Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Early voting began on Thursday for South Korea’s snap presidential election scheduled for June 3.
The early voting, which was adopted in 2013 and first applied to the 2014 local election, will be carried out for two days through Friday.
Among 44,391,871 eligible voters, those who wish to cast ballots before the election day will be allowed to vote at 3,568 polling stations across the country from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. local time.
At 9:00 a.m., the early voting turnout was 3.55 percent, surpassing the previous high of 2.19 percent for the parliamentary election in 2024.
It was also higher than the 2022 presidential election’s early voting turnout of 2.14 percent for the same time.
May 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the national inquiry into the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.
Conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, the inquiry’s final report was called Bringing Them Home. It demonstrated the extent and trauma of First Nations child removal practices across Australia over more than a century.
Our archival research paints a dramatic picture of how the Howard government set out to minimise the impact of the report, despite the genuine outpouring of national grief.
National reckoning
The 1990s in Australia was marked by an unprecedented national focus on the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians. This was part of a global trend using truth-seeking models to examine contemporary and historical injustices.
The establishment of a human rights inquiry investigating the Stolen Generations in 1995 promised a reckoning with this largely unknown history.
Government resistance
However, the election of the Howard government in 1996 had an immediate effect on the nation’s trajectory towards “coming to terms” with its past.
After some early resistance, cabinet eventually agreed to make a whole-of-government submission, broadly outlining its Indigenous affairs priority:
to address current disadvantage in health, housing, employment and education.
It stressed compensation for Indigenous child removal was
inappropriate and unacceptable.
The Bringing Them Home report contained stories and a history that shocked many Australians. Nonetheless, then Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, John Herron argued in 2000 the inquiry was deeply flawed, and
there was never a ‘generation’ of stolen children.
No apology
The government tried to discredit the final 1997 report, including its core finding the removal of Aboriginal children constituted genocide.
Its formal response rejected the key recommendations of a commonwealth apology and compensation for members of the Stolen Generations.
However, the government was willing to act on three areas that presented “opportunities for a positive response”:
access to records
reunion assistance
mental health strategies.
Several of the report’s recommendations were designed to promote self-determination and establish minimum national standards in Indigenous child welfare, adoption and juvenile justice.
One tactic employed by the Howard government was to push responsibility for implementing the recommendations onto the states and non-government organisations, such as churches, which had been involved in child removal.
Therefore, a national legislative response was not forthcoming, with the government arguing this would represent a
significant intrusion by the Commonwealth in state and territory responsibilities.
Family reunion
Herron had ministerial oversight of the government’s response to the report. The prime minister set the tone, saying it would be done in a “practical and realistic way”.
Herron recommended to cabinet family reunion and counselling services should form the overarching theme of the government’s response. This focus left the broader systemic issues identified in Bringing Them Home unaddressed.
While acknowledging “some of the disadvantages suffered by Indigenous people can be attributed to policies of child removal”, the background paper accompanying Herron’s cabinet submission also outlined some of the government’s early criticisms of the report, describing it as
very emotive, and focused only on one view of the separation process.
Partial response
The government’s response package was initially costed at A$54 million over four years. It included:
an oral history project to provide some form of acknowledgement
funding for indexing of archival records
enhanced family reunion services
Indigenous mental health workers.
These measures undoubtedly addressed real needs identified in Bringing Them Home. However, they were a partial response to the broad-ranging findings of the report.
Herron argued facilitating family reunion was the “most pressing” issue identified by the inquiry, which had indeed noted that
assisting family reunions is the most significant and urgent need of separated families.
But it is an oversimplification to single out this issue as “the most pressing”.
ATSIC was unequivocal in its feedback, saying the response would “severely disappoint Indigenous people”. It accused the government of not giving the report “serious attention”.
Herron insisted the government had “listened to Indigenous people”. However, we were unable to identify any archival evidence of consultation with Indigenous communities in formulating the response package.
Legacy
The Healing Foundation commissioned a recent report on the unfinished business of Bringing Them Home. It identified the lack of a whole-of-government policy response that centred on the needs and rights of Stolen Generations survivors and descendants, as a key failing.
This is unsurprising given the approach by the Howard government was carefully designed to limit the impact of Bringing Them Home.
Despite this, the inquiry achieved a significant legacy. This includes greater public awareness of the Stolen Generations, apologies from all Australian parliaments, and the establishment of compensation schemes, now in place in most Australian states and territories.
This was despite the Howard government’s sustained rejection of such measures 30 years ago when the nation was first seeking to come to terms with the wrongs of the past.
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Anne Maree Payne received seed funding from the School of Humanities & Languages, UNSW Sydney, to undertake the archival research on which this article is based.
Heidi Norman receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Don Beyer (D-VA)
Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), who serves on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade and chairs the New Democrat Coalition’s Trade Task Force, issued the following statement on a ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade vacating and permanently enjoining Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on nearly every country in the world, including his “Liberation Day” tariffs and separate tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China:
“This ruling is a major victory for the American people, who have spent months under threat of a stupid, self-imposed economic disaster thanks to Donald Trump’s trade war. Trump’s tariffs have already raised costs on Americans, strained our alliances, hurt our credibility, and threatened the global economy. They’ve driven uncertainty to a peak, hurt our small businesses, and greatly raised the danger of a recession.
“The U.S. Court of International Trade agreed with what I and others have said for months: Trump was clearly abusing emergency authorities in ways not authorized by Congress to impose damaging tariffs on other countries, with obviously pretextual excuses. Abuse of power has been the most consistent theme of Trump’s presidency, including power grabs on immigration, elections, and the structure of the government itself, which are clearly illegal and unconstitutional. Such is the case here.
“It is important to note that while Trump’s broadest tariffs, which he imposed using authorities under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, were just blocked by the Court, but his sector-based tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, and auto parts are not affected by this ruling and remain in place. Trump has threatened additional tariffs under this authority, known as Section 232, on semiconductor chips, copper, and pharmaceuticals, and he clearly is intent on abusing this power as well. My bill, the Congressional Trade Authority Act, would prevent Trump from abusing this provision, return trade authority to Congress, where it belongs, and stop Trump’s trade war from doing further harm to the United States and the world. Congress should pass it.”
Beyer is the sponsor of the Congressional Trade Authority Act, which would rein in presidential abuses of authorities under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and the co-lead, with Rep. Suzan DelBene, of legislation to end abuses of International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariff authorities.
If you’re a parent or carer of a child who’s autistic, the odds are you’re spinning more plates than the average person. The emotional, physical and logistical demands stack up, often without the kind of support you need. It can leave you exhausted and wondering if things will ever improve.
Every child is different, and every day can bring new challenges. Some moments are beautiful. Some are overwhelming. Some end in tears and frustration. Just when you think you’re in a routine that works or made some headway, everything can change again.
As a clinical psychologist, this is what parents of autistic children tell me. As a parent of an autistic child, I too experience some of these stresses.
In fact, parents of autistic children have much higher levels of stress than parents of children with other disabilities.
What is autism?
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, is a developmental condition that affects how a person communicates, interacts with others, and makes sense of the world around them.
It involves a wide range of traits and abilities. But it often involves difficulties with interacting and communicating socially, such as understanding body language or holding a conversation, as well as patterns of restricted or repetitive behaviour.
Autism is usually diagnosedin early childhood. While every child’s experience is unique, it can influence their behaviour, learning and daily routines in ways that affect the whole family.
For parents, the impact is often intense. This is not just about managing meltdowns or navigating therapy waitlists. The stress can affect everything from mental health, relationships, finances and the ability to cope day-to-day.
It’s an incredibly tough gig for many parents and carers.
Why the stress?
Many parents tell me and research confirms that the hardest part isn’t autism itself – it’s everything around it. The long waits for a diagnosis. The out-of-pocket costs to see specialists, or for therapy or educational supports. The endless phone calls and paperwork. Trying to get help, only to hit another wall.
Parents often spend extra time coordinating appointments, supporting school engagement, and advocating for their child. That invisible workload can take a toll, especially when combined with social isolation, lack of respite and little time to care for their own wellbeing.
Chronic stress and burnout are real risks for many parents, especially when the level of support required just isn’t there.
What can parents and carers do?
A few approaches can help lighten the load:
be kind to yourself, especially on the hard days. Even a short break and some deep breathing to release tension can take the edge off and help you reset. It might not solve everything, but it can give you a small window to regroup and keep going
research shows evidence-based parenting programs can help families of children with disability feel more confident and less stressed. They can also make it easier to manage tough times and strengthen the parent-child bond. The Australian government offers a free, online, self-paced program, which I co-wrote, to help parents cope.
Many parents and carers carry a huge emotional load trying to help their autistic child feel supported in educational settings, such as childcare and schools.
They often become the case manager, counsellor and advocate to make sure their child is included, safe and seen.
If you’re a friend, family member, or part of the school community, try to understand how challenging this can be. The struggle is often ongoing. Parents and carers aren’t being difficult – they’re doing what they can to give their child their best chance.
Ongoing support, even small things such as dropping off a meal, helping with school pick-ups, or sending a kind message, can ease the load more than you might realise.
Information and support for parents of autistic childrenis available. If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Trevor Mazzucchelli is a co-author of Stepping Stones Triple P – Positive Parenting Program and a consultant to Triple P International. The Parenting and Family Support Centre is partly funded by royalties stemming from published resources of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, which is developed and owned by The University of Queensland (UQ). Royalties are also distributed to the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at UQ and contributory authors of published Triple P resources. Triple P International (TPI) Pty Ltd is a private company licensed by UniQuest Pty Ltd on behalf of UQ, to publish and disseminate Triple P worldwide. Trevor has no share or ownership of TPI, but has received and may in the future receive royalties and/or consultancy fees from TPI. Trevor has a child with autism and accesses support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme. He is also a member of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance (PAFRA), a multidisciplinary research collaboration of experts from leading Australian universities and research centres. The alliance is actively involved in conducting research, communication, and advocacy pertaining to parenting, families, and evidence-based parenting support. PAFRA is supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course.
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Spokesperson Tammy Bruce leads the Department Press Briefing at the Department of State, on May 29, 2025.
———-
Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
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Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
This photo taken on Oct. 17, 2024 shows a city view of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. [Photo/Xinhua]
Dubai was the world’s busiest market for residential properties priced at US$10 million and above for the second consecutive year, according to a report from global property consultancy Knight Frank.
The United Arab Emirates city recorded 435 sales in this price bracket in 2024, almost equaling the number of the same price-range home sales in London and New York combined. A further 111 homes sold for over US$10 million during Q1 this year, the highest number for the same period in history.
Shehzad Jamal, a partner at Knight Frank, said, “The super-rich remain laser-focused on purchasing luxury homes in the city, and this unrelenting demand has been a critical driver of Dubai being the world’s busiest US$10 million-plus homes market for the second year running.”
A record of nearly 170,000 residential sales were made in Dubai in 2024, totaling US$100 billion, and the momentum has continued into 2025, with home sales hitting AED100 billion (US$27 billion) by March 4 – the fastest pace on record.
In partnership with market research firm YouGov, Knight Frank carried out a survey of 387 high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) based in India, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and East Asia, each with an average net worth of US$22 million.
The survey finds that Saudi HNWIs have the highest average budget for a home purchase in Dubai (US$45.7 million), followed by those from India (US$44.6 million) and the U.K. (US$30 million). Asian HNWIs have the lowest budget among Knight Frank’s survey respondents, averaging US$23 million.
As to the target neighborhood for a residential acquisition, Dubai’s property market poster-child Dubai Marina (28%) was once again the top target among HNWIs, with Dubai Hills Estate (24%) and Emirates Hills (23%) in second and third place, respectively.
The survey also finds that 61% of the Chinese respondents have interest in property purchase in Dubai, following those from Saudi Arabia (96%) and India (86%).
Dubai’s overall real estate market continued to expand during 2024, with values and rents climbing to fresh highs and the total value of transactions across all sectors topping US$207 billion, according to the report.
On June 3, South Koreans will head to the polls to choose the country’s new president. The election may draw to a close one of the most chaotic and contentious periods in the country’s post-1987 democratic era.
South Korea has been embroiled in a political crisis since December, when former President Yoon Suk Yeol disastrously declared martial law.
Yoon ordered security forces to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly, leading to a dramatic late night confrontation. His unconstitutional decree was overturned after just six hours.
The fall-out was equally dramatic: Yoon was impeached and removed from office in a drawn-out process that was not finally resolved until April.
This period coincided with massive street demonstrations both opposing and supporting Yoon, a far-right assault on a courthouse and a physical stand-off between investigators and Yoon’s personal security team.
The country, meanwhile, has cycled through three short-lived caretaker leaders.
With weak economic growth and high costs of living, in addition to an equally challenging security environment, South Korea is in desperate need of bold and effective leadership.
Who are the candidates?
The Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung is the clear frontrunner to be the next president, after finishing a close second in the previous 2022 election.
Recent polling put the veteran left-leaning politician at around 49% support as the race entered the final week.
This is a double-digit lead over his main conservative opponent, Kim Moon-soo, polling at 35%. Another conservative candidate, Lee Jun-seok, is polling at 11%. Notably, for the first time since 2007, there are no female candidates standing to be president.
The high levels of support for Lee Jae-myung suggest a widespread desire among the public to repudiate Yoon’s martial law declaration.
Kim, the labour minister in Yoon’s administration, has apologised for December’s declaration. But his opponents have continued to question him about it.
Kim’s challenge has been to build a coalition of moderates and mainstream conservatives who firmly opposed the martial law declaration, while also winning support from those who believe far-right conspiracy theories around election fraud. Yoon, the former president, is continuing to promote these narratives.
Lee’s compelling background
Lee Jae-myung’s personal story has uplifting parallels with South Korea’s own history of economic and political development.
Lee was born into poverty; the exact date of his birth is not known. He worked in factories from a very young age and permanently injured his left arm in an industrial accident when he was still a child.
Lee went on to earn a scholarship to study law and, by the late 1980s, had established himself as a labour lawyer and activist.
This activist image was highlighted when he live-streamed himself dramatically scaling a fence to enter the National Assembly and vote down Yoon’s martial law declaration in December. He has previously compared himself to populist, progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders.
More recently, however, he has moderated his political rhetoric and policy platform to appeal to centrists and even some conservative voters.
This shift may also help shield Lee from the “red-baiting” claims left-leaning South Korean candidates typically face from conservative opponents that they are “communists”, “pro-China”, or “pro-North Korea”.
But Lee is also plagued by legal troubles, including corruption charges linked to a land development project. These charges, frequently highlighted by his opponents, risk derailing his administration if he wins the election.
What are the main issues?
Some international commentators have focused on how the next president will handle North Korea. South Koreans, however, are more interested in the candidates’ plans to fix the country’s troubled economy.
There has also been a vigorous debate over South Korea’s future energy policy. Kim favours expanding nuclear energy production to around 60% of the country’s energy mix. Lee has voiced safety concerns about nuclear power, arguing “the era of building more reactors should come to an end”.
Additionally, questions remain over potential constitutional reform to end South Korea’s so-called “imperial presidency” system, which has been blamed for centralising too much power in the hands of the president.
The system dates back to the rewriting of the constitution following mass protests in 1987. This established direct presidential elections and a single, five-year term.
Both Lee and Kim support changing this to a four-year, two-term presidential system, similar to the United States.
Big challenges lie ahead
On the international stage, the new leader will face an uphill battle negotiating with US President Donald Trump over his punitive tariffs. Trump imposed 25% tariffs on South Korean goods in April, but lowered them temporarily to 10% until early July.
Before his impeachment, Yoon was widely reported to be practising his golf skills to attempt to find common ground with Trump, much as former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did.
The new leader will also face massive challenges bringing South Korean society together in the current climate. Political polarisation and the spread of disinformation worsened under Yoon’s presidency – and these trends will be hard to reverse.
Alexander M. Hynd 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.
The Liberals, still reeling from their crushing 2025 election defeat and following with brief split in the Coalition, have a new frontbench and their eyes turning to the long road of rebuilding.
New leader Sussan Ley stresses the importance of the Liberals “meeting people where they are” and the party represents modern Australia.
But what that will actually look like for the party is still an open question. To talk about this uncertain future we’re joined by the newly-minted Shadow Assistant Minister for Education, Early Learning and Mental Health, Zoe McKenzie.
McKenzie was elected to the Melbourne electorate of Flinders in 2022. Her seat encompasses the Mornington Peninsula, mixing urban and rural areas. At the May election she held off a Climate 200-funded teal challenger.
On the Liberal Party’s commitment to net-zero by 2050 – which is likely to come up for debate this term – McKenzie says she thinks net-zero is “a given”.
It’s where the markets are heading. It’s our responsibility as a developed economy to contribute to the decarbonisation of the planet. I went to COP-27 a few years back, and you can see that the world’s markets, investment markets, research and development markets have all moved into preparing for a net-zero environment and Australia will be part of that. I do think, though, people are right to say, please don’t take away our manufacturing base.
I am confident that net zero is here to stay. But you cannot disconnect it from what it says about the energy market, energy security, and the future of Australian industry. We’ve got to keep this as an investment rich country.
On the party’s issues with the women’s vote, while McKenzie says the Liberals should look at “all options” she still has some concerns with the idea of quota’s,
I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that we must look at all options. I am fearful for what happens if a woman is selected by the operation of a quota and whether she will feel she has deserved her place there and or whether it will be asserted that she only got there because of a quota.
Asked if Labor’s introduction of quotas is proof they can work, McKenzie says,
Labor sacrificed a generation of talented Labor men to get to 50-50.
That sacrificed generation coincided with our many years of successful leadership of this nation. They are now though, because of that decision and because of the sacrifice that was made, and because of the way they went about it, they are in the enviable position of attracting talented, capable women for election, routinely, for each and every seat.
The Liberal Party, it tends, by its very nature, to preference people who have been able to devote a significant amount of time, often while in your 20s or 30s, to both party and community events. […] It will favour men. It will favour women who don’t have their own biological children, or it will favour women who can afford high quality in-home help. So we are not getting the breadth of women we need presenting for pre-selection and we are going to have to think out of the box.
On the rise of the teals, McKenzie’s looks to global examples to explain why two-party systems are changing,
I’m not sure yet whether teal is here to stay but what I do know is that we have moved well beyond the paradigm when I was a kid, which is when it was a 40-40-20 voting bloc. We all fought over that 20 in the middle. It now looks like the 30-30-40 pattern is here to stay.
That’s a message for all of us, in fact, to do better. So I should say, though, this is not unique to Australia. The demise of the two-party system can be observed worldwide.
If you look at the United States, the Republicans and the Democrats remain, but some would say they remain in name only. They have both morphed significantly as political movements. The Labour and Tory parties in the UK have both evolved over time.
On the Liberal’s lack of appeal to younger Australians McKenzie highlights what went wrong and why the party must do better with those voters,
We hadn’t explained to them the basics of home ownership, let alone what a tax deduction on your interest payments on your first mortgage might look and feel like. If you’re 18, 19, 20, your first mortgage still feels 10 to 15 years away.
We didn’t do enough, I think, to talk about their lives, to understand their lives and their aspirations and how Liberal policy was going to make their life easier. We must do a better job of that […] because the average voter now is either Gen Z or a millennial, no longer Gen X, which is my generation, or boomers above.
Michelle Grattan 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.
Last week, organisations from Australia’s online industries submitted a final draft of new industry codes aimed at protecting children from “age-inappropriate content” to the eSafety commissioner.
The commissioner will now decide if the codes are appropriate to be implemented under the Online Safety Act.
The codes aim to address young people’s access to pornography, high-impact violence, and material relating to self-harm, suicide and disordered eating.
However, the draft codes may have unintended consequences. There is a real risk they may further restrict access to materials about sex education, sexual health information, harm reduction and health promotion.
The eSafety commissioner is in the process of introducing codes of practice for the online industry “to protect Australians from illegal and restricted online content”. The Phase 1 codes, aimed at illegal content such as child sexual exploitation material, came into effect last year.
Now the commissioner is looking at Phase 2. These are designed to prevent young people from accessing “inappropriate” but not illegal content. They will do this via age-assurance mechanisms and by filtering, de-prioritising, downranking and suppressing content.
The codes will apply to operating systems, various internet services, search engines and hardware, such as smartphones and tablets.
Tech companies will have more power (and responsibility) to remove content and suspend users. Companies that don’t follow the codes risk fines of up to US$49.5 million (around A$77 million).
Suppression of sexual health content
The idea of using technology to restrict online content by age is problematic. The Australian government itself has deemed that age-assurance technologies are not ready to be used. State-of-the-art software has shown racial and gendered bias.
And digital platforms have a poor track record of governing sexual media.
International human rights organisations, including the United Nations, have warned that automated content moderation is being used to censor sex education and consensual sexual expression.
Sexual health organisations and educators already face challenges using social media to communicate with key audiences, including LGBTQ+ communities. These include having their content made less visible (“shadowbanning”) or outright removed.
For example, Google’s computer vision software has previously relied on word databases that link “bisexuality” with “pornography”, “sodomy” with “bestiality”, and “masturbation” with “self-abuse”.
Many users currently use “algospeak”. This is language designed to avoid the notice of the algorithms that may flag content as inappropriate, often involving tweaks such as using emojis or “seggs” or “s&x” instead of “sex”.
The government recognises the power of social media. It has committed more than A$100 million towards Our Watch (a leading organisation advocating against violence against women) and its teen-focused social media initiative The Line.
Another A$3.5 million has gone to the Teach Us Consent organisation. This group creates social media content for teens and young people about consent, healthy relationships, pornography and sex.
Social media platforms try to separate health information from general sexual content. For example, they may aim to allow nudity in cases like childbirth, breastfeeding, medical care or protests.
To uphold sexual rights to information, privacy and expression, the codes must shift away from simply giving platforms an incentive to detect and suppress all sexual content.
This task might seem time consuming, resource heavy and difficult for regulators and platforms alike. But the implications of content suppression are too dire to overlook.
In our view, the codes should be paused until they are able to balance protection with rights to information.
Giselle Woodley has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council via Discovery Project DP190102435 ‘Adolescents’ perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content’ and the ARC’s Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. She currently receives funding under Discovery Project ID: DP250102379: Teen-informed strategies to counter sexual image abuse and sextortion. She is a co-founder of Bloom-Ed, a Relationships and Sexuality Education advocacy group, whose views are not expressed here. Giselle would like to thank Dr Elena Jeffreys and Professor Paul Haskell-Dowland for their contributions to this article.
Kath Albury receives funding from the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship scheme, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society; and FORTE, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare. She has previously received funding from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. She is a current member of pro-bono advisory groups for ASHM, Scarlet Alliance and UNESCO.
Zahra Stardust has previously received funding from the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (for a project on Rainbow Capitalism, Pinkwashing and Targeted Advertising); FORTE, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (for a project on LGBTQ Digital Sexual Health); from Google Asia Pacific (for a project on AI-related Image-Based Abuse); and from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society (for projects on Alternative Sexual Content Moderation, Sexual Surveillance and the Political Economy of Sextech). She previously worked as a policy advisor for ACON (NSW’s leading HIV and LGBTI health organisation) and Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association.
Until now, the CDC has recommended that everyone ages 6 months and older get a yearly COVID-19 vaccine.Asiaselects via Getty Images
On May 27, 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer include the COVID-19 vaccine on the list of immunizations it recommends for healthy children and pregnant women.
In the video announcing the plan to remove the vaccine from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, Kennedy spoke alongside National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. The trio cited a lack of evidence to support vaccinating healthy children. They did not explain the reason for the change to the vaccine schedule for pregnant people, who have previously been considered at high-risk for severe COVID-19.
Similarly, in the FDA announcement made a week prior, Makary and the agency’s head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, said that public health trends now support limiting vaccines to people at high risk of serious illness instead of a universal COVID-19 vaccination strategy.
Was this a controversial decision or a clear consensus?
Many public health experts and professional health care associations have raised concerns about Kennedy’s latest announcement, saying it contradicts studies showing that COVID-19 vaccination benefits pregnant people and children. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, considered the premier professional organization for that medical specialty, reinforced the importance of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, especially to protect infants after birth. Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatrics pointed to the data on hospitalizations of children with COVID-19 during the 2024-to-2025 respiratory virus season as evidence for the importance of vaccination.
Kennedy’s announcement on children and pregnant women comes roughly a month ahead of a planned meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of vaccine experts that offers guidance to the CDC on vaccine policy. The meeting was set to review guidance for the 2025-to-2026 COVID-19 vaccines. It’s not typical for the CDC to alter its recommendations without input from the committee.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed COVID-19 vaccines from the vaccine schedule for healthy children and pregnant people.
The advisory committee was expected to recommend a risk-based approach for the COVID-19 vaccine, but it was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to. The CDC’s and FDA’s new policies on the vaccine will likely make it difficult for healthy people to get the vaccine.
What conditions count as risk factors?
The CDC lists several medical conditions and other factors that increase peoples’ risk for severe COVID-19. These conditions include cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, chronic kidney disease and some lung conditions like COPD and asthma. Pregnancy is also on the list.
The article authored by Makary and Prasad describing the FDA’s new stance on the vaccine also contain a lengthy list of risk factors and notes that about 100 million to 200 million people will fall into this category and will thus be eligible to get the vaccine. Pregnancy is included. Reversing the recommendation for vaccinating healthy pregnant women thus contradicts the new framework described by the FDA.
Importantly, a 2024 analysis of 120 studies including a total of 168,444 pregnant women with COVID-19 infections did not find enough evidence to suggest the infections are a direct cause of early pregnancy loss. Nonetheless, the authors did state that COVID-19 vaccination remains a crucial preventive measure for pregnant women to reduce the overall risk of serious complications in pregnancy due to infection.
High-risk children age 6 months and older who have conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 are still eligible for the vaccine. Existing vaccines already on the market will remain available, but it is unclear how long they will stay authorized and how the change in vaccine policy will affect childhood vaccination overall.
Will low-risk people be able to get a COVID-19 shot?
Not automatically. Kennedy’s announcement does not broadly address healthy adults, but under the new FDA framework, healthy adults who wish to receive the fall COVID-19 vaccine will likely face obstacles. Health care providers can administer vaccines “off-label”, but insurance coverage is widely based on FDA recommendations. The new, narrower FDA approval will likely reduce both access to COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.
Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance providers are required to fully cover the cost of any vaccine endorsed by the CDC. Kennedy’s announcement will likely limit insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccination.
Overall, the move to focus on individual risks and benefits may overlook broader public health benefits. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.
Libby Richards has received funding from the American Nurses Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
URUMQI, May 29 (Xinhua) — The off-season cherry harvest in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been in high demand among consumers in May, with the price of cherries exceeding $20 per kilogram.
A county that is administratively subordinate to Kashgar Prefecture and is located at an average altitude of over 4,000 meters above sea level.
Here at one agricultural project, an intelligent temperature control system in the greenhouses creates a unique microclimate that contrasts sharply with the windswept desert. In the greenhouses, the branches of the cherry trees are thickly covered with emerald foliage.
As it turned out, the project used innovative “underground greenhouse” technology, which made it possible to grow high-quality cherries in high-mountain desert conditions with an average annual temperature of about 3 degrees Celsius.
The first cherry trees transplanted here from the Tarim Basin in 2023 have yielded a harvest comparable to lowland regions this year. The unique advantages of the Pamir Highlands – long hours of sunlight and sharp daily temperature fluctuations – have provided the berries with increased sugar content and bright color.
Tashkurgan-Tajik Autonomous County, with its harsh climate and ecological fragility, was previously entirely dependent on supplies of vegetables and fruits from other regions. Now local residents have access to fresh produce, and the local economy has received a boost.
In recent years, the county has been actively developing projects for intelligent greenhouse complexes. The annual production volume of off-season cherries exceeds 3 tons, and in the future, it is expected to increase to 10 tons.
The former desert land is transformed into an “oasis” where science and technology become the driving force of change. -0-
Source: United States Senator for Texas John Cornyn
TYLER – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) joined Sens. Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Mark Warner (D-VA), and 44 of his Senate colleagues in introducing the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act, which would improve access to care for seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans at no cost to American taxpayers. The legislation focuses on streamlining the often cumbersome and time-consuming prior authorization process, ultimately allowing healthcare providers to spend more time on patient care rather than administrative burdens.
“Doctors and health care providers are too often bogged down by unnecessary burdens, which can lead to delayed care and negative outcomes for patients,” said Sen. Cornyn. “By streamlining the prior authorization process under Medicare Advantage, this legislation would cut red tape, improve enrollee experiences, and ensure seniors receive the timely care they deserve.”
Additional cosponsors include U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Fetterman (D-PA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), James Lankford (R-OK), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Andy Kim (D-NJ), John Boozman (R-AR), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tina Smith (D-MN), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ted Budd (R-NC), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Hoeven (R-ND), Rick Scott (R-FL), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Chris Coons (D-DE).
Background:
Prior authorization is a tool used by health plans to reduce unnecessary care by requiring health care providers to get pre-approval for medical services. However, the current system often results in multiple faxes or phone calls by clinicians, which takes precious time away from delivering care. Prior authorization continues to be the number-one administrative burden identified by health care providers, and nearly three out of four Medicare Advantage enrollees are subject to unnecessary delays due to the practice.
The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act would codify and enhance elements of the Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes (e-PA) rule that was finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on January 17, 2024.
Last Congress, the bill was supported by a super majority of members in the Senate (60) and a majority in the House (232), and was unanimously passed by the House in 2022. In 2018, the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) raised concerns after an audit revealed that Medicare Advantage plans ultimately approved 75% of requests that were originally denied. In 2022, the HHS Office of Inspector General released a report finding that MA plans incorrectly denied beneficiaries’ access to services even though they met Medicare coverage rules.
The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act would:
Establish an electronic prior authorization process for Medicare Advantage plans, including a standardization for transactions and clinical attachments;
Increase transparency around Medicare Advantage prior authorization requirements and their use;
Clarify HHS’ authority to establish timeframes for e-prior authorization requests, including expedited determinations, real-time decisions for routinely approved items and services, and other prior authorization requests;
Expand beneficiary protections to improve enrollee experiences and outcomes;
Require HHS and other agencies to report to Congress on program integrity efforts and other ways to further improve the e-prior authorization process;
Source: United States Small Business Administration
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced today the opening of a Business Recovery Center (BRC) in Cameron County to assist small businesses, private nonprofit (PNP) organizations, and residents who sustained economic losses and physical damage from severe storms and flooding occurring March 26-28.
Beginning Thursday, May 29, SBA customer service representatives will be on hand at the Business Recovery Center in Harlingen to answer questions and assist with the disaster loan application process. No appointment is necessary, walk-ins are welcome. Those who prefer to schedule an in-person appointment in advance can do so at appointment.sba.gov.
The center’s hours of operation are as follows:
CAMERON COUNTY Business Recovery Center Harlingen Chamber of Commerce 311 E. Tyler Ave. Harlingen, TX 78559
“SBA’s Business Recovery Centers have consistently proven their value to business owners following a disaster,” said Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the SBA. “Business owners can visit these centers to meet face-to-face with specialists who will guide them through the disaster loan application process and connect them with resources to support their recovery.”
Businesses and nonprofits are eligible to apply for business physical disaster loans and may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.
Homeowners and renters are eligible to apply for home and personal property loans and may borrow up to $100,000 to replace or repair personal property, such as clothing, furniture, cars, and appliances. Homeowners may apply for up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence.
Applicants may be eligible for a loan increase of up to 20% of their physical damages, as verified by the SBA, for mitigation purposes. Eligible mitigation improvements include insulating pipes, walls and attics, weather stripping doors and windows, and installing storm windows to help protect property and occupants from future disasters.
The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program is available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, nurseries, and private nonprofit organizations impacted by financial losses directly related to these disasters. The SBA is unable to provide disaster loans to agricultural producers, farmers, or ranchers, except for small aquaculture enterprises.
EIDLs are available for working capital needs caused by the disaster and are available even if the business or PNP did not suffer any physical damage. The loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills not paid due to the disaster.
Interest rates are as low as 4% for small businesses, 3.62% for nonprofits, and 2.75% for homeowners and renters with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not begin to accrue, and payments are not due until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA determines eligibility and sets loan amounts and terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.
To apply online, visit sba.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.
The deadline to return physical damage applications is July 21, 2025. The deadline to return economic injury applications is Feb. 23, 2026.
###
About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
Few sports have witnessed a transformation as dramatic as darts in recent years.
From its origins as a pub game stereotypically played with cigarette and beer in hand, darts is now serious business.
With surging television ratings and huge demand for live events, the growth of darts continues to leave many sports looking on in envy.
There has been a combination of factors at play – not least one exceptionally prodigious teenager. Before discussing those factors, it’s worth taking a closer look at the numbers.
Becoming big business
Darts sits alongside a select few sports to have achieved significant commercial growth over the past decade.
In addition to the PDC World Championship – the sport’s premier knockout event – viewership records were also broken across the 2024 Premier League Darts season, a league-format competition featuring weekly fixtures between top-ranked players.
Outside the UK, darts viewership also continues to grow.
The Netherlands remains a strong and expanding heartland, while in Germany, viewership for the World Championship final has increased eightfold since 2008.
In Australia, precise viewing figures are not widely available, but the Foxtel Group’s landmark four-year deal with the PDC in 2023 suggests rising demand.
Surging audiences are translating into significantly larger broadcast deals.
In 2025, Sky Sports reportedly outbid Netflix to secure a new £125 million (A$260.3 million) deal for exclusive UK coverage of the PDC for 2026–30. That was double the size of the previous deal.
In contrast, many other sports face stagnation or even sharp declines in media rights value.
For instance, the UK Super League rugby’s rights on Sky Sports fell from £40 million (A$83.3 million) per season in 2021 to £21.5 million (A$44.5 million) in 2024.
Similarly, in soccer, the French Ligue 1’s TV deal with DAZN collapsed due to underwhelming subscriber numbers. Meanwhile, ESPN walked away from its long-standing agreement with Major League Baseball after unsuccessfully trying to cut its US$550 million (A$848 million) annual payment down to $200 million (A$309 million).
Prize money in darts has also exploded.
Next year, the winner of the two-week long World Championship will bank £1 million (A$2.08 million) – doubling this year’s purse.
Like Formula 1 and the UFC, darts benefits from being privately operated.
Without the typical bureaucracy and conflicting interests seen in many traditional sport governing bodies, the PDC can respond more quickly to audience preferences and market opportunities.
This streamlined, commercially driven approach has been key to darts’ growth.
The sport has been expertly tailored to modern audiences.
One of darts’ best-known selling points is the live event experience. The entertainment-first approach is known for loud music, the showmanship of player walk-ons, fancy dress from the crowd and yes, often plenty of alcohol.
The lines are blurred between sport and party and fans love it.
Culturally, darts is seen by many as fun, relatable, and rooted in working-class culture. After all, its heritage is in the pub.
Darts is ideally suited to modern sport media consumption habits: PLD matches last only 20–30 minutes and the up-close TV product works perfectly for social media highlight clips.
It is also one of the few sports where women compete directly against men.
This adds another layer of interest for fans and has helped elevate stars such as Fallon Sherrock, who made headlines in 2019 by becoming the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Championship, eventually reaching the final 32.
A prodigy emerges
The so-called “Littler Effect” has given darts’ profile a significant boost.
The emergence of talented teenager Luke Littler has broken new ground for the sport and drawn global interest.
The English prodigy, who has quickly risen to fame, is by far the sport’s biggest star, but it would be unfair to say darts is a one-man band.
Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen enjoy significant profiles while Phil Taylor is regarded as the sport’s greatest player. Australia’s Simon “The Wizard” Whitlock also forged a successful career.
There is also colourful two-time world champion Peter Wright.
Where to from here?
The success of darts reveals much about modern sports audiences and their preferences.
Darts does not rely on traditional ideas of athletic excellence, nor does it fit the Olympic ideal.
Darts’ success stems from remaining authentic to its working-class roots while evolving into an engaging commercial product suited for television, short-form content and digital media.
For darts to fully achieve its global potential, the next step has to be continued international growth. Although it has grown steadily in markets like Australia and throughout Asia, the UK remains darts’ dominant base.
As the global sports marketplace becomes more fragmented and competitive, darts is well positioned to continue growing.
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.
Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As President Trump and Congressional Republicans work to make college unaffordable and unattainable for millions of working-class families, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), and eight Senate colleagues in introducing legislation to make public colleges and universities tuition free for 95 percent of students. The College for All Act would be the most transformative investment in higher education in 60 years and would substantially improve the lives of millions of students throughout the United States.
Nearly 4 million student borrowers live in California, owing an average of $38,168 and a total of $148.6 billion in student loan debt.
“As a first-generation college graduate from a low-income household, I know a good education is the foundation of the American dream, but I’ve seen firsthand the challenges of accessing and affording higher education,” said Senator Padilla. “We need bold, proactive solutions to make college more affordable — not the Trump Administration’s short-sighted plan to eradicate student financial aid and put higher education out of reach for millions of American families. The College for All Act would help millions of working families shoulder the financial burden of paying for their children’s college. When we invest in all students, we support our nation’s financial interests by ensuring that opportunity and economic prosperity are attainable for all, regardless of income.”
“In a highly competitive global economy where technology is changing the very nature of work and the jobs we perform, we need the best educated workforce in the world,” said Senator Sanders. “Our nation used to lead the world in the percentage of adults with a college degree. Today, we are in 11th place behind countries like Japan, South Korea, Canada, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. That is not a prescription for a strong American economy of the future. It is a prescription for failure. Instead of increasing the cost of college in order to give more tax breaks to billionaires, we have a better idea. We are going to make public colleges and universities tuition free so that working class students can succeed and are not burdened with a lifetime of debt.”
Making public colleges and universities tuition free is not a radical idea. In 1944, as World War II was coming to an end, the U.S. government made free higher education available to all those who served in the armed forces. That act not only improved the financial well-being of the Greatest Generation, but it also laid the groundwork for the greatest expansion of the American middle class in U.S. history. Moreover, over 50 years ago, many of America’s most prestigious public colleges and universities were also tuition free or virtually tuition free.
Since this legislation was first introduced 10 years ago, several colleges and universities in America have provided free tuition for working class and middle-class students, including every state college in New Mexico, the State University of New York, the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin, and Arkansas State University.
Other wealthy countries like France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland have made their public colleges and universities tuition free or virtually tuition free because they understand the value of investing in their young people.
The College for All Act would guarantee tuition-free community college for all students and allow students from single households earning up to $150,000 a year, and married households earning up to $300,000 a year, to attend college without fear of being saddled with student loan debt.
Specifically, the College for All Act would also:
Double the maximum Pell Grant award for students enrolled at public and private non-profit colleges;
Establish a $10 billion grant program to improve student outcomes and address equity gaps at underfunded public colleges and universities;
Triple federal TRIO program funding;
Double GEAR UP funding; and
Double mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs).
In addition to Senator Padilla, the legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
Senator Padilla has consistently advocated on behalf of students to make college more affordable and accessible. Last year, Padilla and Representative Norma J. Torres (D-Calif.-35) hosted local students and advocates to reintroduce the Basic Assistance for Students in College (BASIC) Act, bicameral legislation to help ensure college students can meet their basic needs while pursuing their education. He also introduced the Student Food Security Act of 2024, bicameral legislation to address food insecurity faced by college students nationwide. Padilla previously cosponsored the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act, bicameral legislation that would nearly double the Pell Grant maximum award, index the maximum award for inflation, and expand the program to include Dreamers.
During the Biden Administration, Padilla led numerous letters urging the President to provide meaningful student debt cancellation, along with multiple letters urging former U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to leverage his authority under the Higher Education Act to provide expanded student debt relief to working and middle-class borrowers.
A one-pager on the College for All Act is available here.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey today attended the official opening of a new mental health service, Waiorua.
“It is fantastic to be in the Hawke’s Bay today to open this new service that will offer an alternative safe space to go for adults while they are in their time of need seeking support for mental health and addiction challenges,” Mr Doocey says.
The service will operate in a repurposed building close to the hospital campus and will be connected to the wider acute care model across the region.
“I am pleased to see this service was co-designed across agencies to better serve the people in the Hawke’s Bay who are needing to access support by moving to a cross agency, more joined up approach.”
The service is a collaborative approach between agencies including Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, Health New Zealand, the New Zealand Police, and the Ministry of Social Development.
“As a result of this new Crisis Respite Service, there will be six new unplanned crisis respite beds opened as an alternative to an admission to an Emergency Department or a mental health inpatient unit,” Mr Doocey says.
“Respite beds offer a welcoming place where people experiencing mental health difficulties can rest and recover in a home-like environment with clinical oversight and short-term residential support.
“This is a powerful example of what can be achieved when agencies work together with a shared purpose of improving the lives of New Zealanders.
“More people in the region will now have access to timely mental health and addiction support. At the end of the day, no matter where you are located, we want you to have access to the care you need and deserve.”
The Government has opened public consultation on the biggest change to national direction in New Zealand history, with proposals to make it easier to consent quarries and mines to enable more infrastructure development. National direction refers to rules and policies sitting under the Resource Management Act (RMA) that inform how councils develop and implement local plans and rules.
The Government is today releasing three discussion documents proposing amendments to 12 different instruments and the introduction of four new instruments, centred on three packages: infrastructure and development, the primary sector and freshwater.
“New Zealand has a massive infrastructure deficit, but to build and maintain more infrastructure we need quarries and mines. The RMA makes it far too difficult for these types of projects to get consent,” Mr Bishop says. “Addressing this is critical to boosting economic growth, improving living standards and meeting future challenges posed by natural hazards and climate change. “We’ve already repealed Labour’s botched RMA reforms and made a series of quick and targeted amendments to remove unnecessary regulations for primary industries as well as barriers to investment in development and infrastructure. We’ve also passed the Fast-track Approvals Act to make it much easier to deliver projects with regional or nationally significant benefits – and the first projects are already going through the Fast-track process. “Next year we’ll replace the RMA with new legislation premised on property rights. Our new system will provide a framework that makes it easier to plan and deliver infrastructure, quarrying and mining projects, as well as protecting the environment. “In the meantime we’re making targeted, quick changes through our second RMA amendment Bill which is expected back from the Environment Committee next month, and to national direction.” The proposed changes include amendments to quarrying and mining provisions in four existing national direction instruments:
National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity 2023 National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land 2022 National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 National Environmental Standards for Freshwater 2020.
“The Coalition Government is committed to utilising New Zealand’s mineral reserves to boost regional opportunities and jobs, increase our self-sufficiency, improve energy security and resilience, and drive our export-led focus for economic recovery. The length of time it takes to navigate various consenting processes for a major mining project in New Zealand is costing us dearly in missed economic opportunities that could lift living standards for our regional communities and supercharge productivity,” Mr Jones says. “A mining operator currently needs to navigate the often contradictory and confusing requirements of many national direction instruments. By amending these instruments to remove duplication and provide more clarity, we are reducing costs and inefficiencies and providing the certainty potential investors and operators need to take well-designed projects forward – something our regulatory regime has long lacked. I want to be clear – we are cutting red tape and barriers, not corners. There are no shortcuts in terms of robust planning and rigorous consideration of environmental protections.” Consultation on these proposals will remain open until 27 July 2025. The Government intends to have 16 new or updated national direction instruments in place by the end of this year. Note’s to editor: Quarrying and mining amendments to National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards The Government has committed to unlocking development capacity for housing and business growth, and to boost mineral exports. To support this, locally sourced aggregate and minerals are needed. This targeted amendment for quarrying and mining, aims to make the consent pathways and gateway tests for quarrying and mining affecting wetlands, significant natural areas (SNAs) and highly productive land (HPL) more enabling, and to ensure the policies are more consistent across the:
National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB) 2023 National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL) 2022 National Environmental Standard for Freshwater (NES-F) 2020 National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) 2020.
Key proposals to change these instruments are: To amend wetland quarrying and mining provisions across NPS-FM, NES-F, NPSIB and NPS-HPL to make them more enabling and more consistent, which involves:
adding ‘operational need’ to the gateway tests for mining and quarrying activities that may adversely affect wetlands under the NES-F and NPS-FM changing a few words in the NPSIB and NPS-HPL SNA and HPL mining and quarrying exceptions for SNAs and HPL to: clarify that essential related (ancillary) activities for mining and quarrying have a consent pathway and use consistent terminology remove “that could not otherwise be achieved using resources within New Zealand” and the requirement for benefits to be ‘public’ and allow regional benefits of mining to be considered.
Visit the MfE website [https://environment.govt.nz/news/consultation-on-updating-rma-national-direction] to take part in the consultation.
The Government is taking action to address the country’s housing crisis through the biggest package of proposed changes to national direction in New Zealand’s history, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka say. National direction refers to rules and policies sitting under the Resource Management Act (RMA) that inform how councils develop and implement local plans and rules. The Government is today releasing three discussion documents proposing amendments to 12 different instruments and the introduction of four new instruments, centred on three packages: infrastructure and development, the primary sector and freshwater. “The RMA is broken, and it’s a big part of the reason for many of New Zealand’s biggest problems with infrastructure, housing and energy,” Mr Bishop says. “Addressing this is critical to boosting economic growth, improving living standards and meeting future challenges posed by natural hazards and climate change. “We’ve already repealed Labour’s botched RMA reforms and are making a series of quick and targeted amendments to unlock land for housing, build infrastructure, and allow communities to share the benefits of growth. We’ve also passed the Fast-track Approvals Act to make it much easier to deliver projects with regional or nationally significant benefits – and the first projects including Delmore (1,250 residential dwellings in Auckland) are already going through the Fast-track process. “Next year we’ll replace the RMA with new legislation premised on property rights. Our new system will provide a framework that makes it easier to plan and deliver infrastructure and energy projects, as well as protecting the environment. “In the meantime we’re making targeted, quick changes through our second RMA amendment Bill which is expected back from the Environment Committee next month, and changes to national direction. “Addressing housing affordability and supply is a key focus for the Government. We want to make it easier for families to build a granny flat of up to 70 square metres on an existing property through proposed new National Environmental Standards for Granny Flats. This NES will require all councils to permit a granny flat on sites in rural, residential, mixed use, and Māori purpose zones without the need to gain a resource consent subject to certain conditions. It will sit alongside our parallel work to amend the Building Act to remove the need for a building consent for those same granny flats.” “Existing resource management rules are a barrier for Māori to build papakāinga housing on ancestral land. Our proposed new National Environmental Standard for Papakāinga would allow papakāinga on some rural land, residential zones, and Māori purpose zones, subject to certain conditions. It would enable Māori to develop papakāinga housing more efficiently and quickly,” Mr Potaka says. “We are committed to providing better housing options for whānau, and one of the ways we will achieve this is by making it easier for Māori landowners to unlock opportunities for their whenua. “Currently, inconsistent rules for building papakāinga in council district and unitary plans across the country are preventing Māori landowners from using their land to house their whānau, exercise autonomy over their whenua, and build wealth. “We’re proposing to introduce a consistent national framework – called National Environmental Standards – that will reduce consenting inconsistencies, remove planning barriers, and make consenting less costly and complex. “If accepted, consenting standards would become uniform across the country, regardless of which district plan the land falls under, and small-scale – up to 10 homes – papakāinga would no longer require resource consent. “These changes, developed in consultation with papakāinga and Māori planning experts, will reduce bureaucracy and make it easier for Māori landowners to develop papakāinga so more whānau are able to live in warm, dry, healthy, affordable housing. “Papakāinga provide multiple benefits to whānau, hapū and Iwi. As well as economic, social, and wellbeing benefits, papakāinga provide holistic and cultural benefits because our connection to the whenua is such a key part of being Māori. “This proposal would also complement our granny flats policy. Together the two proposals provide options for Māori to build on their existing assets. While the papakāinga development provides more scope for multiple homes on communally owned Māori land, the granny flats policy provides an option for homeowners to build one additional dwelling on their residential property without consent building or resource consent.” Consultation on these proposals will remain open until 27 July 2025. The Government intends to have 16 new or updated national direction instruments in place by the end of this year. Note’s to editor: Infrastructure and development is one of three national direction packages released today as part of the Government’s wider reform of the resource management system. The other two packages cover changes for the primary sector and freshwater management. Visit the MfE website [https://environment.govt.nz/news/consultation-on-updating-rma-national-direction] to take part in the consultation.
When I despairingly contemplate the horrors and cruelty that Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to, I sometimes try to put this in the context of where I live.
I live on the Kāpiti Coast in the lower North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Geographically it is around the same size as Gaza. Both have coastlines running their full lengths. But, whereas the population of Gaza is a cramped two million, Kāpiti’s is a mere 56,000.
The Gaza Strip . . . 2 million people living in a cramped outdoor prison about the same size as Kāpiti. Map: politicalbytes.blog
I find it incomprehensible to visualise what it would be like if what is presently happening in Gaza occurred here.
The only similarities between them are coastlines and land mass. One is an outdoor prison while the other’s outdoors is peaceful.
New Zealand and Palestine state recognition Currently Palestine has observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. In May last year, the Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of Palestine being granted full membership of the United Nations.
To its credit, New Zealand was among 143 countries that supported the resolution. Nine, including the United States as the strongest backer of Israeli genocide outside Israel, voted against.
However, despite this massive majority, such is the undemocratic structure of the UN that it only requires US opposition in the Security Council to veto the democratic vote.
Notwithstanding New Zealand’s support for Palestine broadening its role in the General Assembly and its support for the two-state solution, the government does not officially recognise Palestine.
While its position on recognition is consistent with that of the genocide-supporting United States, it is inconsistent with the over 75 percent of UN member states who, in March 2025, recognised Palestine as a sovereign state (by 147 of the 193 member states).
NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon . . . his government should “correct this obscenity” of not recognising Palestinians’ right to have a sovereign nation. Image: RNZ/politicalbytes.blog/
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government does have the opportunity to correct this obscenity as Palestine recognition will soon be voted on again by the General Assembly.
In this context it is helpful to put the Hamas-led attack on Israel in its full historical perspective and to consider the reasons justifying the Israeli genocide that followed.
7 October 2023 and genocide justification The origin of the horrific genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the associated increased persecution, including killings, of Palestinians in the Israeli occupied West Bank (of the River Jordan) was not the attack by Hamas and several other militant Palestinian groups on 7 October 2023.
This attack was on a small Israeli town less than 2 km north of the border. An estimated 1,195 Israelis and visitors were killed.
The genocidal response of the Israeli government that followed this attack can only be justified by three factors:
The Judaism or ancient Jewishness of Palestine in Biblical times overrides the much larger Palestinian population in Mandate Palestine prior to formation of Israel in 1948;
The right of Israelis to self-determination overrides the right of Palestinians to self-determination; and
The value of Israeli lives overrides the value Palestinian lives.
The first factor is the key. The second and third factors are consequential. In order to better appreciate their context, it is first necessary to understand the Nakba.
Understanding the Nakba Rather than the October 2023 attack, the origin of the subsequent genocide goes back more than 70 years to the collective trauma of Palestinians caused by what they call the Nakba (the Disaster).
The foundation year of the Nakba was in 1948, but this was a central feature of the ethnic cleansing that was kicked off between 1947 and 1949.
During this period Zionist military forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. About 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities, including dozens of massacres.
The Nakba – the Palestinian collective trauma in 1948 that started ethnic cleansing by Zionist paramilitary forces. Image: David Robie/APR
During the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine’s predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people, were expelled from their homes or forced to flee. Initially this was through Zionist paramilitaries.
After the establishment of the State of Israel in May this repression was picked up by its military. Massacres, biological warfare (by poisoning village wells) and either complete destruction or depopulation of Palestinian-majority towns, villages, and urban neighbourhoods (which were then given Hebrew names) followed
By the end of the Nakba, 78 percent of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel.
Genocide to speed up ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing was unsuccessfully pursued, with the support of the United Kingdom and France, in the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. More successful was the Six Day War of 1967, which included the military and political occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Throughout this period ethnic cleansing was not characterised by genocide. That is, it was not the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying them.
Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians began in May 1948 and has accelerated to genocide in 2023. Image: politicalbytes.blog
In fact, the acceptance of a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine) under the ill-fated Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 put a temporary constraint on the expansion of ethnic cleansing.
Since its creation in 1948, Israel, along with South Africa the same year (until 1994), has been an apartheid state. I discussed this in an earlier Political Bytes post (15 March 2025), When apartheid met Zionism.
However, while sharing the racism, discrimination, brutal violence, repression and massacres inherent in apartheid, it was not characterised by genocide in South Africa; nor was it in Israel for most of its existence until the current escalation of ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Following 7 October 2023, genocide has become the dominant tool in the ethnic cleansing tool kit. More recently this has included accelerating starvation and the bombing of tents of Gaza Palestinians.
The magnitude of this genocide is discussed further below.
The Biblical claim Zionism is a movement that sought to establish a Jewish nation in Palestine. It was established as a political organisation as late as 1897. It was only some time after this that Zionism became the most influential ideology among Jews generally.
Despite its prevalence, however, there are many Jews who oppose Zionism and play leading roles in the international protests against the genocide in Gaza.
Zionist ideology is based on a view of Palestine in the time of Jesus Christ. Image: politicalbytes.blog
Based on Zionist ideology, the justification for replacing Mandate Palestine with the state of Israel rests on a Biblical argument for the right of Jews to retake their “homeland”. This justification goes back to the time of that charismatic carpenter and prophet Jesus Christ.
The population of Palestine in Jesus’ day was about 500,000 to 600,000 (a little bigger than both greater Wellington and similar to that of Jerusalem today). About 18,000 of these residents were clergy, priests and Levites (a distinct male group within Jewish communities).
Jerusalem itself in biblical times, with a population of 55,000, was a diverse city and pilgrimage centre. It was also home to numerous Diaspora Jewish communities.
In fact, during the 7th century BC at least eight nations were settled within Palestine. In addition to Judaeans, they included Arameans, Samaritans, Phoenicians and Philistines.
A breakdown based on religious faiths (Jews, Christians and Muslims) provides a useful insight into how Palestine has evolved since the time of Jesus. Jews were the majority until the 4th century AD.
By the fifth century they had been supplanted by Christians and then from the 12th century to 1947 Muslims were the largest group. As earlier as the 12th century Arabic had become the dominant language. It should be noted that many Christians were Arabs.
Adding to this evolving diversity of ethnicity is the fact that during this time Palestine had been ruled by four empires — Roman, Persian, Ottoman and British.
Prior to 1948 the population of the region known as Mandate Palestine approximately corresponded to the combined Israel and Palestine today. Throughout its history it has varied in both size and ethnic composition.
The Ottoman census of 1878 provides an indicative demographic profile of its three districts that approximated what became Mandatory Palestine after the end of World War 1.
Group
Population
Percentage
Muslim citizens
403,795
86–87%
Christian citizens
43,659
9%
Jewish citizens
15,011
3%
Jewish (foreign-born)
Est. 5–10,000
1–2%
Total
Up to 472,465
100.0%
In 1882, the Ottoman Empire revealed that the estimated 24,000 Jews in Palestine represented just 0.3 percent of the world’s Jewish population.
The self-determination claim Based on religion the estimated population of Palestine in 1922 was 78 percent Muslim, 11 percent Jewish, and 10 percent Christian.
By 1945 this composition had changed to 58 percent Muslim, 33 percent Jewish and 8 percent Christian. The reason for this shift was the success of the Zionist campaigning for Jews to migrate to Palestine which was accelerated by the Jewish holocaust.
By 15 May 1948, the total population of the state of Israel was 805,900, of which 649,600 (80.6 percent) were Jews with Palestinians being 156,000 (19.4 percent). This turnaround was primarily due to the devastating impact of the Nakba.
Today Israel’s population is over 9.5 million of which over 77 percent are Jewish and more than 20 percent are Palestinian. The latter’s absolute growth is attributable to Israel’s subsequent geographic expansion, particularly in 1967, and a higher birth rate.
Palestine today (parts of West Bank under Israeli occupation). Map: politicalbytes.blog
The current population of the Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, is more than 5.5 million. Compare this with the following brief sample of much smaller self-determination countries — Slovenia (2.2 million), Timor-Leste (1.4 million), and Tonga (104,000).
The population size of the Palestinian Territories is more than half that of Israel. Closer to home it is a little higher than New Zealand.
The only reason why Palestinians continue to be denied the right to self-determination is the Zionist ideological claim linked to the biblical time of Jesus Christ and its consequential strategy of ethnic cleansing.
If it was not for the opposition of the United States, then this right would not have been denied. It has been this opposition that has enabled Israel’s strategy.
Comparative value of Palestinian lives The use of genocide as the latest means of achieving ethnic cleansing highlights how Palestinian lives are valued compared with Israeli lives.
While not of the same magnitude appropriated comparisons have been made with the horrific ethnic cleansing of Jews through the means of the holocaust by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Per capita the scale of the magnitude gap is reduced considerably.
Since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry (and confirmed by the World Health Organisation) more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed. Of those killed over 16,500 were children. Compare this with less than 2000 Israelis killed.
Further, at least 310 UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) team members have been killed along with over 200 journalists and media workers. Add to this around 1400 healthcare workers including doctors and nurses.
What also can’t be forgotten is the increasing Israeli ethnic cleansing on the occupied West Bank. Around 950 Palestinians, including around 200 children, have also been killed during this same period.
Time for New Zealand to recognise Palestine The above discussion is in the context of the three justifications for supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians strategy that goes back to 1948 and which, since October 2023, is being accelerated by genocide.
First, it requires the conviction that the theology of Judaism in Palestine in the biblical times following the birth of Jesus Christ trumps both the significantly changing demography from the 5th century at least to the mid-20th century and the numerical predominance of Arabs in Mandate Palestine;
Second, and consequentially, it requires the conviction that while Israelis are entitled to self-determination, Palestinians are not; and
Finally, it requires that Israeli lives are much more valuable than Palestinian lives. In fact, the latter have no value at all.
Unless the government, including Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, shares these convictions (especially the “here and now” second and third) then it should do the right thing first by unequivocally saying so, and then by recognising the right of Palestine to be an independent state.
Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.
This can happen when babies come early, when the mother-to-be is in denial, or when they simply don’t know they are pregnant. These out-of-hospital births can increase the risks for both mother and child.
While there haven’t been any New Zealand-specific studies, data from Norway and Ireland show infant mortality rates are two to three times higher for unplanned out-of-hospital births compared to those in medical facilities.
In 2024, Hato Hone St John, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest ambulance service, responded to 2,745 obstetric emergencies. This accounted for 0.9% of all ambulance patients – similar to comparable countries such as Australia and the United States.
In our new research, we surveyed Hato Hone St John ambulance personnel to better understand their experiences attending unplanned out-of-hospital births. Although such events are rare, personnel must be prepared to provide care for mothers and newborns during any clinical shift.
The 147 responses we received highlighted the need for ongoing and targeted training for staff as they balance supporting the safe arrival of a newborn with patient and whānau-centered care.
Navigating the unknown
EMS personnel reported being dispatched for reports of abdominal or back pain in female patients, only to encounter an unanticipated imminent birth upon arrival.
In many of these cases, patients were unaware of their pregnancies and had received no prior antenatal care. This left EMS personnel to lead labour and birth care without crucial information about gestational age or potential complications. As one paramedic explained:
The call was for non-traumatic back pain. The patient had a cryptic pregnancy and was not aware she was pregnant until I informed her that she was in labour. I was the senior clinician in attendance, we were 25 minutes to a maternity unit that didn’t have surgical facilities and a [neonatal unit].
In some situations, EMS personnel attended teenage patients who were in denial of their pregnancies or fearful it would be discovered by their families.
Attending to the mother’s emotional needs, respecting her dignity and navigating family dynamics compounded existing challenges to providing care. Another paramedic explained:
Attended an 18-year-old that did not know or was in denial that she was pregnant. She had the baby on her own in the bathroom. The parents came home during the birth, and she was too scared to tell them and kept the baby quiet by nursing her. She called an ambulance from the bathroom and told them she didn’t want the parents to know.
Unplanned out-of-hospital birts can test the skills of ambulance staff. hedgehog94/Shutterstock
Practical challenges
Complex births, medical emergencies and limited specialised neonatal equipment required EMS to improvise in such cases. While some focused on skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby, others prepared makeshift blankets using things such as plastic clingfilm to keep their newborn patients warm. An intensive care paramedic said:
I needed to “chew” through the cord with the scissors provided, which was frustrating given the patient was under CPR. Also, I wanted to keep the patient warm as the house was cold and it was winter, so I used the Gladwrap in the ambulance. The roll I had was a new one and very difficult to start up as it shredded. I ended up using the patient’s industrial size wrap with a plastic blade attached.
The distance to a specialised newborn care facility, as well as rules around who could be transported and when, meant mothers and babies sometimes needed separate transport. This distressed mothers and added pressure to already stressful situations. One North Island-based paramedic explained:
The baby was flown to [a tertiary hospital] – great for the baby but very distressing for mum as she had to be transported by road.
Detailed accounts emerged of EMS providing labour and birth care in remote and poorer areas, such as homes with no electricity or heating, far away from hospital facilities and with no back up readily available. Another South Island-based paramedic said:
It was 2 degrees outside and the front door was open. The house was cold, and the mother was standing in the bathroom with the [newborn] lying on the cold floor. I called for backup as the mother had a severe postpartum haemorrhage, and the [newborn] required resuscitation. I was not sent assistance and had to manage the mother and [newborn] by myself during a 15-minute drive to the birth suite at hospital.
The stories shared by New Zealand ambulance personnel not only described their critical role in providing care during labour and birth, but also highlighted a gap in care for women not accessing routine antenatal and birth services.
Training and support needed
Studies from Norway, Australia, the US and the United Kingdom have previously highlighted the need for dedicated EMS training and equipment to support out-of-hospital births.
Change is happening in New Zealand. Recent updates to Hato Hone St John guidelines, resources and training, including education on cultural considerations related to birth, aim to prepare EMS personnel for these unpredictable and high-risk scenarios.
Ongoing training and education will be critical to support clinicians to confidently address birth emergencies while continuing to deliver patient and whānau-centered care.
Vinuli Withanarachchie works for Hato Hone St John.
Bridget Dicker is an employee of Hato Hone St John.
Sarah Maessen works for Hato Hone St John.
Verity Todd receives funding from the Heart Foundation NZ and Health Research Council NZ. She is affiliated with Hato Hone St John.
Source: United States Senator for North Carolina Thom Tillis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Thom Tillis recently introduced the Care for Military Kids Act, legislation that ensures servicemembers can maintain critical health care coverage and medical services for their children, regardless of where their service takes them.
“Military families make immense sacrifices for our nation, and ensuring their children have consistent access to critical health care should never be a burden placed on them,” said Senator Tillis. “This bipartisan legislation will allow these families to maintain access to care, giving our servicemembers the peace of mind they deserve.”
Background:
The Care for Military Kids Act ensures servicemembers can maintain critical healthcare coverage and medical services for their children no matter where their service takes them. After moving to another state, current Medicaid regulations force military families to reapply for their children’s long-term care benefits through Medicaid since Tricare does not provide that benefit. The bill allows military families to remain on their home state’s Medicaid throughout their military career. The Care for Military Kids Act is endorsed by the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS), the National Military Families Organization, and Blue Star Families
Full text of the legislation is available HERE.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Henning, PhD Candidate in Feline Behaviour, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide
Ever wonder if your cat could pick you out of a line up?
New research suggests they could … but maybe not in the way you would expect.
Previous research has found that only 54% of cats could recognise humans by their face alone.
So how does your cat know it’s you?
Studying the sniff
A new study published today in PLOS One suggests your cat can recognise you by your smell. This feat has not been studied before and may reveal another layer of depth within cat-human bonds.
Cats often get a bad rap for being aloof or uncaring about the people in their lives, but a growing number of studies are finding the opposite to be true. We now know that cats learn the names we give them, cats and their guardians form their own communication style, and most cats will pick human social interaction over food, a choice even dogs struggle with.
And now, thanks to this most recent study, we know that cats can identify their people by smell, something they also rely on to identify their close feline social groups.
The study, by Yutaro Miyairi and colleagues at Tokyo University of Agriculture, investigated the ability of 30 cats to differentiate between their guardian and an unknown person based on scent alone.
Cats in the study were presented with a plastic tube containing swab samples from under the armpit, behind the ear and between the toes of either the cat’s guardian or of a human they had never met. As a control, cats were also presented with an empty plastic tube.
The results?
Cats in the study spent longer sniffing the scent of an unknown person compared to the scent of their guardian or the empty tube.
A shorter sniffing time suggests that when cats came across the smell of their guardian, they recognised it quickly and moved along. But when they came to the swabs from an unknown person, the cat sniffed longer, using their superior sense of smell to gather information about the scent.
Similar patterns have been observed previously, with kittens sniffing the odour of unknown female cats longer than the odour of their own mother, and adult cats sniffing the faeces of unfamiliar cats longer than those within their social group.
The findings of this new study may indicate that we, too, are in our cats’ social circle.
Cats do use their sense of smell to tell apart familiar and unfamiliar cats. Chris Boyer/Unsplash
The brain and the nose
The study also found a tendency for cats to sniff familiar scents with their left nostril, while unknown scents were more often sniffed using their right. But when cats became familiar with a scent after sniffing for a while, they switched nostrils from the right to the left.
While this may sound like an odd finding, it’s a pattern that has also been observed in dogs. Current research suggests this nostril preference may indicate that cats process and classify new information using their right brain hemisphere, while the left hemisphere takes over when a routine response is established.
Cats will sniff things with different nostrils depending on whether the information is familiar or not. Kevin Knezic/Unsplash
Why scent?
Cats rely on scent to gather information about the world around them and to communicate.
Scent exchange (through cheek-to-cheek rubbing and grooming each other) is used as a way to recognise cats in the same social circle, maintain group cohesion, and identify unfamiliar cats or other animals that may pose a threat or need to be avoided.
Familiar scents can also be comforting to cats, reducing stress and anxiety and creating a sense of security within their environment.
When you come back from a holiday, if you notice your cat being distant and acting like you’re a total stranger, it might be because you smell like one. Try taking a shower using your usual home products and put on some of your regular home clothing. The familiar scents should help you and your cat settle back into your old dynamic sooner.
And remember, if your cat spends a lot of time sniffing someone else, it’s not because they prefer them. It’s likely because your scent is familiar and requires less work. Instead of being new and interesting, it might do something even better: help your cat feel at home.
Julia Henning 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.
United States President Donald Trump was “not happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week.
For three consecutive nights, from Friday to Sunday, Russia launched about 900 drones and scores of missiles at Ukraine. At least 18 people were killed, including three children.
“We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, after Putin ordered the largest air assault on Ukraine’s civilians in its three-year war.
Following up on his remarks, Trump posted on social media that Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY!”
Putin is not crazy. He is a tactician with a long-term goal: to make Russia a great power again and secure his place in the history books as the re-builder of Russia’s imperial might.
Trump announced after a phone call with Putin on May 19 that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start negotiations” towards a ceasefire.
With his latest air campaign on Ukraine, however, Putin is threatening to destroy the goodwill he’s built up in Washington, where Trump has been consistently soft on Russia and tough on his allies.
So, what is Putin’s strategy? Why is he launching these massive air bombardments on Ukrainian civilians now?
Putin sees weakness in the West
One theory is these attacks are somehow preparations for a major offensive. That makes little sense.
Attacking military facilities, weapons depots or even frontline troops are useful preparations for an impending attack. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians, meanwhile, is a sign of either desperation or impatience.
The US also sent bombers to Japan in the final stages of the war because the American public became tired of seeing their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers die on Pacific islands they had never heard of. The war had dragged on forever by this point, and there seemed no end in sight.
Is Putin desperate or impatient? Likely the latter.
From the perspective of the Kremlin, Russia’s strategic situation is as good as it has been for years.
The US is trying to destroy itself through trade wars and boorish diplomacy. Trump clearly dislikes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and hopes the war will somehow end if he just demands it.
Europe is continuing to back Ukraine. However, for the time being, it still needs US support because its entire security structure is built around NATO and US strength, both economic and military.
What Putin sees when he surveys the international scene is weakness. In his thinking, such weakness needs to be exploited – now is the time to hurt Ukraine as much as possible, and hope it will crack. Analysts call this a “cognitive warfare effort”.
Indiscriminate air war on civilians is the only means Putin currently has to pressure Ukraine. His army has been advancing, but painfully slowly. There is no breakthrough in sight, even once the spring muds dry and the summer fighting season starts in earnest.
Russia has gradually advanced in Ukraine throughout 2024, but with no perceivable change in the overall situation. Putin does not command precision weapons or super spies, which he could use to take out Ukraine’s leadership.
All he can do is rain death on women, children and the elderly from relatively cheap, unsophisticated weapons, such as drones. He now has these in large supply, thanks to ramping up military production at home.
Bombing campaigns do not end wars
A strategic air war on civilians seldom works, however.
Japan’s surrender in 1945 is an exception, but it is misleading in many ways. The Americans had flattened Japan’s cities for a while already, just not using their new atomic weapons. Japan had already lost the war and the real question was if there would be a bloody US invasion or surrender.
And as the US dropped its two nuclear bombs in August of that year, the Red Army joined the fight, racing across Manchuria to help occupy Japanese territories.
In Germany, the British-American bombings from 1942 onwards certainly had an effect on war production, as they killed workers and destroyed factories. But they did not incapacitate the German army and certainly did not break morale.
Instead, the bombings led to embitterment and a closing of ranks around the regime. German society fought to the last moment. It did so not just despite, but because of the air war. The German army was eventually defeated by the ground troops of the Red Army, who took Berlin in an incredibly bloody fight.
Other historical failures are even more spectacular. The US air force dropped 864,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam during an air campaign of more than 300,000 sorties lasting from 1965 to late 1968. The North Vietnamese lost maybe 29,000 people (dead and wounded), more than half of them civilians. The Americans and their South Vietnamese allies still lost the war.
Putin’s air war will likely follow the historical pattern: it has further embittered the Ukrainians, who know very well that what comes from the east is not liberation.
Another summer of fighting lies ahead. Ukraine’s friends in the democratic world need to urgently redouble their efforts to support Ukraine. The misguided hopes that Putin would somehow “make a deal” lie under the rubble his drones leave behind in Ukraine’s cities.
Mark Edele receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Source: United Kingdom National Police Chiefs Council
Additional investment in science and technology could mean an extra 41,000 hours of police time available every day across England and Wales to be reinvested in neighbourhood policing and preventing crime.
Police chiefs are calling for the government to allocate circa £220 million to science and technology per year over the three-year spending review period to scale up tested science and technology capabilities.
As police chiefs set out their strategy for use of data and digital technology over the next five years, they make the case for government investment to enable police to roll out technology that has been successfully trialled across England and Wales.
The independent Policing Productivity Review of forces in England and Wales reported examples of science and technology driving productivity. The Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser to Policing estimates that these projects saved 347,656 of workforce hours per year and led to direct savings of £8.2 million a year in costs. If they were scaled nationally, and similar gains were made in all 43 forces, potentially up to 15 million hours, worth £370m per year, could be saved and reallocated each year.
National Police Chiefs’ Council Chair Chief Constable Gavin Stephens said:
“A decade with very limited capital investment into policing has meant prioritising maintaining existing technology over innovation. The vast majority of police force technology budgets are spent on ageing systems and simply keeping the lights on. This has to change.
“Criminals are investing in technology to do harm; we need to invest to keep up and stop them.
“With government investment in the spending review, we are ready to roll out technology which could save millions of hours, finish investigations in days instead of months and keep pace with criminal advancements.
“Without investment, we will fall behind rather than become more productive. We will not be able to restore neighbourhood policing. Halving violence against women and girls and knife crime will become much harder to reach targets.”
A refreshed National Policing Digital Strategy 2025-2030 developed by NPCC, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) working with Police Digital Service (PDS) has also been published today. It sets out police digital and data ambitions and the roadmap to achieving them. This supports the NPCC’s Science and Technology Strategy published in May 2023.
National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Lead for Digital, Data and Technology Chief Constable Rob Carden, said: “Over the last decade, digital technology and data and analytics have become integral to policing’s ability to deliver an effective and efficient service and policing will spend nearly £2 billion on it in the next financial year. Policing must change the way we approach data, digital and technology to ensure we invest in solutions which can be used nationally across all police forces.
“The National Policing Digital Strategy will provide the direction, purpose and roadmap necessary for forces to enable the changes required. Working towards common goals, which can be upscaled at pace nationally to ensure we are making the savings in time and money in order to help our officers catch criminals and protect the public using data, digital and technology in the most effective way.
“One of our key ambitions is to give local communities more convenient ways to get in touch with their local force through improving things such as websites and apps, whilst developing a range self-service digital engagement channels that anyone is able to use and access.
“Transparency, fairness and ethical standards will be at the heart of all we implement.”
Examples of investment:
Roll out Live Face Recognition units. On average, throughout 2024, there were 60 arrests per month across the three forces currently using Live Facial Recognition, of which a quarter involved registered sex offenders. Live Facial Recognition reduces the time spent on investigations, ultimately meaning swifter justice.
Roll out Rapid Video Response – a video call software that offers a discreet, quick and specialist police response to non-urgent reports of domestic abuse. Developed by Kent Police, it has led to a decrease in the average response time from 32 hours to just three minutes, and a 50% increase in arrests.
Complete build of a newnational digital forensics’ platform. Checking digital devices for evidence takes a lot of police time. A national digital forensics’ platform will help officers to process evidence on digital devices more quickly, return devices faster and make the process less intrusive for victims. This will help to address the current backlog of around 25,000 devices and keep pace with digital crime, which is growing 29 per cent annually.
Enable the public to contact the police in the way that suits them best including adding services like AI-powered assistances and online case tracking, which in turn will reduce wait times for 101 or 999.
Developing data and digital capability to catch offenders and protect victims. This includes creation of a national Data and Analytics Office, which will lead improvements in data quality, compliance and sharing across the criminal justice system. Continued investment in analytical capability will exploit this data, enabling, e.g. predictive tooling for multi-agency risk assessments and geo-spatial analyses to identify and address unsafe spaces. To date, this work has saved around £1m p.a. per force in productive time, by enabling efficient officer deployment, while early ANPR journey analysis has quadrupled drugs seizures.
Funding a national Continuous Integrity Screening capability to provide ongoing detection of unacceptable behaviour from officers and staff and the removal of those who pose a risk.
Expanding our regional centres for Robotic Process Automation. In the three regions where it is deployed, automation is securing a return on investment of £8 in time saving for every £1 spent, covering 150 different administrative and crime management processes in relation to crime management and admin processes. Its national deployment will ultimately reduce administrative burden on frontline officers.
Roll out nationally video and text redaction tools, automatic translation capabilities, summarisation tooling, and new deepfake detection capabilities. Recent trials suggest these tools will offer significant time efficiencies and a better quality of service, with text redaction alone estimated to save around 1 million hours of workforce time, estimated at £16m a year.
Fund the police service’s Aviation Pathway Programme will consider use of Unmanned Arial Systems (i.e., drones). in investigations, surveillance and, to emergency response; improving service and reducing costs.
Latest research from the University of Birmingham and University Sheffield has demonstrated a clear link to increased economic growth and prosperity from investment in policing. Investment in policing, including technology investment, can lead to reduced demand on other parts of the public sector, level the playing field for companies who have to absorb the costs of crime, and reduce the need for the public to spend money as a consequence of crime.
For example the relationship between house prices and crime reduction shows that each £1 invested in policing yields £4.17 in economic benefits. Based on this, a 10% increase in policing i.e. around £1.7bn per year, will generate £14.5 billion in net benefits over twelve years, equivalent to 0.5% of annual GDP. Find out more in Issue 2 of Policing Tomorrow.
Source: United Kingdom National Police Chiefs Council
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Contact Portfolio today (29 May) announces a significant step forward in policing transparency and efficiency: the publication of monthly 101 call wait time data. This initiative demonstrates the continued commitment of police forces across England and Wales to improving public contact, responsiveness, and service accessibility.
Starting with figures for the financial year 2024/25, the data – published on Police.uk – will offer the public clearer insights into how long it takes to reach their local force via 101. The publication of these figures reflects years of dedicated efforts to modernise police contact systems, introduce technology-driven solutions, and provide greater accountability to the communities that police serve.
Policing Efforts Cut 101 Call Wait Times to Just 32 Seconds
Significant advancements in contact management, including enhanced digital triage, AI-driven call routing, and smarter resourcing strategies, have led to a remarkable reduction in 101 call wait times across the country – now just 30 seconds.
This achievement reflects the dedication of forces in adopting modern solutions and refining call-handling processes to ensure that members of the public receive swift assistance when they need it. Investments in intelligent queuing systems, workforce optimisation, and automated call-back technology have played a pivotal role in delivering these improvements.
The NPCC Contact Management Portfolio remains committed to further refining these systems, driving innovation, and maintaining the highest standards in public service efficiency.
T/DCC Catherine Akehurst is the outgoing NPCC Contact Management Lead and has led the development and implementation of this initiative. She said:
“This marks a defining moment in how policing connects with the public. The journey to reach this point has been one of collaboration, dedication, and sheer determination by colleagues across forces who have worked tirelessly to modernise contact management.
“From refining call-handling processes to integrating new technologies, every step has been guided by a commitment to ensuring that people who need assistance can access it efficiently. I want to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed their expertise and passion to this project; it is their ingenuity and perseverance that have made this possible.”
DCC Simon Megicks is the Digital Public Contact Lead and new NPCC Contact Management Lead. He added:
“Publishing this data is not only about transparency – it is about progress. Police forces are now leveraging artificial intelligence, digital call-routing, and smarter triage systems to enhance contact management like never before. We are at the forefront of technological transformation in policing, ensuring that public interactions become more efficient, seamless, and responsive.
“I want to thank T/DCC Catherine Akehurst and all those who have worked to bring us to this moment. Now, we move forward – continuing to evolve, innovate, and push the boundaries of what is possible in contact management. The future is bright, and this initiative is just the beginning of what’s to come.”
“This new standard in transparency and data publication reinforces policing’s commitment to continuous improvement in service accessibility, responsiveness, and efficiency. As forces integrate smarter digital solutions and refine operational processes, the focus remains on providing reliable and responsive contact management for communities across the country.”
Think Before You Call – Keep Emergency Lines Clear This Summer
With summer approaching, police forces are preparing for a surge in calls. The warmer months bring an increase in demand, and it’s essential that emergency lines remain clear for those who truly need urgent help.
999 is for emergencies only – serious crimes, threats to life, and situations requiring immediate police response. 101 should be used for genuine police matters, such as reporting non-urgent crime or seeking advice from your local force.
Unfortunately, we receive a surprising number of unnecessary calls, which clog up the system and delay responses for those in real need. Some examples include complaints about fast-food orders, requests for lost remote controls, and even enquiries about celebrity gossip.
Here are some unexpected examples of emergency calls that, in reality, were far from urgent:
Cambridgeshire Police received calls from individuals asking for assistance with homework and even placing requests for fast food.
Gloucestershire Police were dialled on 999 over a spilled cup of coffee and grievances about car wash employees.
Hertfordshire Constabulary had a caller seeking nothing more than a phone number for a taxi service.
Police urge the public to pause and consider before calling – if the issue isn’t police-related, it could be taking time away from someone in distress. Let’s keep the lines open for those who truly need help and ensure our emergency services can focus on keeping communities safe.
Many police forces now offer digital contact options, making it easier for people to get the help they need without picking up the phone.
Police.uk provides a range of services to help people report crimes, seek support, and access policing information. Here are some key services available:
Reporting Crimes – You can report incidents such as theft, fraud, domestic abuse, hate crimes, and missing persons online.
Advice & Support – The site offers guidance on staying safe, dealing with crime, and understanding your rights.
Local Policing Information – Find out about crime rates, policing teams, and safety initiatives in your area.
Performance & Statistics – Access data on police effectiveness and crime trends across the UK.
StreetSafe – A tool that allows people to highlight areas where they feel unsafe, helping police improve public safety.
The Police.UK app, available on Google Play and the iOS App Store, makes reporting crime and accessing vital policing information easier than ever. Whether you want to track local crime trends, find practical safety advice for your home, or stay updated on your local police team’s activities, the app puts essential services at your fingertips. Any contact made through the app is handled by the same trained professionals who manage 101 calls, ensuring consistent and reliable support.
Exceptional Kiwi businesses and outstanding individuals who are driving industry productivity, innovation and job creation have been honoured at New Zealand’s inaugural Minister for Manufacturing Awards. “Manufacturing fuels the economy by contributing over 8.4 percent to New Zealand’s GDP, generating more than 250,000 jobs and reinforcing our position as a global competitor,” Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing Chris Penk says. “The 2025 Minister for Manufacturing Awards celebrated the prosperity this industry drives and most importantly, the outstanding people behind it.” Held yesterday evening at Christchurch’s premier industry showcase, SouthMACH, the event was hosted by Mr Penk in collaboration with Advancing Manufacturing Aotearoa. “The calibre of finalists and winners reflects the strength and diversity of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector – from suppliers of sustainably harvested timber, to developers of ground-breaking recycling technologies and producers of life-saving medical equipment,” Mr Penk says. “These businesses are led by innovative thinkers and powered by skilled, hard-working Kiwis. Their success is something we can all take pride in and shows that manufacturing will continue to play a significant role in shaping New Zealand into a world-class economy.”
The awards recognise excellence across four key categories. The winners are:
Manufacturing Apprentice of the Year supported by Enztec: Michael Vitale – Pacific Steel Michael is working towards his Mechanical Engineering apprenticeship through Competenz at Pacific Steel. His early completion of theory components and impressive focus on health and safety in example projects shows remarkable dedication, and his success has encouraged the company to open apprenticeships to other operations employees.
Excellence in Manufacturing Leadership supported by Lawson Williams Consulting: Nathan Hay –Argus ManuTech Nathan Hay is a passionate manufacturing leader who has championed technology adoption, grown the workforce and empowered his team through focused upskilling. Mr Hays has led impactful partnerships, including med-tech ventures with MARS Bioimaging, that highlight how progressive manufacturing can drive positive social and environmental outcomes.
Excellence in Process Innovation supported by Swell Group: Breadcraft Wairarapa Ltd Breadcraft Wairarapa is a fourth-generation artisan bakery that’s been proudly baking in Masterton since 1942. Through innovative brands like Rebel Bakehouse, they’re combining tradition, sustainability and creativity to lead New Zealand’s baking evolution.
Manufacturer of the Year supported by BNZ: Douglas Pharmaceuticals Douglas Pharmaceuticals specialises in high-barrier prescription medicines, produced in FDA and TGA-certified GMP facilities. They have grown from a family business into a people-focused industry leader that is continually innovating and delivering strong financial results. Douglas Pharmaceuticals sets the benchmark for New Zealand manufacturing and is a worthy recipient of this award.
“I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the outstanding businesses and individuals honoured at the awards ceremony, and a sincere thanks to everyone who entered and attended,” Mr Penk says. “Your dedication to building a thriving industry inspires the future generations of Kiwi makers and creators. I look forward to celebrating your achievements again at future Minister for Manufacturing Awards.”
Since debuting in February 2024, Samsung Electronics’ Bespoke AI Laundry Combo1 has sold more than 100,000 units in Korea and won 21 major awards,2 building a strong presence in the all-in-one washer-dryer market.
Designed to boost convenience and make smarter use of time and space, the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo is reshaping daily life. Samsung Newsroom took an inside look at how that transformation is taking place and why.
Wash and Dry in One Go — A Simpler Routine for Better Living
According to a Samsung survey3 of 206 buyers in Korea who purchased all-in-one washer-dryers released in 2024, respondents cited the following top reasons for their purchase — no laundry transfer needed (23%), saving space (21%), single installation for both washing and drying (12%), and one-step operation from wash to dry (11%).
As laundry becomes simpler and more convenient, how and when people do it is evolving. Compared to before purchasing all-in-one models, people are washing their clothes more frequently. Dual-income households, in particular, are increasingly doing their laundry on weeknights after work.
As washing and drying are completed in a single automated cycle, the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo allows users to simply load their clothes, press start and walk away. There’s no need to wait around or manually move wet clothes to a separate dryer. Furthermore, the Auto Open Door feature even opens the door automatically once drying is complete, releasing moisture quickly and enhancing hygiene and convenience.
Simple Setup, Smarter Use of Space and AI-Optimized Cycles
The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo also offers improved space efficiency and greater flexibility in installation. Unlike conventional setups that require separate space for both washer and dryer units, the all-in-one unit reduces spatial demand by around 40%,4 with no need to stack two machines or place them side-by-side. Its lower height also allows for extra shelving in laundry or utility rooms.
▲ The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo reduces spatial demand by around 40% compared to conventional washer and dryer setups.
In addition, the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo’s AI-powered features significantly boost efficiency. AI Wash & Dry5 automatically selects the best wash and dry settings based on weight, fabric type and soil level, removing the need for manual configuration.
In the survey, customers in Korea expressed high satisfaction6 with features like the Flex Auto Dispense System7 (91%) and AI Energy Mode8 (89%). The Flex Auto Dispense System adjusts the detergent amount to suit the load of laundry when detergent is pre-filled in the compartment, reducing maintenance hassle and preventing overuse or underuse of detergent, which is a common issue with conventional washing machines.
Energy efficiency has also improved, as the 2025 Bespoke AI Laundry Combo consumes 45% less electricity per kilogram than the minimum required for top-rated front-load washers in Korea.9 With AI Energy Mode, users can reduce energy consumption by up to 60% without compromising performance.10
Samsung continues to drive the popularization of all-in-one washer-dryers by introducing products with industry-leading drying capacity.11 The 2025 Bespoke AI Laundry Combo increases capacity by 3kg to a total of 18kg, while reducing drying time by 20 minutes to complete a full wash-and-dry cycle in as little as 79 minutes.12
“We are committed to introducing more products like the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo that bring meaningful changes to users’ daily lives,” said Jong-Hun Sung, Vice President and Head of Clothing Care R&D Group at Digital Appliances (DA) Business, Samsung Electronics. “With our innovative technology and focus on personalized user experiences, we aim to open a new chapter in home appliances.”
As laundry becomes an increasingly seamless experience, Samsung will continue to enable a smarter, more convenient way of living, one cycle at a time.
1 All information regarding the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo in this article is based on products launched in South Korea. Product specifications may vary by country and region of release. For accurate information, please refer to the official sales outlet or the manufacturer’s website in your country.
2 Recognitions include Winner of the iF Design Award (2024, 2025), Finalist of the IDEA Design Award (2024), Bronze for the Good Design Award by the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (2024), Winner of the Korea Innovation Frontier Award by the Korean Standards Association (2024), Honoree at the CES Innovation Awards (2024), Winner of the Ergonomic Design Award by the Ergonomics Society of Korea (2024), Korea Green Product of the Year by the Korea Green Purchasing Network (2024), Winner of the Jang Young-Shil Award by Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (2024), Winner of the Korea Electronics Show Innovation Award (2024), No.1 in INNO STAR and GREEN STAR by Korea Management Registrar Inc. (2024, 2025), No.1 in Home Appliance A/S in the KS-SQI and KSQI by the Korean Standards Association and Korea Management Association Consultants respectively (2024), No.1 in the Washer-Dryer Category in the KS-QEI by the Korean Standards Association (2024), Winner of the Korea Brand Hall of Fame by the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies (2025), Winner of the Canstar Blue Most Innovative Award in Australia (2025), and No.1 in the Washer-Dryer Category by Consumer Reports in the United States (2024, 2025).
3 Based on an online survey conducted on 206 buyers of all-in-one washer-dryers in Korea, including 154 who purchased Samsung’s Bespoke AI Laundry Combo. Participants included purchase decision-makers, primary users and buyers of models released in 2024.
4 When installing the Bespoke AI Washer (25kg) and Dryer (22kg) in a stacked configuration, the required height is 1,890mm. In a side-by-side configuration, the required width is 980mm. In comparison, the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo has a height of 1,110mm and width of 686mm.
5 Detects fabric type under AI Wash & Dry mode for loads up to 3kg. Detects soil level under the same mode for loads up to 9kg. Detects a total of five fabric types — normal, towels, delicates, denim and outdoor — and when multiple fabric types are mixed, identifies them as either “normal” or the type that most closely matches.
6 Research Methodology: Satisfaction levels for each of the 2024 Bespoke AI Laundry Combo’s 14 features were measured using a 7-point scale. The results reflect the proportion of respondents who selected the top two ratings: “Very satisfied” and “Satisfied.”
7 Based on a 5kg laundry load using the standard wash cycle, with the detergent amount set to “normal” and concentration set to “regular.” Results are based on internal testing and may vary depending on actual usage conditions. When filling the main and optional compartments with regular detergent, the auto-dispense system can operate for up to 13 weeks per refill under a usage rate of three cycles per week.
8 AI Energy Mode activates immediately when “Maximum Saving” is selected as the monthly usage target within the SmartThings Energy service. When “Progressive tier” or “Custom” settings are selected, operation time and energy savings may vary depending on the user-defined conditions. To manage energy use based on tiered electricity pricing, a separate smart meter may be required depending on the user environment. AI Energy Mode is available exclusively via SmartThings, which may have limitations depending on the supported environment and usage conditions.
9 Based on data for front-load (or electric) washing machines listed on the Korea Energy Agency website. The minimum standard for Grade 1 energy efficiency is 45.8 Wh/kg. The 2025 Bespoke AI Laundry Combo’s energy efficiency rate is 24.9 Wh/kg.
10 Conducted using 3kg of standardized test fabric in accordance with KS C IEC 60456, with the fabric type identified as “normal” and the water temperature set to 20°C. Power consumption was compared with AI Energy Mode (set to “Maximum Saving”) turned on and off. Test model: WD25DB8995BZ; Reference model: WD90F25***.
11 As of March 5, 2025, the 2025 Bespoke AI Laundry Combo’s 25kg washing capacity is the largest among household washing machines registered with the Korea Energy Agency. Its 18kg drying capacity is the largest among front-load models as of March 10, 2025.
12 Based on DOE standard test fabric composed of 50% cotton and 50% polyester, using the Quick Cycle. Actual results may vary depending on fabric type, moisture content, characteristics, and laundry load in real-world usage conditions.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Julia Brownley (D-CA)
Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (CA-26) joined Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44) and every Democratic member of the California Congressional Delegation in sending a letter to President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., urging them to safeguard federal funding for the Head Start program. The letter comes in response to alarming reports that the Trump Administration considered eliminating Head Start funding during recent federal budget discussions.
“From Los Angeles County to the Central Valley to rural tribal lands, Head Start provides comprehensive early learning, health, nutrition, and family support services to children who are disproportionately impacted by poverty and housing instability,” wrote the members. “These essential services support our state’s economy by allowing parents to work and go to school, while giving our future workforce the strong start that they need to be successful later in life.”
California is home to one of the largest populations of Head Start children in the nation. In Fiscal Year 2023 alone, Head Start and Early Head Start programs served more than 94,000 children across the state. These programs offer critical support to children by integrating early education with health, nutrition, and family services – providing targeted support to those experiencing poverty, housing insecurity, and systemic inequities.
“The elimination or reduction of Head Start funding would be catastrophic. In California, it would shut the doors of 1,835 Head Start and Early Head Start Centers and eliminate access to early education for tens of thousands of children – disproportionately children of color, English learners, children with disabilities, and those living in low-income and rural communities.”
Since its founding in 1965, Head Start has served over 40 million children and families nationwide. Decades of research confirm that the program improves school readiness, boosts long-term academic and employment outcomes, and helps break the cycle of poverty.
“Head Start is not optional – it is a national commitment that must be honored,” the members added. “We urge you to reject any future attempts to weaken or eliminate this program and to ensure its continued success for the children and families who rely on it every day.”
The letter was co-signed by each of the 45 Democratic members of the California Congressional Delegation: Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Representatives Pete Aguilar, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Garcia, Linda Sánchez, John Garamendi, Kevin Mullin, Mark Takano, Ted Lieu, Maxine Waters, Laura Friedman, J. Luis Correa, Ro Khanna, Mike Thompson, Norma Torres, Mark DeSaulnier, Juan Vargas, Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr., Judy Chu, Derek Tran, Raul Ruiz, Jared Huffman, Doris Matsui, Salud Carbajal, Brad Sherman, Ami Bera, Jimmy Panetta, Zoe Lofgren, Eric Swalwell, Lateefah Simon, Dave Min, Jimmy Gomez, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Jim Costa, George Whitesides, Luz Rivas, Sara Jacobs, Scott Peters, Josh Harder, Adam Gray, Mike Levin, and Sam Liccardo.
The full letter can be found here and below:
President Trump and Secretary Kennedy:
We write today to express serious concern over reports that your Administration considered proposals to eliminate federal funding for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start program in recent budget discussions. While we are relieved that the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Fiscal Year 2026 proposal did not include this cut, that such an action was even contemplated underscores the vulnerability of this vital program under your Administration. As members of the California Congressional Delegation, we urge you to safeguard this critical program, which plays an irreplaceable role in supporting California’s children and families, especially those facing economic hardship and systemic barriers.
California is home to one of the largest populations of Head Start children in the nation. In Fiscal Year 2023 alone, more than 94,000 children and pregnant women in California were served by Head Start and Early Head Start programs. These services are not just beneficial – they are essential. From Los Angeles County to the Central Valley to rural tribal lands, Head Start provides comprehensive early learning, health, nutrition, and family support services to children who are disproportionately impacted by poverty and housing instability. These essential services support our state’s economy by allowing parents to work and go to school, while giving our future workforce the strong start that they need to be successful later in life.
Since its founding in 1965, Head Start has supported more than 40 million children and their families nationwide – and millions in California alone. Research continues to confirm what educators and parents have long known: Head Start works. It boosts school readiness, improves long-term academic outcomes, increases high school graduation and employment rates, and helps break cycles of generational poverty.
The elimination or reduction of Head Start funding would be catastrophic. In California, it would shut the doors of 1,835 Head Start and Early Head Start Centers and eliminate access to early education for tens of thousands of children – disproportionately children of color, English learners, children with disabilities, and those living in low-income and rural communities. Thousands of parents would also lose their ability to go to work or school, and otherwise participate in the economy.
Head Start is not optional – it is a national commitment that must be honored. For these reasons, we urge you to reject any future attempts to weaken or eliminate this program and to ensure its continued success for the children and families who rely on it every day.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)
Ahead of Anniversary, PressleyIntroduced Suite of Billsto Transform Criminal Legal System, Improve Police Accountability
BOSTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) released the following statement marking the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. Last week, ahead of the anniversary, Congresswoman Pressley reintroduced the People’s Justice Guarantee (PJG), the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, and the Andrew Kearse Accountability for Denial of Medical Care Act – a suite of bills that collectively would help build a fair, equitable, and just legal system in America, and improve police accountability.
“George Floyd should be alive today. Like every Black man, he deserved to grow old, to laugh with his children, to love and be loved. But five years ago today, George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by police—a harrowing reminder of the brutal, state-sanctioned violence that Black folks in America have endured for generations and that we continue to endure to this day.
“In the days and weeks that followed, America underwent a so-called ‘reckoning’ on racial injustice. People from every corner of this country mobilized, demanding justice, accountability, and transformative change. But five years later, meaningful policy change remains stalled in Congress, corporations are backing away from their commitments to racial equity, and a white supremacist once again occupies the White House—continuing his unprecedented assault on Black America, rolling back policies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and advancing harmful executive actions to ‘unleash law enforcement’ and threaten Black lives. Without meaningful policy and budget change, the unjust status quo will persist, and we will continue to be robbed of innocent lives.
“This anniversary must be more than hashtags, performative statements, and remembrance—it must be a recommitment to dismantling the systems of oppression that enabled George Floyd’s murder and the killing of many, many others. That means continuing to advance policies like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and my People’s Justice Guarantee, Ending Qualified Immunity Act, and Andrew Kearse Act, which I was proud to re-introduce this past week. It means legislating to affirm housing, healthcare, food security, and education as the human rights that they are. It means centering compassion, accountability, and healing in our policymaking—not cruelty, criminalization, and incarceration.
“We’ll never have true justice for George Floyd. True justice would be George Floyd alive today, at home with his fiancée, children, and siblings. As we mark this somber anniversary, we owe it to George, his family, and everyone killed at the hands of law enforcement to continue governing like lives depend on it and building a more just America where everyone can thrive and live free from fear.”
In April 2021, Congresswoman Pressley authored an op-ed in USA Today in which she responded to reports that the guilty verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial have reduced the appetite amongst lawmakers—in both parties—for action on police reform. In the op-ed, Rep. Pressley called for meaningful policy and budget change to dismantle every system that finances and perpetuates brutality, murder and state-sanctioned violence at home and abroad.
Congresswoman Pressley has introduced over a dozen pieces of precise legislation informed by the People’s Justice Guarantee to fundamentally redefine what justice looks like in America, including the Ending Qualified Immunity Act and Andrew Kearse Accountability for the Denial of Medical Care Act.
Congresswoman Pressley also led calls in Congress for President Biden to use his clemency authority to address mass incarceration and has applauded the President for granting clemency to thousands of people and commended him for commuting the death sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row.
In June 2023, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12)unveiled the Housing for Formerly Incarcerated Reentry and Stable Tenancy (Housing FIRST) Act, bold legislation to help people who are formerly incarcerated and those with criminal histories access safe and stable housing.
In May 2023, Rep. Pressley reintroduced her Justice for Incarcerated Moms Act to improve maternal health care and support for pregnant individuals who are incarcerated. It was originally introduced in March 2020 and reintroduced in February 2021 as part of the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Package—a suite of 12 bills aimed at addressing the Black maternal health crisis.
In May 2023, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Grace Napolitano (CA-31), Co-Chair of the Mental Health Caucus, requested the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to research post-traumatic prison disorder and share findings related to prevention and treatment for people returning from behind the wall.
In April 2023, Rep. Pressley and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) re-introduced their Ending Qualified Immunity Act, legislation that would eliminate the unjust and court-invented doctrine of qualified immunity and restore the ability for people to obtain relief when state and local officials, including police officers, violate their legal and constitutionally secured rights. Rep. Pressley originally introduced the bill in June 2020 with Rep. Justin Amash (L-MI) and reintroduced it with Sen. Markey in March 2021.
On April 6, 2023, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Hank Johnson led 25 of their colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus in calling on Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation to address racial disparities in traffic enforcement.
In April 2023, Rep. Pressley, in partnership with Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) and Ilhan Omar (MN-05), re-introduced the Ending PUSHOUT Act, their legislation to end the punitive pushout of girls of color from schools. It was originally introduced in December 2019 and reintroduced in March 2021.
In March 2023, Rep. Pressley, Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Congressman Greg Casar (TX-35) and 27 Members of Congress, alongside more than 300 advocacy organizations and community leaders, reintroduced the New Way Forward Act, a landmark piece of legislation that addresses some of the most harmful provisions of immigration law that drive racist enforcement practices, expanded incarceration in immigration detention centers, and unjust deportations. It was originally introduced in December 2019 Reps. Chuy Garcia (IL-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Karen Bass (CA-37) and was reintroduced in January 2021.
In March 2023, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues re-introduced the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act to stop federal entities’ use of facial recognition tools and prohibit federal support for state and local law enforcement entities that use biometric technology. They reintroduced the bill in June 2021.
In December 2022, the House passed Congresswoman Pressley’s amendment to strengthen maternal health care for people who are incarcerated.
In December 2021, Rep. Pressley unveiled the Fair and Independent Experts in Clemency (FIX Clemency) Act, historic legislation to transform our nation’s clemency system and address the mass incarceration crisis.
In March 2021, Rep. Pressley sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to consider H. Res. 266, the People’s Justice Guarantee, as a framework for embedding justice in our criminal legal system and building integrity in the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In February 2021, October 2020, Congresswoman Pressley reintroduced the Mental Health Justice Act with Reps. Katie Porter (CA-45), Tony Cardenas (CA-29), and Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), to support the creation of mental health first responder units that would be deployed in lieu of law enforcement when 911 is called due to a mental health crisis. The lawmakers originally introduced the legislation in October 2020.
In January 2021, she reintroduced the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act of 2021 with Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) to prohibit the use of the death penalty at the federal level, and require re-sentencing of those currently on death row. The lawmakers originally introduced the bill in July 2019.
In August 2020, she introduced the COVID-19 in Corrections Data Transparency Act with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and others, requires federal, state, and local prisons and jails to collect and publicly report COVID-19 data. The legislation was reintroduced last month.
In July 2020, she introduced the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act with Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), to prohibit federal funds to support the increased presence of police in K-12 schools and supports school districts that invests in counselors.
In June 2020, she introduced the Dismantle Mass Incarceration for Public Health Act with Reps. Tlaib (MI-13) and Barbara Lee (CA-13) to require decarceration to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and jails.
In June 2020, she introduced the Andrew Kearse Accountability for Denial of Medical Care Act with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Ed Markey (D-MA), to hold police officers criminally liable for denying care to those in medical distress.
In May 2020, she introduced a resolution with Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Karen Bass (CA-37) and Barbara Lee (CA-13) to condemn any and all acts of police brutality, racial profiling, and militarization and over-policing of Black and brown communities.
In July 2019, she introduced the No Biometric Barriers Housing Act with Reps. Yvette Clarke (NY-09) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) that would prohibit the use of biometric recognition technology in most public and assisted housing units funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), protecting tenants from biased surveillance technology.
In June 2019, in conjunction with Gun Violence Awareness Month and the 5th Annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day, she introduced a resolution to honor survivors of homicide victims by establishing National Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month.
Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development
Vorwerk Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Thermomix in Australia, has paid $79,200 in penalties after the ACCC issued it with four infringement notices for allegedly making false or misleading representations to consumers online, suggesting two of its household appliances were endorsed by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
In November 2024, the ACCC put businesses on notice of its focus on problematic advertising practices targeting NDIS participants. Since then, it has taken compliance and enforcement action against a number of businesses.
The ACCC alleges that in November 2024 and March 2025, Thermomix made false or misleading representations on its website promoting the Thermomix TM6 cooking product and Kobold cordless vacuum and mop as being endorsed through the NDIS or registered by an entity administering the NDIS.
This included allegedly describing the products as ‘NDIS approved’, ‘NDIS-registered product’, ‘NDIS-consumables’, ‘NDIS assistive technology’, and ‘NDIS equipment’.
“The NDIS does not provide specific approval for any particular goods or services. Each NDIS participant has unique needs, and what’s funded under their plan is determined individually, not through a list of approved products. There are no categories of goods or services which are automatically NDIS approved or funded for all NDIS participants,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
“Misleading consumers experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage is of concern to us, and we will not hesitate to take appropriate action.”
The Australian Government’s NDIS (Fair Price and Australian Consumer Law) Taskforce is comprised of the ACCC, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and the NDIA. The taskforce was established in December 2023 to address potential breaches of Australian Consumer Law amid concerns that NDIS participants were being charged more for goods and services than other consumers.
Any person who thinks a business has made false or misleading statements about products or services, including whether they are endorsed or approved by the NDIS, or who considers their consumer rights have not been met, can make a report to the ACCC.
Further information for NDIS participants is available on the ACCC website.
Note to editors
The ACCC can issue an infringement notice when it has reasonable grounds to believe a person or business has contravened certain consumer protection provisions in the Australian Consumer Law.
The payment of a penalty specified in an infringement notice is not an admission of a contravention of the Australian Consumer Law. The Australian Consumer Law sets the penalty amount.
What false or misleading advertising about the NDIS might look like
Examples of concerning advertising that may be false or misleading include:
The use of the words ‘NDIS approved’ as the NDIS does not have the function of approving or endorsing particular goods or services.
Advertising suggesting NDIS funds will cover “all inclusive” holidays, when general costs associated with holidays would not be covered by NDIS funding.
Meal delivery services suggesting the cost of meals is covered by the NDIS, when the NDIS does not cover food expenses.
Advertising that provides instructions on how to use NDIS funding codes to cover costs of recreational services that are not covered by the NDIS – for example, going to the movies or a theme park.
Advertising that suggests a business is affiliated or endorsed by the NDIS, by using NDIS in its business name or in the description of its services, for example ‘NDIS therapies’.
Background
Vorwerk Australia Pty Ltd is the sole Australian distributor of Thermomix products in Australia and the owner of TheMix Shop, an ecommerce store for Thermomix and Kobold products.
In November 2024, Vorwerk International AG, the Germany-based manufacturer of Thermomix and Kobold appliances, completed an acquisition of The Mix Australia Pty Ltd, which held the sole official licence to distribute Thermomix appliances in Australia and operated the ecommerce store TheMix Shop. After the acquisition, The Mix Australia Pty Ltd was renamed as Vorwerk Australia Pty Ltd.
In December 2024, the ACCC instituted proceedings against registered NDIS provider Ausnew Home Care Service Pty Ltd, for alleged false and misleading representations, including statements that certain products were ‘NDIS approved’ relating to aged care and disability products. The matter remains before the Court.
Last week, Bedding retailer Bedshed paid $39,600 in penalties for allegedly making false and misleading representations that some of the products it sold were ‘NDIS approved’ and ‘NDIS permitted’.
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