF.
    Definition of a domestic learner
    For the duration of a learner’s enrolment in an eligible programme or micro-credential, you must ensure that DQ3-7 funding is only used for a learner who is a “valid domestic enrolment”. 
    Valid domestic enrolment
    For the purposes of DQ3-7 funding, the term “valid domestic enrolment” refers to the enrolment of a learner who meets the valid domestic enrolment conditions. See the DQ3-7 funding conditions for the relevant year. 
    International learners defined as domestic learners 
    The groups of learners enrolled with a New Zealand TEO or registered PTE who are required to be treated as if they are not international learners are outlined in the Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice 2024 – New Zealand Gazette. 
    For information on international learner work-based eligibility, see Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) holders – Funding Eligibility.
    Overseas study eligibility
    Domestic learners studying overseas – intramurally
    Domestic learners studying outside of New Zealand at an overseas campus or delivery site are still valid domestic enrolments if they meet criteria in the funding conditions for relevant year, and:

    the learner is undertaking part (but not all) of the programme outside of New Zealand
    the learner is enrolled at a New Zealand TEO in a programme leading to the award of a Qualification at Level 7 (non-degree) on the NZQCF
    the study outside of New Zealand is full time and face-to-face (ie, is not an extramural enrolment)
    the overseas campus is an approved delivery site under the Offshore Programme Delivery Rules 2022 – NZQA.
    the offshore campus is in an approved country on the Education New Zealand approved countries list (PDF 35 KB).
    the learner meets additional criteria below, if the learner is a New Zealand permanent resident, Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident.

    International learners who become defined as domestic learners under Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice 2024 are included in the above settings.
    Domestic learners studying overseas – extramurally
    A domestic learner that has already been deemed to be a valid domestic enrolment can study extramurally outside of New Zealand, if all other funding conditions are met.
    This includes meeting additional criteria below, if the learner is a New Zealand permanent resident, Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident.
    Resources

    Additional criteria for New Zealand permanent residents, Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents studying overseas
    These learners must meet domestic enrolment conditions to be considered a domestic learner when studying overseas with a New Zealand TEO.
    To be classified as a domestic learner, New Zealand permanent residents (NZPRs), Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents (APRs) studying outside New Zealand (enrolled with a New Zealand-based TEO) must meet the criteria set out in the Regulations:
    Education (Tertiary Education – Criteria Permanent Residents Studying Overseas must Satisfy to be Domestic Students) Regulations 2016 
    This includes that they must be ordinarily resident in New Zealand.
    “Ordinarily resident” in New Zealand means the learner meets the “ordinarily resident test”, whereby they:

    are lawfully able to reside in New Zealand 
    normally reside in New Zealand, and
    intend to remain in New Zealand (ie, they consider New Zealand to be their home). 

    A learner cannot be “ordinarily resident” in two countries at the same time.
    To decide whether a learner meets the “ordinarily resident test”, use the Ministry of Social Development’s Guidelines:
    Guidelines for deciding ordinarily resident – Work and Income
    TEOs are responsible for ensuring that a learner meets the “ordinarily resident test” and is eligible to access tuition subsidy funding and study support. You may require NZPRs, APRs and Australian citizens intending to study part of a New Zealand qualification overseas to complete a declaration to confirm their unfamiliarity with the overseas country they intend to study in and provide evidence that they are ordinarily resident in New Zealand.
    Note: We have not specified the amount and timing of the parts of the study to be completed in New Zealand and overseas. This is to allow flexibility for the TEO to best structure its delivery of the qualification. For more details on valid enrolments and funding for study overseas see the funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Overseas travel
    DQ3-7 funding can only be used to meet the cost of overseas travel for learners in exceptional circumstances where overseas travel is academically essential. For details on how to determine if overseas travel is academically essential, see the DQ3-7 funding conditions for the relevant year.
    International learner eligibility
    Enrolment of international students
    If a learner is an international student, you should confirm that the learner is eligible to attend the TEO as an international student and has the necessary visa. You can do this by either:

    sighting the learner’s passport and conducting a VisaView check (see “VisaView” below), or
    sighting the learner’s passport with either:

    a current student visa label or visa approval notification (see “Visa approval notification” below) (or in the case of a pathway student visa, the letter from Immigration New Zealand specifying the TEOs and courses the learner is eligible to attend), or
    a current work visa label or visa approval notification with conditions that allow the learner to study (this relates to an international learner who has a practical component in their study programme), or
    a current work or visitor visa label or visa approval notification if the learner is enrolling in a course of less than 12 weeks. For more information about work and visitor visas see Immigration New Zealand.

    We recommend that you keep these records for your international learners as well, in order to comply with the record-keeping requirements for tertiary education institutions (TEIs) in section 309 of the Education and Training Act 2020, and for registered private training establishments (PTEs) in section 361 of the Education and Training Act 2020 and under the NZQA Rules.
    Section 309 of the Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
    Section 361 of the Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
    Visa approval notification
    Immigration New Zealand is moving towards the use of label-less visas. The visa is recorded electronically in Immigration New Zealand’s system, so some learners will not have a visa label in their passport. Instead, a label-less visa approval notification is sent by email or letter to the learner.
    Learners with label-less visas may therefore present their visa approval notification as evidence of their visa when they enrol with a TEO, and you can verify this using VisaView.
    VisaView
    A TEO can check whether a learner who is not a New Zealand citizen can study with them in New Zealand using the VisaView online enquiry system:
    VisaView – Immigration New Zealand
    For more information see the VisaView Guide for Education Providers. You can also contact Immigration New Zealand if you have questions.
    VisaView Guide for Education Providers (PDF 663 KB)
    If you have confirmed a learner’s eligibility via VisaView you are required to download and retain the VisaView record to comply with the funding conditions for the relevant year.
    International learners with domestic learner eligibility
    Whether or not a learner is a domestic or international learner for the purposes of fees and TEC funding is determined by their status at the time of enrolment.
    The Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice specifies that some learners who are not New Zealand citizens or residents must be treated as if they are domestic students.
    Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice 2024 – New Zealand Gazette
    A learner’s eligibility at the start of a course applies until the course ends.
    Permanent residence status granted mid-way through study 
    Domestic learner funding can be claimed for an international learner enrolling in courses that start after the learner is granted residency, whether in the same or a different qualification.
    Whether or not a learner is a domestic or international learner for the purposes of fees and Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funding is determined by their status at the time of enrolment.
    A learner’s eligibility at the start of a course applies until the course ends.
    The TEO must have obtained any necessary approvals for the enrolment of international students under the Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice – NZQA.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Learner eligibility – DQ7-10

    Source: Tertiary Education Commission

    On this page:

    Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) must ensure that learners are eligible to be enrolled in DQ7-10 funded programmes.
    Learner eligibility requirements 
    Learner eligibility verification 
    You must verify a learner’s eligibility for enrolment as a domestic learner. Specific verification methods and eligibility criteria can be found in the Funding Conditions Catalogue for the relevant year. 
    Learner identity
    For information on verification of learner identity requirements, see the DQ7-10 funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Learners enrolled with more than one TEO
    A learner may be concurrently enrolled at more than one TEO and therefore undertaking a high study load. While this is not prohibited, take care to identify these learners and ensure that they are supported to successfully complete their courses and qualifications.  
    Literacy and numeracy requirements 
    Learners should not be enrolled in a programme funded under DQ7-10 until their literacy and numeracy skills are sufficient for them to be successful. For example, until they present at Step 3 or higher on the Learning Progression Frameworks.
    Learning Progression Frameworks – Ministry of Education.
    Literacy and numeracy skills can be built through programmes funded under the Intensive Literacy and Numeracy Fund (ILN), the Workplace Literacy and Numeracy Fund (WLN) and Delivery at Levels 1 and 2 on the NZQCF (DQ1-2).
    Definition of a domestic learner
    For the duration of a learner’s enrolment in an eligible programme or micro-credential, you must ensure that DQ7-10 funding is only used for a learner who is a “valid domestic enrolment”. 
    Valid domestic enrolment
    For the purposes of DQ7-10 funding, the term “valid domestic enrolment” refers to the enrolment of a learner who meets the valid domestic enrolment conditions, see the DQ7-10 funding conditions for the relevant year. 
    International learners defined as domestic learners 
    The groups of learners enrolled with a TEO who are required to be treated as if they are not international learners are outlined in the Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice 2024 – New Zealand Gazette. 
    Overseas study eligibility
    Domestic learners studying overseas – intramurally
    A domestic learner studying intramurally at an overseas campus or delivery site is still considered a valid domestic enrolment if they meet all the following criteria: 

    Part (but not all) of the programme is undertaken outside of New Zealand.
    The learner is enrolled at a New Zealand TEO in a programme leading to an award of a qualification or micro-credential at Levels 7 (degree) to 10 on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework. 
    The study outside of New Zealand is full time and face-to-face (ie, is not extramural). 
    The offshore campus is an approved delivery site under the Offshore Programme Delivery Rules 2022 – NZQA.
    The offshore campus is in an approved country on the Education New Zealand approved countries list (PDF 35 KB).
    Meet additional criteria below, if learner is a New Zealand permanent resident, Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident.

    International learners who are defined as domestic learners under The Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice 2024 are included in the above settings.
    Domestic learners studying overseas – extramurally
    A domestic learner, that has already been deemed to be a valid domestic enrolment, can study extramurally outside of New Zealand, if all other funding conditions are met.
    This includes meeting the additional criteria below, if the learner is a New Zealand permanent resident, Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident.
    Resources

    Additional criteria for New Zealand permanent residents, Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents studying overseas
    These learners must meet domestic enrolment conditions to be considered a domestic learner when studying overseas with a New Zealand TEO.
    To be classified as a domestic learner, New Zealand permanent residents (NZPRs), Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents (APRs) studying outside New Zealand (enrolled with a New Zealand-based TEO) must meet the criteria set out in the Regulations:
    Education (Tertiary Education – Criteria Permanent Residents Studying Overseas must Satisfy to be Domestic Students) Regulations 2016 
    This includes that they must be ordinarily resident in New Zealand.
    “Ordinarily resident” in New Zealand means the learner meets the “ordinarily resident test”, whereby they:

    are lawfully able to reside in New Zealand 
    normally reside in New Zealand, and intend to remain in New Zealand (ie, they consider New Zealand to be their home). 

    A learner cannot be “ordinarily resident” in two countries at the same time.
    To decide whether a learner meets the “ordinarily resident test”, use the Ministry of Social Development’s Guidelines:
    Guidelines for deciding ordinarily resident – Work and Income
    TEOs are responsible for ensuring that a learner meets the “ordinarily resident test” and is eligible to access tuition subsidy funding and study support. You may require NZPRs, APRs and Australian citizens intending to study part of a New Zealand qualification overseas to complete a declaration to confirm their unfamiliarity with the overseas country they intend to study in and provide evidence that they are ordinarily resident in New Zealand.
    Note: We have not specified the amount and timing of the parts of the study to be completed in New Zealand and overseas. This is to allow you to best structure your delivery of the qualification.
    For more details on valid enrolments and funding for study overseas see funding conditions for the relevant year.
    Overseas travel
    DQ7-10 funding can only be used to meet the cost of overseas travel for learners in exceptional circumstances where overseas travel is academically essential. For details on how to determine if overseas travel is academically essential, see the DQ7-10 funding conditions for the relevant year.
    International learner eligibility
    Enrolment of international students
    If a learner is an international student, you should confirm that the learner is eligible to attend the TEO as an international student. 
    You can do this by either:

    sighting the learner’s passport and conducting a VisaView check (see “VisaView” below), or
    sighting the learner’s passport with either:

    a current student visa label or visa approval notification (see “Visa approval notification” below) – or in the case of a pathway student visa, the letter from Immigration New Zealand specifying the TEOs and courses the learner is eligible to attend, or
    a current work visa label or visa approval notification with conditions that allow the learner to study (this relates to an international learner who has a practical component in their study programme), or
    a current work or visitor visa label or visa approval notification if the learner is enrolling in a course of less than 12 weeks. For more information about work and visitor visas see Immigration New Zealand.

    We recommend that you keep these records for your international learners to comply with the record-keeping requirements for tertiary education institutions (TEIs) in section 309 of the Education and Training Act 2020, and for registered private training establishments (PTEs) in section 361 of the Education and Training Act 2020 and under the NZQA Rules.
    Section 309 of the Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
    Section 361 of the Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
    Visa approval notification
    Immigration New Zealand is moving towards the use of label-less visas. The visa is recorded electronically in Immigration New Zealand’s system, so some learners will not have a visa label in their passport. Instead, a label-less visa approval notification is sent by email or letter to the learner.
    Learners with label-less visas may therefore present their visa approval notification as evidence of their visa when they enrol with a TEO, and you can verify this using VisaView.
    VisaView
    A TEO can check whether a learner who is not a New Zealand citizen can study with them in New Zealand using the VisaView online enquiry system:
    VisaView – Immigration New Zealand
    For more information see the VisaView Guide for Education Providers. You can also contact Immigration New Zealand if you have questions.
    VisaView Guide for Education Providers (PDF 663 KB)
    If you have confirmed a learner’s eligibility via VisaView you are required to download and retain the VisaView record to comply with the funding conditions. 
    International learners with domestic learner eligibility
    Whether or not a learner is a domestic or international learner for the purposes of fees and TEC funding is determined by their status at the time of enrolment.
    The Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice specifies that some learners who are not New Zealand citizens or residents must be treated as if they are domestic students.
    Tertiary Education (Domestic Students) Notice 2024 – New Zealand Gazette
    A learner’s eligibility at the start of a course applies until the course ends.
    Permanent residence status granted mid-way through study 
    Domestic learner funding can be claimed for an international learner enrolling in courses that start after the learner is granted residency, whether in the same or a different qualification.
    Whether or not a learner is a domestic or international learner for the purposes of fees and Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funding is determined by their status at the time of enrolment.
    A learner’s eligibility at the start of a course applies until the course ends.
    The TEO must have obtained any necessary approvals for the enrolment of international students under the Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice – NZQA.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How much salt is OK in drinking water? Without limits, Australia’s health gap widens in remote and regional areas

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Juliette Crowther, Researcher in Food Policy, George Institute for Global Health

    Andrew Merry/Getty

    Most Australians consume far too much sodium, mostly in the form of salt (sodium chloride) in the food they eat.

    The National Health and Medical Research Council recommends no more than 2,000 milligrams of sodium a day, roughly one teaspoon of salt.

    Yet the average Australian consumes nearly twice that.

    In some regional and remote communities, salty drinking water is quietly adding to this problem – yet sodium levels in tap water are often overlooked.

    Our new research reviewed 197 countries and shows when drinking water standards for sodium exist, they’re usually based on taste, not health.

    Most follow guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) which, in its global campaign to lower sodium intake, has focused on diet but largely ignored drinking water.

    Salty water is an overlooked health risk

    Excess sodium is a major risk factor for high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and stroke. These are leading causes of death and disability across the world.

    In 2013, these health risks led the WHO to set a global target to reduce sodium intake by 30% by 2025. The WHO has since extended this to 2030, due to slow progress.

    Public health efforts to reduce sodium (salt) have focused mainly on food, not drinking water. This is because most tap water contains low sodium levels (usually below 20mg per litre).

    But some natural water sources contain excessively high sodium. In Australia, this mainly affects remote and rural communities.

    Evidence suggests it’s a growing issue, compounded by climate change, rising sea levels, more frequent storms, prolonged droughts, and human activities, including over extraction of groundwater and agricultural runoff.

    What does the WHO say about water?

    The WHO’s recommended threshold for sodium in water – no more than 200mg/L – is based on how water tastes (palatability), not what is safe for health.

    Worryingly, the WHO recommendations about drinking water are based on an outdated 2003 report that found evidence linking sodium with high blood pressure was lacking.

    Convincing evidence has since confirmed that higher sodium intake is directly related to increased blood pressure.

    The WHO updated its dietary guidelines for sodium in 2012 to reflect these health risks. But water guidelines have not changed.

    What our new research shows

    Our new research, published in recent weeks, reviewed guidelines for sodium in drinking water in 197 countries.

    It found 20% of countries – home to 30% of the world’s population – have no sodium limit in drinking water.

    Among the 132 countries that do, most (92%) follow WHO guidelines.

    Our research found only 12 countries cited health reasons for setting sodium limits, and just two of these set stricter limits than WHO guidelines.

    This means across the world, most drinking standards for sodium continue to be guided by taste, not health.

    Palatability is highly subjective. Just as some people enjoy salty chips and others find them overpowering, sensitivity to sodium in water varies.

    In contrast, the health risks of too much salt are clear.

    What do Australia’s guidelines say?

    Australia’s drinking water guidelines include a non-mandatory sodium limit of 180mg/L, also based on taste.

    But this is still too high to protect health.

    Drinking two litres of water at this concentration in one day would mean having 360mg of sodium – almost one-fifth of the recommended maximum. This is equivalent to eating a large bag of sea-salt popcorn.

    While the guidelines do recommend that people with high blood pressure drink water with less than 20mg/L sodium, there is no clear plan for how this can be achieved equitably, especially when the alternative is expensive bottled water.

    Water inequity in Walgett

    The consequences of this policy gap are stark in places such as Walgett, a remote town in north-western New South Wales with a high Aboriginal population (almost 50%).

    In 2018, when the local river ran dry, the town switched to bore water. Residents immediately noticed the water was slimy and undrinkable.

    Local Aboriginal community controlled organisations asked researchers from the University of New South Wales to test the water. This revealed sodium levels over 300mg/L.

    In 2020, the New South Wales government eventually installed a desalination plant, but due to issues managing waste, it was decommissioned a few months later.

    Today, Walgett still lacks a long-term solution to provide drinking water with low levels of sodium.

    Water inequality is health inequality

    Walgett isn’t an isolated case. Many inland and remote towns, often with high Aboriginal populations, rely on rivers and bore water increasingly affected by drought and agricultural overuse.

    This inequity in access to safe drinking water worsens the health gap.

    Indigenous Australians already face higher rates of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease – all worsened by excess sodium.

    In places such as Walgett, where some people report spending as much as A$50 a week on bottled water, families are forced to choose between safe hydration and essentials such as food or medicine.

    Without mandatory health-based limits, these communities have no way to compel authorities to make their water safe.

    Safe drinking water is a human right

    In 2023, the European Union mandated legally binding drinking water standards in all member states.

    Although still based on the outdated 200mg/L taste threshold, this legal framework gives communities a basis to advocate for safer water – something Australia currently lacks.

    A sodium limit closer to the United States Environmental Protection Agency guideline of 30–60mg/L would better align with health advice.

    Without enforceable, health-based limits, Australia risks falling behind on its commitments to the sodium reduction targets and sustainable development goals set by the United Nations.

    No one should have to fight for safe drinking water. If we want to protect our most vulnerable communities, water policy must catch up with science and public health priorities.

    We would like to thank all of the authors of the paper, and the Yuwaya Ngarra-li, a community-led partnership between the Dharriwaa Elders Groups in Walgett and the University of New South Wales.

    This research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. The George Institute’s Food Policy Group is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Population Salt Reduction. Juliette Crowther has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

    Jacqui Webster receives salary funding from a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant (#2018015) and DFAT. Jacqui Webster is Chief Investigator on the NHMRC Ideas grant (#2003862) that this research is funded through.

    – ref. How much salt is OK in drinking water? Without limits, Australia’s health gap widens in remote and regional areas – https://theconversation.com/how-much-salt-is-ok-in-drinking-water-without-limits-australias-health-gap-widens-in-remote-and-regional-areas-260496

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Even a day off alcohol makes a difference – our timeline maps the health benefits when you stop drinking

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Nicole Lee, Adjunct Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne based), Curtin University

    d3sign/Getty

    Alcohol has many negative effects on our health, some of which may surprise you. These include short-term impacts such as waking up with a pounding head or anxiety, to long-term effects including cancer.

    If you are thinking about taking some time off alcohol, you’ll find many quick wins and long-term gains for your health.

    How long will you have to wait to feel the benefits?

    We’ve made a timeline – based on scientific research – that shows what you might feel in the first days, weeks, months and years after taking a break from alcohol.

    Some benefits start immediately, so every day without alcohol is a win for your health.

    After one day

    Alcohol takes around 24 hours to completely leave your body, so you may start noticing improvements after just one day.

    Alcohol makes you need to urinate more often, causing dehydration. But your body can absorb a glass of water almost immediately, so once alcohol is out of your system alcohol dehydration is reduced, improving digestion, brain function and energy levels.

    Alcohol also reduces the liver’s ability to regulate blood sugar. Once alcohol leaves the system, blood sugar begins to normalise.

    If you are a daily drinker you may feel a bit worse to start with while your body adjusts to not having alcohol in its system all the time. You may initially notice disrupted sleep, mood changes, sweating or tremors. Most symptoms usually resolve in about a week without alcohol.

    After one week

    Even though alcohol can make you feel sleepy at first, it disrupts your sleep cycle. By the end of an alcohol-free week, you may notice you are more energetic in the mornings as a result of getting better quality sleep.

    As the body’s filter, the liver does much of the heavy lifting in processing alcohol and can be easily damaged even with moderate drinking.

    The liver is important for cleaning blood, processing nutrients and producing bile that helps with digestion.

    But it can also regenerate quickly. If you have only mild damage in the liver, seven days may be enough to reduce liver fat and heal mild scarring and tissue damage.

    Even small amounts of alcohol can impair brain functioning. So quitting can help improve brain health within a few days in light to moderate drinkers and within a month even for very heavy dependent drinkers.

    Alcohol damages your liver, but it’s very good at regenerating and healing itself.
    skynesher/Getty

    After one month

    Alcohol can make managing mood harder and worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression. After a few weeks, most people start to feel better. Even very heavy drinkers report better mood after one to two months.

    As your sleep and mood improve you may also notice more energy and greater wellbeing.

    After a month of abstinence regular drinkers also report feeling more confident about making changes to how they drink.

    You may lose weight and body fat. Alcohol contains a lot of kilojules and can trigger hunger reward systems, making us overeat or choose less healthy foods when drinking.

    Even your skin will thank you. Alcohol can make you look older through dehydration and inflammation, which can be reversed when you quit.

    Alcohol irritates the gut and disrupts normal stomach functioning, causing bloating, indigestion, heartburn and diarrhoea. These symptoms usually start to resolve within four weeks.

    One month of abstinence, insulin resistance – which can lead to high blood sugar – significantly reduces by 25%. Blood pressure also reduces (by 6%) and cancer-related growth factors declines, lowering your risk of cancer.

    After six months

    The liver starts to repair within weeks. For moderate drinkers, damage to your liver could be fully reversed by six months.

    At this point, even heavy drinkers may notice they’re better at fighting infections and feel healthier overall.

    Just a month without alcohol can you make more confident about sticking to changes.
    Yue_/Getty

    After one year or more

    Alcohol contributes to or causes a large number of chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and seven different types of cancer, as well as mental health issues. All of these risks can be reduced by quitting or cutting back on alcohol.

    Alcohol increases blood pressure. High blood pressure (hypertension) is the top risk factor for death in the world. A small 2mmHg increase in blood pressure above the normal range (120mmHG) increases death from stroke by 10% and from coronary artery disease by 7%.

    Cutting back on alcohol to less than two drinks a day can reduce blood pressure significantly, reducing risk of stroke and heart disease. Reducing blood pressure also reduces risk of kidney disease, eye problems and even erectile dysfunction.

    With sustained abstinence, your risk of getting any type of cancer drops. One study looked at cancer risk for more than 4 million adults over three to seven years and found the risk of alcohol-related cancer dropped by 4%, even for light drinkers who quit. Reducing from heavy to moderate drinking reduced alcohol-related cancer risk by 9%.

    Making a change

    Any reduction in drinking will have some noticeable and immediate benefits to your brain and general health. The less you drink and the longer you go between drinks, the healthier you will be.

    Whether you aim to cut back or quit entirely, there are some simple things you can do to help you stick with it:

    If you are still wondering about whether to make changes or not you can check your drinking risk here.

    If you have tried to cut back and found it difficult you may need professional help. Call the National Alcohol and other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015 and they will put you in touch with services in your area that can help. You can also talk to your GP.

    We would like to thank Dr Hannah MacRae for assistance in identifying the research used in this article.

    Nicole Lee works as a paid evaluation and training consultant in alcohol and other drugs. She has previously been awarded grants by state and federal governments, NHMRC and other public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research. She is CEO of Hello Sunday Morning.

    Dr Katinka van de Ven is the Research Manager of Hello Sunday Morning. She also works as a paid evaluation and training consultant in alcohol and other drugs. Katinka has previously been awarded grants by state governments and public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research.

    – ref. Even a day off alcohol makes a difference – our timeline maps the health benefits when you stop drinking – https://theconversation.com/even-a-day-off-alcohol-makes-a-difference-our-timeline-maps-the-health-benefits-when-you-stop-drinking-249272

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Cycling can be 4 times more efficient than walking. A biomechanics expert explains why

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Anthony Blazevich, Professor of Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University

    You’re standing at your front door, facing a five kilometre commute to work. But you don’t have your car, and there’s no bus route. You can walk for an hour – or jump on your bicycle and arrive in 15 minutes, barely breaking a sweat. You choose the latter.

    Many people would make the same choice. It’s estimated that there are more than a billion bikes in the world. Cycling represents one of the most energy-efficient forms of transport ever invented, allowing humans to travel faster and farther while using less energy than walking or running.

    But why exactly does pedalling feel so much easier than pounding the pavement? The answer lies in the elegant biomechanics of how our bodies interact with this two-wheeled machine.

    A wonderfully simple machine

    At its heart, a bicycle is wonderfully simple: two wheels (hence “bi-cycle”), pedals that transfer power through a chain to the rear wheel, and gears that let us fine-tune our effort. But this simplicity masks an engineering that perfectly complements human physiology.

    When we walk or run, we essentially fall forward in a controlled manner, catching ourselves with each step. Our legs must swing through large arcs, lifting our heavy limbs against gravity with every stride. This swinging motion alone consumes a lot of energy. Imagine: how tiring would it be to even swing your arms continuously for an hour?

    On a bicycle, your legs move through a much smaller, circular motion. Instead of swinging your entire leg weight with each step, you’re simply rotating your thighs and calves through a compact pedalling cycle. The energy savings are immediately noticeable.

    But the real efficiency gains come from how bicycles transfer human power to forward motion. When you walk or run, each footstep involves a mini-collision with the ground. You can hear it as the slap of your shoe against the road, and you can feel it as vibrations running through your body. This is energy being lost, literally dissipated as sound and heat after being sent through your muscles and joints.

    Walking and running also involve another source of inefficiency: with each step, you actually brake yourself slightly before propelling forward. As your foot lands ahead of your body, it creates a backwards force that momentarily slows you down. Your muscles then have to work extra hard to overcome this self-imposed braking and accelerate you forward again.

    Kissing the road

    Bicycles use one of the world’s great inventions to solve these problems – wheels.

    Instead of a collision, you get rolling contact – each part of the tyre gently “kisses” the road surface before lifting off. No energy is lost to impact. And because the wheel rotates smoothly so the force acts perfectly vertically on the ground, there’s no stop-start braking action. The force from your pedalling translates directly into forward motion.

    But bicycles also help our muscles to work at their best. Human muscles have a fundamental limitation: the faster they contract, the weaker they become and the more energy they consume.

    This is the famous force-velocity relationship of muscles. And it’s why sprinting feels so much harder than jogging or walking – your muscles are working near their speed limit, becoming less efficient with every stride.

    Bicycle gears solve this problem for us. As you go faster, you can shift to a higher gear so your muscles don’t have to work faster while the bike accelerates. Your muscles can stay in their sweet spot for both force production and energy cost. It’s like having a personal assistant that continuously adjusts your workload to keep you in the peak performance zone.

    Cycling can be at least four times more energy-efficient than walking and eight times more efficient than running.
    The Conversation, CC BY

    Walking sometimes wins out

    But bicycles aren’t always superior.

    On very steep hills of more than about 15% gradient (so you rise 1.5 metres every 10 metres of distance), your legs struggle to generate enough force through the circular pedalling motion to lift you and the bike up the hill. We can produce more force by pushing our legs straight out, so walking (or climbing) becomes more effective.

    Even if roads were built, we wouldn’t pedal up Mount Everest.

    This isn’t the case for downhills. While cycling downhill becomes progressively easier (eventually requiring no energy at all), walking down steep slopes actually becomes harder.

    Once the gradient exceeds about 10% (it drops by one metre for every ten metres of distance), each downhill step creates jarring impacts that waste energy and stress your joints. Walking and running downhill isn’t always as easy as we’d expect.

    Not just a transportation device

    The numbers speak for themselves. Cycling can be at least four times more energy-efficient than walking and eight times more efficient than running. This efficiency comes from minimising three major energy drains: limb movement, ground impact and muscle speed limitations.

    So next time you effortlessly cruise past pedestrians on your morning bike commute, take a moment to appreciate the biomechanical work of art beneath you. Your bicycle isn’t just a transport device, but a perfectly evolved machine that works in partnership with your physiology, turning your raw muscle power into efficient motion.

    Anthony Blazevich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Cycling can be 4 times more efficient than walking. A biomechanics expert explains why – https://theconversation.com/cycling-can-be-4-times-more-efficient-than-walking-a-biomechanics-expert-explains-why-257120

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Can’t work out without music? Neither could the ancient Greeks and Romans

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Konstantine Panegyres, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia

    Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    These days when you see people exercising, they’re usually also listening to music, whether they’re at the gym, or out jogging on the street.

    It makes sense, as studies have shown listening to music can help you get the most out of a workout.

    Somehow the ancient Greeks and Romans knew this too, long before modern science was there to back it.

    A more than 2,000-year-old habit

    In his oration To the People of Alexandria, the Greek writer Dio Chrysostom (40-110 CE) complained about a phenomenon he saw all the time.

    Dio wrote people loved to listen to music in their daily activities. According to him, music could be found in the courtroom, in the lecture theatre, in the doctor’s room, and even in the gym.

    “Everything is done to music […] people will presently go so far as to use song to accompany their exercise in the gymnasium,” Dio wrote.

    But exercising to music wasn’t a new thing in his day. This practice has been recorded across the ancient Greek and Roman worlds from the earliest times, and as far back as the poems of Homer (circa 800 BCE).

    Why exercise to music?

    There are many depictions of professional athletes training, or competing, to the accompaniment of music in ancient Greek vase paintings.

    In one vase painting from the 5th century BCE, a group of athletes trains while a musician plays the aulos, a type of ancient pipe instrument.

    Young men exercising to the sound of an aulos player (an ancient wind instrument).
    Wikimedia

    The ancient writer Plutarch of Chaeronea (46-119 CE) tells us music was also played while people wrestled or did athletics.

    Athenian writer Flavius Philostratus (circa 170-245 CE) offers clues as to why. In a book about gymnastics, Philostratus wrote music served to stimulate athletes, and that their performance might be improved through listening to music.

    Today’s researchers have proven this to be true. One 2020 study involving 3,599 participants showed listening to music during exercise had many benefits, such as reducing the perception of fatigue and exertion, and improving physical performance and breathing.

    Singing and trumpets

    Since ancient people didn’t have electronic devices, they found other ways to exercise to music. Some had music played by a musician during their exercise routine. Others sang while they exercised.

    Singing while playing ball games was particularly popular. In Homer’s Odyssey (circa 8th century BCE), Nausicaa, the daughter of the King of Phaeacia, plays a ball game with her girl friends, and they all sing songs as they play.

    Similarly, the historian Carystius of Pergamum (2nd century BCE) wrote the women of his time “sang as they played ball”.

    Another popular activity was dancing to music. Dancing was widely regarded as a gymnastic exercise people could do for better health.

    One famous advocate of the benefits of dancing as exercise was the great Athenian philosopher Socrates (circa 470-399 BCE). According to the historian Diogenes Laertius (3rd century CE), “it was Socrates’ regular habit to dance, thinking that such exercise helped to keep the body in good condition”.

    Exercising to music was depicted in several ancient Greek vase painting.
    Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA

    Apart from individuals using music in their personal exercise, soldiers also did training exercises, and marched to battle, to the sound of trumpets.

    Don’t skip leg day

    There was a belief in ancient Greek and Roman that music and exercise played an important role in shaping and developing the body and soul.

    The ideal was harmony and moderation. The body and soul needed to be balanced and proportionate in all their parts, without any excess. As such, doing one kind of exercise too often, or exercising one body part excessively, was frowned upon.

    The physician Galen of Pergamum (129-216 CE) criticised types of exercise that focused too much on one part of the body. He preferred ball games as they exercised the whole body evenly.

    Immoderation in music – that is, listening to too much, or listening to music that was too emotional – was also sometimes frowned upon.

    For example, the Athenian philosopher Plato (circa 428-348 BCE) famously argued most music should be censored as it can stir the passions too strongly. Plato thought only simple and unemotional music, listened to in moderation, should be allowed.

    If the ancients could see today’s people running along the pavement with music thumping in their ears, they would surely be amazed. And they’d probably approve – as long as it wasn’t being done in excess.

    Konstantine Panegyres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Can’t work out without music? Neither could the ancient Greeks and Romans – https://theconversation.com/cant-work-out-without-music-neither-could-the-ancient-greeks-and-romans-258069

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: A project-analytical session of the Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies was held at NSU

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Novosibirsk State University –

    An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    A two-day project-analytical session was held at Novosibirsk State University Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies NSU. It was attended by the heads of the IMMT NSU, including curators of educational programs, as well as representatives of other leading medical universities of our country – Sechenov University and the Siberian State Medical University (SSMU). The goal of the event was to determine the main directions of the transformation of medical education at NSU taking into account modern trends.

    — We discussed how the structure of medical education should be changed so that it corresponds to strategic changes in higher education as a whole. First of all, this is a trend towards personalization, when each student has their own development trajectory; the second important point is to provide the maximum possible number of practical skills that are in demand in practical activities and the pharmaceutical industry, so that students already during their studies know how to work in the future. For example, they have skills in working with modern systems that are used in healthcare, such as electronic document management, technologies based on artificial intelligence. Another point: curricula should be flexible, constantly updated, updated and developed, this will allow students to understand modern methods of treatment, therapy, diagnostics. At the same time, it is important to find a balance between classical education, fundamental knowledge and special subjects that are aimed specifically at training doctors. After all, the specificity of the university is that we train not just doctors, but medical researchers, said Mikhail Khvostov, acting dean of the faculty of medical cybernetics and pharmacy at the Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies of NSU.

    The session included a plenary part, when nine experts made presentations. First, the university team presented key information about the current status of medical education at NSU. Yulia Samoylova, professor, director of the IMMT NSU, told about the history of the emergence of medical care at the university, gave an overview of what is happening now, focused on what scientific, technological and educational projects the Institute is engaged in and what are the prospects for the future. Then the heads of the areas of “Medical Care”, “Medical Cybernetics” and “Psychology” spoke about their programs. The speech of Dmitry Kudlai, director of innovative development programs at NSU, was devoted to the use of artificial intelligence in education in general and in industrial pharmacy in particular. Irina Sergeeva, director of the Center for Postgraduate Medical Education at NSU, spoke about the features of residency programs.

    The presentations by external experts – Victoria Kovalevskaya, a representative of Sechenov University, and Inessa Yakimovich, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Siberian State Medical University – were devoted to new models of medical education. Then there was work in small groups, when the participants had to define the key elements of the future model of medical education at NSU.

    Among the main areas for development identified as a result of the session are the introduction of individual trajectories in medical education; training students and teachers to use modern information systems, artificial intelligence, both in education and in medicine.

    — The response to modern trends in the industry was the launch of a new educational program at our Institute — medical cybernetics. This is a science that is developing at the intersection of biology, medicine and information technology. We are currently in the midst of an admissions campaign; and we see that the direction is in demand, there is great interest in it. Thus, we made the right choice by introducing a new direction, and this is important, since cybernetics should contribute to the introduction of digitalization of healthcare and help doctors make better diagnoses and treat people more effectively, which is one of the priorities in the modern world, — emphasized Yulia Samoylova, Director of the IMMT NSU.

    The project-analytical session held at NSU is an introductory one and opens a series of events that will be aimed at modernizing medical education and developing a unified strategy for its development in the near future, including taking into account the infrastructure of the new campus and involving the entire university staff in the work.

    Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    .

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 14, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 14, 2025.

    Washington’s war demands – Australia risks being dragged into a conflict with China over Taiwan
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Andy. LIU/Shutterstock The United States can count on Australia as one of its closest allies. Dating back to the shared experiences in the second world war and the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951, Australia has steadfastly

    Women played key roles in Syria’s revolution. Now they’ve been pushed to the margins
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kinda Alsamara, Lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland The end of the oppressive Assad regime in Syria in late 2024 has been broadly welcomed on the global stage – underscored by the fact the United States and European Union have now

    Music is at the forefront of AI disruption, but NZ artists still have few protections
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dave Carter, Associate Professor, School of Music and Screen Arts, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University Getty Images Was the recent Velvet Sundown phenomenon a great music and media hoax, a sign of things to come, or just another example of what’s already happening ? In

    Cycling can be 4 times more efficient than walking. A biomechanics expert explains why
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Blazevich, Professor of Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University You’re standing at your front door, facing a five kilometre commute to work. But you don’t have your car, and there’s no bus route. You can walk for an hour – or jump on your bicycle and arrive in

    ‘You become a target’: research shows why many people who experience racism don’t report it
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mario Peucker, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, Victoria University The way racism manifests itself may have changed over time, but it remains a persistent problem in Australia. The 2024 Reconciliation Barometer found a significant increase in racism against First

    Even a day off alcohol makes a difference – our timeline maps the health benefits when you stop drinking
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Lee, Adjunct Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne based), Curtin University d3sign/Getty Alcohol has many negative effects on our health, some of which may surprise you. These include short-term impacts such as waking up with a pounding head or anxiety, to long-term effects including

    What’s happened to Australia’s green hydrogen dream? Here are 5 reasons the industry has floundered
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Reeve, Program Director, Energy and Climate Change, Grattan Institute An official from German energy supplier Eon with Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest after inking a deal in 2022 to supply green hydrogen from Australia to Germany. Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images As the world looks for

    Soaring house prices may be locking people into marriages, new research shows
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Whelan, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney GAS-photo/Shutterstock House prices continued to rise across Australia in June, recent data shows. Nationally, prices have risen about 38% in the past five years. Higher housing prices are simply one contributor, albeit a very important one, to the

    Can’t work out without music? Neither could the ancient Greeks and Romans
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA These days when you see people exercising, they’re usually also listening to music, whether they’re at the gym, or out jogging on the street. It makes sense, as studies have

    The Bradbury Group features Palestinian journalist Yousef Aljamal, Middle East report and political panel
    Asia Pacific Report In the new weekly political podcast, The Bradbury Group, last night presenter Martyn Bradbury talked with visiting Palestinian journalist Dr Yousef Aljamal. They assess the current situation in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and what New Zealand should be doing. As Bradbury, publisher of The Daily Blog, notes, “Fourth Estate public broadcasting

    Author David Robie tells of outrage over sinking of the Rainbow Warrior 40 years ago
    RNZ News Nights Tomorrow marks 40 years since the bombing and sinking of the Rainbow Warrior — a moment that changed the course of New Zealand’s history and reshaped how we saw ourselves on the world stage. Two French agents planted two explosives on the ship, then just before midnight, explosions ripped through the hull

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 14, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 14, 2025.

    Washington’s war demands – Australia risks being dragged into a conflict with China over Taiwan
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Andy. LIU/Shutterstock The United States can count on Australia as one of its closest allies. Dating back to the shared experiences in the second world war and the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951, Australia has steadfastly

    Women played key roles in Syria’s revolution. Now they’ve been pushed to the margins
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kinda Alsamara, Lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland The end of the oppressive Assad regime in Syria in late 2024 has been broadly welcomed on the global stage – underscored by the fact the United States and European Union have now

    Music is at the forefront of AI disruption, but NZ artists still have few protections
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dave Carter, Associate Professor, School of Music and Screen Arts, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University Getty Images Was the recent Velvet Sundown phenomenon a great music and media hoax, a sign of things to come, or just another example of what’s already happening ? In

    Cycling can be 4 times more efficient than walking. A biomechanics expert explains why
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Blazevich, Professor of Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University You’re standing at your front door, facing a five kilometre commute to work. But you don’t have your car, and there’s no bus route. You can walk for an hour – or jump on your bicycle and arrive in

    ‘You become a target’: research shows why many people who experience racism don’t report it
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mario Peucker, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, Victoria University The way racism manifests itself may have changed over time, but it remains a persistent problem in Australia. The 2024 Reconciliation Barometer found a significant increase in racism against First

    Even a day off alcohol makes a difference – our timeline maps the health benefits when you stop drinking
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Lee, Adjunct Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne based), Curtin University d3sign/Getty Alcohol has many negative effects on our health, some of which may surprise you. These include short-term impacts such as waking up with a pounding head or anxiety, to long-term effects including

    What’s happened to Australia’s green hydrogen dream? Here are 5 reasons the industry has floundered
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Reeve, Program Director, Energy and Climate Change, Grattan Institute An official from German energy supplier Eon with Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest after inking a deal in 2022 to supply green hydrogen from Australia to Germany. Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images As the world looks for

    Soaring house prices may be locking people into marriages, new research shows
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Whelan, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney GAS-photo/Shutterstock House prices continued to rise across Australia in June, recent data shows. Nationally, prices have risen about 38% in the past five years. Higher housing prices are simply one contributor, albeit a very important one, to the

    Can’t work out without music? Neither could the ancient Greeks and Romans
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA These days when you see people exercising, they’re usually also listening to music, whether they’re at the gym, or out jogging on the street. It makes sense, as studies have

    The Bradbury Group features Palestinian journalist Yousef Aljamal, Middle East report and political panel
    Asia Pacific Report In the new weekly political podcast, The Bradbury Group, last night presenter Martyn Bradbury talked with visiting Palestinian journalist Dr Yousef Aljamal. They assess the current situation in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and what New Zealand should be doing. As Bradbury, publisher of The Daily Blog, notes, “Fourth Estate public broadcasting

    Author David Robie tells of outrage over sinking of the Rainbow Warrior 40 years ago
    RNZ News Nights Tomorrow marks 40 years since the bombing and sinking of the Rainbow Warrior — a moment that changed the course of New Zealand’s history and reshaped how we saw ourselves on the world stage. Two French agents planted two explosives on the ship, then just before midnight, explosions ripped through the hull

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse being dragged into a potential conflict with China over Taiwan

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

    Andy. LIU/Shutterstock

    The United States can count on Australia as one of its closest allies.

    Dating back to the shared experiences in the second world war and the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951, Australia has steadfastly worked to help ensure the US remains the principal security guarantor in the Indo-Pacific.

    Australia’s track record speaks for itself. Yet additional demands are being placed that rankle.

    The Pentagon wants to know how Australia – and other allies such as Japan – would respond in the event of a war with China over Taiwan.

    Making these demands – which are being sought as part of the review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement – is both unjustified and unreasonable.

    ‘100 years of mateship’

    Since federation in 1901, Australians have found themselves alongside US counterparts in almost all the major conflicts of the 20th century and beyond.

    It is this shared experience that led former Ambassador to Washington, Joe Hockey, to coin the term “100 years of mateship”.

    The pinnacle of the security relationship is the ANZUS Treaty which is a loosely worded document barely 800 words long.

    However, it is important to remember AUKUS is just that – a technical agreement, albeit premised on the century-spanning trusted collaboration across the full spectrum of national security ties.

    Goldilocks solution

    More recently, the US administration has made demands of allies, including Australia, the likes of which have not been seen in living memory.

    This spans not just tariffs, but also increased defence spending. American policymakers appear oblivious or unconcerned about the blowback they are generating.

    It is this context which makes the US demands for a broad-ranging and largely open-ended commitment over the defence of Taiwan, in advance of any conflict, so extraordinary and unhelpful.

    Under-secretary of defence for policy Elbridge Colby who wants a clear sense of how Australia would act in a potential war over Taiwan.
    Supplied by US Department of Defence, CC BY

    Australia has long had a fear of abandonment. Ever since the searing experience of the fall of Singapore in 1942, officials have been eager to burnish ties with US counterparts. Conversely, there has always been a strong element in the community that has feared entrapment in yet another US-led war in Asia.

    The experience in the Korean and Vietnam wars, let alone Afghanistan and Iraq, left many guarded about the efficacy of hitching the wagon to US-led military campaigns.

    In essence, though, Australian policymakers have long sought the Goldilocks solution: not too enthusiastic to trigger entrapment and not too lukewarm to trigger abandonment.

    No guarantees

    Now Australia, Japan and others face a surprising new push by American officials for a commitment to a hypothetical conflict, under open-ended circumstances.

    The irony is that American demands for a commitment fly in the face of the loosely worded ANZUS alliance – which stipulates an agreement to consult, but little more than that.

    The AUKUS agreement includes no such guarantees either. The overt and confronting nature of Washington’s demands means Prime Minister Anthony Albanese effectively has no option but to push back:

    We support the status quo when it comes to Taiwan. We don’t support any unilateral action […] we want peace and security in our region.

    Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy was adamant Australia would not be committing forces ahead of any “hypothetical” conflict:

    The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance, but by the government of the day.

    A further irony is Australia, like Japan, is already hugely invested in its US military relationship, particularly through its military technology.

    The purchase of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, for instance, was meant to help enable the generation of interoperable forces, yet no such demand has been made when it comes to an advance commitment over their use in support of US ambitions.

    So why invoke AUKUS in such a way?

    Evidently, the way the US is trying to stand over Japan and Australia is harmful to its own interests. Such adversarial and unduly transactional behaviour could provoke a popular backlash in Australia and elsewhere.

    The government has rightly rebuffed the calls saying it would be up to the government of the day to make such a decision. It is likely this will not be well received by the Trump administration. The PM is right though, to say it’s hypothetical and not worthy of a public endorsement.

    Strategic ambiguity

    Yet a further irony is that this is mostly a moot point.

    The key benefit of alliance collaboration is already in place – and that relates to the efforts to deter China from ever acting on its desire to change the status quo in the first place.

    As former PM and now ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd explained in his book, The Avoidable War, geo-political disaster is still avoidable, particularly if the US and China can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through managed strategic competition.

    This strategic ambiguity is meant to complicate a potential adversary’s military planners and political decision makers’ thought processes over the advantages and disadvantages of going to war.

    China already knows a clash over Taiwan would mean US allies like Japan and Australia would find it virtually impossible to avoid being entangled. The strategic ambiguity can be maintained ad infinitum, so long as an outright invasion is averted.

    And the likelihood of conflict over Taiwan? I remain sanguine that conflict can be avoided.

    But to do so would involve clear and compelling messaging: both through diplomatic channels and through the demonstration of robust military capabilities that war would be too costly.

    John Blaxland received funding (2015–2018) from the US DoD Minerva Research Initiative.

    – ref. Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse being dragged into a potential conflict with China over Taiwan – https://theconversation.com/washingtons-war-demands-australia-right-to-refuse-being-dragged-into-a-potential-conflict-with-china-over-taiwan-261076

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse being dragged into a potential conflict with China over Taiwan

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

    Andy. LIU/Shutterstock

    The United States can count on Australia as one of its closest allies.

    Dating back to the shared experiences in the second world war and the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951, Australia has steadfastly worked to help ensure the US remains the principal security guarantor in the Indo-Pacific.

    Australia’s track record speaks for itself. Yet additional demands are being placed that rankle.

    The Pentagon wants to know how Australia – and other allies such as Japan – would respond in the event of a war with China over Taiwan.

    Making these demands – which are being sought as part of the review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement – is both unjustified and unreasonable.

    ‘100 years of mateship’

    Since federation in 1901, Australians have found themselves alongside US counterparts in almost all the major conflicts of the 20th century and beyond.

    It is this shared experience that led former Ambassador to Washington, Joe Hockey, to coin the term “100 years of mateship”.

    The pinnacle of the security relationship is the ANZUS Treaty which is a loosely worded document barely 800 words long.

    However, it is important to remember AUKUS is just that – a technical agreement, albeit premised on the century-spanning trusted collaboration across the full spectrum of national security ties.

    Goldilocks solution

    More recently, the US administration has made demands of allies, including Australia, the likes of which have not been seen in living memory.

    This spans not just tariffs, but also increased defence spending. American policymakers appear oblivious or unconcerned about the blowback they are generating.

    It is this context which makes the US demands for a broad-ranging and largely open-ended commitment over the defence of Taiwan, in advance of any conflict, so extraordinary and unhelpful.

    Under-secretary of defence for policy Elbridge Colby who wants a clear sense of how Australia would act in a potential war over Taiwan.
    Supplied by US Department of Defence, CC BY

    Australia has long had a fear of abandonment. Ever since the searing experience of the fall of Singapore in 1942, officials have been eager to burnish ties with US counterparts. Conversely, there has always been a strong element in the community that has feared entrapment in yet another US-led war in Asia.

    The experience in the Korean and Vietnam wars, let alone Afghanistan and Iraq, left many guarded about the efficacy of hitching the wagon to US-led military campaigns.

    In essence, though, Australian policymakers have long sought the Goldilocks solution: not too enthusiastic to trigger entrapment and not too lukewarm to trigger abandonment.

    No guarantees

    Now Australia, Japan and others face a surprising new push by American officials for a commitment to a hypothetical conflict, under open-ended circumstances.

    The irony is that American demands for a commitment fly in the face of the loosely worded ANZUS alliance – which stipulates an agreement to consult, but little more than that.

    The AUKUS agreement includes no such guarantees either. The overt and confronting nature of Washington’s demands means Prime Minister Anthony Albanese effectively has no option but to push back:

    We support the status quo when it comes to Taiwan. We don’t support any unilateral action […] we want peace and security in our region.

    Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy was adamant Australia would not be committing forces ahead of any “hypothetical” conflict:

    The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance, but by the government of the day.

    A further irony is Australia, like Japan, is already hugely invested in its US military relationship, particularly through its military technology.

    The purchase of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, for instance, was meant to help enable the generation of interoperable forces, yet no such demand has been made when it comes to an advance commitment over their use in support of US ambitions.

    So why invoke AUKUS in such a way?

    Evidently, the way the US is trying to stand over Japan and Australia is harmful to its own interests. Such adversarial and unduly transactional behaviour could provoke a popular backlash in Australia and elsewhere.

    The government has rightly rebuffed the calls saying it would be up to the government of the day to make such a decision. It is likely this will not be well received by the Trump administration. The PM is right though, to say it’s hypothetical and not worthy of a public endorsement.

    Strategic ambiguity

    Yet a further irony is that this is mostly a moot point.

    The key benefit of alliance collaboration is already in place – and that relates to the efforts to deter China from ever acting on its desire to change the status quo in the first place.

    As former PM and now ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd explained in his book, The Avoidable War, geo-political disaster is still avoidable, particularly if the US and China can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through managed strategic competition.

    This strategic ambiguity is meant to complicate a potential adversary’s military planners and political decision makers’ thought processes over the advantages and disadvantages of going to war.

    China already knows a clash over Taiwan would mean US allies like Japan and Australia would find it virtually impossible to avoid being entangled. The strategic ambiguity can be maintained ad infinitum, so long as an outright invasion is averted.

    And the likelihood of conflict over Taiwan? I remain sanguine that conflict can be avoided.

    But to do so would involve clear and compelling messaging: both through diplomatic channels and through the demonstration of robust military capabilities that war would be too costly.

    John Blaxland received funding (2015–2018) from the US DoD Minerva Research Initiative.

    – ref. Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse being dragged into a potential conflict with China over Taiwan – https://theconversation.com/washingtons-war-demands-australia-right-to-refuse-being-dragged-into-a-potential-conflict-with-china-over-taiwan-261076

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: Equipment manufacturers driving trade growth

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    A drone photo shows the shipbuilding site of the subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on March 20. [Photo/Xinhua]

    In early July, a shipyard along the Yangtze River in Jiangyin, East China’s Jiangsu province, was humming with the sounds of welding and hammering.

    In one berth, work on an oil tanker was nearing completion, while a hospital ship was undergoing a major retrofit. A little distance away, dry docks were operating at full throttle.

    CSSC Chengxi Shipyard Co, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp, saw its export value surge by more than 28 percent year-on-year in the first five months. With orders lined up through 2028 and a growing appetite for high-tech vessels, this shipyard is powering full steam ahead.

    “We are steering toward transformation,” said Yang Haibo, the shipyard’s assistant president. “Take the 41,800-ton self-unloading vessel we built last year; its value hit $96 million, triple that of a conventional bulk carrier. We just secured an overseas order to build a 44,000-ton self-discharger in May.”

    As global demand shifts, Yang said Chinese shipyards are embracing greener and smarter solutions to remain competitive, including ramping up investment in next-generation shipbuilding technologies.

    Much like China’s new energy vehicle, industrial robot and energy storage sectors, the shipbuilding industry exemplifies how domestic manufacturers are adopting innovation and green development to rise above the challenges posed by unilateralism and geoeconomic fragmentation.

    In the process, they are playing a vital role in supporting the country’s foreign trade and industrial upgrade.

    As a high value-added sector, the equipment manufacturing industry has become a key driver of China’s export restructuring.

    The country’s exports of equipment manufacturing products amounted to 6.22 trillion yuan ($853.3 billion) between January and May, up 9.2 percent year-on-year, accounting for 58.3 percent of the country’s total exports, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

    Meanwhile, China’s exports of electric vehicles grew by 19 percent year-on-year, construction machinery by 10.7 percent, ships by 18.9 percent and industrial robots by an impressive 55.4 percent.

    Equipment manufacturing accounted for 73 percent of China’s export growth in the first five months, with the contribution rising to 76.9 percent in May alone, providing strong support for the steady growth of foreign trade, said Lyu Daliang, director-general of the administration’s department of statistics and analysis.

    The ongoing upgrade of China’s equipment manufacturing industry is not only fueling the growth of domestic manufacturers, but also delivering energy-efficient, high-tech and competitively priced products to its trading partners, said Chen Jianwei, a researcher at the University of International Business and Economics’ Academy of China Open Economy Studies in Beijing.

    This progress is accelerating the digital and green advancement of developed economies, while also supporting industrialization and urbanization in many developing and emerging markets, contributing to more balanced global development and long-term sustainability, said Chen.

    Among the key drivers of this momentum, industrial robots have rapidly become a standout export category. These multijoint robotic arms and other advanced robotic systems are widely used in sectors such as automotives, electronics, chemicals and consumer goods.

    As China’s production capabilities in this field continue to advance, a growing number of industrial robots are being exported to markets such as Thailand, Germany, the United States and the United Arab Emirates — underscoring the global appeal of the nation’s smart manufacturing solutions.

    At AgileX Robotics, a robotic arm manufacturer in Dongguan, Guangdong province, workers were busy packing robotic arms in late June. This batch of products, designed for data collection, plays a key role in the development and training of humanoid robots, and has gained strong traction in overseas markets.

    “We really can’t ship fast enough and demand is overwhelming. Our exports this year are expected to rise by 70 to 80 percent compared with 2024,” said Chen Peng, the company’s marketing director.

    Chen said that orders from overseas research institutions, particularly in the artificial intelligence field, are growing the fastest. These clients often require rapid delivery due to time-sensitive needs.

    This growth is not merely the success of a single robot manufacturer. Rather, it reflects a broader trend in Dongguan.

    The city’s exports of industrial robots, including industrial robotic arms, handling and welding robots, and robots with other functions, exceeded 190 million yuan during the January-May period, representing a year-on-year increase of 116.4 percent, data from Huangpu Customs showed.

    From an industrial chain perspective, China’s industrial robot sector has seen significant advancements over the past decade, especially in core components such as reducers, servo motors, controllers and control units, said Lei Lei, deputy secretary-general of the robotics branch of the Beijing-based China Machinery Industry Federation.

    Lei said Chinese industrial robot manufacturers are evolving their export models as they expand globally. This shift is already playing out among many companies in the sector.

    Xu Hongchun, vice-president of Suzhou JiBOT Technology Co, a Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based manufacturer of collaborative robotic arms and mobile robot platforms, said the company has already shifted toward providing customized end-to-end solutions for overseas factories and warehouses.

    “Our material handling robots are primarily used in the new energy and electronic semiconductor sectors,” said Xu. “Currently, more than 70 percent of our exports in this category include solution-based packages.”

    The Chinese company achieves this by integrating data from various robots into a centralized control system. A smart dispatching platform enables real-time coordination, allowing multiple robots to operate efficiently across different zones and meet the specific needs of its foreign clients.

    While industrial robots and intelligent automation are shifting manufacturing and logistics, traditional heavy industries are also embracing innovation and seizing more market opportunities across the world.

    In sectors such as mining and construction, Chinese companies are combining durable engineering with localization strategies to meet the needs of emerging markets.

    Sany Heavy Equipment Co, a mining and construction machinery manufacturer based in Shenyang, Liaoning province, has been actively expanding its presence in the African market. Its wide-body dump trucks, electric-powered dumpers and engineering excavators are widely used in countries including South Africa, Ghana, Angola and Zambia.

    “Africa is rich in mineral resources and has significant demand for mining machinery. Our mining equipment is built to withstand harsh operating conditions and is well-suited for the complex terrains found in mining areas,” said Sun Bo, head of the company’s sales unit.

    Sun said that Sany Heavy Equipment Co’s mining dump trucks have significantly improved operational efficiency and earned high praise from clients in countries such as Eritrea and Mozambique in recent years.

    The company’s exports amounted to 1.44 billion yuan in the first half, while its exports to Africa surged 230 percent year-on-year to 330 million yuan, the latest data from Shenyang Customs showed.

    Experts said the continued rise of China’s equipment manufacturing exports reflects both industrial progress and the country’s deeper integration into global supply chains.

    Zhao Ping, head of the academy of the Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that China is no longer just a source of affordable goods. It is increasingly a provider of complex, high-value equipment that meets the needs of developed and emerging markets alike.

    Zhao said that the combination of strong research and development capabilities, digitalized manufacturing processes and mature supply chains has enabled Chinese manufacturers to evolve from volume-driven to value-driven exports.

    “This transformation not only enhances China’s competitiveness, but also contributes to global industrial development and technological diffusion,” said Ji Xuehong, a professor at the School of Economics and Management at Beijing-based North China University of Technology.

    In the face of a complex and volatile external environment, China will steadfastly expand its high-standard opening-up and address the uncertainty of drastic changes in the external environment with the certainty of its own high-quality development, said Xiao Lu, deputy director-general of the department of foreign trade at the Ministry of Commerce.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Openness, fair competition power China’s unified national market

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    A drone photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows an electric vertical take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft performing flight demonstration at Luogang Park in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province. (Xinhua/Zhou Mu)

    At Hefei’s urban air mobility hub, the rotor blades of an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft hum to life before it glides smoothly into the summer sky.

    Known as a “flying taxi,” this innovative vehicle is operated by Hefei Heyi Aviation Co., which in March became one of China’s first companies to receive an operating certificate for passenger-grade civil unmanned aircraft.

    “Chinese companies have long been capable of designing and building these aircraft, but operating them was challenging due to regulatory restrictions,” said Li Xiaona, general manager of the company in east China’s Anhui Province.

    Following the breakthrough in airworthiness certification, the commercialization of passenger-grade unmanned aircraft in China has accelerated, with government agencies working closely with industry bodies to set clear standards and define responsibilities.

    By clearly defining “how to enter” and “how to regulate,” China’s low-altitude economy has hit the fast-forward button. Data show that over 80,000 companies are now operating nationwide, with the market continuing to expand rapidly.

    This exemplifies the Chinese government’s efforts to streamline administrative approvals and boost market vitality. China’s vast and rapidly growing market provides a crucial advantage and a stable foundation amid global uncertainties. To drive high-quality growth and establish a new development model, building a unified national market is vital, and government authorities nationwide are stepping up efforts to make this vision a reality.

    Beyond aviation, China has steadily enhanced its market access regulations, opening more sectors to private and foreign investment, thereby driving innovation and fostering competition.

    In April, the country released a new edition of its national market access negative list, cutting the number of restricted items to 106 from 151 in 2018, a move designed to provide businesses with clearer expectations and greater certainty.

    With market entry barriers lowered, private and foreign businesses are discovering fresh opportunities across various sectors.

    In Beijing, Minospace recently secured an 804 million yuan (about 112 million U.S. dollars) contract to develop and launch a network of 10 remote-sensing microsatellites. For a privately owned company founded in 2017, the scale of this order is especially significant, underscoring how private players are becoming more deeply involved in driving growth in China’s aerospace sector.

    In February, China approved 13 foreign companies to operate pilot value-added telecommunications services. In May, Hong Kong Cell Valley launched operations in Shenzhen under a new Guangdong pilot program that permits overseas investors to develop and apply technologies related to human stem cells, as well as gene diagnosis and treatment.

    Guo Liyan, deputy head of the Economic Research Institute at the National Development and Reform Commission, said that alongside the streamlining of the negative list, reforms in approvals, registration and supervision are progressing simultaneously to ensure a level playing field for all businesses.

    In south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local authorities have removed discriminatory licensing restrictions in the shared e-bike sector, opening the market to more brands. Meanwhile, in Wuhan, capital city of central Hubei Province, automakers and suppliers have formed an industry alliance to develop automotive-grade chips, fostering greater collaboration across the supply chain.

    Similar efforts to eliminate market entry barriers have increased bidding success rates of private firms and fostered the growth of new business models, emerging industries and innovative application scenarios.

    Government authorities across the country have also been working to improve infrastructure connectivity, strengthen industrial coordination and enhance data sharing, building a more standardized and fair market environment to support stronger business capabilities and unlock the full potential of the national market.

    “A large market does not automatically generate scale effects. Reforms are essential to consolidate and expand market resources and create synergy between large factories and a unified market,” said Dong Yu, executive vice dean of the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University.

    Going ahead, China is expected to implement more robust measures to refine market access rules and enhance the business environment, developing a unified national market where innovation will thrive and growth momentum can be further unleashed. 

    MIL OSI China News –