Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme Amendment C263gben, which applies to Marong, has come into effect following Minister for Planning approval.
Amendment C263gben implements the Marong Township Structure Plan 2020 (re-adopted in 2024), the Marong Flood Study 2018 (North Central Catchment Authority) and the Marong Heritage Citations (Minerva Heritage).
The land affected is within and adjacent to the township of Marong and the amendment changes zones and overlays to land in the Marong township. Specifically, the amendment:
Rezones land within the Marong township from Township Zone to Neighbourhood Residential Zone Schedule 3 and Mixed-use Zone Schedule 3
Expands Commercial 1 Zoning and updates floor area maximums
Applies new overlays to guide development, character and bushfire protection
Applies the Heritage Overlay to 8 new places including statements of significance for each
Implements the Marong Flood Study, along with new Local Flood Development Plan by introducing the Floodway Overlay and the Land Subject to Inundation Overlay
Identifies new residential growth areas for future rezoning to accommodate a population of approximately 8,000 people
The amendment process and approval were in accordance with the Planning and Environment Act 1987. The Amendment was considered by an independent panel, and recommendations were supported by Council. The Minister for Planning has the final say and made some changes to the amendment before approving it.
Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf welcomed the approval of the Amendment as an important step for guiding Marong’s future development.
“Marong is expected to grow over the next 25 years with an estimated population of 8,000 people and this Planning Scheme Amendment implements the Marong Township Structure Plan. The Amendment supports creating a compact, well-planned township with a vibrant town centre,” Cr Metcalf said.
“The completion of this Amendment allows the consideration of new rezoning applications in the Marong growth areas and complements the Bendigo Regional Employment Precinct project.”
The approved Amendment C263gben is the first in a series of planning scheme amendments to support the future growth of Marong. Other projects currently underway include:
The preparation of a Shared Infrastructure Contributions Plan for Marong
Planning for the Bendigo Regional Employment Precinct by the Victorian Planning Authority
Planning for the Marong Western Freight Corridor by the Department of Transport and Planning – Transport
The rezoning of the residential growth precincts in accordance with the City’s Private Planning Scheme Amendment Policy
The Marong Township Structure Plan was originally adopted in September 2020. The Amendment C263gben was exhibited for six weeks from May to July 2023, and the independent planning panel hearing was held in February 2024. Council adopted C263gben in June 2024. The Minister for Planning approved with changes and gazetted the Amendment on May 29, 2025.
As thousands of people descend on Hobart for the Dark Mofo festival, Tasmania Police is urging pedestrians and motorists to prioritise safety, particularly during the darker hours of the event. Tasmania’s popular Dark Mofo winter festival is back with a full program of events in Hobart including the opening night of the Winter Feast, on Castray Esplanade, on Thursday. There will be road closures and traffic disruptions across the Hobart CBD during the two-week festival, with further information available at www.darkmofo.net.au/info/road-closures While it is an amazing time of the year for locals, and our interstate and international visitors, police are urging everyone to enjoy it safely and responsibly. “Pedestrians are among our most vulnerable road users, especially during busy events such as Dark Mofo,” Hobart Police Inspector John Toohey said. “This year already, three pedestrians have died on Tasmanian roads, with a further 14 seriously injured. “We’re asking everyone to stay alert, avoid distractions such as phones or headphones, and only cross at designated crossings. “With many festival events taking place at night and in low-light conditions, we’re hoping to see responsible behaviour, that is, people looking out for each other, obeying traffic signals and being visible in the dark.” Supporting Inspector Toohey, Tasmania Police State Road Safety Co-ordinator Inspector Justin Lawson urged motorists and pedestrians to take extra care in Hobart’s city and waterfront precincts. “Our message is, we are just as excited as you that Dark Mofo is back,” Inspector Lawson said. “And while savouring all that is on offer in our city, please be mindful of each other’s safety on our streets and footpaths. “With thousands anticipated to move between different venues, there will be a marked increase in pedestrian and vehicle traffic. “Please cross the road only when safe and if driving, be alert to festival-goers on foot.”
CAPTION: Tasmania Police officers (from left) Constable Scott Hill, Constable Erin McNamara, Constable Tess Allanby and Constable Aaron Eaton urge locals and visitors to Hobart to enjoy the Dark Mofo festival safely. Picture: Tasmania Police
Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matthew England, Scientia Professor and Deputy Director of the ARC Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, UNSW Sydney
Westend61/Getty Images
In June 2023, a record-breaking marine heatwave swept across the North Atlantic Ocean, smashing previous temperature records.
It wasn’t just Europe that was impacted. The coral reefs of the Caribbean were bleaching under severe heat stress. And hurricanes, fuelled by ocean heat, intensified into disasters. For example, Hurricane Idalia hit Florida in August 2023 – causing 12 deaths and an estimated US$3.6 billion in damages.
This so-called “cold blob” or “warming hole” has been linked to the weakening of what’s known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation – a system of ocean currents that conveys warm water from the equator towards the poles.
During July 2023 we met as a team to analyse this cold blob – how deep it reaches and how robust it is as a measure of the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation – when it became clear there was a strong reversal of the historical cooling trend. The cold blob had warmed to 2°C above average.
But was that a sign the overturning circulation had been reinvigorated? Or was something else going on?
A layered story
It soon became clear the anomalous warm temperatures southeast of Greenland were part of an unprecedented marine heatwave that had developed across much of the North Atlantic Ocean. By July, basin-averaged warming in the North Atlantic reached 1.4°C above normal, almost double the previous record set in 2010.
To uncover what was behind these record breaking temperatures, we combined estimates of the atmospheric conditions that prevailed during the heatwave, such as winds and cloud cover, with ocean observations and model simulations.
We were especially interested in understanding what was happening in the mixed upper layer of water of the ocean, which is strongly affected by the atmosphere.
Distinct from the deeper layer of cold water, the ocean’s surface mixed layer warms as it’s exposed to more sunlight during spring and summer. But the rate at which this warming happens depends on its thickness. If it’s thick, it will warm more gradually; if it’s thin, rapid warming can ensue.
During summer the thickness of this surface mixed layer is largely set by winds. Winds churn up the surface ocean and the stronger they are the deeper the mixing penetrates, so strong winds create a think upper layer and weak winds generate a shallower layer.
Our new research indicates that the primary driver of the marine heatwave was record-breaking weak winds across much of the basin. The winds were at their weakest measured levels during June and July, possibly linked to a developing El Niño in the east Pacific Ocean.
This led to by far the shallowest upper layer on record. Data from the Argo Program – a global array of nearly 4,000 robotic floats that measure the temperature and salinity in the upper 2,000 metres of the ocean – showed in some areas this layer was only ten metres deep, compared to the usual 20 to 40 metres deep.
This caused the sun to heat the thin surface layer far more rapidly than usual.
In addition to these short term changes in 2023, previous research has shown long-term warming associated with anthropogenic climate change is reducing the ability of winds to mix the upper ocean, causing it to gradually thin.
We also identified a possible secondary driver of more localised warming during the 2023 marine heatwave: above-average solar radiation hitting the ocean. This could be linked in part with the introduction of new international rules in 2020 to reduce sulfate emissions from ships.
The aim of these rules was to reduce air pollution from ship’s exhaust systems. But sulfate aerosols also reflect solar radiation and can lead to cloud formation. The resultant clearer skies can then lead to more ocean warming.
Early warning signs
The extreme 2023 heatwave provides a preview of the future. Marine heatwaves are expected to worsen as Earth continues to warm due to greenhouse gas emissions, with devastating impacts on marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and fisheries. This also means more intense hurricanes – and more intense land-based heatwaves.
To better understand, forecast and plan for the impacts of marine heatwaves, long-term ocean and atmospheric data and models, including those provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States, are crucial. In fact, without these data and models, our new study would not have been possible.
Despite this, NOAA faces an uncertain future. A proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year released by the White House last month could mean devastating funding cuts of more than US$1.5 billion – mostly targeting climate-based research and data collection.
This would be a disaster for monitoring our oceans and climate system, right at a time when change is severe, unprecedented, and proving very costly.
Matthew England receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Alex Sen Gupta receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Andrew Kiss receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Zhi Li receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Pinochet and Rauff? They were alike. Each had two faces. One gentle, the other hard. They were joined.
And they both got away with it … Sort of.
Philippe Sands loves to tell stories. A master of historical non-fiction, he has become known for his unique blend of deeply personal, legal and historical narratives, which weave together incredible coincidences with moving stories of human courage in the face of mass atrocities and horror.
Sands is a leading practitioner of international law, a professor at University College London, an author, a playwright, and the recipient of numerous literary awards. He is also someone whose family was murdered in the vortex of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
If it weren’t based on facts, one might think it was a brilliantly crafted thriller.
Review: 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia – Philippe Sands (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
38 Londres Street weaves together several narratives, but at its heart is the story of the legal attempts to end impunity for two accused criminals. One is Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The other is Walther Rauff, a former SS officer who fled to South America and allegedly worked with Pinochet’s Secret Intelligence Service.
Sands brings these two men into a single narrative to highlight the legal struggle against impunity for mass atrocities, though he never loses sight of the victims and their human stories of suffering, courage and persistence.
These were people whose lives were abruptly and violently taken. Sands includes many of their names and tragic fates in his book. He informs his readers that the Cementerio Sara Braun in Punta Arenas, Chile, has a memorial bearing the names of Pinochet’s many victims. He clearly wants these individuals never to be forgotten.
Universal jurisdiction and the Pinochet precedent
The building at 38 Londres Street in Santiago was once a site of pain. At this secret interrogation centre, one of many across Santiago and the rest of Chile, Pinochet’s agents imprisoned, tortured, executed and disappeared tens of thousands of people deemed leftists, socialists, communists or “other undesirables”.
Pinochet came to power on September 11, 1973, overthrowing the democratically elected socialist government of President Salvador Allende in a military coup. He would rule Chile with an iron fist until 1990.
Chile’s youth became the targets of his murderous regime. Sands notes that most victims were between 21 and 30 years old. The majority of them were workers; the rest mainly comprised academics, professionals and students. The atrocities were committed with impunity.
Like all dictators, Pinochet believed himself untouchable. But in October 1998, while visiting the UK, he was arrested in London. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón was seeking Pinochet’s extradition to Spain in order to try him for human rights abuses.
Garzón was acting under the then-controversial legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts in one country to prosecute grave human rights violations committed outside its borders, regardless of the nationality of the accused.
Never before had a former head of state of one country been arrested by, and in another, for committing international crimes.
Sands would become involved in one of the most famous cases in international law since the Nuremberg trials more than 50 years earlier. Pinochet’s lawyers offered him an opportunity to participate in the case, arguing for the former dictator’s immunity as a former head of state. His wife threatened to divorce him if he accepted.
He declined the offer. Instead, Sands represented Human Rights Watch when the Pinochet case was considered by the Law Lords.
Pinochet had been indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide. At issue was the question of whether Pinochet, as a former head of state, had immunity before the English courts for acts committed in another country while he was in office. Should there be a legal protection for former dictators?
The proceedings in London were novel and remarkable, writes Sands, because this was an open legal question when Pinochet was arrested. His arrest raised an unprecedented issue: was there an exception to the rule of immunity for a former head of state when a crime in international law was involved? And did the exception apply before a national court, rather than an international one?
Many believed Pinochet’s immunity should be lifted and extradition proceedings should go ahead, so that he could answer for the deaths of Spanish nationals and others. If that did not happen, it was argued, the travesty of justice would signal that any dictator could get away with genocide. As Sands writes, immunity and impunity often go hand in hand.
In this landmark case, Pinochet was stripped of the immunity from prosecution he had enjoyed as a former president. He was ordered to stand trial on charges of human rights abuses.
For the next 16 months, he remained in the UK, awaiting extradition to Spain. But it never happened. The initial judgement on immunity was quashed, due to concerns about possible bias of one of the judges. The case returned to square one. New hearings took place.
In January 2000, the UK eventually decided not to proceed with extradition, claiming that Pinochet was too ill to stand trial and that “it would not be fair”. He was allowed to return to Chile as a free man, thanks to medical doctors rather than lawyers.
Political leaders in Europe generally welcomed the ruling. Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister and Pinochet’s longstanding ally, was adamant that the lengthy legal wrangle had been a waste of public money. Seemingly agitated, she said in front of the cameras:
Senator Pinochet was a staunch friend of Britain throughout the Falklands War. His reward from this government was to be held prisoner for 16 months. In the meantime, his health has been broken, his reputation tarnished, and vast funds of public money have been squandered on a political vendetta.
Subsequent attempts to prosecute Pinochet in Chile were unsuccessful. He died in 2006 at the age of 91, without ever being tried for the human rights abuses that occurred while he was in power. Retributive justice, in the end, was not served. But Pinochet’s case opened the gates for efforts to bring other former and serving heads of state to justice.
Today, the 38 Londres Street serves as a place of national memory where visitors can walk through its halls and learn about its dark past.
The Nazi who invented the gas chambers
Running parallel with Pinochet’s story is that of Nazi fugitive Walther Rauff.
Rauff invented the mobile gas chambers that were precursors to the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps. At the end of the second world war, he escaped to South America, settling in Chile. Germany made numerous attempts to have Rauff extradited to face charges, but the Chilean government refused these demands. He spent his days in the backwaters of Patagonia, running a king-crab cannery business.
Sands travels to Patagonia and meets people who remember Rauff, whose identity seems to have been common knowledge among his neighbours and co-workers: “everyone knew rumours and stories of his past”; they knew about “the gas vans” and that he “once killed many people”. But no one seemed to be bothered. They describe Rauff as “cultivated and kind”. To many of Sands’ interlocutors, the stories about Rauff “were long ago and far away”.
While dealing with the failed attempts for his extradition, Rauff put his energies into “harvesting crabs, making sure the tins were packed tight, [and] managing the workers”. He continued to do so, enjoying the company of his dog Bobby, when Pinochet became Chile’s new leader.
Pinochet was an old friend. Sands records that the two men met in the 1950s in Quito, Ecuador, where Rauff was staying, having fled an Italian prison camp at the end of the war. The men shared a contempt for communism and an affinity for German culture. Pinochet encouraged Rauff to move to Chile.
Rauff delighted in Pinochet’s murderous regime. Sands tell us that Pinochet used Rauff’s “expertise” to help with the murder and disappearance of thousands of people. But the controversy over whether Rauff worked for the Chilean military, becoming “chief advisor” to its intelligence services, or perhaps even its “head”, remains unresolved. Definitive and provable evidence about the assistance Rauff may have given to Pinochet was never obtained.
Holding dictators to account
One of the many coincidences Sands stumbles upon is that Rauff lived in Punta Arenas in southern Chile on a street called “Jugoslavija”, named after the country where I was born, which disintegrated in the 1990s in a brutal civil war marked by mass atrocities and genocide.
Milošević was extradited to The Hague in 2001 after he was indicted for war crimes committed in Kosovo and Croatia, and for genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina following an order from the Serbian government. His trial is widely hailed as a landmark moment in the development of international criminal law, though he died in his cell before his trial ended, dying “innocent” like his counterparts Pinochet and Rauff.
In 38 Londres Street, Sands brings to light the behind-the-scenes struggles to hold Pinochet and Rauff accountable. The book explores the intricacies and politics of international law. Despite its bitter ending, Pinochet’s case remains one of the most far reaching and important in the field of human rights. It caused other countries to reflect on their own legal immunities.
As a researcher and academic, I found the book significant because it also offers insight into what it takes to conduct such expansive archival and qualitative research. Over several years, “in between work and life”, Sands travels to different corners of the globe and speaks to informants from all walks of life, including descendants of the perpetrators. He visits the sites of the events he recounts, most of them places marked by pain. He seeks to see and feel a past that still lingers.
His method requires stamina, passion and unwavering diligence. His strong commitment to neutrality, decency and impartiality makes him stand out not only as a highly skilled writer, but a survivor who continues to unpack and share the legacy of the Holocaust. There is much to respect and learn from in Sands’ account, not least about the intricacies of writing a compelling story.
Holding dictators to account is hard. Pinochet and Rauff deprived victims of the retributive justice they needed and deserved. Yet justice and reparations have many different meanings. They can be symbolic too, and still profoundly meaningful to victims. As one of the survivors of Pinochet’s regime replied to Sands when asked whether he believed his case was one of total impunity: “Not quite total […] Dawson [an island detention camp] has been recognised as a site of national memory, a protected monument, and that means something.”
Pinochet and Rauff were never convicted, but they were not free. Pinochet spent years under house arrest, bitter and devastated, unable to walk the streets. Rauff lived in constant fear of being arrested and extradited. They were both haunted. This, after all, may have brought some satisfaction to the victims.
Sands was once asked: “Do you believe in justice?” He replied: “Sort of.” Sands comes to understand that justice is “uneven in its delivery”. He has learned “to tamper expectations”. Maybe we all need to learn that skill from him too. Ultimately, justice remains a work-in-progress, just like the process of learning from a dark past.
Olivera Simic 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.
On Friday, Taylor Swift announced she now owns all the music she has ever made. This reported US$360 million acquisition includes all the master recordings to her first six albums, music videos, concert films, album art, photos and unreleased material.
The purchase of this catalogue from private equity firm Shamrock Capital is a profoundly happy event for Swift. She has expressed how personal and difficult it was not to own these works.
In her announcement, Swift acknowledged that it was due to her fans purchasing her rerecorded music (known as “Taylor’s Version”) and the financial success of the record-breaking Eras Tour which enabled this purchase.
When it comes to valuing a music catalogue, it largely comes down to two types of rights: master rights and publishing rights.
Master rights are rights pertaining to the ownership of the actual sound recordings – the final recorded version. These are called “masters” because they’re the original source from which all copies are made.
Under traditional music industry contracts, record labels usually hold ownership of masters and associated materials. This can be music videos, tour videos, unreleased works, photographs and album covers.
Through licensing, the label controls the use of this material and retains the majority of the royalties. In return, the label provides the artist with financial backing, recording resources and marketing.
Publishing rights, on the other hand, relate to the underlying composition – the music and lyrics. The rights to music publishing usually belong to the songwriter, regardless of who performs the song.
Publishing rights govern how a song can be used and who earns royalties from that use. For example, a song may be played on a streaming platform, covered in a live performance or licensed for a commercial or film.
The agreed contractual terms were typical of the music industry. In exchange for the financial support to make, record and promote her subsequent albums and tours, Big Machine held the rights to Swift’s master recordings and associated materials in her first six albums. Her relationship with the label lasted 13 years.
As a songwriter, Swift retained separate publishing rights to her songs (the music and lyrics) from her first six albums, which she licensed through Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
In 2018, Swift was reportedly offered to re-sign with Big Machine, in a deal which would involve her “earning” the rights to one original album for each new one she produced.
Swift did not renew her contract and moved to Republic Records (Universal Music Group), who allow her to own her masters. She also moved to Universal Music Publishing Group for her music publishing.
Subsequent sales
In June 2019, Big Machine’s catalogue was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, for a reported US$330 million, with US$140 million representing Swift’s catalogue.
Swift described this as her “worst case scenario”, as she had a tumultuous history of alleged bullying from Braun. She also alleged she found out about the acquisition at the time it was announced to the world, without being given the opportunity to purchase her catalogue.
In October 2020, Swift’s catalogue was sold to Shamrock Capital, a private equity firm, for an estimated US$300+ million. In recent years, private equity firms have been purchasing music catalogues as profitable long-term financial assets, rather than for artistic or cultural reasons.
She was able to create new versions of her songs, with their own intellectual property rights attached.
As owner of these new masters, she has control over where these songs are used, and she receives a greater portion of the income from the streams, downloads and licensing.
The decision was enormously successful. Mobilising her fans’ support via social media, they prioritised purchasing “Taylor’s Version” over the original masters, diluting the value of the originals.
Successful futures
Swift has repeatedly emphasised the need for artists to retain control over their work and to receive fair compensation. In a 2020 interview she said she believes artists should always own their master records and licence them back to the label for a limited period.
This would mean the label could monetise, control and manage the recordings for a certain time, but the artist retains the ownership. They eventually gain back full control, rather than handing over permanent rights to the label.
Swift’s experience has sparked conversations within the industry, prompting emerging artists to approach record labels with caution and advocate for fairer deals and ownership rights. Olivia Rodrigo negotiated her contract with Swift’s saga as a cautionary tale.
Purchasing her catalogue and masters gives Swift autonomy about how the rights to all of her music is used. Her fans are likely to continue to support her and purchase both the originals and “Taylor’s Version”, so the value of her original albums may rise.
And, in the long-run, her new acquisition will likely make her much wealthier.
Wellett Potter 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.
Teen faces multiple charges of motor vehicle stealing
Thursday, 5 June 2025 – 9:56 am.
Detectives investigating a series of thefts, reckless driving and property damage across Tasmania’s south have this week charged a 15-year-old boy with multiple offences, including 12 counts of stealing a motor vehicle. Members of Bridgewater CIB arrested and charged the teenager on Tuesday (June 3) following a search of his home at Herdsmans Cove. During the search of the property, police allege a number of electronic devices were found and which appear to show the boy had used them to post illegal activities online and to social media. Following police interview, the boy has been charged with multiple offences including motor vehicle stealing, hooning, driving while not the holder of a driver’s licence, unlawfully setting fire to property, and stealing. Police investigations continue. Anyone who may have information about illegal youth activities involving theft and the unlawful use of motor vehicles should contact police on 131 444 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000 or online at crimestopperstas.com.au
Devonport man charged after police seize illegal firearms, taser
Thursday, 5 June 2025 – 9:40 am.
A man has been charged after police seized three illegal firearms and a taser during a targeted search at a West Ulverstone residence yesterday. During the search, members of Taskforce Scelus located and seized three gel blasters, the taser, drug paraphernalia, and a quantity of cash believed to be proceeds of crime. A 46 year old West Ulverstone man was arrested and has since been charged with multiple firearms offences, and minor drug-related offences. He was detained to appear in the Devonport Magistrates Court today. Anyone with information about illegal firearms should contact police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers Tasmania anonymously on 1800 333 000 or online at crimestopperstas.com.au
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
Biggest shake-up of jobcentres in decades gets underway
Launch of a new, locally-led approach to jobseeker support begins in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Jobs and careers service Pathfinder will test bold ideas including a new Coaching Academy and more personalised jobcentre appointments
Further Pathfinders to be rolled out across the country this year to break down barriers to opportunity and put more money in people’s pockets as part of the Government’s Plan for Change.
Jobseekers across the country are set to benefit from a groundbreaking new approach to the service Jobcentres provide. This will include a new Coaching Academy; careers events focused on local growth sectors and more personalised Jobcentre appointments.
The jobs and careers service in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, yesterday (Wednesday 4th June) became the first to trial the new scheme – marking the start of the biggest reform of Jobcentres in decades.
The Jobcentre will test bold ideas to better work with employers, deliver services and get people into work. The reforms are aimed at involving local areas in the design of services and bring to an end a Whitehall-led, one-size-fits-all approach.
Following the launch of the jobs and careers service Pathfinder in Wakefield, further Pathfinders will be rolled out across the country this year as the Government drives forward with its plan to Get Britain Working.
This is a key part of the growth mission, as we help more people across the country into good, secure jobs so they can get on in life and fulfil their ambitions.
Minister for Employment, Alison McGovern said:
Our one-size-fits-all, tick box approach to jobs support is outdated and does not serve those looking to better their lives through work.
We are building a proper public employment service in partnership with local leaders that truly meets community challenges and unlocks opportunity.
The launch of the Pathfinder in Wakefield is the first step in this transformation as we continue to Get Britain Working, boost living standards and put more money in people’s pockets, under our Plan for Change.
The Pathfinder will look at new ways to support customers and how everyone, not just Jobcentre customers, can receive employment support. It is being co-designed with local leaders from West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Wakefield Local Authority.
As part of this and in a direct response to insight that only 9% of employers currently recruit through Jobcentres, a series of careers events focused on local growth sectors will be delivered in Wakefield to match local talent with local opportunities.
The first of these events took place during yesterday’s launch and focused on West Yorkshire’s thriving creative sector. It was attended by skills providers and local employers including Production Park – home to sets of Netflix series’ including Bank of Dave. Events to serve the local manufacturing and technology sectors will take place in the coming months and are open to all, not just Jobcentre customers.
In addition to this tests of a new Get Britain Working ‘Coaching Academy’ to train up DWP staff will help ensure jobseekers receive improved support. Changes to appointments will also mean DWP services in Wakefield will provide more personalised support for claimants to help them move into stable, long-term work.
Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin said:
People stand a better chance of landing a good job when they are treated with dignity and respect at a trusted local Jobcentre.
These reforms will empower us to build on our West Yorkshire model of joining up employment support with health and employer-led services, to provide personalised support that gets people into work and puts more money in people’s pockets.
Working with the government, we’re investing almost £40 million to help guarantee a healthy working life to everyone in our region, and as the test-bed for the new national Jobs and Careers Service, Wakefield will lead the way on transforming our welfare system to get Britain working.
Wakefield will be the first city to test new ideas for the new jobs and careers service, ensuring that the service and its policies can be scaled up before being rolled out across the nation. Further Pathfinders, including ones that are focused on support for young people and those with health conditions will be launched later this year.
The Jobs and Careers Service Pathfinder builds on wider investment in West Yorkshire, including £18 million for an inactivity trailblazer and an NHS Accelerator. The inactivity trailblazer launched in April, to boost employment in areas with the highest levels of economic inactivity, as the government gets Britain back to health and back to work. The NHS Accelerator will help to prevent people from falling out of work completely due to ill health.
The Pathfinder comes as the government continues to drive to Get Britain Working through boosting the National Living Wage, creating more secure jobs through the Employment Rights Bill and delivering a Youth Guarantee so every young person is either learning or earning.
The guidance will ensure all areas are working towards the government’s 80% employment ambition.
Employment support measures are fully transferred to Northern Ireland. Jobcentre Plus services is reserved in both Scotland and Wales, but the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government also deliver other forms of employment support. The funding announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper is UK wide, the share of funding for devolved Governments will be calculated in the usual way.
The UK Government also plans to establish new governance arrangements with the Scottish and Welsh Governments to help frame discussions around the reform of Jobcentres and agree how best to work in partnership on shared employment ambition across devolved and reserved provision.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
News story
Publication of Parole Board Transparency Review
The Parole Board has today published a review into its transparency
We are pleased to publish the findings of a review that we commissioned into the transparency of the Parole Board. The review was chaired by two experienced judicial members of the Parole Board, HH Peter Rook KC and HH Michael Topolski KC.
The review covered a large scope but focused on three main areas:
Parole Board public hearings
Victims observing private hearings
Decision summaries
Over 50 stakeholders and interested parties were consulted as part of the review, and we are thankful for their valuable input. We are especially thankful for those who represented the views of victims and offenders in the process.
We welcome the recommendations within the review. This review is an important step to ensuring the Parole Board continues to evolve our transparency and ensure that victims and the public have access to information that matters to them, whilst ensuring we can continue to provide fair and effective parole reviews for prisoners.
Commenting on the Parole Board transparency review and its findings, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, said:
“I welcome this review’s clear call for change. As I know only too well, victims can find the parole system bewildering and traumatic – given little information and no meaningful role in a process that can profoundly affect their safety, wellbeing and peace of mind. These welcome and necessary reforms are key to changing that. Access to a redacted version of the decision will help victims better understand outcomes and reassure them of the care and diligence taken by the Parole Board. I’m also pleased that more victims will have the opportunity to observe parole hearings should they wish – important steps towards a more open and accountable system. I hope these recommendations are acted upon quickly. Victims – and the public – deserve a parole system they can understand, trust and have confidence in.”
34 recommendations were made by the review, some of which include a recommendation to start a pilot of sharing redacted decisions, instead of decision summaries, and a pilot to test out different forms of holding a public hearing, including alternative observer locations and unsupervised streaming to accredited members of the media and legal bloggers. We will be reviewing the recommendations carefully to decide how we will be taking them forward, consulting our stakeholders on the areas that impact them.
We will publish further details on the implementation of the recommendations by Autumn 2025.
Cecilia French, CEO of the Parole Board, said:
“The Parole Board has made great strides in becoming more transparent over the years, but we are keen to do more. It is important to be able to show people how parole works and how the Parole Board makes decisions so that the public, victims and prisoners can understand the process and have confidence in it. Victims and survivors and the public should have access to information that matters to them in a way that does not compromise fairness. The transparency review highlights the key areas we should focus on to further progress our transparency agenda. I am looking forward to implementing the recommendations in this review, in consultation with others, and am very grateful to HH Peter Rook KC and HH Michael Topolski KC for their very thorough review, which will help us to improve.”
COOTAMUNDRA, Australia, June 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Australian Oilseeds Holdings Limited (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: COOT), a manufacturer and seller of sustainable edible oils to customers globally, announced that it has received written notification from the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) on May 27, 2025 stating that the Company was delinquent in filing its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2025. The Company previously filed a Form 12b-25 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 14, 2025, disclosing that it was unable to file the Form 10-Q within the prescribed time period without unreasonable effort or expense. The Nasdaq Letter provided that under Nasdaq rules, the Company has 60 calendar days to submit a plan to regain compliance with respect to the Delinquent Filing.
The Company has filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2025 on May 30, 2025, thereby regaining compliance with its filing obligation, which eliminates the need for the Company to submit a formal plan to regain compliance.
About Australian Oilseeds Holdings Limited. Australian Oilseeds Holdings Limited, a Cayman Islands exempted company (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: COOT) through its subsidiaries, including Australian Oilseeds Investments Pty Ltd., an Australian proprietary company, tis focused on the manufacture and sale of sustainable oilseeds (e.g., seeds grown primarily for the production of edible oils) and is committed to working with all suppliers in the food supply chain to eliminate chemicals from the production and manufacturing systems to supply quality products to customers globally. The Company engages in the business of processing, manufacture and sale of non-GMO oilseeds and organic and non-organic food-grade oils, for the rapidly growing oilseeds market, through sourcing materials from suppliers focused on reducing the use of chemicals in consumables in order to supply healthier food ingredients, vegetable oils, proteins and other products to customers globally. Over the past 20 years, the Company’s cold pressing oil plant has grown to become the largest in Australia, pressing strictly GMO-free conventional and organic oilseeds.
Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding our financial outlook, business strategy and plans, market trends and market size, opportunities and positioning. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections. Words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “should,” “believe,” “hope,” “target,” “project,” “goals,” “estimate,” “potential,” “predict,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “could,” “intend,” “shall” and variations of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. For example, global economic conditions could in the future reduce demand for our products; we could in the future experience cybersecurity incidents; we may be unable to manage or sustain the level of growth that our business has experienced in prior periods; our financial resources may not be sufficient to maintain or improve our competitive position; we may be unable to attract new customers, or retain or sell additional products to existing customers; we may experience challenges successfully expanding our marketing and sales capabilities, including further specializing our sales force; customer growth could decelerate in the future; we may not achieve expected synergies and efficiencies of operations from recent acquisitions or business combinations, and we may not be able to pay off our convertible notes when due. Further information on potential factors that could affect our financial results is included in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for June 30, 2024 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent our views only as of the date of this press release and we assume no obligation and do not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
Contact Australian Oilseeds Holdings Limited 126-142 Cowcumbla Street Cootamundra New South Wales 2590 Attn: Amarjeet Singh, CFO Email: amarjeet.s@energreennutrition.com.au
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
Over half a million more children to get free school meals
New entitlement to free school meals for all children in household on Universal Credit.
Over half a million more children will benefit from a free nutritious meal every school day, as the government puts £500 back into parents’ pockets every year by expanding eligibility for free school meals.
From the start of the 2026 school year, every pupil whose household is on Universal Credit will have a new entitlement to free school meals. This will make life easier and more affordable for parents who struggle the most, delivering on the government’s Plan for Change to break down barriers to opportunity and give children the best start in life.
The unprecedented expansion will lift 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty. Giving children access to a nutritious meal during the school day also leads to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes – meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
Since 2018, children have only been eligible for free school meals if their household income is less than £7,400 per year, meaning hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty have been unable to access free school meals.
The government’s historic new expansion to those on Universal Credit will change this and comes ahead of the Child Poverty Taskforce publishing its ten-year strategy to drive sustainable change later this year. It comes on top of targeted support for families being hit the hardest with the cost-of-living crisis, with urgent action including raising the national minimum wage, uprating benefits and supporting 700,000 families through the Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
Working parents across the country are working tirelessly to provide for their families but are being held back by cost-of-living pressures.
My government is taking action to ease those pressures. Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents’ pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn.
This expansion is a truly historic moment for our country, helping families who need it most and delivering our Plan for Change to give every child, no matter their background, the same chance to succeed.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:
It is the moral mission of this government to tackle the stain of child poverty, and today this government takes a giant step towards ending it with targeted support that puts money back in parents’ pockets.
From free school meals to free breakfast clubs, breaking the cycle of child poverty is at the heart of our Plan for Change to cut the unfair link between background and success.
We believe that background shouldn’t mean destiny. Today’s historic step will help us to deliver excellence everywhere, for every child and give more young people the chance to get on in life.
The Government is also offering more than £13 million in funding to 12 food charities across England to redistribute thousands of tonnes of fresh produce directly from farms to fight food poverty in communities.
The Tackling Food Surplus at the Farm Gate scheme is helping farms and organisations to work collaboratively to ensure edible food that might have been left in fields instead ends up on the plates of those who need it, including schoolchildren.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said:
Poverty robs children of opportunities and damages their future prospects. This is a moral scar on our society we are committed to tackling.
By expanding Free School Meals to all families on Universal Credit, we’re ending the impossible choice thousands of our hardest grafting families must make between paying bills and feeding their children.
This is just the latest step of our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets – a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, building on our expansion of free breakfast clubs, our national minimum wage boost and our cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, the government is also acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
This new entitlement will apply to children in all settings where free school meals are currently delivered, including schools, school-based nurseries and Further Education settings. We expect the majority of schools will allow parents to apply before the start of the school year 2026, by providing their National Insurance Number to check their eligibility.
Schools and local authorities will continue to receive pupil premium and home to school transport extended rights funding based on the existing free school meals threshold.
This is just the latest step in the government’s Plan for Change to break the unfair link between background and opportunity, including rolling out free breakfast clubs, expanding government-funded childcare to 30 hours a week for working parents and commitment to cap the number of branded school uniform items.
Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust, said:
This is a significant step towards taking hunger out of the classroom. Children can’t learn effectively when hungry, so this announcement not only helps to tackle the effects of child poverty, but will also likely help improve education outcomes for disadvantaged young people.
Giving free school meals to all families who are eligible for Universal Credit is also easier for parents to understand, so has the potential to increase take up rates. This is an important milestone in delivering on the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
Kate Anstey, head of education policy at Child Poverty Action Group said:
This is fantastic news and a game-changer for children and families.
At last more kids will get the food they need to learn and thrive and millions of parents struggling to make ends meet will get a bit of breathing space.
We hope this is a sign of what’s to come in autumn’s child poverty strategy, with government taking more action to meet its manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty in the UK.
From April 2026 until the end of parliament, millions of households are set to receive a permanent yearly above inflation boost to Universal Credit. The increase, a key element of the Government’s welfare reforms to be laid before Parliament, will tackle the destitution caused by years of inaction that has left the value of the standard allowance at a 40 year low by the early 2020s.
Source: Traditional Unionist Voice – Northern Ireland
Statement by Alderman Stewart McDonald:
“This morning I met with council officials to discuss the ongoing concerns surrounding Ahoghill Woodland Park — an issue that has exercised me for some time.
“Like many in the local community, I was initially encouraged by the plans for the park. However, over the years the project has failed to progress as promised, and there are now clear signs of neglect and disrepair that urgently need to be addressed.
“While some of the damage is due to vandalism — which I am glad is now being tackled — the broader issues require more than short-term fixes.
“One particularly serious concern is the condition of the pond. I have raised this matter repeatedly with officials. Given how overgrown and unsafe the area has become, there is now a real health and safety risk, especially for children who could accidentally fall in. I welcome the council’s confirmation that the pond is to be filled in.
“I continue to believe this site has genuine potential as a valuable asset for local families and visitors alike. But realising that potential will require vision, commitment, and proper strategic planning. I remain determined to fight for the improvements needed to make this park the community facility it was meant to be.”
A man has been arrested after a suspicious bag was left at a Salisbury Plain fast-food restaurant on Wednesday night.
About 7.45pm on Wednesday 4 June, Northern District police responded to reports that a man had allegedly left a bag inside a fast-food restaurant after claiming it contained a bomb.
Patrols quickly evacuated the area and detained the man.
Technicians from the Bomb Response Unit attended and determined that there were no explosives in the bag.
The 44-year-old-man from Parafield Gardens was arrested at the scene and charged with creating a false belief. He was refused police bail and will appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court later today (Thursday 5 June).
On Friday, Taylor Swift announced she now owns all the music she has ever made. This reported US$360 million acquisition includes all the master recordings to her first six albums, music videos, concert films, album art, photos and unreleased material.
The purchase of this catalogue from private equity firm Shamrock Capital is a profoundly happy event for Swift. She has expressed how personal and difficult it was not to own these works.
In her announcement, Swift acknowledged that it was due to her fans purchasing her rerecorded music (known as “Taylor’s Version”) and the financial success of the record-breaking Eras Tour which enabled this purchase.
When it comes to valuing a music catalogue, it largely comes down to two types of rights: master rights and publishing rights.
Master rights are rights pertaining to the ownership of the actual sound recordings – the final recorded version. These are called “masters” because they’re the original source from which all copies are made.
Under traditional music industry contracts, record labels usually hold ownership of masters and associated materials. This can be music videos, tour videos, unreleased works, photographs and album covers.
Through licensing, the label controls the use of this material and retains the majority of the royalties. In return, the label provides the artist with financial backing, recording resources and marketing.
Publishing rights, on the other hand, relate to the underlying composition – the music and lyrics. The rights to music publishing usually belong to the songwriter, regardless of who performs the song.
Publishing rights govern how a song can be used and who earns royalties from that use. For example, a song may be played on a streaming platform, covered in a live performance or licensed for a commercial or film.
The agreed contractual terms were typical of the music industry. In exchange for the financial support to make, record and promote her subsequent albums and tours, Big Machine held the rights to Swift’s master recordings and associated materials in her first six albums. Her relationship with the label lasted 13 years.
As a songwriter, Swift retained separate publishing rights to her songs (the music and lyrics) from her first six albums, which she licensed through Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
In 2018, Swift was reportedly offered to re-sign with Big Machine, in a deal which would involve her “earning” the rights to one original album for each new one she produced.
Swift did not renew her contract and moved to Republic Records (Universal Music Group), who allow her to own her masters. She also moved to Universal Music Publishing Group for her music publishing.
Subsequent sales
In June 2019, Big Machine’s catalogue was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, for a reported US$330 million, with US$140 million representing Swift’s catalogue.
Swift described this as her “worst case scenario”, as she had a tumultuous history of alleged bullying from Braun. She also alleged she found out about the acquisition at the time it was announced to the world, without being given the opportunity to purchase her catalogue.
In October 2020, Swift’s catalogue was sold to Shamrock Capital, a private equity firm, for an estimated US$300+ million. In recent years, private equity firms have been purchasing music catalogues as profitable long-term financial assets, rather than for artistic or cultural reasons.
She was able to create new versions of her songs, with their own intellectual property rights attached.
As owner of these new masters, she has control over where these songs are used, and she receives a greater portion of the income from the streams, downloads and licensing.
The decision was enormously successful. Mobilising her fans’ support via social media, they prioritised purchasing “Taylor’s Version” over the original masters, diluting the value of the originals.
Successful futures
Swift has repeatedly emphasised the need for artists to retain control over their work and to receive fair compensation. In a 2020 interview she said she believes artists should always own their master records and licence them back to the label for a limited period.
This would mean the label could monetise, control and manage the recordings for a certain time, but the artist retains the ownership. They eventually gain back full control, rather than handing over permanent rights to the label.
Swift’s experience has sparked conversations within the industry, prompting emerging artists to approach record labels with caution and advocate for fairer deals and ownership rights. Olivia Rodrigo negotiated her contract with Swift’s saga as a cautionary tale.
Purchasing her catalogue and masters gives Swift autonomy about how the rights to all of her music is used. Her fans are likely to continue to support her and purchase both the originals and “Taylor’s Version”, so the value of her original albums may rise.
And, in the long-run, her new acquisition will likely make her much wealthier.
Wellett Potter 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.
Australian parents will be familiar with this school morning routine: hastily making sandwiches or squeezing leftovers into containers, grabbing a snack from the cupboard and a piece of fruit from the counter.
This would be unheard of in many other countries, including Finland, Sweden, Scotland, Wales, Brazil and India, which provide free daily school meals to every child.
Australia is one of the few high-income countries that does not provide children with a daily nutritious meal at school.
As families increasingly face food insecurity and a cost-of-living crisis, here’s how school lunches could help.
School lunches are important
During the week, children get a third of their daily food intake at school. What they eat during school hours has a significant impact on their health.
International research shows universal school meal programs – where all children are provided with a healthy meal at school each day – can improve both health and educational outcomes for students.
The problem with BYO lunchboxes
In Australia, children either bring a packed lunch or buy food at the school canteen. But the vast majority of these lunches don’t meet kids’ dietary needs.
As a 2022 Flinders University report notes, more than 80% of Australian primary school lunches are of poor nutritional quality. Half of students’ school-day food intake comes from junk food and fewer than one in ten students eat enough vegetables.
While these figures are based on 2011–2012 data, subsequent national survey data does not show significant improvements in children’s healthy diet indicators, including fruit and vegetable consumption. Time pressures on carers mean pre-packaged food can be a default lunchbox choice.
At the same time, many families with school students are not able to provide their children with healthy lunches. Food insecurity — not having regular access to enough safe, healthy and affordable food — affects an estimated 58% of Australian households with children, and 69% of single-parent households.
Hot weather also raises food safety concerns, as it’s hard to keep fresh food cool in schoolbags.
School meals programs in Australia
There are some historical examples of providing food to children at school in Australia. This includes the school milk program which ran from 1950s to 1970s. There were also wartime experiments in the 1940s. For example, the Oslo lunch (a cheese and salad sandwich on wholemeal bread, with milk and fruit) was provided at school to improve the health of children.
Today, there is a patchwork of school food programs run by not-for-profit organisations providing breakfast and/or lunch, and various schemes, including kitchen garden and school greenhouse programs.
There are also pilot schemes providing hot meals. For example, in Tasmania, the current pilot school lunch program feeds children in participating schools a hot lunch on some days of the week with state government support. Evaluation of the program showed strong benefits: healthier eating, calmer classrooms, better social connections from eating lunch together, and less food waste.
The 2023 parliamentary inquiry into food security recommended the federal government work with states and territories to consider the feasibility of a school meals program.
In May, the South Australian parliament opened an inquiry into programs in preschools and schools to ensure children and young people don’t go hungry during the day.
What would it take to introduce school meals?
Rolling out universal school meal programs across Australian schools would require cooperation between government and private sectors.
It could build on what already exists – including canteens, school gardens, food relief and breakfast clubs – to create a more consistent and inclusive system.
Decisions would have to be made about regulation and funding – whether to opt for a federally-funded and regulated scheme with federal and state cooperation, or a state-by-state scheme.
Costs per child per day are around A$10, factoring in economies of scale. Some pilot programs report lower costs of around $5, but involve volunteer labour.
More research is needed to determine parent and community attitudes and model these funding options, including preventative health benefits.
Delivery models may also vary depending on each school’s size, location and infrastructure. This could include onsite food preparation, central kitchens delivering pre-prepared meals, or partnerships with not-for-profit providers.
Ultimately, providing food at school could save parents valuable time and stress, and ensure all Australian students can access the health and education benefits of a nutritious school meal.
Liesel Spencer has undertaken volunteer work for the Federation of Canteens in Schools (Australia).
Miriam Williams has undertaken volunteer work for the Federation of Canteens in Schools (Australia).
Katherine Kent 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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew England, Scientia Professor and Deputy Director of the ARC Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, UNSW Sydney
Westend61/Getty Images
In June 2023, a record-breaking marine heatwave swept across the North Atlantic Ocean, smashing previous temperature records.
It wasn’t just Europe that was impacted. The coral reefs of the Caribbean were bleaching under severe heat stress. And hurricanes, fuelled by ocean heat, intensified into disasters. For example, Hurricane Idalia hit Florida in August 2023 – causing 12 deaths and an estimated US$3.6 billion in damages.
This so-called “cold blob” or “warming hole” has been linked to the weakening of what’s known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation – a system of ocean currents that conveys warm water from the equator towards the poles.
During July 2023 we met as a team to analyse this cold blob – how deep it reaches and how robust it is as a measure of the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation – when it became clear there was a strong reversal of the historical cooling trend. The cold blob had warmed to 2°C above average.
But was that a sign the overturning circulation had been reinvigorated? Or was something else going on?
A layered story
It soon became clear the anomalous warm temperatures southeast of Greenland were part of an unprecedented marine heatwave that had developed across much of the North Atlantic Ocean. By July, basin-averaged warming in the North Atlantic reached 1.4°C above normal, almost double the previous record set in 2010.
To uncover what was behind these record breaking temperatures, we combined estimates of the atmospheric conditions that prevailed during the heatwave, such as winds and cloud cover, with ocean observations and model simulations.
We were especially interested in understanding what was happening in the mixed upper layer of water of the ocean, which is strongly affected by the atmosphere.
Distinct from the deeper layer of cold water, the ocean’s surface mixed layer warms as it’s exposed to more sunlight during spring and summer. But the rate at which this warming happens depends on its thickness. If it’s thick, it will warm more gradually; if it’s thin, rapid warming can ensue.
During summer the thickness of this surface mixed layer is largely set by winds. Winds churn up the surface ocean and the stronger they are the deeper the mixing penetrates, so strong winds create a think upper layer and weak winds generate a shallower layer.
Our new research indicates that the primary driver of the marine heatwave was record-breaking weak winds across much of the basin. The winds were at their weakest measured levels during June and July, possibly linked to a developing El Niño in the east Pacific Ocean.
This led to by far the shallowest upper layer on record. Data from the Argo Program – a global array of nearly 4,000 robotic floats that measure the temperature and salinity in the upper 2,000 metres of the ocean – showed in some areas this layer was only ten metres deep, compared to the usual 20 to 40 metres deep.
This caused the sun to heat the thin surface layer far more rapidly than usual.
In addition to these short term changes in 2023, previous research has shown long-term warming associated with anthropogenic climate change is reducing the ability of winds to mix the upper ocean, causing it to gradually thin.
We also identified a possible secondary driver of more localised warming during the 2023 marine heatwave: above-average solar radiation hitting the ocean. This could be linked in part with the introduction of new international rules in 2020 to reduce sulfate emissions from ships.
The aim of these rules was to reduce air pollution from ship’s exhaust systems. But sulfate aerosols also reflect solar radiation and can lead to cloud formation. The resultant clearer skies can then lead to more ocean warming.
Early warning signs
The extreme 2023 heatwave provides a preview of the future. Marine heatwaves are expected to worsen as Earth continues to warm due to greenhouse gas emissions, with devastating impacts on marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and fisheries. This also means more intense hurricanes – and more intense land-based heatwaves.
To better understand, forecast and plan for the impacts of marine heatwaves, long-term ocean and atmospheric data and models, including those provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States, are crucial. In fact, without these data and models, our new study would not have been possible.
Despite this, NOAA faces an uncertain future. A proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year released by the White House last month could mean devastating funding cuts of more than US$1.5 billion – mostly targeting climate-based research and data collection.
This would be a disaster for monitoring our oceans and climate system, right at a time when change is severe, unprecedented, and proving very costly.
Matthew England receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Alex Sen Gupta receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Andrew Kiss receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Zhi Li receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
The gas lobby claims more gas is needed to secure energy supplies, pointing to predictedgas shortages in parts of Australia in the short term. But given most proposed gas projects are directed at the export market, the problem is likely to persist.
And the science is clear: no fossil fuel projects can be opened if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Despite this, a slew of polluting gas projects are either poised to begin operating in Australia, or lie firmly in the sights of industry.
How Australia’s gas contributes to climate change
Gas production in Australia harms the climate in two ways.
The first is via “fugitive” emissions – leaks and unintentional releases that occur when gas is being extracted, processed and transported. These emissions are typically methane, which traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide.
So, government approval for new gas projects undermines Australia’s commitment to reaching net-zero emissions. Labor enshrined this goal in legislation in its previous term of government, and all states and territories have also adopted it.
The second climate harm occurs when Australia’s gas is burned for energy overseas. Those emissions do not count towards our national emissions accounts, but they substantially contribute to global warming.
Under national environment law, the federal government is not required to consider the potential harm a project might cause to the global climate. This loophole means fossil fuel developments can continue to win government backing.
Below, I outline six of the biggest gas projects Australia has in the pipeline.
1. Barossa Gas Project
This A$5.6 billion project by energy giant Santos is located in the Timor Sea, about 300km north of Darwin. The Australian government’s offshore energy regulator approved it in April this year.
The project will extract gas from the Barossa field and transport it to a liquified natural gas (LNG) facility in Darwin for processing and export.
Pluto Train 2 is an extension of Woodside’s existing Scarborough project, centred around a gas field about 375km off WA’s Pilbara coast. A 430-kilometre pipeline would connect that gas to a second LNG train at a facility near Karratha. “Train” refers to the unit in a plant that turns natural gas into liquid.
This coal seam gas project in Gladstone, Queensland, would be operated by Arrow energy – a joint venture between Shell and PetroChina.
It involves substantially expanding existing gas fields by building up to 450 new production wells. The project is expected to supply 130 million cubic feet of gas each day at its peak, and has been opposed by environment groups.
4. Narrabri Gas Project
This $3.6 billion Santos project in northwest New South Wales involves drilling up to 850 coal seam gas wells over 95,000 hectares. The National Native Title Tribunal last month ruled leases for the project could be granted, leaving Santos only a few regulatory barriers to clear.
Environmental groups and Traditional Owners say the project threatens water resources, biodiversity and Indigenous sites. However, the tribunal found the project’s benefits to energy reliability outweighed those concerns.
5. Beetaloo Basin
The Beetaloo Basin is located 500km southeast of Darwin. It covers 28,000 kilometres and is estimated to contain up to 500 trillion cubic feet of gas. A number of companies are vying for the right to develop the huge resource.
Browse Basin, 425 kilometres north of Broome off WA, is considered Australia’s biggest reserve of untapped conventional gas.
Woodside plans to develop the Browse gas fields, but the area is remote and difficult to access. According to the ABC, Woodside’s North West Shelf project is considered the last hope for extracting the valuable resource.
The basin is also located near the pristine Scott Reef, a significant coral reef ecosystem.
A major disconnect
The projects listed above, if they proceed, weaken Australia’s efforts to reach its emission reduction goals. And their overall climate impact is truly frightening.
The re-elected Labor government has pledged to revisit attempts to reform national environment laws. This presents a prime opportunity to ensure the climate harms of fossil fuel projects are key to environmental decision making.
Samantha Hepburn 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.
Appropriations Letter Urges Congress to Fund BOEM’s Office of Renewable Energy Programs, Prioritize Efficiency in Federal Permitting for Offshore Wind Projects
Offshore Wind Projects Projected to Create 56,000 Jobs by 2030
Read the LetterHere
Washington, D.C – Congressman Dan Goldman led 18 of his Democratic colleagues in writing to House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Chair Congressman Mike Simpson (ID-02) and Ranking Member Chellie Pingree (ME-01) requesting they robustly fund the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Office of Renewable Energy Programs, as well as include language in the FY26 budget to find increased efficiencies in the permitting process for offshore wind projects, which are an economic and national security imperative.
“We request that you take action to ensure robust funding for the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Office of Renewable Energy Programs that supports the timely review and permitting of offshore wind projects. We also ask that you include report language in the bill that supports finding increased efficiencies in the federal permitting process to allow for projects to come online as fast and proficiently as possible, without compromising the safety and integrity of the review process,” the Members began.
Permitting, constructing, and connecting offshore wind to the energy grid is imperative to ensuring the United States’ long-term energy needs are met. Domestic energy demands are projected to rise 50% by 2050 as a result of crypto and AI, and offshore wind will be an essential part of generating the energy necessary to meet the future. However, the benefits of offshore wind extend beyond energy capacity.
“By the end of 2024, the industry had already announced more than $9.5 billion in supply chain investments, including investing in the creation of nearly 40 new domestic vessels to serve offshore wind projects. These jobs are inextricably intertwined with project permitting timelines, and investing in BOEM’s permitting capacity will increase job security for thousands of Americans and investment confidence for developers,” the Members wrote.
Additionally, offshore wind provides a local, reliable, and infinite source of energy, independent of geopolitical rivals and fluctuations in global energy markets. Fully funding the BOEM’s Office of Renewable Energy Programs and streamlining project permitting will strengthen American manufacturing and make us a world leader in spearheading the green energy transition. Failing to prioritize offshore wind in the federal budget will allow China and other nations to fill the gap.
“Committing our support to technologies like offshore wind will also help diversify our grid, making it more safe, reliable, and resilient. It is imperative that we provide BOEM with the resources they need to facilitate the timely, efficient, reliable and accurate review of offshore wind project applications so we don’t slow down this momentum,” the Members wrote.
Read the full letterhere or below:
Dear Chair Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree,
As you prepare the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we request that you take action to ensure robust funding for the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Office of Renewable Energy Programs that supports the timely review and permitting of offshore wind projects. We also ask that you include report language in the bill that supports finding increased efficiencies in the federal permitting process to allow for projects to come online as fast and proficiently as possible, without compromising the safety and integrity of the review process. As energy demand soars across the country, it is vitally important that we diversify our grid, support energy production in the United States, and build out an offshore wind project pipeline that can contribute to the “all-of-the-above approach to energy supply.
Current estimates project that domestic energy demand will grow by 2% annually and by more than 50% by 2050. Due in large part to the increased computing capacity needed to sustain rapidly expanding industries such as crypto and A.I., this unprecedented growth in demand requires a commensurate growth in supply. To meet these needs, to truly take an “all-of the-above” energy approach, and to ensure that we don’t fall behind our geopolitical adversaries in the race for energy dominance, we must ensure that offshore wind remains a part of our energy equation.
Over the past decade, the industry has advanced tremendously. By the end of 2024, BOEM had approved 19 GW of energy from offshore wind projects – enough to power 6 million homes — of which 10.8 GW were approved to begin construction. It is imperative that we continue this momentum, in collaboration with other energy sources, to meet the whopping 531 GW of expected grid demand in the coming decades.
The benefits of offshore wind extend beyond just energy capacity. They create massive economic investment and significant job opportunities across America, further diversify energy sources in the event of catastrophe, facilitate energy independence and energy dominance, and advance our geopolitical and national security interests.
According to a 2024 report published by American Clean Power, in large part due to the American energy credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, the offshore wind industry was projected to create 56,000 jobs across the country by 2030. These jobs span a number of industries and are largely good-paying, stable, manufacturing and marine trades jobs. By the end of 2024, the industry had already announced more than $9.5 billion in supply chain investments, including investing in the creation of nearly 40 new domestic vessels to serve offshore wind projects. These jobs are inextricably intertwined with project permitting timelines, and investing in BOEM’s permitting capacity will increase job security for thousands of Americans and investment confidence for developers. In turn, this will usher in additional spending in domestic offshore wind workforce development and supply chains.
Further still, ratepayers stand to gain significantly from the deployment of offshore wind as energy from such projects are projected to save households hundreds of dollars on their annual electricity bills. One study identified that 9 GW of offshore wind energy in New England would save New Englander’s between $2.79 to $4.61 a month on their electricity bill, adding up to about $630 annually. It would also provide nearly $362 million in annual public health savings as it would help prevent thousands of tons of dangerous pollution in our communities.
Finally, supporting offshore wind is a national security imperative. Offshore wind provides a local, steady, infinite source of energy that is not subject to the whims of our geopolitical rivals. It allows coastal areas, oftentimes with little space to build large new generation facilities, the ability to meet increased demand without depending on foreign sources of energy. And it provides a critical opportunity to build relationships in developing nations that expand far beyond energy production. Moreover, if we do not meet this demand, China will, which will increase their global footprint and influence.
Committing our support to technologies like offshore wind will also help diversify our grid, making it more safe, reliable, and resilient. It is imperative that we provide BOEM with the resources they need to facilitate the timely, efficient, reliable and accurate review of offshore wind project applications so we don’t slow down this momentum. While the industry is still relatively new, we have now seen a number of projects successfully permitted and we must learn from these examples and continue to improve and streamline the federal permitting process. As such, in addition to robust funding for BOEM Office of Renewable Energy Programs, we ask the committee include the following report language in their bill:
The Committee understands the value of streamlining the federal permitting process for offshore energy development, including wind power. As such, the committee directs the Bureau of Ocean Management, in consultation with the Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Defense, and any other relevant agencies to identify efficiencies in the federal permitting process, including unnecessary duplicative efforts, to responsibly expedite reviews while maintaining comprehensive stakeholder engagement, tribal consultation, and environmental analysis so as to ensure that project development processes carefully consider impacts on marine life and ensure co existence with incumbent industries.
Members of the Education Committee met today (Wednesday 4 June) and agreed the recommendation to proceed with the statutory public consultation for the co-location of the new St Clement’s School alongside a new Dingwall Primary School on a shared site with enhanced community facilities.
A public meeting will be held on Wednesday 2 July to discuss the Council’s proposal. There will also be the opportunity for stakeholders to submit views to the Council ahead of the meeting and subsequently prior to any final recommendation and decision being made.
At a meeting of The Highland Council on Thursday 27 March 2024, elected members unanimously agreed investment priorities for the first phase of The Highland Investment Plan (HIP), including a recommendation to co-locate St Clement’s and Dingwall Primary schools at a new Dingwall Community Point of Delivery (POD) site, on the basis that this provides the greatest educational benefits for pupils of both schools, and the maximum economic benefit for the wider community. The proposal to relocate St Clement’s School alongside a new Dingwall Primary School on a shared site will require to undergo a statutory consultation.
Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The commitment to build a new school that retains the school’s unique identity has been endorsed by Committee today. The Highland Investment Plan offers an exciting co-location option that has even greater benefits for our young learners than any other previously proposed.
“The strong collaborative working between St Clement’s School, Dingwall Primary and the wider Dingwall community has always played an integral part in our young people’s learning journey. Co-locating will enhance inclusion and equitable opportunities for success, providing the best learning environments for all our children.
“It will increase opportunities for pupils with a disability to participate in wider curriculum and social opportunities, whilst ensuring specialist support and facilities are tailored to individual needs in their own individually designed standalone school and associated outdoor spaces.
“A statutory consultation will now be undertaken for the proposed new site for St Clement’s School.”
The consultation will begin on 9 June 2025 and will end on 3 October 2025. This period allows for the statutory minimum of six weeks, including at least thirty school days.
A public meeting will be held at 6:30pm on Wednesday 2 July at St Clement’s School with an opportunity to attend virtually for those unable to be there in person.
A consultant architect with extensive experience of designing special schools and additional support needs facilities has been engaged to assist with the development of the new St Clement’s School project brief and initial floor plans and external layouts have been prepared. A series of design workshops will be held with stakeholder groups in the coming weeks to establish a clear vision for the new school. This will ensure that it provides first-rate facilities to meet the needs of every child that will attend St Clement’s in the future and maximise the benefits to be realised.
The Highland Council, Education Committee met today (Wednesday 4 June 2025) and received a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the Education and Learning Service, including positive school leaver destinations and an update on the refreshed attainment strategy and the Education and Learning management restructure.
Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The set of reports presented to us today, show positive steps in the educational journey of all our learners across Highland and the positive contribution they will bring as part of our ‘Workforce for the Future’ ambitions.
“The last few months, has been as is always expected at this time of year, challenging for our senior phase learners as they have prepared for and taken their SQA exams, finalised apprenticeships and completed portfolios and module-based learning. I commend the pupils and staff for all their efforts and hope that as we draw near to the school summer holidays, pupils take some down time to reflect on what they do next in terms of learning, life and work.
“It is encouraging to see the positive destination statistics for our school leavers be that in employment, education, or training, which have produced the most positive figures we have seen in the last 5 years with 96.5% of 2,692 pupils achieving sustained destinations on leaving school.”
Cllr Finlayson added: “A refreshed attainment strategy with input from central officers, headteachers, and unions has positively progressed since our February Education Committee, and its strategic focus and workstreams will be discussed at our head teachers conference.
“At Committee today, we also received an update on the Education and Learning management restructure, a new area-based model with 8 operational areas. The changes deliver a simplified and streamlined structure, providing clear lines of responsibility and accountability.
“Improving outcomes for all our Highland learners remains a key priority and all of today’s reports outline the continued vision and commitment of The Highland Council’s Education and Learning Service and that of our partner services to move positively forward on our journey to excellence.”
At the Education Committee on Wednesday 4 June, Members were presented with the Integrated Children Services Plan Annual Report 2024/25.
The Integrated Children’s Service’s work continues as it enters the 3rd year of the delivery of the Integrated Children’s Service Plan. The report highlights the continued progress that has been made in 2024/25. The work of the Integrated Children Services Board has continued to be strengthened through the delivery groups and strong partnership across services and in all sectors.
The plan has been developed in collaboration with public sector bodies and third sector organisations and is informed by both the voice and testimony of children, young people and families and the needs of our communities as articulated through our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (2023). The annual report details the significant work that has been undertaken by the delivery groups in progressing the priorities and change ideas.
Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “Listening and learning from the views and experience of children, young people and their families is key to continuing to deliver an effective and relevant Integrated Children’s Services.
“We all have a duty and responsibility to support our communities in Highland, I along with my fellow Members recognise the importance of engaging with all partners, third sector, public and community groups to continue to improve the future prosperity and safety of the children living in Highland.
“This well supported plan demonstrates the exemplary wealth of professionals we have across Highland who are committed to integrating skills, experience and expertise to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families. The plan articulates how partners work together to provide services which are organised, equipped to deliver high-quality, joined-up, trauma-informed, responsive and preventative support to children and families.”
The programme supports a whole family approach that is family and person centred, with a strong emphasis on reducing inequalities and improving outcomes for children, young people and their families, by strengthening supports for families, to reduce crisis and family breakdown and to meet ‘The Promise’ in Highland. It also sets clear indicators for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of children’s services in terms of their success in responding to and addressing children’s wellbeing needs.
Highland Council’s dedicated road marking team has been fully mobilised to carry out road marking across the Highland region.
Chair of Highland Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans, said: “The Council has invested significantly in road maintenance as part of a broader program to improve Highland roads and the dedicated road marking team will help us to improve road safety for our communities. I’m delighted to see that the newly established team has made the most of the recent good weather to cover a lot of ground in the north-west and Skye, despite the challenging geography. Our new vehicles are also ensuring that the work is carried out quickly and effectively with minimal disruption for local people.”
Since April, the team has completed approx. 150km of white lines across Sutherland, Caithness and the Isle of Skye, with a further 190km of white lining works planned for over the summer months across the other areas of the Highlands, including Lochaber, Ross and Cromarty, Badenoch and Inverness. Exact timings will be weather-dependent, but we aim to give communities advance notice on social media wherever possible.
The operation requires a team of four operatives using two lorries. A feeder lorry is used to preheat and deliver the thermoplastic lining material to the lining lorry which then applies the hot material to the road surface as either an edge or centre line. Immediately after the line is applied, another nozzle adds reflective glass beads, followed by a final nozzle spraying clean water onto the line to cool the material, allowing traffic to flow immediately.
The road marking programme forms part of The Council’s £2.1 billion Highland Investment Plan which will provide 20 years of funding for roads and transport, schools, offices and community facilities throughout the Highlands.
At today’s Education Committee (Wednesday 4 June), Members noted the evidence base that supports the approach taken in Highland to address relationship and behaviour issues in our schools and agreed the actions being taken to ensure practice across Highland is in line with national recommendations.
The 2023/4 national Behaviour in Scottish Schools survey and subsequent report (BISSR) indicated a difference to behaviour in schools from the previous report (2016) and cited the significant impact of COVID-19 on overall attendance and behaviour in schools and communities across Scotland.
The BISSR findings identify that most children can manage school well most or all of the time, however the evidence identifies an increase in classroom disruption and in physical and verbal aggression.
Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “To better reflect the relationships and behaviours across our Highland schools, we recently conducted an extensive school staff survey which gathered in-depth information about the behavioural barriers, indicating that low-level disruptive behaviour remains the thing that causes most impact in pre-school and infant classrooms.
“Last school session less than 2% of children were involved in reported staff/pupil incidents. In many cases their language, communication and cognitive skills were poorly developed. The age where there is the highest level of pupil-staff incidents in Highland is Primary One (28% of incidents are recorded in relation to 3-5 year olds). Our understanding of this is that very young children haven’t yet developed their language skills or understanding of social situations to enable them to communicate their needs well. After Primary One the number of reported incidents significantly reduce, indicating the developmental nature of this issue in primary schools.
“Ongoing training and staff support is regularly offered by the Council’s Psychological Service to help support the wellbeing of teaching and support staff at all levels and to aid them in understanding and intervening in relation to dysregulated and distressed behaviour.
“In the recent staff survey, staff were asked what successes they had in supporting dysregulated and distressed children. The greatest number of responses related to providing safe, quiet spaces where children regulate and find calm, often helped by a knowledgeable member of staff with whom they already have a relationship.
“Work continues to improve pre-school and infant school pupils’ development skills, to enable young children to effectively communicate with peers and staff and over time reduce dysregulation and low level disruptive behavioural patterns forming in school settings.”
To support staff, Highland Council has a Positive Relationships Framework and Guidance that is in line with the requirements of the Scottish Government policy landscape. Our Framework has drawn together relevant research and educational thinking. It promotes a more relationship-based approach, with a focus on self-regulation and co-regulation, which we know is effective in creating calm and respectful early years settings, classrooms and schools.
To read the report, click the link here (Item 10).
Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
June 04, 2025
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and U.S. Representatives John Larson (D-Conn.-01), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.-02), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.-03), Jim Himes (D-Conn.-04),and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.-05) today joined 22 members of Congress from New England and Hawaii in issuing the following bicameral statement in response to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins illegally restricting relief funding to small and mid-sized family farms in New England, Alaska, and Hawaii:
“On behalf of our States and small farmers, we oppose the Department of Agriculture’s decision to violate Congressional intent, and the statutory purpose of the small states block grant, known as the Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant program. This block grant was created specifically to bridge the gap between traditional disaster relief programs and uncovered losses experienced by small farmers who cannot access traditional crop insurance.
“USDA has dragged its feet for months on implementing this simple program, adding barrier after barrier to our States, and has now set an arbitrary deadline in a clear attempt to rush States into making a decision without sufficient information. USDA is demanding States either accept traditional disaster relief, which has failed most of our small farmers for years, or gamble on an unknown amount of repayment with little to no guidance from USDA. Once again, this choice would leave so many small farms to fend for themselves after a disaster.
“The Secretary of Agriculture must execute the law as written to make these farmers whole. Our farmers know what they need best, and they have been left behind by traditional disaster relief before. This grant was created to address those shortcomings. Small farmers in our States deserve respect and fair treatment, not another bait and switch from Washington bureaucrats.”
U.S. Representatives Richie Neal (D-Mass.-01), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.-03), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.-04), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.-05), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.-07), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Bill Keating (D-Mass.-09), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Jared Golden (D-Maine-02), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.-01), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.-02), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.-01), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.-02), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Ed Case (D-Hawaii-01), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii-02), as well as U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also joined the statement.
Devonport has an unprecedented and unrivalled level of long-term security for its work programme following the Government’s announcement that it will build up to 12 more nuclear-powered submarines, Council leader Tudor Evans says.
“The Prime Minister’s announcement in the Strategic Defence Review means Devonport’s work programme is secure until 2070 or 2080, which is incredible given that in years gone by we’ve had to deal with fluctuating workloads and workforce and to fight hard to ensure Plymouth gets it fair share through the Devonport Task Force,” Councillor Evans said.
“I don’t think there is another part of the country that can claim this level of certainty in workloads for decades to come.
“Plymouth is already on the brink of a once-in-a-generation transformation with the £4.4 billion Government investment in Devonport over the next decade and this latest announcement gives us even more impetus to ensure we grasp this opportunity for the whole city and sub-region.
“Now we’ve made the case for Devonport and got the long-term security we need, we have the welcome challenge of filling jobs with workers from the city and across the region, by providing new opportunities to give them the skills to take these jobs and homes for them and their families to live in.”
Devonport is already linchpin in the UK’s defence capabilities, supporting both the surface and submarine fleets and carrying out some of the most complex engineering and infrastructure programmes in the country.
Over the next decade Plymouth will see a surge of investment and development driven by the Government’s investment in Devonport as part of its commitment to the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent.
It is anticipated that Babcock’s Devonport facility will need to recruit 5,500 new employees over the next 10 years—alongside 2,000 construction workers to support its expanding infrastructure programme.
Councillor Evans added: “The numbers are big, which means we need to think big to make sure we grasp the massive opportunities this brings to Plymouth. This is why we have a bold vision for regeneration of the city centre that will see the creation of up to 10,000 new homes and why we have teamed up with Babcock International Group, the Royal Navy, our partners through the Growth Alliance Plymouth (GAP) on a shared mission to ensure the city can support and sustain this scale of growth.
“It is why Homes England have now identified Plymouth as a priority place for investment and are working with us to bring forward a pipeline of thousands of new homes.
“It is also why the creation of a new City College Plymouth campus in the Civic Centre building will be so important in ensuring we can home grow the skills that will be needed at Devonport.”
Major economic study
The City Council, working as part of Growth Alliance Plymouth, has commissioned a major economic study to help the city prepare for the opportunities and challenges arising from an investment programme worth in excess of £4.4 billion at HM Naval Base Devonport and Babcock’s Devonport Royal Dockyard. Read more
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Brindley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield
Daxiao Productions / shutterstock
Outside of the home, public playgrounds are the most common places for children to play and the fundamental right of every child to play is even recognised in a UN convention. Despite this, there has been very limited research exploring inequality in the provision of playgrounds.
To help address this, we have analysed data from almost 34,000 playgrounds in England – the largest national dataset on playgrounds yet. In particular, we looked at England’s largest 534 settlements with populations over 15,000 and mapped patterns from the 18,077 children’s playgrounds within them.
We found substantial inequalities. For example, with two places broadly comparable in population size, one might have five times the number of children per playground.
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With the exception of London, deprived settlements in England tend to have fewer, smaller and further-away playgrounds – a serious social justice issue. In London however, relationships were found to be the opposite, with deprived areas tending to have more playgrounds in close proximity.
There are many different ways to measure the provision of playgrounds, but we used 21 indicators across three domains: the number of playgrounds per child, the size of playgrounds, and their closeness to where children live.
This ensured our results were not heavily influenced by a single variable, since some settlements excelled in one domain but were lacking in others.
Winners and losers
The graph below shows children’s playground provision for major settlements in England:
More deprived settlements tend to have fewer, smaller playgrounds. Brindley & Martin (2025)
Places on the left of the graph have smaller playgrounds, while in places towards the bottom of the graph kids have to travel further to a playground. Circle size indicates how many playgrounds there are per child.
Here’s the same graph for boroughs of London, where the relationship is reversed:
In London, kids in more deprived inner city boroughs have better access to playgrounds. Brindley & Martin (2025)
Comparing major settlements, Liverpool has nearly five times more children under 16 per playground than Norwich (1,104 compared to 236). In London, the difference is even greater: the borough of Redbridge has nearly eight times more children per playground than Islington (1,567 v 204).
In terms of playground size, Leicester dedicates four times more of its urban area to playgrounds than Leeds (0.30% v 0.07%), while Norwich offers seven times more playground space per child than Birmingham (4.2 metres to 0.7 metres). In London, Islington has five times the playground area of Barnet (0.64% of total urban area v 0.13%), and three times more space per child than Redbridge (2.8 metres v 0.9 metres).
Liverpool has the lowest percentage of children within 100, 300 and 500 metres of playgrounds, with Coventry having the lowest percentage at 800 metres. In contrast, Southampton, Plymouth and Reading have the highest percentages of children living close to playgrounds.
In London, Redbridge and Kingston upon Thames had the lowest percentages of children living close to playground, while Islington, Tower Hamlets and Hackney had the highest levels of provision. These distance measures will be heavily influenced by population density, especially in London (Redbridge is suburban; Islington is inner city). However, patterns outside of London appear more complex.
Different solutions for different places
Places like Norwich, Islington and Milton Keynes fared well across all three domains, while places like Liverpool, Leeds or Stockton-on-Tees did comparably poorly in all three. But most areas fell somewhere in between.
For example, places such as Portsmouth or Nottingham have good scores for distance but have poor provision in terms of size. They would, therefore, benefit most from expanding existing playgrounds.
In contrast, playgrounds in Brighton and Lincoln are bigger but tend to be further away. Places like these would benefit from a few new strategically positioned playgrounds to fill in the gaps.
As with any dataset, there are constraints. In future, we want to incorporate additional data on accessibility for disabled children, and we recognise that playgrounds are just one element across the wider spectrum of places where children play. For instance, children in outer London boroughs with few playgrounds might live nearer to woods or sports fields.
We also acknowledge that we have no data to monitor the quality of playgrounds. Is a 100 square metre playground filled with interesting and safe features? Or a single worn out slide surrounded by fencing? Ultimately, playground use rather than provision is the most important measure. After all, a bad playground will not make children more active.
Our hope is that, as people become more aware of the problem, we’ll see new policies and better placemaking for children. Already we are working with Play England (England’s national charity for play) on a “digital dashboard” capable of supporting councils to plan more strategically for play in their local areas.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Labour government is on the wrong side of history and it has Palestinian blood on its hands
More in External Affairs
Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman joined protesters outside the UK Government offices in Edinburgh as part of the Red Line for Gaza demonstration, calling for an immediate end to arms sales to Israel and demanding accountability for the UK’s role in the ongoing violence against Palestinians.
The protest coincides with Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, with catastrophic impacts on civilians.
The UK Government is currently facing a judicial review in the High Court challenging their continued supply of F-35 parts in arms exports used by Israel. Despite mounting evidence the Government lawyer’s have argued no violation of the duty to prevent genocide “can occur unless and until there is actually a genocide”.
European countries such as Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy have suspended arms sales to Israel, however, the UK Government continues to fight the case as aircraft continue to bomb Gaza.
“Gaza has been turned into rubble – hospitals, schools, homes – all destroyed. Over 90% of housing has been wiped out. Families are being displaced and forced into camps with no food, water or shelter. This is not just a humanitarian crisis – it’s a moral catastrophe and the UK Government is helping it happen. The UK Government is complicit.
“It’s shameful that the UK refuses to act. Instead of standing up for peace, the Prime Minister came to Scotland to announce more money for war. Keir Starmer’s expects yet more UK tax money to feed the war machine and his government’s denial of genocide shows he’s more interested in retaining power than defending human rights. This Labour government is on the wrong side of history and it has Palestinian blood on its hands.
“The UK Government is currently defending its position in a high court case, claiming there’s “no evidence” of genocide or intentional targeting of civilians in Gaza. It doesn’t require much thought to reject that argument outright: this genocide is being live-streamed for all to see. We’ve all seen the videos. We’ve seen the bodies. The world knows what’s happening in Gaza – the destruction, the killing of women and children. For the UK Government to say there’s no evidence is not only dishonest – it’s dangerous.
“The Scottish Greens know that genuine security doesn’t come at the end of a gun or aftermath of a bomb. It comes from investing in healthcare, affordable housing and a green economy built on sustainability and compassion.
“We have consistently called for an immediate end to arms sales to Israel, full transparency over any UK or indeed Scottish Government funding linked to Israeli military production, an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, recognition of the State of Palestine, and Israel’s suspension from international bodies, including the United Nations, until compliance with international law is restored.
“Together, outside the UK Government offices, we gathered in protest but we also gathered in hope. Hope for the Palestinian people and hope for humanity.”
Continuing Travelling Gallery’s 2025 programme is a group exhibition exploring ways to connect with our worlds through other-than-human perspectives. Challenging the boundaries between culture and nature, the exhibition looks to destabilise colonial systems, categories, and hierarchies, that tend to favour scientific theory and marginalise ancestral knowledges and indigenous cosmologies.
Curated with Jelena Sofronijevic, and featuring work by artists Emii Alrai, Iman Datoo, Remi Jabłecki, Radovan Kraguly, Zeljko Kujundzic, Leo Robinson, and Amba Sayal-Bennett, the exhibition brings together a variety of contemporary artistic practices, including drawing, printmaking, sculpture and film, that reimagine our collective understandings and visions of places and times.
Common across the works in the exhibition is the use of the seed as a means to think about and connect themes concerning ecologies, environments, and migration. For some, the seed represents a world of its own, a self-contained body or cell, capable of crossing borders. For others, it serves as a starting point for alternative possibilities and ways of being. Many of the artists have researched specific seeds, in their ‘native’ soils, and displaced in banks and libraries. The potato is offered as an incidental ‘root’ to many of their works. In the film, Kinnomic Botany (2022), Iman Datoo draws upon research in the Commonwealth Potato Collection at the James Hutton Institute near Dundee, the UK’s largest collection of potato seeds, to challenge dominant taxonomies or ways of classifying lives.
More speculative connections can be made between Remi Jabłecki and Radovan Kraguly’s practices. The former’s futuristic sculptures remind us of the otherworldly, even alien qualities of these most earthly and everyday British crops, with the artist using them as a means to think about transformation and personal growth. Kraguly’s prints,though as detailed as scientific and botanical illustrations, are similarly cosmic, avoiding categorisation in their ambiguous representations and titles. Reflecting on relations of control between humans and nature, his works also illustrate the role of different pastoral and agricultural environments in the formation of the artist’s own identity and early adoption of ‘climate politics’, connecting his formative experiences growing up on a farm in the former Yugoslavia, to his later practice in rural Wales.
Amba Sayal-Bennett’s architectural sculptures Kern (2024) and Phlo (2024) are part of the artist’s investigations into rubber, a commodity once so highly demanded its value surpassed that of silver. In a mission facilitated by the British government, Henry Wickham stole and trafficked 70,000 rubber seeds from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil in 1876. Transported to Kew Gardens in London, they were then dispersed to British colonies for cultivation. Its plural uses and potential for profit led to its proliferation across the globe – yet the soil in India refused to take the seeds, which the artist puts forward as a form of environmental resistance to the colonial project. Artist Emii Alrai, by contrast, focusses on excavation, exploring archaeology, Western museological structures, and the complex process of ruination.
Scotland has proved fertile land for many of the artists’ practices, yet, for some, SEEDLINGS presents the first opportunity to experience their works in these contexts. Born in Subotica, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), Zeljko Kujundzic lived and worked in Edinburgh between 1948 and 1958, before moving with his partner and frequent collaborator, Ann, and their children, to British Columbia (BC). His developed, complex work in ceramic sculpture, often featuring the thunderbird, a mythological bird-like spirit widespread in North American indigenous and First Nation cultures and storytelling, is deeply rooted in these early experiences. Yet his part in Edinburgh’s growing artistic community, and work with artists and writers like Ian Hamilton Finlay, Nannie Katharin Wells, Bernard Leach, and Joan Faithfull, has, thus far, been walked over, in more conventional art histories. A selection of archive materials concerning his invention of the solar kiln, unearthed from public and private collections across the UK and Canada, are presented here for the first time – the exhibition itself seeking to germinate future research.
The exhibition will also include a newly commissioned essay, How does a tree fit inside a seed?, exploring the artists’ works, both individually, and as constellated in the exhibition, by the curator Jelena Sofronijevic. The text journeys through the construction and overlapping uses of terms like ‘native’ and, ‘invasive’, ‘indigenous’, ‘naturalisation’, and ‘dispersal’, to challenge binaries between beings, and consider ideas of home, identity, and belonging in the context of diasporas. Launching in Edinburgh on Calton Hill (outside the Collective Gallery) on Friday 6 June from 11am to 5pm, the exhibition will tour to arts venues, community centres, high streets and schools across Scotland including in the Western Isles, Glasgow, Falkirk,Clackmannanshire, North Lanarkshire, Scottish Borders before culminating at Edinburgh Art Festival in August.
It is accompanied by a series of interventions on social media, highlighting the artists’ connections to the places of our tour, and a number of talks, tours, and workshops, including with artist Leo Robinson.
Details of confirmed tour dates and venues can be found on the Travelling Gallery website.
Louise Briggs, Curator, Travelling Gallery said:
It has been a real pleasure to work with Jelena Sofronijevic on this exhibition and to be introduced to the work of a number of artists, many of whom have interesting connections to Edinburgh and Scotland through their work & research as well as their personal & professional lives. This exhibition continues to explore our annual theme looking at The Environment and Climate Emergency. We hope SEEDLINGS will offer visitors a new way of thinking about our relationship with, and connection to nature and may encourage them to perhaps think about our worlds and our interconnectedness in different ways.
Culture and Communities Convener Margaret Graham, said:
The Travelling Gallery is a unique and fantastic example of how art can and should be accessible for all. I’m delighted that, with our support, the Gallery has been able to remove barriers to art by taking powerful and thought-provoking exhibitions into communities across Scotland.
This year’s exhibition not only invites us to engage with outstanding contemporary works but also encourages us to reflect on the world through different lenses. With such a talented group of artists involved, I encourage everyone to visit when the gallery sets off this week.
Additional thanks go to: All of the exhibiting artists; Nena Kraguly; Family and Friends of Kujundzic; The City of Edinburgh Council; Creative Scotland; City Art Centre, Edinburgh; Government Art Collection; Ingleby Gallery; Carbon 12 Gallery; Palmer Gallery; and the University of British Columbia Library Rare Books and Special Collections, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Members of the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee will be told that 243 new houses for affordable social rent were delivered in Perth and Kinross, along with another 30 for mid-market rent, in partnership with local Registered Social Landlords. Thirty-seven of the new homes for affordable social rent are Council new-build properties.
The progress report on the Council’s five-year Local Housing Strategy (LHS) for Perth and Kinross will be considered by Councillors at a meeting on Wednesday 11th June.
The LHS for 2022-2027 sets out the vision, policies and plans that will enable the Council and its community partners to continue the delivery of high-quality housing and housing services for local people. It is an ambitious plan, setting out what homes and communities should look and feel like over the next five years:
The progress report to be considered by the committee outlines a range of other achievements made over the last 12 months across identified priority areas, including:
The Council bought back 116 ex-Council homes to further increase its stock of affordable social housing.
20 empty homes were provided for people in need of accommodation through the Empty Homes Initiative.
A total of 1,413 households were supported to sustain their tenancy through our Tenancy Sustainment Fund, Financial Inclusion Project and Think Yes budget, preventing them from becoming homeless.
We continued to deliver sector-leading outcomes for people who experienced homelessness, helping them into secure, permanent accommodation quickly.
A new Tenant Downsizing Scheme was launched with the aim of freeing up larger homes for households experiencing overcrowding.
We invested £491,700 in 330 minor housing adaptations and 74 major adaptations for local authority tenants, allowing people to living independently in their own homes for as long as they want to.
Our work with SCARF to deliver our Home Energy Advice Team (HEAT) service, provided free and impartial energy efficiency advice to 880 households which resulted in savings for residents, reductions in carbon emissions and removed some residents from fuel poverty.
The report also sets out what our priorities will be for the coming year, including the continued delivery of 1,050 new homes by 2027.
Members of the committee will be asked to note the progress made in 2024/25 and approve the list of priorities set out for the next 12 months.
Committee Convener, Councillor Tom McEwan, said: “The LHS is one of the most important strategies we produce as a Council. Housing plays a vital role in meeting the needs of local people, communities and the economy. Giving people the right housing for them, in the right place and at the right cost, vastly improves their overall life chances.
“The LHS is the framework for how we deliver new housing, improve existing houses across the area, drive down fuel poverty, make sure people live in secure and warm housing, tackle homelessness and reduce the carbon footprint of our area.
“This excellent report highlights the massive amount of work that the Council and our Registered Social Landlord partners have done, and will continue to do.
“I am particularly pleased to see hundreds of new homes for affordable rent added to the local housing stock, which will provide much-needed accommodation for people and families that will change their lives. The Council continues to add significant amounts of new housing to its stock through our new-build and buy-back programmes.
“We are also one of the leading local authorities in Scotland when it comes to preventing and dealing with homelessness. Supporting over 1,400 households to keep their tenancy, avoiding both the stigma and financial cost of homelessness, is a notable achievement.
“Overall, we are making excellent progress under our LHS for 2022-27. We will move forward with ambition and determination to provide high-quality, affordable housing for people, in the areas where they want to live.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
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