What place do graduates of technical fields of education occupy in the labour market? What salary can a young engineer expect? To what extent does his success in the labour market depend on the field of study, are all young engineers equally in demand in the labour market? In which regions is there a greater demand for graduates? The answers to these and other questions are provided by a study by HSE scientists, presented at the round table “Graduates of Engineering Specialties in the Russian Labour Market: Myths and Reality” within the framework of XXV Yasinsky (April) International Scientific Conference.
The report was given by the Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Head of the Labor Market Research Laboratory Sergey Roshchin. He noted that today the labor market in Russia is in a situation of demographic compression and that this situation will persist in the long term. At the same time, the national priorities in the field of technological leadership already defined by the country’s leadership impose additional requirements for the training of specialists who could ensure such leadership. Therefore, the characteristics of the labor market for graduates of engineering training areas and the level of young engineers represented in this market are of particular interest and importance.
As Sergey Roshchin noted in his report, engineering and technical sciences are the most widespread group of graduates. In total, from 2018 to 2024, 27.9% of all graduates were enrolled in higher education programs (bachelor’s, specialist, master’s) in the field of engineering, technology and technical sciences. This is more than in other areas of higher education. But it is not only the number of specialists being trained that is important, but also their quality. If we divide universities that train engineering personnel by the quality of training based on the average Unified State Exam score required for admission to programs at these universities, then 50% of engineering graduates graduate from low-selective programs and universities where 59 or fewer Unified State Exam scores are enough for admission, and this largely determines the quality of engineers we have at the end. “And only 40% of the training of engineers can we consider as sufficiently high-quality, taking into account who comes [to study] and what quality is provided by certain universities,” Sergey Roshchin explained.
An interesting phenomenon has emerged in the training of engineers: students who studied on fee-paying places receive, on average, a higher starting salary than graduates who studied on budget places. This is explained by the fact that studying at a selective university provides its graduates with a high level of income: the salary of graduates of the most selective universities is almost 2 times higher than the salary of those who graduated from the least selective universities.
And families are ready to pay for quality education in more selective universities. Only 10% of fee-paying places are concentrated in the low-selectivity group of universities, while 20% are concentrated in the most selective group. It is not important what type of funding a student receives – fee-paying or state-funded, but what university he or she attends in terms of the quality of training.
“The most important criterion is the form of study: part-time or full-time. Oddly enough, engineering training in the form of part-time study is represented by a solid number. A third of those who graduate are part-time students,” says Sergey Roshchin. Having cited precise statistics on different areas of training, form (full-time and part-time), as well as the level of study (bachelor’s and master’s degrees), he drew attention to the fact that the prospects in the labor market for graduates of full-time and part-time forms of study are different. “Part-time students enter the labor market with starting salaries slightly higher than those of full-time students, but then they remain stagnant. Already in the horizon of two to five years, full-time students are ahead in terms of salary growth, in terms of promotion to more in-demand jobs, and part-time students remain where they were,” the vice-rector explained.
Another observation was that more than half of engineering graduates are concentrated in three key industries: manufacturing; information and communications; and scientific and technical activities. Among the industries with the highest salary levels are mining, information and communications, finance, and insurance.
The most alarming fact, according to Sergey Roshchin, is that 41% of bachelor’s degree graduates and 20% of master’s degree graduates are employed in jobs that do not require higher education according to the OKZ (All-Russian Classifier of Occupations) classification. “In essence, higher education is only needed to occupy positions such as manager and top-level specialist,” the vice-rector comments. “In lower positions, higher education is usually not required. And this is a big question, how the market sees engineering education, whether there is really a need for so many engineers with higher education. Or, perhaps, it is the quality of higher education that does not allow one to occupy positions corresponding to this level.”
Sergey Roshchin also touched upon the topic of regional differentiation. “In general, from all our previous works, reports, and analyses, we know that graduates are very mobile,” he notes. “40% of graduates who have received higher education move to another region.” The most popular for moving were Moscow (29%), Moscow Region (10%), St. Petersburg (8%), KhMAO (5%), and Krasnodar Krai (3%). At the same time, the average salary of those who left the region of study is 110.8 thousand rubles, and those who remained in the region of study – 90.4 thousand rubles. But for the interaction of engineering education and the labor market from a regional point of view, something else is important. The main (45%) training of engineers is conducted in six regions: Moscow, St. Petersburg, the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk and Rostov Regions. And these same territories are the main consumers of engineering personnel. In the labor market of engineers, there is a regional balance of labor and education markets in the main core of training. At the same time, of course, if we consider individual regions and areas of training, certain disproportions exist.
The report allows us to conclude that there are areas of absolute inefficiency in the training of engineers. These are areas such as technosphere safety, light industry technologies, and food technologies. Graduates of these areas look like outsiders in the labor market compared to other engineers.
In conclusion, Sergei Roshchin noted “that the answers to technological challenges associated with the tasks of ensuring technological leadership probably lie not in increasing the number (including through government procurement), but in changing the structure and quality of training engineers.”
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
The future is now more difficult for researchers to predict, and events that are less predictable are becoming increasingly important. But there is good news: scientists are convinced that humanity will adapt to any changes. This was discussed at the conference that was launched as part of XXV Yasinsky (April) International Scientific Conference International Symposium “Foresight in a rapidly changing world“.
Rapid technological progress, alarming climate change, rapid digitalization, rising inflation and stagflation are causing major changes. “The world is becoming more complex and less predictable,” said a leading expert Foresight CenterISSEK HSE University Yulia Milshina. According to her, rapid changes cause nervousness and depression among the population. Some researchers associate their emergence with the development of digital technologies and a sense of insecurity.
“The digital transformation of education and labor systems is not keeping up with the times, creating a mismatch between human capital and market demands,” says Yulia Milshina. Demographic statistics are also alarming. “The increase in the age of the population, in contrast to its size, in developed countries poses a threat to the pension and health care systems,” she adds.
At the same time, there has been an exponential growth in the number of scientific publications devoted to the so-called wild cards (random factors) recently. These include poorly predictable events that may prove to be extremely important. An early warning system for such random events is important in order to formulate approaches to reducing the negative consequences of the implementation of wild cards, explained Yulia Milshina. If in 2022 there were more than 50 such events, then in 2025 there will be more than 300.
The global financial crisis has served as a trigger for the research community to take low-probability, high-impact events more seriously, she stressed. Unpredictability makes traditional forecasting difficult. “Despite increased awareness, we remain vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances,” the expert notes. The new social world requires integrated strategies that can adapt to rapid developments. Therefore, more sophisticated tools are being developed “to anticipate, assimilate and adapt to such disruptive changes.”
Senior Research Fellow Laboratories of Innovation Economy HSE ISSEK Alena Nefedova spoke about the system ifora — an intelligent platform for analyzing big data and megatrends, developed by the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.
Among the megatrends that will influence the future, Alena Nefedova named climate change, increased attention to the physical and psycho-emotional state of a person, the transformation of the education system, and global changes in the labor market. At the same time, the development of interdisciplinary research is becoming very important in science itself, she emphasized.
“Universities began interdisciplinary research in the mid-20th century in collaboration with industry. By the 1970s, interdisciplinarity was recognized as vital to strengthening universities as key players in innovation ecosystems,” Alena Nefedova noted. Digitalization is also increasingly influencing scientific activity. “We have virtual forums, we have virtual labs, we have international projects, we have an open science project, and this helps to exchange scientific data and developments,” she added.
Fabienne Goux-Bodiment from the Research Center for the Future (France) noted that the world has changed dramatically. “One of the catalysts for these changes is carbon. We see that large-scale use of carbon leads to global warming and climate change. Another catalyst is silicon. Thanks to silicon, we have generative artificial intelligence, and it can compete with humans,” she said. And finally, the third important trend that is currently observed, according to Fabienne Goux-Bodiment, is general chaos. In particular, it is noticeable in the economy and geopolitics. But change is “not some kind of anomaly, it is a natural process of human evolution and, in fact, life in general,” she reassured. Society is thus evolving, and technology accelerates this evolution. We can move, “make a quantum leap into a completely new state,” the researcher is sure. “One world essentially dies, and a new world appears, albeit not immediately,” says Fabienne Goux-Bodiment. But because we have resistance to change, this process slows down. However, we are still entering an era of acceleration.
The world will not be as we know it now, but this transition does not mean the end of humanity, says the futurologist. “First, it is not the first time that humanity has gone through major changes. Second, the human race as a whole adapts quickly. In addition, this time we know what is happening. We are aware of it. This means that we can do something,” Fabienne Goux-Bodiment reassured.
Now, according to the researcher, a new mentality is being formed. “More and more people recognize that the way we think, manage and produce goods no longer meets the requirements of the times. This is not just some unnoticeable change. The younger generation is not just asking themselves what they want to do, but thinking about what kind of world they would like to create together with their like-minded people. “Pessimism is not a solution. We must experiment, create new formats,” Fabienne Goux-Bodiment is sure.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
Labor increased its lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put the party ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the final WA upper house results for the March 8 election.
A national YouGov poll, conducted April 11–15 from a sample of 1,506, gave Labor a 53–47 lead, a 0.5-point gain for Labor since the April 4–10 YouGov poll. It’s Labor’s biggest lead in YouGov for 18 months. Primary votes were 33% Labor (up one), 33% Coalition (down 0.5), 7% One Nation (down 1.5), 2% Trumpet of Patriots (up one), 9% independents (steady) and 3% others (steady).
Using 2022 election preference flows would give Labor about a 54.5–45.5 lead from these primary votes. YouGov is applying preference flows from its previous poll that was conducted from late February to late March.
However, recent polls that use respondent preferences suggest the gap in the Coalition’s favour between respondent and 2022 preference flows has dropped to nearly zero. This means YouGov’s current preference assumptions may be too pro-Coalition. Analyst Kevin Bonham has more on this.
In contrast to voting intentions, leaders’ ratings moved to Peter Dutton and against Anthony Albanese. Albanese’s net approval was down four points to -6, with 49% dissatisfied and 43% satisfied. Dutton’s net approval was up five points to -10. Albanese had a 48–38 better PM lead over Dutton (48–37 previously).
I’ve said before that changes in leaders’ ratings may indicate the next change in voting intentions in a poll, though this doesn’t always follow.
While YouGov shows Labor’s surge continuing, the Freshwater poll below only gave Labor a 50.3–49.7 lead. However, this was still a gain for Labor from the post-budget Freshwater poll. Freshwater has the Coalition primary vote at 39%, four points higher than in any other poll in the past week.
Here is the poll graph. I’m using the unrounded two-party numbers for Freshwater’s last two polls, improving Labor from a 51–49 deficit in the post-budget poll to a 50.6–49.4 deficit. There’s a big difference between this week’s Freshwater and all other national polls taken in the past week.
Freshwater poll has very narrow Labor lead
A national Freshwater poll for The Financial Review, conducted April 14–16 from a sample of 1,062, had a 50–50 tie by respondent preferences, a one-point gain for Labor since the Freshwater poll conducted after the March 25 budget. Before rounding, Labor led by 50.3–49.7.
Primary votes were unchanged at 39% Coalition, 32% Labor, 12% Greens and 17% for all Others. By 2022 election flows, this poll would give about a 50–50 tie.
Albanese’s net approval was up one point to -10, while Dutton’s was steady at -11. Albanese led as preferred PM by 46–41 (46–45 previously).
The Coalition’s lead over Labor on cost of living has been cut from a high of 14 points last October to two points in this poll. The Coalition held a 17-point lead on economic management last November, which has been reduced to six points. Cost of living remained the most important issue, with 73% citing it as a top issue.
Resolve poll on tax and housing policies
To gauge the popularity of Labor and the Coalition’s housing policy announcements at their April 13 campaign launches, a Resolve poll for Nine newspapers was conducted April 14–15 from a sample of 801. This poll didn’t report voting intentions, which were assessed in the April 9–13 Resolve poll.
By 40–34, voters preferred Labor’s tax policy to the Coalition’s, which were both announced the week of the March 25 budget. By 40–27, they preferred Labor’s housing policy.
JWS polls of Greens-held Brisbane seats
The Greens hold three seats in Brisbane: Ryan (by 52.6–47.4 vs the Liberal National Party), Brisbane (by 53.7–46.3) and Griffith (by 60.5–39.5). The Poll Bludger reported Thursday that JWS polls for Australian Energy Producers gave the LNP a 57–43 lead over Labor in Ryan with the Greens a distant third on primary votes.
In Brisbane, Labor led the LNP by 51–49 with the Greens once again a distant third. In Griffith, Labor led the LNP by 51–49, but the LNP led the Greens by 53–47.
Seat polls conducted by JWS Research have had very strong results for the Coalition. While the Greens could lose these seats to Labor, I believe the massive swings to the LNP shown here are unrealistic. I expect inner city seats to be good for left-wing parties relative to the national swing.
Redbridge poll: Labor close to majority
A national poll by Redbridge and Accent Research, using MRP methodology and reported by the News Corp tabloids, was conducted from February 3 to April 1 from a sample of 9,953. Labor was still polling poorly in February before they started to lift from early March.
The most likely outcome was 72 of the 150 House of Representatives seats for Labor, four short of a majority, 63 for the Coalition and 15 for all Others. The previous MRP poll by Redbridge and Accent Research in December had the most likely outcome as 71 Coalition seats to 65 for Labor.
Unemployment rate steady at 4.1%
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday that the unemployment rate was 4.1% in March, unchanged from February, with over 32,000 jobs added. The employment population ratio (the percentage of eligible Australians that are employed) was steady at 64.1% after dropping from a near-record high of 64.4% in January.
WA upper house final result
The button was finally pressed on Wednesday to electronically distribute preferences for the upper house for the March 8 Western Australian state election. The upper house used a reformed system with 37 members elected statewide by proportional representation with preferences. A quota was just 1/38 or 2.63%.
Labor won 16 of the 37 seats (down six on 2021 when they won their first WA upper house majority on a massive landslide), the Liberals won ten seats (up three), the Nationals two (down one), the Greens four (up three), One Nation two (up two), Legalise Cannabis one (down one), Australian Christians one (up one) and Animal Justice one (up one). Overall, left-wing parties won the upper house by 22–15 over right-wing parties.
Final primary votes gave Labor 15.54 quotas, the Liberals 10.3, the Nationals 2.1, the Greens 4.2, One Nation 1.45, Legalise Cannabis 1.1, Australian Christians 1.0, an independent group 0.51 and Animal Justice 0.46.
After distribution of preferences, One Nation’s second candidate had 0.83 quotas Labor’s 16th candidate 0.70 quotas, Animal Justice’s top candidate 0.66 quotas and Sophia Moermond, the independent group’s top candidate, 0.63 quotas. Owing to exhaustion, the top three were elected to the last three seats short of a quota.
Adrian Beaumont 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.
China’s economy delivered a strong start in the first quarter, demonstrating steady performance and resilience, economists and observers have said.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.4 percent year on year to 31.8758 trillion yuan (about 4.42 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2025, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.
Describing China’s improved GDP as “excellent news,” Professor John Bryson from the University of Birmingham in Britain, told Xinhua that China has been shifting away from a focus on exports combined with infrastructure investment to a more balanced approach that includes an increase in consumer demand within China.
“This process of rebalancing means that some of the drivers of national economic growth are being localized,” Bryson said, adding that the outcome of this rebalancing exercise is seen with the release of the latest GDP figures.
A rebalanced Chinese economy with more local consumer demand represents one approach to ensuring national economic sustainability, Bryson said.
China’s GDP grew 5 percent year on year in 2024 and the country has targeted its full-year economic growth at around 5 percent for this year. The strong performance of the Chinese economy in the first quarter of 2025 shows its resilience, positioning the country to better weather global uncertainties.
Despite the ongoing global economic headwinds and U.S. tariff pressures, China’s focus on domestic demand expansion and consumption promotion through policies like trade-in programs appears to be bolstering its economic resilience and stability, said Moteb Alshammary, chief of staff of Hisense Electronics in Saudi Arabia.
“The Chinese economy possesses significant internal strength, capable of navigating external uncertainties,” Alshammary added.
A series of measures taken by the Chinese government have enabled China’s economy to maintain rapid and stable growth, said Irfan Karsli, head of the Istanbul-based tourism agency Ligarba Travel. “In the field of consumption, the Chinese government has implemented many preferential policies, which have brought real benefits to the people and also driven the production and sales of various industries in China.”
Seeing the Chinese economy as a “stabilizer” of global economic growth, experts believe that China’s sustained economic growth has a profound impact on the world economy.
James Shikwati, a Kenyan economist, said that in the context of international trade friction and the U.S. tariffs, China’s economic growth is of great significance in boosting world confidence and promoting the world economy.
The Chinese economy is important to the rest of the world, said Dawie Roodt, a senior economist at South African wealth management company Efficient Group, adding that China will help maintain global economic growth by continuing to expand domestic demand and boost consumption.
In the views of Abu Bakr al-Deeb, advisor to the Cairo-based Arab Center for Research and Studies, China’s sustained economic expansion and its persistent efforts to integrate itself into the global economy have generated opportunities for nations worldwide.
“The size of China’s domestic market presents a matchless consumer base as this vast market translates into substantial potential for companies across many industries,” the expert noted.
By maintaining policy stability and action predictability, China has emerged as a pivotal force in overcoming global turbulence, said Marcos Pires, a professor at the Department of Political and Economic Sciences at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil, adding that amid a landscape of global uncertainties, China serves as a safe harbor and predictable anchor for nations and businesses alike.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 18, 2025.
Labor’s poll surge continues in YouGov, but they’re barely ahead in Freshwater Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the final WA upper house results
Why Kinshasa keeps flooding – and why it’s not just about the rain Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gode Bola, Lecturer in Hydrology, University of Kinshasa The April 2025 flooding disaster in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wasn’t just about intense rainfall. It was a symptom of recent land use change which has occurred rapidly in the city, turning it into
Keith Rankin Essay – Barbecued Hamburgers and Churchill’s Bestie Essay by Keith Rankin. Operation Gomorrah may have been the most cynical event of World War Two (WW2). Not only did the name fully convey the intent of the war crimes about to be committed, it, also represented the single biggest 24-hour murder toll for the European war that I have come across. On the
Public toilets could be the jewels in our cities’ crowns – if only governments would listen Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney A New South Wales Senate inquiry into public toilets is underway, looking into the provision, design and maintenance of public toilets across the state. Whenever I mention this inquiry, however, everyone nervously laughs and the conversation moves on.
Bad news – why Australia is losing a generation of journalists Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360info ANALYSIS: By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure of news outlets, job insecurity,
Why do scientists want to spend billions on a 70-year project in an enormous tunnel under the Swiss Alps? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Charles, Accelerator Physicist, Monash University An artist’s impression of the tunnel of the proposed Future Circular Collider. CERN The Large Hadron Collider has been responsible for astounding advances in physics: the discovery of the elusive, long-sought Higgs boson as well as other new exotic particles, possible
Could you accidentally sign a contract by texting an emoji? Here’s what the law says Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer McKay, Professor in Business Law, University of South Australia Parkova/Shutterstock Could someone take you to court over an agreement you made – or at least appeared to make – by sending a “👍”? Emojis can have more legal weight than many people realise. A search of
Why healthy eating may be the best way to reduce food waste Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trang Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide Stokkete, Shutterstock Australians waste around 7.68 million tonnes of food a year. This costs the economy an estimated A$36.6 billion and households up to $2,500 annually. Much of this food is wasted at
Why can’t I keep still after intense exercise? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ken Nosaka, Professor of Exercise and Sports Science, Edith Cowan University Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Do you ever feel like you can’t stop moving after you’ve pushed yourself exercising? Maybe you find yourself walking around in circles when you come off the pitch, or squatting and standing and squatting
‘We get bucketloads of homework’: young people speak about what it’s like to start high school Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Stevens, PhD Candidate, Education, Murdoch University Rawpixel.com Starting high school is one of the most significant transitions young people make in their education. Many different changes happen at once – from making new friends to getting used to a new school environment and different behaviour and
How to tackle the ‘gender play gap’: 4 ways to encourage young women back into sport Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Kay, PhD Candidate at the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University matimix/Shutterstock Women’s sport has recently enjoyed unprecedented success in Australia. We have seen the Matildas sell out 16 successive home games, a world-record attendance for a women’s Test cricket match at the
Want straighter teeth or a gap between? Don’t believe TikTok – filing them isn’t the answer Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland After decades of Hollywood showcasing white-picket-fence celebrity smiles, the world has fallen for White Lotus actor Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth. Wood was bullied for her looks in her youth and expressed gratitude for
1 in 6 New Zealanders is disabled. Why does so much health research still exclude them? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachelle Martin, Senior Lecturer in Rehabilitation & Disability, University of Otago Getty Images Disabled people encounter all kinds of barriers to accessing healthcare – and not simply because some face significant mobility challenges. Others will see their symptoms not investigated properly because it’s assumed a problem is
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the final WA upper house results for the March 8 election.
A national YouGov poll, conducted April 11–15 from a sample of 1,506, gave Labor a 53–47 lead, a 0.5-point gain for Labor since the April 4–10 YouGov poll. It’s Labor’s biggest lead in YouGov for 18 months. Primary votes were 33% Labor (up one), 33% Coalition (down 0.5), 7% One Nation (down 1.5), 2% Trumpet of Patriots (up one), 9% independents (steady) and 3% others (steady).
Using 2022 election preference flows would give Labor about a 54.5–45.5 lead from these primary votes. YouGov is applying preference flows from its previous poll that was conducted from late February to late March.
However, recent polls that use respondent preferences suggest the gap in the Coalition’s favour between respondent and 2022 preference flows has dropped to nearly zero. This means YouGov’s current preference assumptions may be too pro-Coalition. Analyst Kevin Bonham has more on this.
In contrast to voting intentions, leaders’ ratings moved to Peter Dutton and against Anthony Albanese. Albanese’s net approval was down four points to -6, with 49% dissatisfied and 43% satisfied. Dutton’s net approval was up five points to -10. Albanese had a 48–38 better PM lead over Dutton (48–37 previously).
I’ve said before that changes in leaders’ ratings may indicate the next change in voting intentions in a poll, though this doesn’t always follow.
While YouGov shows Labor’s surge continuing, the Freshwater poll below only gave Labor a 50.3–49.7 lead. However, this was still a gain for Labor from the post-budget Freshwater poll. Freshwater has the Coalition primary vote at 39%, four points higher than in any other poll in the past week.
Here is the poll graph. I’m using the unrounded two-party numbers for Freshwater’s last two polls, improving Labor from a 51–49 deficit in the post-budget poll to a 50.6–49.4 deficit. There’s a big difference between this week’s Freshwater and all other national polls taken in the past week.
Freshwater poll has very narrow Labor lead
A national Freshwater poll for The Financial Review, conducted April 14–16 from a sample of 1,062, had a 50–50 tie by respondent preferences, a one-point gain for Labor since the Freshwater poll conducted after the March 25 budget. Before rounding, Labor led by 50.3–49.7.
Primary votes were unchanged at 39% Coalition, 32% Labor, 12% Greens and 17% for all Others. By 2022 election flows, this poll would give about a 50–50 tie.
Albanese’s net approval was up one point to -10, while Dutton’s was steady at -11. Albanese led as preferred PM by 46–41 (46–45 previously).
The Coalition’s lead over Labor on cost of living has been cut from a high of 14 points last October to two points in this poll. The Coalition held a 17-point lead on economic management last November, which has been reduced to six points. Cost of living remained the most important issue, with 73% citing it as a top issue.
Resolve poll on tax and housing policies
To gauge the popularity of Labor and the Coalition’s housing policy announcements at their April 13 campaign launches, a Resolve poll for Nine newspapers was conducted April 14–15 from a sample of 801. This poll didn’t report voting intentions, which were assessed in the April 9–13 Resolve poll.
By 40–34, voters preferred Labor’s tax policy to the Coalition’s, which were both announced the week of the March 25 budget. By 40–27, they preferred Labor’s housing policy.
JWS polls of Greens-held Brisbane seats
The Greens hold three seats in Brisbane: Ryan (by 52.6–47.4 vs the Liberal National Party), Brisbane (by 53.7–46.3) and Griffith (by 60.5–39.5). The Poll Bludger reported Thursday that JWS polls for Australian Energy Producers gave the LNP a 57–43 lead over Labor in Ryan with the Greens a distant third on primary votes.
In Brisbane, Labor led the LNP by 51–49 with the Greens once again a distant third. In Griffith, Labor led the LNP by 51–49, but the LNP led the Greens by 53–47.
Seat polls conducted by JWS Research have had very strong results for the Coalition. While the Greens could lose these seats to Labor, I believe the massive swings to the LNP shown here are unrealistic. I expect inner city seats to be good for left-wing parties relative to the national swing.
Redbridge poll: Labor close to majority
A national poll by Redbridge and Accent Research, using MRP methodology and reported by the News Corp tabloids, was conducted from February 3 to April 1 from a sample of 9,953. Labor was still polling poorly in February before they started to lift from early March.
The most likely outcome was 72 of the 150 House of Representatives seats for Labor, four short of a majority, 63 for the Coalition and 15 for all Others. The previous MRP poll by Redbridge and Accent Research in December had the most likely outcome as 71 Coalition seats to 65 for Labor.
Unemployment rate steady at 4.1%
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday that the unemployment rate was 4.1% in March, unchanged from February, with over 32,000 jobs added. The employment population ratio (the percentage of eligible Australians that are employed) was steady at 64.1% after dropping from a near-record high of 64.4% in January.
WA upper house final result
The button was finally pressed on Wednesday to electronically distribute preferences for the upper house for the March 8 Western Australian state election. The upper house used a reformed system with 37 members elected statewide by proportional representation with preferences. A quota was just 1/38 or 2.63%.
Labor won 16 of the 37 seats (down six on 2021 when they won their first WA upper house majority on a massive landslide), the Liberals won ten seats (up three), the Nationals two (down one), the Greens four (up three), One Nation two (up two), Legalise Cannabis one (down one), Australian Christians one (up one) and Animal Justice one (up one). Overall, left-wing parties won the upper house by 22–15 over right-wing parties.
Final primary votes gave Labor 15.54 quotas, the Liberals 10.3, the Nationals 2.1, the Greens 4.2, One Nation 1.45, Legalise Cannabis 1.1, Australian Christians 1.0, an independent group 0.51 and Animal Justice 0.46.
After distribution of preferences, One Nation’s second candidate had 0.83 quotas Labor’s 16th candidate 0.70 quotas, Animal Justice’s top candidate 0.66 quotas and Sophia Moermond, the independent group’s top candidate, 0.63 quotas. Owing to exhaustion, the top three were elected to the last three seats short of a quota.
Adrian Beaumont 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 Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is making continuous efforts to bring significant improvement in dissemination of its statistical products in sync with international best practices and timelines. MOSPI releases consumer price indices within 12 days after the end of the reference month, which is among the best globally. Similarly, survey reports of NSS are now released within 90 days of completion of fieldwork. The Calendar of release of National Accounts Statistics has been rationalized by obviating the need for the 3rdRevised Estimates of GDP. On the same lines, MOSPI now plans to release the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) within 28 days instead of 42 days.
“From April 2025 onwards, All India Index of Industrial Production (IIP) will be released on 28th of every month at 4:00 PM within 28 days from the reference month. For a particular month IIP will be released as Quick Estimates followed by a Final Estimate.”
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is a crucial short-term indicator of industrial growth in the country. The compilation and release of IIP in India commenced with base year 1937, which was successively revised to 1946, 1951, 1956, 1960, 1970, 1980-81, 1993-94, 2004-05 and 2011-12. MoSPI presently releases the monthly all India Index of Industrial Production (IIP) on the 12th of every month (previous working day if 12th is a holiday) within 42 days from the reference month.
Currently, the Quick Estimates of a month undergo revision in subsequent releases as per the revision policy of IIP. Along with the Quick Estimates of IIP for the specific month, the indices of the previous month undergo the first revision and those for the third previous month undergo the second or final revision in the light of the updated data received from the source agencies.
The United Nations’ International Recommendations for Index of Industrial production (IRIIP)-2010 provide that the monthly IIP be released within forty-five days after the end of the reference month. Similarly, the Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS) of the IMF requires that the index for any reference month should be released within six weeks from the end of that month. In accordance with these international standards in data dissemination, MOSPI has been releasing IIP indices within 42 days after the end of the reference month.
In recent times, considering the advancement in data collection and processing technologies, there is a growing demand from stakeholders for reducing the timeline of release of IIP. Recognizing this need, MoSPI constituted a committee, in June, 2024, to examine the feasibility of reducing the timeline of release of IIP, its revision schedule, while maintaining the response rates and without compromising the quality. The committee included representatives from all the data source agencies, including the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Indian Bureau of Mines, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals and others. The Committee reviewed the entire system of data collection and processing of IIP data to arrive at its recommendations.
After due consultations with the source agencies and in keeping with stakeholders’ aspirations, it has been decided to reduce the timeline of release of IIP from 42 days to 28 days from reference month and also to do-away with second revision of IIP. Accordingly, MoSPI will henceforth release the monthly “All India Index of Industrial Production (IIP)”on 28th of every month at 4:00 PM (next working day if 28th is a holiday). The Quick estimate for a specific month will undergo revision only once, in the next month as the final estimate, as per the revised revision policy. Thus, MOSPI will now release only two estimates (Quick estimate and Final estimate) of a particular month instead of the earlier practice of releasing three estimates (Quick estimates followed by a 1st Revised estimate and a 2nd Revised (final) estimate).
In view of the above, it is informed that MoSPI will release the next IIP estimates on 28 April 2025, at 4:00 PM on the website of Press Information Bureau and Ministry’s official website (https://www.mospi.gov.in). This release will include – Quick estimates for March 2025, and the Final estimates for December 2024, January 2025 and February 2025.
NEWS RELEASE: HAWAI‘I MARCH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 2.9 PERCENT
Posted on Apr 17, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom
STATE OF HAWAIʻI
KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ANDTOURISM
KA ʻOIHANA HOʻOMOHALA PĀʻOIHANA, ʻIMI WAIWAI A HOʻOMĀKAʻIKAʻI
RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS DIVISION
JOSH GREEN, M.D. GOVERNOR
KE KIAʻĀINA
JAMES KUNANE TOKIOKA
DIRECTOR
KA LUNA HOʻOKELE
EUGENE TIAN
CHIEF STATE ECONOMIST
HAWAI‘I MARCH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 2.9 PERCENT
Jobs Increased by 11,800 Year-Over-Year
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2025
HONOLULU — The Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) today announced that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March was 2.9 percent, compared to 3.0 in February. In March, 666,600 persons were employed and 19,900 were unemployed, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 686,500 statewide. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in March, up from 4.1 percent in February.
The unemployment rate figures for the state of Hawai‘i and the U.S. in this release are seasonally adjusted in accordance with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) methodology. The not-seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 2.4 percent in March, compared to 2.8 percent in February.
Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey)
In a separate measure of employment, total nonagricultural jobs increased by 2,500 month-over-month, from February 2025 to March 2025. Job gains were experienced in Leisure & Hospitality (+1,300); Other Services (+300); and Construction (+100). Job losses occurred in Manufacturing (-100); Information (-100); Professional & Business Services (-100); Private Education & Health Services (-100); Trade, Transportation & Utilities (-200); and Financial Activities (-200). Within Leisure & Hospitality, job expansion occurred in Food Services & Drinking Places. Government employment went up by 1,600 jobs, primarily due to above average seasonal hiring of workers at both the Department of Education and the University of Hawai‘i system. Year-over-year, nonfarm jobs have gone up by 11,800, or 1.8 percent.
Technical Notes:
Labor Force Components
The concepts and definitions used by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program are the same as those used in the Current Population Survey for the national labor force data:
Civilian labor force. Included are all persons in the civilian noninstitutional population ages 16 and older classified as either employed or unemployed. (See the definitions below.)
Employed persons. These are all persons who, during the reference week (the week including the twelfth day of the month), (a) did any work as paid employees, worked in their own business or profession or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of their family, or (b) were not working but who had jobs from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job.
Unemployed persons. Included are all persons who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the four-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.
Unemployment rate. The unemployed percent of the civilian labor force [i.e., 100 times (unemployed/civilian labor force)].
Seasonal Adjustment
The seasonal fluctuations in the number of employed and unemployed persons reflect hiring and layoff patterns that accompany regular events such as the winter holiday season and the summer vacation season. These variations make it difficult to tell whether month-to-month changes in employment and unemployment are due to normal seasonal patterns or to changing economic conditions. Therefore, the BLS uses a statistical technique called seasonal adjustment to address these issues. This technique uses the history of the labor force data and the job count data to identify the seasonal movements and to calculate the size and direction of these movements. A seasonal adjustment factor is then developed and applied to the estimates to eliminate the effects of regular seasonal fluctuations on the data. Seasonally adjusted statistical series enable more meaningful data comparisons between months or with an annual average.
Current Population (Household) Survey (CPS)
A survey conducted for employment status in the week that includes the twelfth day of each month generates the unemployment rate statistics, which is a separate survey from the Establishment Survey that yields the industry job counts. The CPS survey contacts approximately 1,000 households in Hawai‘i to determine an individual’s current employment status. Employed persons consist of 1) all persons who did any work for pay or profit during the survey reference week, 2) all persons who did at least 15 hours of unpaid work in a family owned enterprise operated by someone in their household and 3) all persons who were temporarily absent from their regular jobs, whether they were paid or not. Persons considered unemployed are those that do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks and are available for work. Temporarily laid-off workers are counted as unemployed, whether or not they have engaged in a specific job-seeking activity. Persons not in the labor force are those who are not classified as employed or unemployed during the survey reference week.
Benchmark Changes to Local Area Unemployment Statistics Data
Statewide and sub-state data for 2019 to 2024 have revised inputs and data for 1990 to 2024 have been re-estimated to reflect revised population controls and model re-estimation.
Change to Monthly Employment Estimates
This release incorporates revised job count figures for the seasonally adjusted series. The revised data reflects historical corrections applied to unadjusted super sector or sector-level series dating back from 2018 through 2024. For years, analysts with the state of Hawai‘i Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Research and Statistics Office have developed monthly employment estimates for Hawai‘i and its metropolitan areas. These estimates were based on a monthly survey of Hawai‘i businesses and analysts’ knowledge about our local economies. Beginning with the production of preliminary estimates for March 2011, responsibility for the production of state and metropolitan area (MSA) estimates were transitioned from individual state agencies to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
For Hawai‘i, this means the transition of statewide, Honolulu and Kahului-Wailuku MSA estimates for both the seasonally adjusted and not-seasonally adjusted areas are produced by BLS. State agencies will continue to provide the BLS with information on local events that may affect the estimates, such as strikes or large layoffs/hiring at businesses not covered by the survey and to disseminate and analyze the Current Employment Statistics (CES) estimates for local data users. BLS feels this change is designed to improve the cost efficiency of the CES program and to reduce the potential bias in state and area estimates. A portion of the cost savings generated by this change is slated to be directed toward raising survey response rates in future years, which will decrease the level of statistical error in the CES estimates. Until then, state analysts feel this change could result in increased month-to-month variability for the industry employment numbers, particularly for Hawai‘i’s counties and islands. BLS can be reached at 202-691-6555 for any questions about these estimates.
The not-seasonally adjusted job estimates for Hawai‘i County, Kaua‘i County, Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i are produced by the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Labor Force Estimates for Small Areas
Labor Force estimates for the islands within Maui County (Maui, Moloka‘i and Lānai) are produced by the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Seasonally Adjusted Labor Force and Unemployment Estimates for Honolulu and Maui County
BLS publishes smoothed seasonally adjusted civilian labor force and unemployment estimates for all metropolitan areas, which includes the City and County of Honolulu and Maui County.
BLS releases this data each month in the Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release. The schedule is available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.toc.htm.
Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization
Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States, 2024 annual averages (percent)
Area
Measure
U-1
U-2
U-3
U-4
U-5
U-6
United States
1.5
1.9
4.0
4.3
4.9
7.5
Hawai‘i
0.8
1.1
3.1
3.2
4.0
6.4
The six alternative labor underutilization state measures based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) and compiled on a four-quarter moving-average basis defined as:
U-1, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
U-2, job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
U-3, total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);
U-4, total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers;
U-5, total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers*, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers; and
U-6, total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part-time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.
*Individuals who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they had one within the past 12 months) but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey, for such reasons as childcare or transportation problems, for example. Discouraged workers are a subset of the marginally attached.
Please note that the state unemployment rates (U-3) that are shown are derived directly from the CPS. As a result, these U-3 measures may differ from the official state unemployment rates for the latest four-quarter period. The latter are estimates developed from statistical models that incorporate CPS estimates, as well as input data from other sources, such as state unemployment claims data.
###
Media Contacts:
Dr. Eugene Tian
Chief State Economist
Research and Economic Analysis Division
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
Phone: 808-586-2470
Email: [email protected]
Laci Goshi
Communications Officer
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on Wednesday concluded a series of high-level engagements in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality aimed at assessing the state of policing and enhancing crime-fighting strategies in the region.
During his visit, the Minister received a detailed briefing on crime statistics in the metro, with a particular focus on serious and violent crimes, including murder, kidnappings, extortion and gang-related activities.
The briefing also highlighted the strategic interventions currently in place to combat these crimes and improve public safety.
Owing to the investigations conducted by the SAPS, around seven cases have been enrolled on the court roll, in respect of insurance murders with six suspects being implicated.
The second meeting was with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber. During that meeting, the Chamber presented challenges they experience as a result of crime, but further expressed the fruitful working relationship with the SAPS. The Chamber proposed further initiatives to be explored in strengthening the fight against crime.
The final engagement of the day was a meeting with a broad range of community stakeholders, including representatives from the Chinese community and religious leaders. This follows recent incidents involving the kidnapping of among others, Chinese nationals, and robberies at places of worship.
The Minister commended the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks and all partner units involved in the high-risk rescue operation conducted in Gqeberha on Tuesday.
“Through swift coordination, disciplined execution and unshakable bravery, our law enforcement officers successfully rescued a kidnapped American citizen,” the South African Police Service said in a statement.
“During the rescue, the suspects opened fire on the police, resulting in three of the five suspects being fatally shot and two others fleeing, a manhunt is currently underway for these suspects.
“The actions of the members reflect the highest standards of professionalism and an unwavering commitment to justice.”
Minister Mchunu said the safety of every person in the municipality, regardless of nationality, faith or background, is a non-negotiable. – SAnews.gov.za
In another gesture towards Canadian national solidarity, the iconic 2000 “I am Canadian” beer ad was recently revived by the ad’s original actor, Jeff Douglas.
The desire to rally behind symbols of unity is understandable in precarious times. However, it is also a good time to consider who and what is being obscured behind this version of Canadian patriotism.
It’s grown significantly more diverse in recent years. But dominant discourse about Canadian nationalism often flattens these realities, invoking multiculturalism while failing to engage with deeper histories and contemporary realities.
These shifts reflect long-term immigration reforms, especially those beginning in the 1960s, when the federal government moved away from “White Canada” policies that explicitly excluded non-European immigrants.
Today, many people in Canada — Indigenous, immigrant, Canadian-born — maintain complex relationships to settler colonialism, as well as multiple homelands, cultures and histories.
In my teaching and academic leadership roles, I engage with young people and aim to centre their voices in reimagining our institutions and communities. Through this work, I have the privilege of listening as young people reflect on their perceptions of Canada and desires for its future.
There is also a growing desire among the young people I teach to reconcile their profound lack of formal education in Indigenous histories, ideas and issues.
Even in our resistance to external threats, we must remain committed to addressing the internal legacies of colonial violence, as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and its framework for healing.
The TRC provides a road map for the critical work of bridging gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, as led by Indigenous leaders and organizations.
The recently published book Deyohahá:ge: Sharing the River of Life features chapters written by members of Six Nations as well as non-Indigenous neighbours, indicating a need for dialogue. The book reflects on the Two Row Wampum Agreement and how these agreements might restore good relations today.
Part of the Canadian identity story is about being a welcoming nation. But Canadians have long scapegoated newcomers as being to blame for a host of issues.
But distancing ourselves from American crises doesn’t excuse us from confronting our own contradictions. This moment of heightened patriotism demands more than just symbolic unity.
My students increasingly challenge shallow notions of multiculturalism, pushing instead for structural change that is material, not just rhetorical.
Their critiques reflect wider public conversations: youth-led panels, academic research and lived experiences that question the limits of inclusion without equity. They are asking: Who benefits from these patriotic myths? Who gets erased?
To move forward, Canada must build a collective story rooted in truth — not just selective nostalgia. One that honours Indigenous sovereignty, confronts contemporary inequities and reflects the rich diversity of its people. Only then can we begin to imagine a future Canada worth rallying behind.
Alpha Abebe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University
The economic implications of Trump’s actions are well-documented. Furthermore, despite Trump’s temporary halt to the tariffs, their impact will resonate well into the future.
But it’s important to understand that the economy is not detached from broader society. Trump’s disruption of the global economy could also lead to an increase in global conflict.
Economic prosperity and war
Economic prosperity does not automatically equate with political stability. Europe prior to the First World War was both prosperous and integrated. Nevertheless, while scholars and activists at the time argued these favourable conditions made war impractical, one of the worst conflicts in human history came to pass.
Domestic economic prosperity can bind societies together. But tensions that otherwise might not be brought into focus, such as regionalism, emerge in times of economic hardship and transition. Reform Party founder Preston Manning’s recent stoking of separatist sentiments in Canada’s West is a case in point.
Trump’s tariffs, if fully implemented, will result in economic recession for dozens of countries throughout the world. They will first impact the world’s most vulnerable countries, many of which have institutions that are either unstable or lack the fiscal backing needed to weather the storm.
An example of such a development in recent history was the emergence of the Arab Spring in 2011. The 2008 financial crisis and ongoing agricultural failure created political strain for authoritarian states in the Middle East. They could not absorb the increased cost of grain to stabilize their societies.
Governments, cognizant of this fact, will look for any means of retaining their power. Redirecting local disappointment abroad can be one such measure, much as Saudi Arabia did by blaming Iran during the Arab Spring.
Look outwards, point fingers
Governments have, historically, used foreign affairs as a means of distracting their populations from domestic problems. This feature occurs regardless of a state’s ideology. The banality of its occurrence in international relations is such that Hollywood made a satirical film, Wag the Dog, on the subject.
Authoritarian states, however, are more susceptible to this phenomenon. Their governments’ lack of popular legitimacy means that an economic downturn weakens one of the levers they use to buy acquiescence from its citizens.
Furthermore, economic uncertainty undermines authoritarian governments’ patronage networks. Not only do such governments lose the support of a majority of citizens to the economic uncertainty, but they also lose the important minority groups they use to maintain their rule.
As such, authoritarian governments in the face of economic uncertainty will look outwards to build their legitimacy. But these governments need an ideology that will motivate their societies. For contemporary governments, one of the most effective mechanisms is nationalism.
Nationalism’s utility for authoritarian states is twofold. First, nationalism emphasizes the collective over the individual. States, by stressing the importance of the nation, can encourage individuals to overlook the personal struggles they face in times of economic uncertainty.
Second, nationalism by its nature creates an “in group” and an “out group.” Governments can use the out group as a rallying cry for its local population. While there are several instances where such developments are possible, China’s increasingly antagonistic stance towards Taiwan is an example.
Governments, by rallying nationalist sentiment, will either indirectly or actively stoke the potential for conflict.
Extending conflict
Economic downturns, furthermore, force governments to make difficult decisions on what programs to cut. Some of the first programsgovernments chop in uncertain times are those focused on international aid. This phenomenon was already occurring, but tariffs will exasperate it.
These cuts pose a problem for several reasons. Right-wing politicians have alleged in recent months that international aid is ineffective. But that’s not accurate — international aid benefits the countries that provide it; it’s not just a moral imperative. Specifically, it facilitates trade as well as accruing political advantages to the giving state.
The more immediate concern, however, is that many states were dependent upon foreign aid for political stability. The loss of international aid will increase internal instability in vulnerable countries. Just look to the current instability in South Sudan as declining aid weakens South Sudanese social and government institutions.
Not only is this development bad for the societies in question, but it will invariably increase the number of refugees seeking aid and safety beyond their borders.
Individual choice
It’s not just state responses to the tariffs that will create instability. The unilateral application of tariffs, and resulting economic and political fallout, will significantly increase the number of people seeking a better life.
Economic migration is not a new phenomenon. While conflict-centred migration remains the focus of international law, economic migration continues to occur unabated.
The lost economic opportunities in various states affected by tariffs will cause their populations to seek economic prosperity, at first internally and then abroad. This is not to suggest that migration itself creates instability. Instead, large-scale and unplanned migration will create strain both in countries that people leave and in the nations receiving them.
Economic affairs rarely stay within the realm of business. Instead, Trump’s tariffs will create greater instability in international affairs for the foreseeable future.
James Horncastle 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.
Your Excellency To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, Your Excellency Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Your Excellency Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Your Excellency Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Excellencies, Distinguished guests,
On behalf of the Secretary-General, António Guterres, I thank the Government of Viet Nam and the co-chairs H.E. Mr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and the Prime Minister of Denmark for organizing this year’s P4G Summit.
This year marks a crucial inflection point: the tenth anniversary of both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
A decade has passed, and much progress has been made.
But let’s state what we all know to be true: we are nowhere near where we need to be.
As I speak, there are 750 million people who do not have access to electricity.
2 billion people have no clean cooking solutions to cook their dinner tonight.
Children across the world are breathing air increasingly filled with fossil fuel emissions affecting their health.
Not only are we not where we need to be, but intensifying climate shocks and geopolitical turmoil threaten to push back some of the progress and development wins of the past decade.
These statistics, and the picture I have painted is enough to make some give up. But as the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, ‘Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness’.
Excellencies, three things give me hope today.
First, what I see in this room today – leaders, representatives of governments, businesses, investors, and civil society from around the world. By showing up, you are showing your commitment to building societies that are more sustainable, more resilient, more inclusive, and more prosperous. You are not giving up.
Second, the relentless human endeavor for genuine collaboration gives me hope. The Just Energy Transition Partnerships and the P4G’s public-private partnership are just two examples. By working together for a common purpose, we can help emerging and developing economies transform their energy, water, and food systems to become zero-carbon and more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable.
Third, the economic imperatives of taking climate action have never been stronger and more urgent.
Last year, climate disasters caused 320 billion dollars worth of damage worldwide.
The climate crisis is draining our pockets of resources that we desperately need for development.
Yet experts estimate that every dollar invested in climate adaptation generates a return of up to 10 times.
Meanwhile, the costs of wind, solar, and battery storage have plummeted so much that they have become the cheapest source of new electricity across most markets.
Last year, renewables accounted for 92.5% of all new power capacity added globally, and clean power surpassed 40% of global electricity generation for the first time.
This is not just an opportunity for tomorrow – the clean energy sector is already driving development and boosting jobs, accelerating digitalization and granting energy access to a wider range of people .
1.5 million jobs and 10 per cent of GDP growth globally were added in 2023 across the sector.
And crucially, most economies are now breaking the link between GDP growth and rising emissions.
Viet Nam is setting the pace on clean energy. Its bold shift from coal isn’t just fighting climate change, it’s fuelling a fairer, more equal future for all.
Excellencies,
We have a rare opportunity in our hands.
A new economic era is about to begin — and we’re right at the cusp of setting a concrete pathway to green growth.
One that can ensure energy access, affordability, and security, and one that can create zero-carbon, disaster-resilient, and sustainable societies while protecting people and planet. At the UN, we have translated that vision and what it means for the multilateral system, under the Pact for the Future.
Yet time is a luxury we do not have.
The climate crisis is setting the pace and scale. It’s our responsibility to keep up.
Investment is critical.
To keep 1.5 degrees in reach and deliver on the SDGs, experts estimate that 2.4 trillion dollars per year will need to flow to emerging and developing economies outside China by 2030.
That means around 1.6 trillion dollars of that going to the clean energy transition.
And it means around 250 billion dollars to strengthen adaptation and resilience.
And so, I urge every government leader here today to use the tools at your disposal.
Accelerate the readily available, cost-effective solutions.
And drive change with smart policies and reforms at every level – locally, nationally, and globally.
The next round of national climate plans — or Nationally Determined Contributions — due well before COP 30 present a unique opportunity in this mission. As does meeting the Baku Road Map to deliver 1.3 trillion in Belém.
They are the key to syncing energy and development plans, building energy efficient infrastructure that aligns with a country’s climate goals, developing industries of the future in green energy, as Vietnam has demonstrated, and creating clear, consistent policies that draw big investments.
This means aligning national energy and development strategies, including regulatory framework to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with sustainable agricultural systems, digitalization, job creation, and clean energy access – fostering policy coherence and predictability to attract investments at scale.
Viet Nam is demonstrating that attracting investments, even in challenging times, is not only possible but achievable. With FDI reaching impressive new levels of $2-3 billion every month, Vietnam stands as a powerful example for others to follow.
To the corporate, financial, and civil society leaders in the room, I urge you to keep up the pressure. Keep innovating and collaborating and shifting obstacles into business opportunities.
And keep creating new models and partnerships that can mobilize finance at scale to drive commitments on climate and sustainable development into real investments in peoples’ lives.
Finally, let us commit to deliver on the promise of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement to our people today and for future generations.
Managers can still provide ethical leadership in remote environments if they’re able to convey genuine care for employees.pixdeluxe/E+ via Getty Images
Employees are likely to perform better and be committed to the organization when they are supervised by ethical leaders, even when working remotely. Ethical leadership is evident in an organization when employees recognize values such as integrity, fairness and care for others through the actions of a leader.
Coming out of the pandemic, we were interested in the shift to remote work and how it impacts employees when they are not able to observe and interact with managers face-to-face. Given that our research team has over 60 years of combined leadership experience in multiple industries and over 40 years of combined academic experience, we could envision the shift to remote work being impactful. These findings are based on three studies of salespeople conducted between 2021 and 2024 aimed at understanding how ethical leadership is perceived in a remote work environment.
Across the studies, our results showed that when salespeople perceive their leaders as ethical, they feel significantly more committed to the organization. That commitment, in turn, leads to greater well-being and better performance.
Interestingly, even as the percentage of remote supervision increases, these positive effects hold steady, suggesting that ethical leadership remains powerful and effective, even in fully remote positions.
In-depth interviews with sales professionals who worked remotely highlighted four key factors that help reinforce ethical leadership in a remote setting: consistent and transparent communication, occasional in-person interactions, modeling integrity, and establishing clear ethical standards.
Some experts worry that remote work limits employees’ ability to connect with their leaders, making it harder to build a strong ethical culture. There is little understanding of how virtual communication affects employees’ perceptions of ethical leadership in organizations.
Ethical leadership plays a crucial role in shaping workplace culture, influencing everything from employee satisfaction to overall performance. Leaders who demonstrate integrity, strong values and clear expectations foster an environment where employees feel supported and motivated. This, in turn, leads to higher engagement, lower turnover and better job performance.
However, as remote work becomes more common, the way employees perceive and experience ethical leadership is changing. Without face-to-face interactions, employees may struggle to pick up on the same cues that signal ethical leadership in traditional office settings. For example, the spontaneous moments of ethical behavior – like how a manager handles unexpected dilemmas or navigates tough decisions in real time – are more likely to be witnessed in person.
Remote supervision presents both challenges and opportunities for ethical leadership. While technology allows for greater flexibility and global communication, it can also create barriers to trust and connection. Emails and messages lack tone and nuance, and video calls, while more personal, still lack the spontaneous conversations that help build relationships.
At the same time, advances in communication tools have improved the ability to convey emotions and intent, making remote leadership more effective. Features such as video calls, emojis and reactions in chat, along with voice messages, help recreate the emotional nuance of in-person interactions. These tools can allow managers to express empathy, enthusiasm, concern or praise more clearly, making their messages feel more personal and authentic; employees can better interpret a leader’s values and intentions, strengthening trust and connection even without face-to-face contact.
What’s next
Given the positive impact of ethical leadership on employee outcomes, it is important to understand communication effectiveness among leaders. Ethical leadership starts at the top with the CEO, who sets the tone for the entire organization. However, it must also be consistently demonstrated by managers, since employees interact with them most often and look to them for everyday guidance. While executive leadership shapes the culture, direct leaders display it daily.
It’s also important to understand which coaching methods, like video calls or check-ins, work best to support remote teams. Individual differences, such as age or experience, may influence how employees respond to ethical leaders, so studying these factors can help tailor leadership approaches. As hybrid work becomes more common, it will also be important to examine how a mix of in-person and remote interactions impact the way ethical leadership is perceived and practiced.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
More than half a million more people in line for savings boost
Thousands more are eligible to open a Help to Save account.
Government’s Help to Save scheme now open to 550,000 more people to help with cost of living
Those saving £50 a month can expect £25 Government top-up, putting more money in people’s pockets
Part of Government’s mission to grow the economy and deliver on our Plan for Change
More than half a million more UK savers are in line for Government bonuses worth up to £25 a month to boost their cash pots and help ease rises in the cost of living, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced today.
As part of the Government’s mission to grow the economy and improve lives in every corner of the UK and to deliver its Plan for Change, Help to Save is now open to anyone working and receiving Universal Credit – rewarding 550,000 more people.
Its extension to April 2027 means more can benefit from the scheme, which has paid out millions of pounds in bonuses to more than 500,000 people since Help to Save was launched in 2018.
This is evidence of the Government backing the most vulnerable in society with 93% of savers paying in the maximum £50 every month to their Help to Save account.
An account can be set up in less than 5 minutes and easily managed through GOV.UK or the HMRC app, making it accessible to people throughout the UK.
Savers who deposit the maximum amount of £2,400 over four years will receive a bonus totalling £1,200 into their bank accounts, with payments coming at the end of the second and final year.
Emma Reynolds, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said:
Security for working people is at the heart of our Plan for Change.
We want more people to have a bit in the kitty for a rainy day, which is why we are giving hundreds of thousands more working families on tight budgets access to this support.
Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:
Thousands of customers have already benefitted from Help to Save and many more are now eligible to get a great return of 50% on top of their savings, no matter how little you can save each month. Go online or via the HMRC app to find out more and apply today.
Savers can deposit between £1 and £50 each month earning an extra 50 pence for every £1 saved, with bonuses paid in the second and fourth years of the account being opened. The bonus payment applies to the highest amount saved within the period.
Nearly 18,500 people opened a Help to Save account via the HMRC app in 2024. App users have access to their savings account at their fingertips. They can view their account, check their balance and bonus details, and make a deposit via debit card, bank transfer or standing order.
Money can be withdrawn at any time, although this may affect the 50% bonus payments.
Michelle Highman, Chief Executive of The Money Charity, said:
We are really pleased to see the Help to Save scheme extended and made available to more people. It’s a brilliant way for people to start to save and to build their financial resilience and futures. Saving even just a little each month will help, and the added 50% bonus payment from the Government means that if you are eligible, then it’s a great place to boost your savings.
Latest statistics on Help to Save up to April 2024 were released in September 2024
Number of Accounts Opened to end-April 2024
Total value of deposits
UK Total
516,800
£492,539,000
England
439,900
£420,318,000
North East
22,750
£20,668,000
North West
67,650
£63,479,000
Yorkshire and The Humber
49,600
£47,043,000
East Midlands
43,000
£41,219,000
West Midlands
49,550
£46,130,000
East of England
44,900
£43,176,000
London
55,550
£52,935,000
South East
60,500
£57,563,000
South West
46,400
£48,106,000
Wales
24,850
£23,683,000
Scotland
36,050
£33,584,000
Northern Ireland
15,650
£14,700,000
Help to Save was launched in September 2018 and was due to end in September 2023. It was extended to April 2025 and has now been extended until April 2027.
Previous eligibility criteria meant savers had to be in receipt of Tax Credits or Universal Credit and be earning at least 16 hours a week at National Living Wage.
How the bonus payments work:
after the first 2 years, customers will get a first bonus if they have been using their account to save. This bonus will be 50% of the highest balance saved.
after 4 years, they will get a final bonus if they continue to save. This bonus will be 50% of the difference between 2 amounts:
the highest balance saved in the first 2 years (years 1 and 2)
the highest balance saved in the last 2 years (years 3 and 4)
if their highest balance does not increase, they will not earn a final bonus.
the bonus is paid into their bank account, not their Help to Save account.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters looks at the probability of biological activity on the K2-18 b exoplanet.
Dr David Clements, Astrophysicist, Imperial College London, said:
“This is really interesting stuff and, while it does not yet represent a clear detection of Dimethyl Sulfide and Dimethyl Disulfide, it is a step in the right direction.
“To get to a solid claim for the existence of life on this planet we’d need to have a solid detection, >5 sigma, a clear demonstration that this is a biomarker and not some other molecular species masquerading as a biomarker, and then a clear understanding that there is no non-biological way of producing the biomarker molecule in the amount seen. Planetary atmospheres are complicated and difficult to understand, especially with the limited information we get from a planet 124 light years away, so there will almost always be some provisos and uncertainties about interpretation, but more and better data will help, and the first step is getting a detection to >5 sigma so that we can be sure that something interesting is there.”
Dr Stephen Burgess, group leader at the University of Cambridge, said:
“Most scientific experiments have some element of uncertainty. This could be sampling uncertainty – maybe we only have a small number of observations. Or it could be measurement error – maybe our measurements are noisy. If we picked 5 random men and 5 random women from the street, sometimes we will find that the men are taller on average than the women, but occasionally we will find that the women are taller on average than the men. If we want to conclude that men are typically taller than women, we need to collect enough data to be confident that the differences we observe are genuine differences, and not just chance fluctuations. The more data that we collect, the more certain we can be of this. “Three-sigma” is a threshold saying that differences observed in the experiment are sufficiently notable that we can exclude the possibility of a chance finding except in rare cases – equivalent in rarity to tossing a coin 10 times and getting the same result each time. “Five-sigma” is a stricter threshold – equivalent to tossing a coin 20 times in a row and getting the same result each time. It’s still possible that we were simply lucky – and the more data that we look at, the greater the chances of making an observation that is purely a chance finding. But a five-sigma finding is one that would only arise purely by chance exceptionally rarely, and so we can be very confident that this observation isn’t just a chance finding. A separate question to uncertainty is bias – it is possible that there is some flaw with the experiment. This is not something that can be ruled out by statistics. A “five-sigma” finding is therefore exceptionally unlikely to arise due to chance alone: it is either a true result or an experimental error.”
‘New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI’by Nikku Madhusudhan et al. has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Declared interests
Dr Stephen Burgess: I am employed at the same university as the lead author of this paper. However, I do not know them personally or professionally.
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)
The Data for Decisions Fund—or D4D—is the IMF’s main multi-partner vehicle for providing statistics training and technical assistance to developing economies, especially low- and lower middle-income countries as well as fragile and conflict-affected states. The 2025 Spring Meetings mark the launch of phase II of the fund, with potentially additional contributions. This high-level event, featuring IMF’s Deputy Managing Director Bo Li, showcases the success and impact of capacity development under D4D phase I and highlights the new areas and innovative approaches to be introduced under phase II. Speakers will include high-level representatives of the beneficiary and donor countries.
New figures from theMinistry of Social Development (MSD)today show the Government thinks it can sanction its way out of poverty, and in doing so, has completely misunderstood the issue.
The number of benefit sanctions for missed MSD appointments surged to 9,042 in the March 2025 quarter – more than double the 4,356 recorded in the same quarter last year.
“I’d remind the Government that people on benefits are, first and foremost, people,” says Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) spokesperson Isaac Gunson.
“It’s highly unlikely twice as many people suddenly started missing appointments.
“What seems more likely is that MSD has become quicker to cut people off, despite the very real barriers many face in attending.”
“These are people doing their best in tough circumstances. They may not have access to childcare, a working phone, or may simply be confused by the system.
“When every dollar counts, even a short trip to the local office can be unaffordable. Buses don’t always run on time. Sometimes they don’t run at all.”
“We’ve all missed meetings before. Now imagine doing that while trying to survive on the bare minimum.”
“The last time sanctions were this high, a global pandemic had just broken out. If the Government blames ‘prolonged cost of living pressures’ for worsening poverty indicators, why wouldn’t those same pressures also lead to more missed appointments?”
These sanctions largely affect people on Jobseeker Support and Sole Parent Support, those already made vulnerable by redundancy, solo parenting, or the rising cost of living.
Pushing people off income support doesn’t make the job market fairer or more accessible. It just assumes success is possible while unemployment rises and support systems become harder to navigate.
CPAG is calling on the Government to stop treating people on benefits as a spreadsheet to be cleared, and to remember its responsibility is to tackle poverty, not the people trapped in it.
Operation Gomorrah may have been the most cynical event of World War Two (WW2). Not only did the name fully convey the intent of the war crimes about to be committed, it, also represented the single biggest 24-hour murder toll for the European war that I have come across.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
On the night of 27 July 1943, the RAF murdered 35,000, mostly working-class civilian residents living in the most densely populated part of Hamburg; a planned firebombing which started a sequence of events – a holocaust if not The Holocaust – that ended in Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. (Note The bombing of Hamburg foreshadowed the horrors of Hiroshima, National Geographic, 23 July 2021.) A holocaust is a “destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war” (Oxford Dictionary). [In The Holocaust, 31,000 Jews were shot dead in Kyiv in a single day in 1941; the worst single day of The Holocaust, I understand.]
Hamburg was, literally, a dry run for what came later; the aim was to maximise the number of barbecued civilians by, among other things, choosing perfect weather conditions for an experiment in incendiary murder. (Yes, I am literally using inflammatory language.) While the total death toll of the week-long operation has been estimated to be over 40,000, the toll arising from the night of 27/28 July 1943 represents about 85% of the total.
The Gomorrah chapter of Peter Hitchens’ The Phoney Victory, 2018, gives a documented account of the moral duplicity surrounding Churchill’s bombing campaign. For a full story of the Allies’ firestorm holocaust, see Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb, 2022, by James M Scott. (John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, is a survivor of the Tokyo episode, the raid that killed more people – over 100,000 – than any other in a single arsonous assault.)
Sodom and Gomorrah
These twin ‘cities of the plain’, which, if they ever existed, are now either under the Dead Sea or east of there, in modern Jordan. The key chapter in the bible (Genesis, ch.19) mainly emphasises Sodom, though Gomorrah was reputedly as ‘sinful’. The biblical story is ghastly, in its misogyny as well as its extollation of extermination of ‘others’.
Genesis (ch.19) tells us, when Lot (Abraham’s nephew) found himself, in Sodom, hosting two Angels/men, ‘the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.”‘ The secret to understanding this is the biblical meaning of the word ‘know’; in this case the events took place in Sodom, and the guests had the appearance of ‘men’.
Lot replies: ‘”I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men …”.’ While the men of Sodom did not take up the offer – they favoured Lot himself – the angel-men saved Lot and his family. Then ‘When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.”‘ …
‘When they had brought [the four of] them outside, [the angel-men] said, “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.” … Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.’ …
After the three survivors settled in a cave: ‘the firstborn [daughter] said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” … ‘Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.’ (Thus, the East Bank [of the River Jordan] was repopulated!!)
Hamburg came to be equated with biblical Sodom, as deserving victims for a particularly barbaric form of mass murder. Neither Churchill, nor his bomber commander Arthur Harris, could know that only 35,000 Hamburgers would die as a result of that night’s operation. There is reason to believe that Churchill and his savants were looking for many more than hundreds of thousands of Germans to be ‘de-housed’ over the incendiary bombing campaign. (Dehousing was the euphemism used by Churchill’s men; compare with ‘resettlement’ for the trip that the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto made to Treblinka.)
Hamburg and the Gomorrah holocaust
Why Hamburg? Basically, because it was there. Though it was/is a large industrial and mercantile port city, the terror target was workers, not the works which employed them. The National Geographic article notes, with gallows-humour irony: “After noticing that Brits whose homes were struck by bombs were less likely to show up to work, analysts determined that destroying Germany’s largest cities and towns would likely cripple Germany’s war efforts.” Hamburg was close to England, and could be reached without flying over occupied land. And Hamburg was defended by a radar system of sorts, though not as sophisticated as British radar. The first British bombing raid on Hamburg was very much a technology test-run; refer The Woman Whose Invention Helped Win a War – and Still Baffles Weathermen, Irena Fischer-Hwang, 28 November 2018, Smithsonian Magazine. The second British raid on Hamburg was the real thing, a particularly dry run to really get the Gomorrah holocaust underway.
Hitchens (p.178) says: “Winston Churchill speculated in a letter of 8 July I940 to his friend and Minister of Aircraft Production, the press magnate Lord (Max) Beaverbrook, that an ‘absolutely devastating exterminating [my emphasis] attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland would help to bring Hitler down’. Arthur Harris, later the chief of RAF Bomber Command, realised the significance of these extraordinary words … he kept a copy of this letter.”
Hitchens (p.181) citing Bishop Bell speaking in February 1944 in the House of Lords: “Hamburg has a population of between one and two million people. It contains targets of immense military and industrial importance. It also happens to be the most democratic town in Germany where the Anti-Nazi opposition was strongest. … Practically all the buildings, cultural, military, residential, industrial, religious – including the famous University Library with its 800,000 volumes, of which three-quarters have perished – were razed to the ground.” While dead and dazed people may have low morale, and therefore have an arguable incentive to wage a civil war against their own government, they – especially the dead – are uniquely unable to overthrow a ruthlessly militarised government.
We might note Hamburg’s anthropological links to England. At a time of high racial – indeed racist – sensibilities, Anglo-Saxon supremacy was a very real thing. The area of Germany around Hamburg is the ‘Hawaiki’ of the Anglo-Saxon people; Lower Saxony is the ancestral motherland of the English. The class-consciousness and revengeful bloodlust of the English political class outweighed their ethnic consciousness. This was not true for the German Nazis, for whom the English were racial equals; Hitler and his crew really did not want to kill English people. Nazi Germany wanted the United Kingdom to become a neutral country, as Ireland was, and as the United States was before December 1941. Nazi Germany’s policy was to enslave, resettle, and murder Slavs and Jews and Gypsies; not to kill or dehouse Englishmen and their families.
The ‘elephant in the room’ was Josef Stalin.
Hitchens (p.191): “There is little doubt that much of the bombing of Germany was done to please and appease Josef Stalin. Stalin jeered at Churchill for his failure to open a Second Front and to fight Hitler’s armies in Europe, and ceaselessly pressed him to open such a front – something Churchill was politically and militarily reluctant to do. Bombing Germany, though it did not satisfy Stalin’s demands for an invasion, at least reassured him that we were doing something, and so lessened his pressure to open a second front.”
Hitchens (p.198): “Overy [in The Bombing War 2014] recounts how on 28 March 1945 Winston Churchill, clearly growing sick of the violence he had unleashed as victory approached and the excuses for it grew thinner, referred (in a memorandum) to Harris’s bombing tactics using these exact words. He urged, none too soon, that attacks turn instead to oil and transport. Harris paid no attention, and right up until 24th April 1945, his bombers continued to drop incendiaries and high explosives on German cities, turning many thousands of civilians into corpses.” [Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, and VE Day was 8 May.]
Point of Interest: Churchill contested three elections, all after VE Day, all using Great Britain’s ‘first-past-the-post’ plurality system. He won just one of those three, though even then – in 1951 – his party got fewer votes than a Labour Party seeking re-election at a time of great difficulty for left-wing parties worldwide. Churchill’s Conservative Party got way-fewer votes than Labour in 1945 and 1950. The pressure on Prime Minister Clement Attlee to call the UK snap election of 1951 (one-third of the way through the term of his elected Labour government) can be understood as a successful example of political cunning on the part of the British establishment; literally a King’s coup.
A Scale of ‘Evil’?
While I generally hesitate to use the word ‘evil’, it may still be useful to grade very powerful people on a zero-to-ten scale of malevolence. On zero we might have the pacifist version of Jesus. On ten would be some very powerful person who actively sought nuclear ‘Armageddon’ (which would destroy life, not just humanity). After recently reading some quite difficult literature about World War Two, this is where I would place five powerful leaders:
9: Josef Stalin
8: Adolf Hitler
7: Benito Mussolini, Winston Churchill
6: Harry Truman
I need to read more about Truman; though, his legacy seems to have been airbrushed much as Churchill’s has been, and I might decide to upgrade him to a 7.
I would also note that these leaders had their close and powerful henchmen, whose ‘evilness’ can also be rated on such a scale, for example:
9.5: Lavrenty Beria
9: Josef Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler
Overall regimes can be better or worse than their leaders. I would rate both Stalin’s ‘Communists’ and Hitler’s ‘Nazis’ as both 8.5. Thus, Stalin’s regime was not quite as bad as its two most notorious figures. And Hitler’s regime was even worse than Hitler; that’s certainly not being kind to Hitler! (Stalin’s atrocities, the equal of Hitlers, were mostly committed in peacetime; the vast majority of Hitler’s were committed in wartime.)
‘Favourites’ as intimate (though not necessarily sexual) friends of powerful leaders
Churchill’s regime was not as bad as Churchill. Though Churchill had two favourites, both active members of his regime – especially his ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ – who were worse than him (possibly worse in one case, and definitely worse in the other). The ‘possibly worse’ one was Brendan Bracken, Minister for Information. Bracken, the prototype for ‘Big Brother’ in George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four, was Churchill’s Goebbels. Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ was a conflation of the Ministry of Information and Orwell’s wartime employer, the BBC. (Born in Ireland, Bracken was sometimes rumoured to have been Churchill’s ‘love child’, though that supposition is most likely untrue.) Surprisingly little has been written about BB.
The ‘definitely worse’ favourite was German born (Baden Baden) and educated (Darmstadt and Berlin) scientist, Frederick A Lindemann; who was granted the title Lord Cherwell in 1941. He built his career in Britain at Oxford University, becoming Professor of Physics there in 1919. He also became a bit of a wartime ‘test pilot’, managing to establish his loyalty to the United Kingdom. His close friendship with Churchill lasted decades, beginning in 1921.
Frederick Lindemann, aka Lord Cherwell
In my assessment, Lindemann is the closest individual yet to a ten-out-of-ten on the above-suggested scale of malevolence. Let’s say that, if World War Three comes and someone like Lindemann has as much access to the levers of power as Lindemann actually had, then the world would be a goner. (In Lindemann’s defence, it has been noted that he was fond of children and animals. Likewise, another man; one with a famous moustache.)
Frederick Lindemann exerted a beguiling influence over Churchill. When Churchill was not in power, in the 1930s, Lindemann ran a private think-tank for Churchill. In the 1930s he allegedly undermined the scientific development of radar, which proved critical to the defence of Britain from Luftwaffe attacks; indeed, Lindemann seems to have shown a lack of interest in military defence; his thing was the elimination or dehumanisation of ‘others’. Lindemann “was one of the first to urge the importance of atom bomb research” (Where to Read about Professor Lindemann, The Churchill Project, 6 May 2015); indeed “Following his 1945 return to the Clarendon Laboratory, Lindemann created the [United Kingdom] Atomic Energy Authority”, Wikipedia.)
I will illustrate the Lindemann problem with quotes from these three sources; some may argue that I have made a biased selection, but so be it:
Mukerjee: “Known as the Prof to admirers (because of his academic credentials and his brilliance) and as Baron Berlin to detractors (thanks to his German accent and aristocratic tastes), Lindeman was responsible for the government’s scientific decisions.”
Mukerjee: “Lindemann attended meetings of the War Cabinet, accompanied the prime minister on conferences abroad, and sent him an average of one missive a day. He saw Churchill almost daily for the duration of the war and wielded more influence than any other civilian adviser.”
Gladwell: “I think that’s the crucial fact about Lindemann. One time he’s asked for his definition of morality and he answers, ‘I define a moral action as one that brings advantage to my friends.’ … The man who defined a moral action as ‘One that brings advantage to my friends,’ was best friends with Winston Churchill.”
Gladwell: “Lindemann becomes a kind of gatekeeper to Churchill’s mind.”
Mukerjee: “On most matters Lindemann’s and Churchill’s opinions converged; and when they did not, the scientist worked ceaselessly to change his friend’s mind.”
Mukerjee: “The mission of the S branch [Churchill’s nearest equivalent to DOGE] was to provide rationales for whichever course the prime minister, as interpreted by the Prof, wished to follow.”
Mukerjee: “Department heads ‘began to realize that, like it or not, the Prof was the man whom Churchill trusted most, and that all their refutations, aspersions, innuendos or attempts at exposure would not shift Churchill from his undeviating loyalty to the Prof by one hair’s breadth,’ wrote [economist] Harrod. So it was that the Prof would pronounce judgment on the best use of shipping space, the profligacy of the army, the inadequacy of British supplies, the optimal size of the mustard gas stockpile, the necessity of bombing German houses – and, when the time came, the pointlessness of sending famine relief to Bengal.”
Gladwell: “An argument took place at the highest reaches of British government. The question was what was the best use of the royal air force against the Germans? … One school of thought says, ‘Let’s use our bombers to support military activities, protecting ships against German U-boats, destroying German factories.’ The other school of thought argues that bombing ought to serve a bigger, strategic purpose. In other words, ‘Let’s use bombing to break the will of the German people, let’s make their lives so miserable that they give up.’”
Wikipedia: On dehousing, Lindemann says “bombing must be directed to working class houses. Middle class houses have too much space round them, so are bound to waste bombs”.
Gladwell on Lindemann’s dishonesty: “Lindemann’s memo to Churchill. It’s very matter of fact; it’s all about what the data says except for one thing. That’s not what the data says. The Birmingham-Hull study reached the exact opposite conclusion [about working-class morale] that Lindemann did.”
Gladwell: “Other experts [eg Henry Tizard] in the government, critics of strategic bombing, point out immediately that Lindemann’s numbers are ridiculous, five or six times too high, based on obvious errors.” [Hitchens (p.205) claims that the numbers of civilian casualties were only ten percent of what Lindemann had promised. If you multiply by ten the number of civilians – mostly workers, their families, slaves, and refugees – killed in the totality of the Gomorrah holocaust, you get a number bigger than deaths in The Holocaust; this would be a measure of Lindemann’s intent.]
Gladwell: “One of Lindemann’s friends said, ‘He would not shrink from using an argument which he knew to be wrong if, by so doing, he could tie up one of his professional opponents.’ Lindemann wanted strategic bombing, so Churchill went ahead and ordered the bombing of German cities.”
Gladwell: “Most historians agree that strategic bombing was a disaster. 160,000 US and English airmen and hundreds of thousands of German civilians were killed in those bombing campaigns. Many of Europe’s most beautiful cities were destroyed and German morale didn’t crack; the Germans fought to the bitter end. After the war, the Nobel Prize winning physicist Patrick Blackett wrote a devastating essay where he said that the war could have been won six months or even a year earlier, if only the British had used their bombers more intelligently.” [Note that the whole Gomorrah holocaust killed more Japanese civilians than German civilians; as noted in Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb, the Hamburg dry run led more-or-less directly to the fire-bombings of almost every urban centre in Japan.]
Mukerjee: “‘Love me, love my dog, and if you don’t love my dog you damn well can’t love me,’ muttered a furious Churchill in 1941, after a member of the House of Commons had raised questions about the Prof’s influence.” [Gladwell: that “row occurred in 1942 and it occurred over strategic bombing”.]
Mukerjee: “Cherwell believed that a small circle of the intelligent and the aristocratic should run the world. ‘Those who succeed in getting what everyone wants must be the ablest,’ he asserted. The Prof regarded the masses as ‘very stupid,’ considered Australians to be inferior to Britons, advocated ‘harshness’ toward homosexuals, and thought criminals should be treated cruelly because ‘the amount of pleasure derived by other people from the knowledge that a malefactor is being punished far exceeds in sum total the amount of pain inflicted on a malefactor by his punishment.’” [Enjoyment arising from the punishment of the wretched outweighs the suffering of those wretched!]
Mukerjee: “Eugenic ideas also feature in a lecture that Lord Cherwell (then known as Professor Lindemann) had delivered more than once, probably in the early 1930s. He had detailed a science-based solution to a challenge that occupied many an intellect of the time: preserving for eternity the hegemony of the superior classes.”
Mukerjee: “New technologies such as surgery, mind control, and drug and hormone manipulations would one day allow humans to be fine-tuned for specific tasks. … ‘Somebody must perform dull, dreary tasks, tend machines, count units in repetition work; is it not incumbent on us, if we have the means, to produce individuals without a distaste for such work, types that are as happy in their monotonous occupation as a cow chewing the cud?’ Lindemann asked. Science could yield a race of humans blessed with ‘the mental make-up of the worker bee.’ This subclass would do all the unpleasant work and not once think of revolution or of voting rights: ‘Placid content rules in the bee-hive or ant-heap.’ The outcome would be a perfectly peaceable and stable society, ‘led by supermen and served by helots.’”
Mukerjee: “At least no one would demand votes on behalf of an ape. … To consolidate the rule of supermen – to perpetuate the British Empire – one need only remove the ability of slaves to see themselves as slaves.”
Gladwell: “How can you have a real debate against Churchill’s best friend? Friendship comes first.”
Gladwell: “The US starts sending over so many ships that, by late 1943 when the famine in Bengal is at its height, there’s actually a surplus of boats on the allied side. In fact, in 1943, the British actually start shipping wheat from Australia up through the Indian Ocean, just not to India. … British ships full of grain are sailing right past India on the way to the Middle East to be stored for some future, hypothetical need. They might even stop and refuel in Mumbai, but nothing leaves the ship. … Why is Lindemann [as Paymaster General] refusing to help? It doesn’t even make illogical sense. Indian soldiers, hundreds of thousands of them, are fighting the Germans in the Middle East and Africa. When other countries like Canada and the United States offered to send food to India, the British say, ‘We don’t want it.’ They turn down help. Lindemann seems completely unmoved by India’s plight.”
Gladwell: “Black people, according to a friend, filled him with a physical revulsion which he was unable to control. But I’m not sure that we’re seeing Lindemann here; I think we’re seeing Churchill. Churchill is the one with an issue about India. He’s obsessed with India. In the years leading up to the war, Gandhi is building his independence movement within India and Churchill hates Gandhi. Churchill is furious about the fact that Britain has to buy raw materials from India, meaning that the master is running up a debt with its supposed subject. … Why was Lindemann so adamant that England could not help India? Because Churchill was adamant that England could not help India and Lindemann was a loyal friend.”
CP Snow (1960), cited by Gladwell: “The Lindemann-Churchill relation is the most fascinating example of court politics that we’re likely to see.” [hmmm!]
Gladwell: “The best guess of how many died in the Bengal famine of 1943 is three million people. Three million. After the war, the British government held a formal inquiry into what happened, but the investigation was forbidden to consider, and I’m quoting, ‘Her Majesty’s government’s decision in regard to shipping of imports.’ In other words, they were asked to investigate the cause of the famine without investigating the cause of the famine.”
Hitchens (p.197): “Gas attacks were contemplated by Winston Churchill. … Overy writes ‘The RAF staff thought that incendiary and high-explosive raids were more strategically efficient [than gas or germ warfare], in that they destroyed property and equipment and not just people, but in any of these cases – blown apart, burnt alive or asphyxiated – deliberate damage to civilian populations was now taken for granted. This paved the way for the possibility of using atomic weapons on German targets in 1945’.”
It also paved the way for the potentially devastating anthrax attacks on Germany which would have taken place in 1944 had the American-led D-day offensive been unsuccessful; contamination from such attacks would have rendered parts of Germany uninhabitable for a human lifetime. (See my Invoking Munich, ‘Appeasement’, and the ‘Lessons of History’ 13 March 2025, which mentions both the Bengal famine and the anthrax program as well as the Hamburg holocaust.) The anthrax program bears the hallmark of Lindemann; the abandoned anthrax operation was dubbed Operation Vegetarian, in part a likely reference to Lindemann’s famed dietary obsessions.
Hitchens (pp.200-201): “It is surprising that Sir Max Hasting’s Bomber Command (first published in 1979) has not begun to change opinions. … Sir Max deserves much credit for the chapter in which he describes the indefensible destruction of the city of Darmstadt [south of Frankfurt] on 11 September 1944 (it was not, in any significant way, a military target). Hastings: ‘The first terrible discoveries were made: cellars crammed with suffocated bodies – worse still, with amorphous heaps of melted and charred humanity’.” (Lindemann went to school in Darmstadt. Victims most likely included his former classmates, teachers and their families.)
Hitchens (p.206), on the battle between Frederick Lindemann and Henry Tizard (the scientist who stood up to Lindeman, and paid a price): “Why is the only considerable account of this battle trapped inside [a] small, obscure volume that the reader must retrieve from deep in a few impenetrable scholarly libraries? Why is it not taught in schools? Why has nobody written a play about it? I suspect it is because this story, if well known, would undermine the shallow, nonsensical cult of Winston Churchill as the infallible Great Leader, a cult to which, surely, an adult country no longer needs to cling.”
Hitchens (p.205): “Tizard said that Lindemann’s estimate of the possible destruction was five times too high. He was supported by Patrick Blackett, a former naval officer who had become a noted physicist high in the scientific councils of the day. He would later win the Nobel Prize in Physics, and be ennobled as Lord Blackett. Blackett independently advised that Lindemann’s estimate was six times too high. ‘Both were slightly out. But they were nothing like as wrong as Lindemann was. Lindemann’s estimate of destruction was in fact ten times too high, as the postwar bombing survey revealed.” [The actual destruction of German cities was only one-tenth of what Lindemann had hoped and argued would be the case. Given the actual hundreds of thousands of barbecued German civilians, Lindemann had been arguing for millions.]
CP Snow (1960), cited by Hitchens (p.205): “It is possible, I suppose, that some time in the future people living in a more benevolent age than ours may turn over the official records and notice that men like us, well-educated by the standards of the day, men fairly kindly by the standards of the day, and often possessed of strong human feelings, made the kind of calculation I have just been describing. … Will they think that we resigned our humanity? They will have the right.” [Strikingly, although the post-war years have generally been regarded as ‘more benevolent’, the Gomorrah holocaust continues to ‘fly under the radar’. Indeed, so much so that Churchill’s speeches have been nominated as part of New Zealand’s schools’ draft English curriculum! (And that matter of Churchill was not raised by the New Zealand media; they were more interested in the ‘controversial’ possibility that Shakespeare might be compulsory.)]
Winston Churchill was not a nice man. His ‘favourite’ – Frederick Lindemann – was rather less nice.
Lessons
War itself is the problem, and the first casualty of war is truth. Drumbeating for war is cheap, and sabres are easily rattled. We stumble into wars without having any realistic idea how they might end; casual war becomes forever war. Wars involve multiple nasty people from the outset, and other similarly nasty people come to the fore during war, sometimes completely behind the scenes.
War changes much but solves little. World War Two was the first war in which civilians were targeted on an industrial scale. It ended, in Europe at least, in a Pyrrhic manner, with Josef Stalin’s USSR as the annihilist of Nazi Germany.
War in the modern age of globalisation means this and more. In a twenty-first century World War, while targeted civilians will be high on the murder list, the biggest death-counts are likely to be of untargeted civilians – residents of semi-belligerent and non-belligerent countries – and of completely guiltless non-human life forms.
If the Americans hadn’t successfully prosecuted D-Day (Operation Overlord) in 1944, I believe that Winston Churchill would have used the RAF to unleash his anthrax bombs. The Scottish island of Gruinard is only now becoming habitable, after eighty years of anthrax contamination. Imagine parts of Germany becoming uninhabitable – for nearly a century – had Operation Vegetarian been executed.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
The paper explains the principles, policies, and processes for managing people’s information in the course of producing census outputs (data and statistical releases, products, services, and research). Today we have added a new section that allows tables to be marked as sensitive if they contain sensitive variables.
Update to 2023 Census methodology paper –17 April 2025 –Stats NZ has today updated the following 2023 Census methodology paper:
The paper explains the principles, policies, and processes for managing people’s information in the course of producing census outputs (data and statistical releases, products, services, and research). Today we have added a new section that allows tables to be marked as sensitive if they contain sensitive variables.
James and Grace were the most popular first names given to children whose births were registered in Northern Ireland in 2024. Almost 950 baby names were registered that hadn’t been used before.
Girls
Grace has returned to the top spot as the most popular girls’ name after five years at number one from 2018 to 2022 .
Olivia takes second place, with Fiadh in third position.
Top 10
Grace
Olivia
Fiadh
Aoife
Emily
Lily/ Charlotte
Isla/ Sophia
Freya
Within the girls’ top 100, the highest climbers in popularity between 2023 and 2024 were Maya, Maria, Eliza, and Ayla.
Some of the less common names given to baby girls in 2024 were Dolly, Primrose, and Melody.
Boys
James has returned to number one after a six-year stretch at the top spot between 2015 and 2020, then regaining it in 2022.
Cillian was a close second place, with Noah in third position.
Top 10
James
Cillian
Noah
Jack
Theo
Jude
Luca
Charlie
Oisin
Oliver
Within the boys’ top 100, the highest climbers in popularity between 2023 and 2024 were Austin, Rossa, Callum, and Joseph.
Royce, Bentley, and Phoenix were some of the less common names given to baby boys in 2024.
Further information
You can get detailed information about names of babies in 2024 through the following link:
Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360info
ANALYSIS:By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra
Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure of news outlets, job insecurity, lower pay and limited career progression.
Ironically, it is regional news providers’ audiences who remain among the most engaged and loyal, demanding reliable, trustworthy news.
Yet it’s exactly the area where those closures, shrinking newsroom budgets and a reliance on traditional print-centric workflows over digital-first strategies are hitting hardest, making it difficult to attract and retain emerging journalists.
And in an industry where women make up a substantial portion of the workforce and of those studying journalism, figures show the number of young females in regional news outlets declined by about a third over 15 years — a much greater decline than experienced by their male colleagues.
Without meaningful and collaborative efforts to invest in young professionals and sustain strong local newsrooms, the future of local journalism could be severely compromised.
Reversing the trend requires investing in new talent, which might be achieved through targeted funding initiatives, newsroom-university collaborations and regional innovation hubs that reduce costs while supporting emerging journalists. It also requires improved working conditions and fostering innovation.
Why it matters Local journalism is the backbone of Australian news media, playing a crucial role in keeping communities informed and connected.
The Australian News Index shows community and local news outlets made up 88 percent of the 1226 news organisations operating across print, digital, radio and television in 2024.
These community-driven publications and broadcasters play a critical role in covering stories that matter most to Australians, reporting on councils, regional issues and everyday stories that affect people.
Yet local newsrooms face growing challenges in sustaining their workforce and attracting new talent, raising concerns about the future of journalism beyond metropolitan centres.
Fewer opportunities Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the proportion of journalists working full-time has steadily declined in both major cities and regional Australia.
In major cities, the proportion of journalists working full-time dropped from 74 percent in 2006 to 67 percent in 2021. In regional areas, the decline was even more pronounced — falling from 72 percent to 62 percent over the same period.
This widening gap suggests that regional journalists are increasingly shifting to part-time or freelance work, largely due to economic pressures on local news organisations.
Newspaper and periodical editors are more likely to work full-time in major cities (68 percent) compared with regional areas (59 percent). Similarly, a smaller proportion of print journalists are fulltime in regional areas.
In contrast, broadcast journalism maintains a more stable employment in regional areas.
Television and radio journalists in regional Australia are slightly more likely to work fulltime than their counterparts in major cities.
The pay gap Regional journalists earn less than their metropolitan counterparts. The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows median weekly pay for full-time journalists in major cities is $1737 compared to $1412 for their regional counterparts.
The disparity is slightly greater for parttime regional journalists.
Lower salaries, combined with fewer full-time opportunities, make it difficult for regional outlets to attract and retain talent.
Fewer young journalists Aspiring to become (and stay) a journalist is increasingly difficult, with many facing unstable job prospects, low pay and limited full-time opportunities.
This is particularly true for young journalists, who are forced to navigate freelance work, short-term contracts or leave the profession altogether.
The number of journalists aged 18 to 24 has steadily decreased, falling by almost a third from 1425 in 2006 to 990 in 2021. The decline is even steeper in regional areas, falling from 518 in 2006 to just 300 in 2021.
Young journalists are also less likely to have a fulltime job. In 2006, 92 percent of journalists aged 18 to 24 held a fulltime job but this had fallen to 85 percent in 2021, although they are significantly more likely to be employed fulltime compared to those in major cities.
This demonstrates that regional newsrooms can offer greater job security temporarily but the overall decline in young journalists entering the profession — particularly in regional areas — signals a need for targeted recruitment strategies, financial incentives and training programmes to sustain local journalism.
Data also reveals an overall decline in journalism graduates entering the news industry. The number of journalists aged 20 to 29 with journalism qualifications has dropped significantly, from 1618 in 2011 to 1255 in 2021.
This decline is marginally more pronounced in regional journalism, where the number of young, qualified journalists fell from 486 in 2006 to 367 in 2021.
Loss of opportunity for women In Australia, women make up a significant portion of the journalism workforce, likely reflecting the growth in young women studying journalism at universities.
Yet the decline in young female qualified journalists, particularly in regional areas, further highlights the challenges faced by the regional news industry.
The number of female journalists aged 20 to 29 with journalism qualifications fell by 29 percent to 803 between 2006 and 2021, while the number of male journalists in the same age group declined by just 8 percent.
The decline of young female journalists was an even more dramatic 33 percent in regional areas falling from 354 in 2006 to 236 in 2021, while the number of male journalists in regional areas increased slightly in the same period, from 132 in 2006 to 137 in 2021.
Time for a reset There is a need to rethink how journalism education prepares students for the workforce.
Some researchers argue that journalism students should be taught to better understand the evolving news landscape and its labour dynamics, ensuring they are prepared for the realities of the profession.
This practical approach, integrating training on labour rights and the economic realities of journalism into the curriculum, offers critical insights into the future of local journalism.
Pursuing a degree in arts, including journalism or media studies, is now among the most expensive in Australia. Many young and talented students still pursue journalism, even in the face of industry instability.
However, if the industry continues to signal to young talent that journalism offers little job security, low pay, and limited career progression — particularly in the regions — it risks losing a generation of passionate and skilled journalists.
Investing in new talent, improving working conditions and fostering innovation is critical for the industry to build resilience and strengthen community news coverage.
Dr Jee Young Lee is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. Her research focuses on the social and cultural impacts of digital communication and technologies in the media and creative industries.Originally published underCreative Commonsby360info™.
A further 48 Camperdown residents have had their homes further safeguarded from fire as we head toward winter, thanks to the collaborative efforts of community volunteers.
On Saturday, 5 April, 18 dedicated volunteers from the Camperdown Fire Brigade, Camperdown Lions Club and CFA’s South West Region Community Safety team came together to install and test smoke alarms for those in need.
Five teams set out to inspect, test and replace every outdated 9V battery smoke alarm with a 10-year battery targeting vulnerable community members who were unable to obtain, install or maintain smoke alarms themselves.
Together, they successfully visited 48 properties, checking 97 smoke alarms and installing 37 new ones to ensure community members stay protected.
Camperdown’s Brigade Community Safety Coordinator, Sarah Blair said that only working smoke alarms save lives, but for some people, checking and maintaining them is not possible.
“Climbing a ladder can be a real hazard for the ageing population or those with mobility issues. This initiative takes away that worry and ensures their alarms will work when it matters most,” Sarah said.
“Some of the alarms we saw had gone yellow and were well past their expiry date. It’s reassuring knowing they have now been upgraded.
“It might seem like a small upgrade, but it has the power to save lives and offers them peace of mind knowing they are protected for the next decade.”
While Camperdown has been doing the program for a number of years, the brigade’s efforts have been boosted by CFA’s partnership with RACV and their support through the Smoke Alarm Installation Program which kicked off in April 2024.
Since April last year, the program has reached 990 properties statewide, with CFA members engaging with over 1,200 residents to discuss home fire safety and install 1863 smoke alarms at 755 properties.
The initiative highlights the power of community collaboration and strong volunteer spirit, while aiming to increase the understanding and awareness of home fire hazards and reduce the number of preventable fire fatalities.
Smoke alarms play a critical role in early fire detection and evacuation, yet statistics indicate many homes do not have enough smoke alarms or have them installed in the wrong areas, with some residents also unaware if they are in working order.
Camperdown Fire Brigade are proud to work alongside the Lion’s Club and CFA’s South West Region Community Safety team to keep the community safe, one smoke alarm at a time.
The Chinese embassy in Britain on Wednesday urged the British government to follow the principles of fairness, impartiality and non-discrimination in dealing with the issue of British Steel to make sure that the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies in Britain are protected.
The anti-China rhetoric of some individual British politicians regarding the issue of British Steel is “extremely absurd,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Britain said in a statement.
The spokesperson made the remarks as several politicians attacked Chinese companies and the Chinese government following the British government’s recent takeover of British Steel from private Chinese enterprise Jingye Group, which has owned the company since 2020.
The attacks by some individual British politicians reflected “their arrogance, ignorance and twisted mindset,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson stressed that the Jingye Group is a private Chinese enterprise that makes business investments in Britain on the basis of market principles and conducts operation on its own.
British Steel had been losing money for many years before its acquisition by Jingye and actually went into compulsory liquidation in 2019, noted the spokesperson.
“After taking over, Jingye put in substantial funding to keep the company afloat to this day. Had it not been for the involvement of this Chinese company, British Steel workers might have already faced the risk of unemployment,” said the spokesperson.
It is understood that, under the British government’s net-zero strategy, steel companies that use iron ore to produce steel must achieve net-zero emissions by 2035. To that end, British steel companies including British Steel have all negotiated with the government to find a path to decarbonization transition. Among them, the Port Talbot Steelworks in Wales closed its blast furnace in July 2024.
“British Steel’s plan to close its blast furnaces and build electric arc furnaces is a normal decision, and it is understandable that the company conducted negotiations with the government on investment for the transition,” said the spokesperson.
Generally speaking, Chinese companies in Britain have operated in compliance with the law and achieved steady progress, and have made positive contributions to the local economy, the spokesperson said. According to statistics available, Chinese companies in Britain have contributed over 115 billion pounds (152.6 billion U.S. dollars) to the British economy and created nearly 60,000 jobs.
Any words or deeds that politicize or maliciously hype up business issues will undermine the confidence of Chinese business investors in Britain and damage China-Britain economic and trade cooperation, said the spokesperson.
“It is hoped that the British government will continue to engage in consultations and negotiations with Jingye to actively seek a solution acceptable to all parties,” said the spokesperson.
Disabled people encounter all kinds of barriers to accessing healthcare – and not simply because some face significant mobility challenges.
Others will see their symptoms not investigated properly because it’s assumed a problem is related to their disability rather than another medical condition. Or they will have decisions made for them rather than with them.
This often means they experience worse – and avoidable – outcomes compared to others. But despite this, health research – which is meant to reduce these disparities – frequently excludes disabled people.
For instance, a 2023 global review of 2,710 clinical trials found 35% reported excluding disabled individuals specifically. Researchers sometimes assume (without a good ethical or scientific reason) that disabled people can’t give consent, don’t meet the study criteria, or will struggle to follow instructions and collaborate.
Even when researchers are more inclusive, their plans can fail to account for the difficulties disabled people face with travel, communication and physical access. All of which makes it harder for them to participate.
This creates a vicious circle. Health research is vital for shaping the policies, treatments and community interventions that underpin modern healthcare. However, for disabled people, who make up one-sixth of the national and global population, too much research does not reflect their experiences and needs.
Beyond clinical and scientific research
The active participation by disabled people in health research is good science, good economics and the right thing to do. When people with lived experience contribute to the design and delivery of health care and research, it means services are used more and fairer outcomes are achieved.
But this is far from the reality in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. Scientific and clinical research is still often viewed as being more important than research addressing the needs of patients and people, as prioritised by them.
There is increasing interest in public and patient involvement in health services, and to a lesser extent health research. But this is not sufficiently embedded or formalised. Research priorities are still set primarily by clinicians and medical researchers.
Most funding still goes to research investigating the causes, genetics and treatment of health conditions. And while these are important to study, there is still too little research focused on how people can live well with disability.
A recent review of research funding for autism, for example, found the most money and number of grants were awarded to biological research. But a survey of about 500 people from New Zealand’s autistic and autism communities found people wanted more research into their mental health, wellbeing and practical skills development.
If research aims to improve health outcomes for everyone, it must involve all populations – particularly those most at risk of poorer health outcomes.
This extends beyond people with disability to include all marginalised and often excluded communities. But this kind of change will need action at different levels of research, and to be led by researchers themselves. The rules and funding systems must also support a more inclusive approach.
Practical steps to make a difference
Some of the key strategies needed to ensure health research becomes more representative, ethical and effective have been outlined by the Disability Inclusion in Research Collaboration, a global network of researchers:
Making sure disabled people are visible in research grant applications: funding bodies must actively require and reward the inclusion of disabled participants in health research studies.
Including disability perspectives from the very start: disabled people should be involved in formulating research questions, designing studies and advising on accessibility measures.
Ensuring disabled people are research participants whenever possible: researchers must clearly explain and justify any exclusion criteria related to disability, which need to be grounded in legitimate safety or ethical concerns rather than mere assumptions.
Making it routine to report on disability status: research studies should use data to identify, track and report on participants’ disability status, so it is easier to monitor inclusion efforts and outcomes.
By committing to these basic measures, health research can become more representative, ethical and effective. It will also help the research produce insights relevant to a broader range of people, ultimately leading to stronger and fairer healthcare systems.
This is about more than justice for disabled people. It is about ensuring medical research achieves its true purpose: to improve health for everyone.
Rachelle A Martin receives funding from the NZ Health Research Council.
Kaaren Mathias receives funding from the Health Research Council and CURE Kids.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 17, 2025.
Most bees nest in the ground. Offering rocks and gravel is a simple way to help them thrive Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Freya Marie Jackson, PhD Candidate, School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University _Lasioglossum dotatum_ kerrysturat/iNaturalist, CC BY-NC-ND Of the more than 20,000 bee species in the world, 70% nest in the ground. And like many of their counterparts that nest above ground, these bees are facing
Thailand’s fragile democracy takes another hit with arrest of US academic Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia Despite the challenges faced by local democratic activists, Thailand has often been an oasis of relative liberalism compared with neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Westerners, in particular, have been largely welcomed and provided with
In the trade war, China has moved to curb supply of critical minerals. Can Australia seize the moment? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor, Technology and Innovation, University of Technology Sydney China has placed curbs on exports of rare germanium and gallium which are critical in manufacturing. Shutterstock In the escalating trade war between the United States and China, one notable exception stood out: 31 critical
‘The pay is not worth the stress’: research finds 10% of lawyers plan to quit within a year Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vivien Holmes, Emerita Professor, Australian National University Momentum studio/Shutterstock No one goes into the legal profession thinking it is going to be easy. Long working hours are fairly standard, work is often completed to tight external deadlines, and 24/7 availability to clients is widely understood to be
Contemporary television is rarely as good as The Narrow Road to the Deep North Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Prime The Narrow Road to the Deep North stands as some of the most visceral and moving television produced in Australia in recent memory. Marking a new accessibility and confidence to director Justin Kurzel, it reunites him with
NZ’s over-reliance on roads for freight means natural disasters hit even harder. But there is a fix Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cécile L’Hermitte, Senior Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, University of Waikato In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, the driving time between Napier and Wairoa stretched from 90 minutes to over six hours, causing major supply chain delays. Retail prices rose and shoppers faced empty shelves.
‘They are like my children’: research reveals 4 types of indoor plant owners. Which one are you? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brianna Le Busque, Lecturer in Environmental Science, University of South Australia maramorosz/Shutterstock Walk into any home or workplace today, and you’re likely to find an array of indoor plants. The global market for indoor plants is growing fast – projected to reach more than US$28 billion (A$44
Cracks in social cohesion – the major parties must commit to reinvigorating multiculturalism Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Jakubowicz, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Technology Sydney In the run up to the May 3 election, questions are being raised about the value of multiculturalism as a public policy in Australia. They’ve been prompted by community tensions arising from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the
State of the states: six experts on how the campaign is playing out around Australia Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Clune, Honorary Associate, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney The federal election campaign has passed the halfway mark, with politicians zig-zagging across the country to spruik their policies and achievements. Where politicians choose to visit (and not visit) give us some insight into their electoral
People are ‘microdosing’ weight-loss drugs. A GP explains what to watch out for Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natasha Yates, General Practitioner, PhD Candidate, Bond University MillaF/Shutterstock Injectable medications originally developed for the treatment of diabetes are also effective for weight loss, and have surged in popularity for this purpose around the world. In Australia, Ozempic is approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes,
With the end of Flybuys NZ, what happens to the personal data of nearly 3 million Kiwis? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa M. Katerina Asher, Doctoral Candidate, Business School, University of Sydney JuSun/Getty Images After almost three decades in New Zealand, loyalty programme Flybuys announced it would be closing in 2024. The company behind the scheme, Loyalty New Zealand, has since entered liquidation, leaving the future of one
New Aussie film The Correspondent is an extraordinary retelling of Peter Greste’s story Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Jean Baker, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Monash University Maslow Entertainment The Correspondent is a film every journalist should see. There are no spoiler alerts. It is based on the globally-publicised jailing in Cairo in 2013 of Australian journalist Peter Greste (played by Richard Roxburgh) and his
Fiji defence minister draws flak for six-week trip to meet peacekeepers RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs is facing a backlash after announcing that he was undertaking a multi-country, six-week “official travel overseas” to visit Fijian peacekeepers in the Middle East. Pio Tikoduadua’s supporters say he should “disregard critics” for his commitment to Fijian peacekeepers, which “highlights a profound dedication to duty and
Election Diary: there were a couple of ‘moments’ in second Albanese-Dutton encounter Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Two “moments” stuck out in Wednesday’s leaders’ debate, the second head-to-head of the campaign. Peter Dutton cut his losses over his faux pas this week when he wrongly named Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto as having said there had been a
Second leaders’ debate is a tame affair befitting a ‘deeply uninspiring’ campaign Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andy Marks, Vice-President, Public Affairs and Partnerships, Western Sydney University Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have had their second showdown of the 2025 federal election campaign. The debate, hosted by the ABC, was moderated by David Speers in the national broadcaster’s studios in
Poll shows Australians hate Trump policies and have lost trust in US, but still strongly believe in alliance Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australians strongly disagree with key policies of US President Donald Trump, and have overwhelmingly lost trust in the United States to act responsibly in the world, according to the Lowy Institute’s 2025 poll. Despite this, 80% of people say the
We compared the Labor and Coalition’s income tax proposals to see who benefits most Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Shutterstock We now have the competing bids for our votes by the alternative governments on income tax policy. From Labor, future cuts to the lowest marginal tax rate and new standard deductions for
Half of Australian landlords sell their investments after 2 years, adding to renters’ insecurity Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjodh B. Singh, Senior Economics and Finance Lecturer, Curtin University Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock Australia’s renters have to battle rising rents and a lack of available properties. They also face ongoing instability. Our new research suggests half of all landlords sell their investment properties after only two years, adding
Labor and the Greens likely to gain Senate seats at the election Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne As well as the election for the full House of Representatives, there will be an election on May 3 for 40 of the 76 senators. The 72
This gap in knowledge is concerning. For one, these bees play a crucial role in ecosystems. For another, ground-nesting bee habitats are threatened by land degradation, urbanisation, pesticides and agricultural expansion.
Our recent study addresses this research gap. Published this week in Austral Entomology, it examines the soil type preferences of ground-nesting bees and provides a simple, practical approach to enhancing their habitats.
Lasioglossum (Homalictus) dotatum is a small, ground-nesting bee species native to Australia. It measures approximately 3–4 mm.
Unlike the introduced European honey bee (Apis mellifera), which lives in large, highly organised colonies with complex social structures, L. dotatum exhibits an “apartment living” social structure, with independent nests situated close to one another. This aggregation behaviour indicates certain environmental or habitat features that are necessary for the species to thrive.
This species is widely distributed across mainland Australia. It nests in a range of sandy soil types. Because of this, it offers a valuable opportunity to examine how different environmental conditions shape its nesting preferences.
A key feature of the nests of this species is the presence of small conical mounds of excavated soil, known as tumuli, which surround the entrance. These mounds can resemble small ant hills. As a result, the nests are sometimes mistaken for ant nests, leading to accidental pesticide application and destruction of the bees’ habitats.
Lasioglossum dotatum has also been observed in avocado orchards, a crop of significant economic value in Western Australia.
While it remains uncertain whether L. dotatum is a major crop pollinator, its presence in these orchards suggests it could play a supplementary role in pollination. This potentially makes it an intriguing subject for research exploring native alternatives to honey bees (Apis mellifera) for crop pollination.
Our research focused on understanding the nesting preferences of L. dotatum. The study sought to explore how environmental features, such as soil type and surface cover, influenced where these bees chose to nest.
Specifically, the study tested whether L. dotatum preferred bare sand or rock gravel as a nesting substrate.
The study also examined whether the cleanliness of the sand – whether steam-treated or left untreated — impacted the bees’ nesting decisions.
The study used artificial nesting pots filled with sand from the Swan Coastal Plain, a region known for its sandy soils, to simulate nesting conditions around active bee aggregations. During the summer nesting season of February 2022, researchers monitored how the bees interacted with these artificial nesting sites, using the number of nest entrances (or tumuli) as a measure of nesting activity.
Getting into the gravel
Our study found L. dotatum strongly preferred nesting in pots covered with rock gravel over those with bare sand. This preference likely arises from the benefits provided by rock gravel, such as improved moisture retention, temperature regulation, and protection from predators.
The experimental pots with rock gravel had significantly more nest entrances. This indicated that rock cover helps create a more stable and favourable microhabitat for nesting.
The bees also showed a preference for steam-treated sand, suggesting that factors such as microbial contaminants or organic residues in untreated soil may deter nesting.
Interestingly, when the rock gravel was removed, many nests were found concealed beneath the gravel. This highlights the importance of rock cover in enhancing nest stability and reducing the risk of disturbance.
Lasioglossum dotatum preferred nesting in pots covered with rock gravel over those with bare sand. Freya Marie Jackson, CC BY-NC-ND
A simple, practical approach to conservation
These findings have important implications for native bee conservation, particularly in urban and agricultural areas.
The preference for rock gravel suggests that incorporating this material into urban landscapes could improve nesting conditions for ground-nesting bees such as L. dotatum.
By creating spaces for these ground nesting bees, we can better support these vital pollinators.
As native bees continue to face habitat loss and degradation, these findings provide a simple, practical approach to enhancing their habitats, ultimately contributing to more sustainable pollinator populations in urban and rural settings alike.
Freya Marie Jackson received funding from the Australian Entomological Society (AES) through their “Small Grant Award”, which supported some of this research on native bees. Additionally, she has received a Research and Innovation Seed Grant Award from Murdoch University.
Wei Xu received funding from the Australian Entomological Society (AES) through their “Small Grant Award”, which supported some of this research on native bees. Additionally, he has received a Research and Innovation Seed Grant Award from Murdoch University.
Giles Hardy and Kit Prendergast 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.
Annual inflation at 2.5 percent in March 2025 – 17 April 2025 – Aotearoa New Zealand’s consumers price index (CPI) increased 2.5 percent in the 12 months to the March 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.
The 2.5 percent increase follows a 2.2 percent annual increase to the December 2024 quarter.
“The annual inflation rate is within the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s target band of 1 to 3 percent for the third consecutive quarter,” prices and deflators spokesperson Nicola Growden said.
Between the June 2021 and June 2024 quarters, annual inflation was above the target band.
Meal kits, cruises, and smart watches added to CPI basket in latest update – 17 April 2025 – People are spending more on delivered meal kits and smart watches, but less on older technology such as DVDs, home telephone line rentals, and national toll calls, Stats NZ said today.
Following changes in what New Zealand households typically spend their money on, the consumers price index (CPI) basket of goods and services has been updated. The CPI basket is used to measure inflation.
“Changing spending patterns and consumer tastes mean it’s important to update the CPI basket so it remains relevant and reflects New Zealand society,” consumer prices spokesperson Nicola Growden said.
Delivered meal kits and cruises have been added to the basket from this quarter.
Annual inflation at 2.5 percent in March 2025–17 April 2025 –Aotearoa New Zealand’s consumers price index (CPI) increased 2.5 percent in the 12 months to the March 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.
The 2.5 percent increase follows a 2.2 percent annual increase to the December 2024 quarter.
“The annual inflation rate is within the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s target band of 1 to 3 percent for the third consecutive quarter,” prices and deflators spokesperson Nicola Growden said.
Between the June 2021 and June 2024 quarters, annual inflation was above the target band.
