Senator Rosen Was Also Recently Reaffirmed As One Of The Most Bipartisan Senators
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) was named one of the top ten most effective Democratic Senators in the 118th Congress, according to a non-partisan study by the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University released today. Senator Rosen was the ninth most effective Senate Democrat and the third-most effective first-term senator, making her one of only four first-term senators who “exceeded expectations” as above-average effective lawmakers.
“Nevadans know that I’m an independent voice for them in the U.S. Senate who works across party lines to get things done,” said Senator Rosen. “I’m honored to have been recognized once again as one of the most effective senators for my work to deliver for the people of Nevada. I’ll continue to be a strong, effective advocate for our state and will work tirelessly to help hardworking families thrive.”
Since arriving in Congress, Senator Rosen has worked across party lines to deliver for Nevada. She has been consistently named and reaffirmed as one of the most bipartisan members of the Senate. She has also been recognized as one of the most independent senators for being willing to break with her own party to deliver for Nevada.
The Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University legislative effectiveness scorecard can be found here.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
The names of the winners of the grant competition for teachers of Russian universities participating in the Vladimir Potanin Scholarship Program in 2024/2025 were recently announced. In total, 1,290 teachers showed interest in the competition this season, 574 applications were received from 68 universities, and 526 applications were admitted to expert evaluation. Based on the results of the selection, 150 teachers will receive a grant for the redesign and transformation of educational products. The total amount of support is 73.8 million rubles.
The most popular areas for redesign and transformation of educational products: teacher education (11), management (10), computer science and engineering (7), economics (6), information systems and technologies (5), psychology (5), history (5).
Novosibirsk State University was among the leading universities in terms of the number of applications admitted to the examination; there were 15 of them. Following the results of the competition, three NSU teachers became winners:
Elina Arnoldovna Biberdorf, redesign of the course “Methods and Applications of Linear Algebra”. Alexander Vladimirovich Bobrovskikh, redesign of the course “Gene Networks: Advanced Approaches to Analysis and Reconstruction”. Ulyana Stanislavovna Zubairova, redesign of the course “Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Biology Problems”.
We spoke to the winners and found out why they decided to apply, what their projects are about, and what emotions they feel when they win.
— I decided to participate in the competition quite spontaneously when I saw the announcement at NSU in December. I didn’t think long about the idea of the application, since I had recently completed the creation of the module “Reconstruction of Gene Networks” for the NSU Advanced Engineering School, which covers basic concepts in this area. I thought that it would be great to expand and deepen the content of this module, making it a full-fledged course with the support of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation. I wrote the application to the Foundation in a few days during the New Year holidays. I am grateful to the NSU Advanced Engineering School for supporting my idea and to the Foundation for the high assessment of my application. I am especially glad that I will be able to implement this within the walls of my native university and support the initiatives of our Advanced Engineering School.
— I learned about the competition from the department’s newsletter and immediately realized that this was a great opportunity to update our course “Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Biology Problems”. It is located at the intersection of two very rapidly developing fields — biology and artificial intelligence. We have long wanted to make the course more practice-oriented and interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on real-world problems. Nowadays, biologists increasingly work with large data sets, and AI specialists — with problems where it is important to take into account the biological context. Our course is an attempt to combine these two worlds. We want students to not only know how algorithms work, but also to be able to apply them in real biological research: from gene analysis to spatial transcriptomics and medical imaging.
AI in biology is developing at breakneck speed, and for the course to remain relevant and truly useful, it needs to be regularly revised. Thanks to the grant support, we will be able to seriously update the structure: add cases based on real biological data, develop interactive practical tasks, include blocks on visualizing results and integrate all this with laboratory practice. In addition, we plan to hold several intensive courses where students will be able to work on real scientific projects and apply the knowledge gained in the course in practice. This will help not only to better assimilate the material, but also to feel how modern bioinformatics works “live”.
I am very happy with the victory! This is not just good news, but an opportunity to take an important step forward. We believe in the power of interdisciplinary education and want the course to be more than just a set of lectures, but a real space where scientific and engineering ideas are born. Special thanks to the Department of Informatics Systems of the Faculty of Information Technology of NSU. The support when submitting the application and in general during the course discussion was both very valuable and humanly warm. When there is a team nearby that believes in the project, it becomes much easier to move forward. And this victory is also a great reason to rethink the very approach to teaching: listen to students, be flexible, adapt the format. And most importantly, do not be afraid to try something new. Participation in the competition itself was a step towards change, and we will definitely not stop there.
— I teach a course in the master’s program called “Methods and Applications of Linear Algebra”. I take the fate of this course to heart, because its content is close to the main direction of my scientific work. In addition, this course is the brainchild and legacy of my scientific supervisor, Academician Sergei Konstantinovich Godunov. In order for the material to be interesting and useful for master’s students, it must be regularly updated, improved, and include something new and modern.
In recent years, most of the course participants have been graduates of other universities and foreign students. This creates a big problem due to the difference in the level of preparation. The teacher needs to make additional methodological efforts to make it interesting and understandable for everyone. That is why I jumped at the chance to participate in the competition and get support to transform my course.
After this victory, first of all, I will revise the material of practical classes and synchronize the lecture presentations with it. These changes will affect the students of the next year. Later, a new teaching aid will be written, as well as a methodological manual for completing practical assignments.
Of course, I am glad that the foundation supported my project. But this feeling is mixed with a bit of anxiety, because now there is serious work ahead, which will require quite a lot of effort from me. You could say that I expected to win. It seems to me that my application was quite high-quality and convincing.
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: Historic Cooma Gaol listed on the NSW State Heritage Register
The Albanese Government and the Crisafulli Government will fund the establishment of a new Academy for Health Sciences in Rockhampton.
The Academy will help to fast track high-achieving local students into careers as doctors, nurses, paramedics and allied health professionals.
This is an investment to strengthen Medicare and boost the pipeline of health workers in regional Queensland.
The Academy will cater for students from Years 10 to 12 and connect them to professionals in health sciences and research.
The Albanese Government will support the establishment of the Academy through a $80 million investment, towards the Crisafulli Government’s existing commitment to deliver this key regional project.
The Crisafulli Government will seek to establish a direct partnership with Central Queensland University.
This will also allow students to gain credit for university health science degrees while still at school, and follow their passion for health sciences without needing to move away from their families or communities.
The recent record number of graduates to progress through Queensland’s Regional Medical Pathway program demonstrates the strong pipeline of home-grown future health professionals outside metropolitan areas.
The Rockhampton campus will be the first regionally-based Queensland Academy, and demonstrates the Crisafulli and Albanese Government’s commitment to restoring and strengthening regional health services.
The details of the Academy’s implementation are under consideration by the Crisafulli Government, with the final location to be determined through further planning and consultation.
Comment attributable to Minister Clare:
“This is an important investment which will support young people in Central Queensland to become nurses, paramedics and doctors.
“This is all about building a better and fairer education system and strengthening the pipeline of key workers that regional Queensland needs.”
Comment attributable to Minister King:
“The Albanese Government is delivering the infrastructure and facilities our communities need.
“This health sciences academy is part of our landmark investment in Central Queensland, alongside the $7.2 billion being invested by the Australian Government in the Bruce Highway safety upgrade.”
Comment attributable to Minister Langbroek:
“This funding contribution from the Albanese Government is incredibly significant, coupled with the planning and consultation work we’ve already done, this election commitment is well underway.
“The Academy will help students across Central Queensland who are interested in a health career to connect with professionals in health sciences and research.
“I look forward to continuing to work with State Health Minister Tim Nicholls and our local MPs to fulfill our commitment to deliver this vital project for Central Queensland.”
Zhang Zhijia, a 38-year-old volunteer at Chifeng Museum in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, leaves home at 8:30 a.m. to share stories about the Hongshan culture with museum visitors.
Almost at the same time, Li Jiawei, a 24-year-old graduate student who studies cultural relics at Chifeng University in the city of Chifeng, walks from his dormitory to the library to research materials for future archaeological projects.
And 45-year-old Guo Lei, who is in charge of Songshanzhai, a cultural and creative company under the Chifeng culture and tourism group, has already engaged in discussions with his colleagues on the designs of refrigerator magnets inspired by the Hongshan culture.
Despite being from different age groups and living different lives, they all share a commitment to the preservation and utilization of the Hongshan culture, which was an important archaeological culture during the Neolithic Age.
The culture spans three regions: the west of Liaoning Province, the north of Hebei Province and the east of Inner Mongolia. Chifeng in Inner Mongolia has over 700 known Hongshan culture relics sites.
“My hometown, Chifeng, is both the birthplace of the Hongshan culture and the place where it was named,” Zhang said.
The city’s northeastern suburbs are marked by a red mountain, Wulanhad, which means “red mountain” in Mongolian. It is from this mountain that the city and culture took their names.
Since childhood, Zhang has been fascinated by jade artifacts from the Hongshan culture, such as jade dragons and jade silkworms.
“Some of the jade artifacts show slight markings made by cowhide ropes during their polishing process, which makes me imagine scenes of the Hongshan ancestors crafting these objects. It feels like touching history,” he said.
Motivated by this sentiment, he signed up to volunteer at Chifeng Museum, and he hopes that more young people can gain knowledge and joy through learning about history.
“Volunteers are both narrators and learners,” he said. “Recently, many visitors have been asking about the newly excavated jade dragons from last year. The Hongshan artifacts are ‘updating,’ and our knowledge must also be continuously updated.”
In 2024, three jade dragons from the Hongshan culture were unearthed — the largest number of such artifacts found in recent years. Among them was the largest jade dragon ever discovered.
The object, measuring 15.8 centimeters in length, 9.5 centimeters in width and 3 centimeters in thickness, was excavated from a stone tomb in Yuanbaoshan in Chifeng’s Aohan Banner. It provides valuable new insights into the study of this ancient civilization.
The piece has become a highlight of exhibitions and academic lectures, and it has also inspired designs in cultural and creative industries.
Guo has been involved in the development of cultural and creative products inspired by the Hongshan culture for four years. Together with his colleagues, he has launched several products based on Hongshan artifacts, and is planning to release new refrigerator magnets inspired by the culture.
“We design cultural and creative products that not only have high aesthetic value but also boast fine details and rich heritage, and we hope they can serve as a window through which visitors can understand the Hongshan culture,” Guo said.
Li shares a similar hope, and looks forward to uncovering more secrets of the Hongshan culture through archaeological work.
“Archaeology is a way to engage in dialogue with the ancestors, as each jade artifact and pottery shard may contain their stories,” Li said, adding that in the future, he wants to share more stories of the Hongshan culture with others.
Today, the legacy of the Hongshan culture continues in modern life. In Chifeng, visitors can participate in themed research activities, watch performances, and even enjoy Hongshan culture-inspired feasts at local restaurants.
“We dig into historical research and inherit fine traditional Chinese culture, enabling cultural empowerment for industrial development,” said Zhang Guohua, Chifeng’s vice mayor.
For decades, researchers examined work and home life as separate domains. If they were taken together it was usually to study so-called work-life balance.
But these days, the reality is more complex. Our work and home lives are more seamlessly integrated than ever, largely because of communications technology and the work-from-home trend.
This can mean we deal with a work matter and a bit of domestic or family business virtually simultaneously, shifting attention and focus from one to the other within seconds.
We’ve dubbed this phenomenon “zigzag working” to describe how employees blend work and family roles within times and spaces that might once have been separate.
During and in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, this became more common as many working parents had to perform their paid work at home. But as workers increasingly return to the office, has zigzag working become the new normal?
In our research, we studied zigzag working beyond COVID to test support for it, and to understand its effects on conflict and happiness. Our study used a survey with two samples: 318 employees and 373 managers.
Zigzag working in action
Zigzag working provides a unique way to examine the blending of work and life. Frequent interspersing of family and work happens regularly. But what does it look like?
Consider Raj, a senior banking professional and solo parent of a 14-year-old. Here’s how a couple of hours of interspersing work and family while in the office unfold:
11:02 am. While listening to the CEO’s update, Raj messages his son, encouraging him to play basketball in the school break instead of gaming. His son responds with “whatever”.
11:09 am. Raj replies: “Yes, whatever – go have a run.”
11:48 am. He dashes out to buy lunch, remembering school camp fees are due by 5 pm.
11:54 am. Heading back to his office, he takes a call from a colleague.
12:02 pm. Back at his desk, Raj checks his diary while on the call, realising it’s his mother’s birthday.
12:11 pm. Raj orders flowers for her, remembering he often said “whatever” as a teenager. He starts a message to his son but is interrupted when pulled into an urgent meeting.
12:27 pm. As the meeting unfolds, Raj realises it has minimal impact on his division. Multitasking, he messages his son, replies to an email and mentally reviews his to-do list, including the camp fees.
12.43 pm. Working on a product proposal, he notices no replies from his son or the florist, but his mother has messaged telling him not to bring anything for dinner since he’s so busy.
Technology has allowed employees to blend work and family roles simultaneously. GaudiLab/Shutterstock
Zigzag working results
After speaking with employees and managers, we were able to identify several key points.
• Zigzag working, characterised by frequent small transitions between work and family responsibilities, occurs throughout the workday.
• Both men and women regularly zigzag between work and family responsibilities during the day. Gender differences were tested for, finding no significant variation in zigzagging behaviour. This contrasts with prior research that often finds gender differences in work-family conflict.
• Managers zigzag more than employees.
• Zigzag working is more prevalent for those working from home. This aligns with the idea that remote work environments make it easier for employees to switch rapidly between work and personal responsibilities.
• Even those not working from home still reported moderate levels of zigzag working, suggesting this phenomenon is not limited to remote work.
• Zigzag working was linked to both work-family conflict and happiness, underscoring its unique impact. While managing multiple responsibilities can be challenging, it can also be rewarding – especially when individuals feel a sense of control over their time and tasks.
The key takeaway? Zigzagging exists, and it is practised across genders, levels of seniority and locations. While it makes workers busier, our research found it also makes them happier.
Employers should embrace zigzag working
Recognising zigzagging as a normal work dynamic can foster a more supportive workplace, enhancing employee wellbeing, focus and overall performance. Employers can promote discussions about zigzagging to challenge rigid work-life boundaries.
Encouraging men to share their zigzagging experiences broadens the conversation beyond the assumption that openly juggling work and family is primarily a women’s issue. Normalising work-family intersections can make them feel more manageable and even gratifying.
Zigzagging is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Employers should recognise that zigzagging can vary by job role, time constraints and caregiving responsibilities, differing across professions and individuals.
Technology can further support zigzag working, enabling staff to efficiently manage both work and family responsibilities.
Zigzagging provides a fresh perspective on the blend of work and family, revealing the interplay between work and family can be simultaneously both beneficial and detrimental. Zigzaggers may be busy, but they are also happy – working as masters of their own universes.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Men in local leadership positions are unaware of gender leadership disparities and are less likely to challenge dominant stereotypes compared to women, suggests new research by the University of South Australia.
UniSA researchers interviewed more than 30 people in local leadership roles in regions experiencing industrial transformation, across government, business, sporting clubs, religious organisations and academia. All participants were from communities directly affected by the closure of Australia’s automotive industry in 2017, in suburban Melbourne, northern Adelaide and Geelong. They were interviewed in 2023 about gendered stereotypes that existed when the crisis unfolded and progressed, as well as when COVID hit.
The findings suggest that women and men leaders agreed on what makes a good leader. However, women experienced daily impacts related to gender leadership stereotypes and actively worked to break down these biases. On the other hand, men leaders tended to be unaware of gender differences, believing they didn’t exist.
Lead researcher Dr Lynette Washington says the men in the study largely accepted dominant gender leadership norms without questioning them, limiting their ability to push for alternative leadership styles which might assist to drive real change in regions undergoing a major industrial shift.
“The thing that was most striking was that when we spoke to women, they immediately identified that they were impacted by stereotypes and they undertook detailed, sophisticated work to deconstruct those ideas. They understood how stereotypes impacted them, they thought about that impact regularly and deeply, and it was very much front of mind for them,” she says.
“When we asked the men about gender bias, they didn’t believe that it existed for women or men leaders. And because of that, they couldn’t deconstruct these ideas to understand how they functioned and impacted people in the workplace.”
The research was centred around the concept of ‘place-based leadership’, a collaborative, community-led approach to leadership that aims to improve the social and economic outcomes for a specific community.
Dr Washington says place-based leadership is not much so much about the job a leader is doing but the way they’re doing it – with an emphasis on collaboration, leading through persuasion, soft power and networking.
“It’s about their understanding and care of the place. Many place-based leaders live in the place they lead and key to being a placed-based leader is having a connection or a personal investment,” she says.
“The findings of our study suggest that greater awareness of gender in leadership would help create more inclusive and effective leadership and this could lead to fairer outcomes.”
One of the research participants shared her experience with gender bias in local government.
“The first time I stood up to speak in council the town clerk said to me, “Well that’s very nice. Now be a good girl and sit down,” she said.
“If men can’t take that first step of acknowledging gender stereotyping in the workplace is real, they can’t do the work to address it. Women are acknowledging it and working hard to deconstruct and change it, but part of the reason it’s not progressing in the way that it needs to is that men aren’t also doing that work to the degree that is required for change,” she says.
“Without equality in leadership, we can’t access the full wealth of knowledge, experience and ability that exists in places. Left behind places need to access the full range of skills and abilities that they hold to ensure they can meet the challenges ahead.
“Places like the northern suburbs in Adelaide and Geelong in Victoria experienced significant disruption when the car manufacturing industry closed and were also hit hard during the pandemic. We need the best possible leadership in these places and that means challenging old ways of leading and introducing new, more effective leadership styles. One way to do that is to have a greater awareness of gender within leadership.
“This will result in more equal outcomes across the regions.”
European unity is vital to tackling economic challenges ranging from new U.S. tariffs and rising public debt to the expanding influence of big tech firms, Italian political figures and analysts have said at a conference in Rome.
The conference, titled “Governing Europe and Italy in the Age of Donald Trump,” was hosted by LUISS University on Monday evening and featured prominent speakers, including former Italian Prime Ministers Mario Monti and Giuliano Amato, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, European Commission Vice-President Raffaele Fitto, and LUISS professors.
“What we are seeing today is not the only time Europe has faced big challenges,” said Monti, who served as Italy’s prime minister between 2011 and 2013 during the global sovereign debt crisis. “But we must act together to confront the current challenges.”
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25-percent tariff on aluminum, steel, and related imports, with another round set to take effect on April 2, though details remain unclear. In response, the European Union initially planned retaliatory tariffs for April 1 but postponed them by at least two weeks following a European Council meeting to allow more time for negotiations.
On the sidelines of the conference, economics professor Pietro Reichlin told Xinhua that the Trump administration’s unpredictable tariff policies complicate the EU’s response strategies.
Reichlin stressed the importance of understanding U.S. trade goals to reach an agreement, pointing to the EU’s surplus in goods and the U.S. strengths in services and energy as potential negotiation points.
Italy’s Finance Minister Giorgetti warned that mounting debt and the growing influence of big tech firms – particularly U.S. giants such as Google and leading players in artificial intelligence, are increasingly limiting the policymakers’ options.
According to Eurostat, the EU’s average debt stood at 81.6 percent of GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2024 while the eurozone recorded an average ratio of 88.1 percent. Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio reached 136.3 percent, second only to Greece.
Speakers stressed the need for greater cohesion within Europe to address external trade pressures, the Ukraine conflict, and internal disputes within the bloc. Amato emphasized that cooperation, not conflict, drives prosperity.
Reichlin also stressed the importance of adapting to evolving trade dynamics with China. “Adjusting trade relations is crucial, as both sides stand to benefit from deeper engagement,” he said.
This week’s budget will come as a relief to Australia’s neighbours in the Indo-Pacific that rely on development assistance. The Albanese government did not follow the lead of US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in cutting its foreign aid.
The Trump administration froze foreign assistance and dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) when it came into office. Meanwhile, the UK announced 40% aid cuts of its own.
It is to Australia’s credit this has not happened here. Australia’s development budget remains intact this year and in forward estimates.
Sensible policymakers seem to recognise that Australia’s strategic circumstances are different. As a nation surrounded by low- and middle-income countries, Australia cannot vacate the field on development issues without enormous reputational, diplomatic and strategic damage.
The details of the development budget show Australia has been listening to its partners to identify critical gaps and reprioritise funds.
In the Pacific, funding has risen to a historic high, with no country receiving less aid. There have been changes in focus to respond to the US funding cuts, including programs on HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and gender-based violence in the Pacific.
This fits with Australia’s desire to be a partner of choice – and to prevent an increased Chinese presence in the region.
In Southeast Asia, Australia has increased its aid to all countries and has shifted funding, particularly in health where the US was a major donor.
Funds have also been reallocated to support civil society organisations working in vital areas like media freedom and human rights, which would have been a casualty in the US cuts.
There was also a shift in humanitarian funding to Myanmar and Bangladesh, where the US aid withdrawal has left Rohingya refugees in a desperate state.
Importantly, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is helping local organisations survive US cuts by allowing temporary flexibility in the use of grant funding to help them continue to deliver essential services.
Beyond these reprioritisations, the other heartening thing about the budget is its normality.
It maintains funding for assistive technology for people with disabilities and an Inclusion and Equality Fund to support LGBTQIA+ civil society organisations and human rights defenders. There are programs on maternal health, including reproductive rights.
The future is still precarious
However, it would be wrong to think this budget will fill the gaps left by the US withdrawal.
The ANU Development Policy Centre estimates that traditional OECD donors will cut at least 25% of their aid by 2027. It said, “when that much of a thing goes missing, it’s clearly at risk of collapse”.
Some development organisations will close their doors, potentially including household names that Australians have donated to for years. This is a time of huge transformation for the sector.
Another future problem will be maintaining multilateral institutions that rely on US funding – including the World Health Organization, World Food Programme, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. This will require a concerted effort with other countries.
So, while the Australian budget shows a government deploying current funding as intelligently as possible, there will eventually be limits to this approach.
In the “new world of uncertainty” described in the treasurer’s budget speech, it simply won’t be possible to meet Australia’s strategic aims and keep development spending at its current rate. It is still far away from 1% of the federal budget.
At some point, Australia must rethink the trajectory of its international commitments.
Analysis by the Development Intelligence Lab, a think tank working on development cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, has shown that over the last 25 years, the international parts of the federal budget – defence, intelligence, diplomacy and development – have held steady at around 10%.
Those in the foreign aid sector can celebrate Australia has not pulled back on its commitments like the US and UK. At the same time, we should expect the next government will inevitably be called on to do more.
Melissa Conley Tyler is Executive Director at the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D), an initiative funded by the foreign affairs and defence portfolios and hosted by the Australian Council for International Development..
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Murray, Professor of Cybersecurity, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
Yesterday, The Atlantic magazine revealed an extraordinary national security blunder in the United States. Top US government officials had discussed plans for a bombing campaign in Yemen against Houthi rebels in a Signal group chat which inadvertently included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
This is hardly the first time senior US government officials have used non-approved systems to handle classified information. In 2009, the then US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton fatefully decided to accept the risk of storing her emails on a server in her basement because she preferred the convenience of accessing them using her personal BlackBerry.
Much has been written about the unprecedentednature of this latest incident. Reporting has suggested the US officials involved may have also violated federal laws that require any communication, including text messages, about official acts to be properly preserved.
But what can we learn from it to help us better understand how to design secure systems?
A classic case of ‘shadow IT’
Signal is regarded by many cybersecurity experts as one of the world’s most secure messaging apps. It has become an established part of many workplaces, including government.
Even so, it should never be used to store and send classified information. Governments, including in the US, define strict rules for how national security classified information needs to be handled and secured. These rules prohibit the use of non-approved systems, including commercial messaging apps such as Signal plus cloud services such as Dropbox or OneDrive, for sending and storing classified data.
The sharing of military plans on Signal is a classic case of what IT professionals call “shadow IT”.
It refers to the all-too-common practice of employees setting up parallel IT infrastructure for business purposes without the approval of central IT administrators.
This incident highlights the potential for shadow IT to create security risks.
Government agencies and large organisations employ teams of cybersecurity professionals whose job it is to manage and secure the organisation’s IT infrastructure from cyber threats. At a minimum, these teams need to track what systems are being used to store sensitive information. Defending against sophisticated threats requires constant monitoring of IT systems.
In this sense, shadow IT creates security blind spots: systems that adversaries can breach while going undetected, not least because the IT security team doesn’t even know these systems exist.
It’s possible that part of the motivation for the US officials in question using shadow IT systems in this instance might have been avoiding the scrutiny and record-keeping requirements of the official channels. For example, some of the messages in the Signal group chat were set to disappear after one week, and some after four.
However, we have known for at least a decade that employees also build shadow IT systems not because they are trying to weaken their organisation’s cybersecurity. Instead, a common motivation is that by using shadow IT systems many employees can get their work done faster than when using official, approved systems.
Usability is key
The latest incident highlights an important but often overlooked lesson in cybersecurity: whether a security system is easy to use has an outsized impact on the degree to which it helps improve security.
To borrow from US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, we might say that a system designer who prioritises security at the expense of usability will produce a system that is neither usable nor secure.
The belief that to make a system more secure requires making it harder to use is as widespread as it is wrong. The best systems are the ones that are both highly secure and highly usable.
The reason is simple: a system that is secure yet difficult to use securely will invariably be used insecurely, if at all. Anyone whose inbox auto-complete has caused them to send an email to the wrong person will understand this risk. It likely also explains how The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief might have been mistakenly added by US officials to the Signal group chat.
While we cannot know for certain, reporting suggests Signal displayed the name of Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat group only as “JG”. Signal doesn’t make it easy to confirm the identity of someone in a group chat, except by their phone number or contact name.
In this sense, Signal gives relatively few clues about the identities of people in chats. This makes it relatively easy to inadvertently add the wrong “JG” from one’s contact list to a group chat.
Signal is one of the most secure messaging apps, but should never be used to store and send classified information. Ink Drop/Shutterstock
A highly secure – and highly usable – system
Fortunately, we can have our cake and eat it too. My own research shows how.
In collaboration with Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group, I helped develop what’s known as the Cross Domain Desktop Compositor. This device allows secure access to classified information while being easier to use than traditional solutions.
It is easier to use because it allows users to connect to the internet. At the same time, it keeps sensitive data physically separate – and therefore secure – but allows it to be displayed alongside internet applications such as web browsers.
One key to making this work was employing mathematical reasoning to prove the device’s software provided rock-solid security guarantees. This allowed us to marry the flexibility of software with the strong hardware-enforced security, without introducing additional vulnerability.
Where to from here?
Avoiding security incidents such as this one requires people following the rules to keep everyone secure. This is especially true when handling classified information, even if doing so requires more work than setting up shadow IT workarounds.
In the meantime, we can avoid the need for people to work around the rules by focusing more research on how to make systems both secure and usable.
Toby Murray receives funding from the Department of Defence. He is Director of the Defence Science Institute, which is funded by the Victorian, Tasmanian and Commonwealth Governments. He previously worked for the Department of Defence.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Coghlan, Senior Lecturer in Digital Ethics, Centre for AI and Digital Ethics, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
Every day, users ask search engines millions of questions. The information we receive can shape our opinions and behaviour.
We are often not aware of their influence, but internet search tools sort and rank web content when responding to our queries. This can certainly help us learn more things. But search tools can also return low-quality information and even misinformation.
AI-enhanced search is marketed as convenient. But, together with other changes in the nature of search over the last decades, it raises the question: what is a good search engine?
Our new paper, published in AI and Ethics, explores this. To make the possibilities clearer, we imagine four search tool models: Customer Servant, Librarian, Journalist and Teacher. These models reflect design elements in search tools and are loosely based on matching human roles.
The four models of search tools
Customer Servant
Workers in customer service give people the things they request. If someone asks for a “burger and fries”, they don’t query whether the request is good for the person, or whether they might really be after something else.
The search model we call Customer Servant is somewhat like the first computer-aided information retrieval systems introduced in the 1950s. These returned sets of unranked documents matching a Boolean query – using simple logical rules to define relationships between keywords (e.g. “cats NOT dogs”).
Librarian
As the name suggests, this model somewhat resembles human librarians. Librarian also provides content that people request, but it doesn’t always take queries at face value.
Instead, it aims for “relevance” by inferring user intentions from contextual information such as location, time or the history of user interactions. Classic web search engines of the late 1990s and early 2000s that rank results and provide a list of resources – think early Google – sit in this category.
Journalists go beyond librarians. While often responding to what people want to know, journalists carefully curate that information, at times weeding out falsehoods and canvassing various public viewpoints.
Journalists aim to make people better informed. The Journalist search model does something similar. It may customise the presentation of results by providing additional information, or by diversifying search results to give a more balanced list of viewpoints or perspectives.
Teacher
Human teachers, like journalists, aim at giving accurate information. However, they may exercise even more control: teachers may strenuously debunk erroneous information, while pointing learners to the very best expert sources, including lesser-known ones. They may even refuse to expand on claims they deem false or superficial.
LLM-based conversational search systems such as Copilot or Gemini may play a roughly similar role. By providing a synthesised response to a prompt, they exercise more control over presented information than classic web search engines.
They may also try to explicitly discredit problematic views on topics such as health, politics, the environment or history. They might reply with “I can’t promote misinformation” or “This topic requires nuance”. Some LLMs convey a strong “opinion” on what is genuine knowledge and what is unedifying.
No search model is best
We argue each search tool model has strengths and drawbacks.
The Customer Servant is highly explainable: every result can be directly tied to keywords in your query. But this precision also limits the system, as it can’t grasp broader or deeper information needs beyond the exact terms used.
The Librarian model uses additional signals like data about clicks to return content more aligned with what users are really looking for. The catch is these systems may introduce bias. Even with the best intentions, choices about relevance and data sources can reflect underlying value judgements.
The Journalist model shifts the focus toward helping users understand topics, from science to world events, more fully. It aims to present factual information and various perspectives in balanced ways.
This approach is especially useful in moments of crisis – like a global pandemic – where countering misinformation is critical. But there’s a trade-off: tweaking search results for social good raises concerns about user autonomy. It may feel paternalistic, and could open the door to broader content interventions.
The Teacher model is even more interventionist. It guides users towards what it “judges” to be good information, while criticising or discouraging access to content it deems harmful or false. This can promote learning and critical thinking.
But filtering or downranking content can also limit choice, and raises red flags if the “teacher” – whether algorithm or AI – is biased or simply wrong. Current language models often have built-in “guardrails” to align with human values, but these are imperfect. LLMs can also hallucinate plausible-sounding nonsense, or avoid offering perspectives we might actually want to hear.
Staying vigilant is key
We might prefer different models for different purposes. For example, since teacher-like LLMs synthesise and analyse vast amounts of web material, we may sometimes want their more opinionated perspective on a topic, such as on good books, world events or nutrition.
Yet sometimes we may wish to explore specific and verifiable sources about a topic for ourselves. We may also prefer search tools to downrank some content – conspiracy theories, for example.
LLMs make mistakes and can mislead with confidence. As these models become more central to search, we need to stay aware of their drawbacks, and demand transparency and accountability from tech companies on how information is delivered.
Striking the right balance with search engine design and selection is no easy task. Too much control risks eroding individual choice and autonomy, while too little could leave harms unchecked.
Our four ethical models offer a starting point for robust discussion. Further interdisciplinary research is crucial to define when and how search engines can be used ethically and responsibly.
Damiano Spina has received funding from the Australian Research Council and is an Associate Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S).
Falk Scholer has received funding from the Australian Research Council and is an Associate Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S).
Hui Chia and Simon Coghlan 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.
Students learn Chinese language at the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 24, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
Cambodian civil servant Long Meikim was all ears and took good notes when a Chinese teacher taught Chinese on Monday at the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.
The 24-year-old employee at a state ministry in Phnom Penh said she was eager to master Chinese proficiency, as it would be helpful in her job and make it easy for her to communicate with Chinese people.
Meikim is among hundreds of Cambodian students taking Chinese classes at the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia. After learning Chinese for four months, she can now communicate in simple situations and understand some basic vocabulary and grammar.
“The Chinese language has helped me a lot in my current job. Moreover, nowadays, many Chinese people have come to Cambodia,” she told Xinhua.
Meikim said she really likes the Chinese language and culture, saying that learning Chinese would give her the possibility to gain insights into ancient and diverse cultures.
“For China, I have never been there, but I’m impressed with its modern cities with skyscrapers and beautiful scenery,” she said. “The field that impressed me the most is technology. Technology in China is advanced.”
Sharing her view on the current Cambodia-China ties, Meikim said cooperation in various sectors and cultural exchange has made the two countries’ relations get closer, as their “ironclad” friendship has been further strengthened.
“I’m pleased to see excellent relations between Cambodia and China,” she said. “I hope China will increase its investment in Cambodia in order to help further boost Cambodia’s economic growth, and Chinese education will be further expanded.”
Meikim said she has dreamed of studying in China since she was in high school, and she hopes that her dream will come true one day.
Rorn Chanara, a 20-year-old learner of Chinese literature at the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the influx of Chinese investors, businesspeople, and tourists had motivated him to study Chinese.
“I think the Chinese language is good and will be useful for me in the future, helping me communicate well with Chinese people and get a proper job with a high income,” he told Xinhua.
As there are many reputable Chinese enterprises operating in the Southeast Asian country, Chanara hopes that he will become an interpreter for those companies in the future when he masters Chinese proficiency.
“The Confucius Institute has greatly contributed to promoting good relations between Cambodian and Chinese people and providing Chinese education to students, allowing them to learn both Chinese literature and culture,” he said.
Chanara praises China for its advanced technology, high development and good education system, saying he is also keen to study in China if possible.
Niu Li, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said jointly founded by Jiujiang University in East China’s Jiangxi Province and the Royal Academy of Cambodia on Dec. 22, 2009, the institute has gradually developed into one of the largest and most influential Chinese education and cultural exchange institutions in Cambodia.
“As the first Confucius Institute in Cambodia, the institute has always committed to promoting Chinese teaching, spreading Chinese culture and promoting cultural exchanges between China and Cambodia,” he told Xinhua.
In the process of development in more than 10 years, it has continuously improved its teaching network, Niu said, adding that it has now covered several provinces and cities in Cambodia, with Confucius classrooms, Chinese language centers and university Chinese departments in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville among others.
“Our goal is to provide high-quality Chinese education to government officials, military personnel and learners from all walks of life,” he said. “The total number of registered students exceeds 130,000, and the number of people studying Chinese at the institute each year exceeds 8,000.”
To mark 10 years since Netflix began operating in Australia, we and our colleagues at the Streaming Industries and Genres Network have published a report that looks at the state of Australia’s streaming industry today – and back at the platforms that have failed over the years.
It once seemed like Netflix was the be-all and end-all of streaming in Australia. But a decade of competition with other streamers, and stress on local content, paint a very different picture.
The streaming wars rage on
Australia’s “streaming wars” kicked off in early 2015 with the arrival of Stan and Netflix, joining smaller players already on the scene. At the time, some industry insiders predicted the new streaming video-on-demand services would quickly consolidate – that there was room for only two major players: Netflix and one other.
These early assumptions were proven wrong. Instead, Australia has sustained numerous streamers of different sizes, audiences and ownership. The larger, more generalist services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ compete directly with each other for exclusive content.
Other niche genre players such as Shudder (horror) and Hayu (reality TV) have managed to stay afloat by catering to a specific audience segment and keeping their prices low.
There have also been a few fatalities along the way. Quickflix and Presto were early to the market. Both services had gained considerable ground by 2014, with Quicklix leading the way. But they were eventually viewed as sluggish and limited in comparison to Netflix.
Netflix always on top
Netflix has always been the most popular streaming service in Australia. One million users had access to the platform within just three months of its arrival in 2015.
In 2020, analytics firm Ampere Analysis identified Australia as the most highly-penetrated Netflix market in the world, then available in 63% of Australian homes, compared to 50% in the United States.
In the first half of 2024, it was used by 67% of Australian adults, including some 800,000 people with an ad-tier subscription.
The global behemoth has produced some notable local titles.
In January of last year, the series adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe became Netflix’s most successful Australian-made show in its first two weeks on the platform.
Later in April, the second season of the Heartbreak High reboot debuted at number one in Australia and stayed on the Global Top 10 English TV Series list for three consecutive weeks.
Collectively, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+ and Stan spent A$225.2 million on 55 commissioned or co-commissioned Australian programs in the 2023–24 financial year.
That said, their commitment to the local production sector over the last decade has been limited, as they have no obligation to invest in local content.
The introduction of multi-national streamers has radically shifted financing practices in Australia, leaving our production sector in distress.
Last year, we partnered with ACMI to pull together a symposium where streaming industry insiders discussed the deeper implications of streaming on local genres, as well as the opportunities and challenges ahead.
We heard from Andy Barclay, manager of business and legal affairs at Screen Producer Australia, who said the traditional “jigsaw puzzle” of finance planning based on international territories was all but gone in favour of major streamers offering full funding and “a little premium” upfront.
But this comes at a cost, as the streamers then control global distribution and hold a tight grip on viewership data. It also means local production can become beholden to the whims of US business interests. As Barclay explain:
These huge [streaming] companies, their Australian businesses […] we don’t drive their business decisions. It’s what happens over in the United States that drives their business decisions.
Nonetheless, having fresh, cash-rich and risk-taking players in the Australian content market has led to opportunities for some local creators.
As Sam Lingham of Australian comedy group Aunty Donna remarked on the same panel:
Netflix, creatively, were pretty hands-off. We pitched them the show and they were like, ‘yeah, go do that’.
What’s on the horizon?
The streaming sector in Australia is now poised to splinter even further.
Warner Bros Discovery will launch its streaming platform, Max, next week. It will be a real blow to the Foxtel-owned streamer, Binge, which has long touted its exclusive rights to much of the Warner catalogue.
There are also concerns about the access and affordability of sport. This year, a new AFL broadcast agreement with Fox Sports and Channel Seven saw Saturday night games move behind a paywall. People will now need Kayo Sports or Foxtel to watch these games live.
Big streamers have also entered the fray. Back in 2016, Netflix said it had no intention of investing in live sport. But we’re now seeing it and other players such as Prime Video, Apple TV+ and YouTube buy into sports rights around the world.
According to Free TV Chief Executive Bridget Fair
we saw it [in 2023] with Amazon hoovering up the whole of the World Cup cricket and it’s going to keep happening […] people who previously got a lot of stuff for free are going to have to start paying.
Finally, many streamers – Netflix, Binge, Prime Video and Stan – have introduced or announced that they will introduce ad-tier subscriptions. Streamers can expect to see better profit margins on their advertising-supported offerings, compared to the monthly subscription model.
Cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions may prove to be a popular option for viewers stacking multiple subscriptions. Already, 800,000 Australians have signed up to Netflix’s A$7.99 + ads option. But this does make for a disrupted, broadcast-like viewing experience (and one you still have to pay for).
As the last 10 years of streaming in Australia has shown, the future can be hard to predict when it comes to new players entering established markets. One thing seems certain though – Netflix is here to stay.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The prime ministers of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have signed a new statement of partnership marking 50 years of bilateral relations between the two countries.
The document — which focuses on education, trade, security, agriculture and fisheries — was signed by Christopher Luxon and James Marape at the Beehive in Wellington last night.
It will govern the relationship between the two countries through until 2029 and replaces the last agreement signed by Marape in 2021 with then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Marking the signing, Luxon announced $1 million would be allocated in response to Papua New Guinea’s aspirations to strengthen public sector institutions.
“That funding will be able to support initiatives like strengthen cooperation between disaster preparedness institutions and also exchanging expertise in the governance of state owned enterprises in particular,” Luxon said.
In his response Marape acknowledged the long enduring relationship between the government and peoples of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
He said the new statement of partnership was an important blueprint on how the two countries would progress their relationship into the future.
“Papua New Guinea brings to the table, as far as our relationship is concerned, our close proximity to Asia. We straddle the Pacific and Southeast Asia, we have an affinity to as much as our own affinity with our relations in the Pacific,” Marape said.
“Our dual presence at APEC continues to ring [sic] home the fact that we belong to a family of nations and we work back to back on many fronts.”
Meeting Peters Today, Marape will meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and leader of the opposition Chris Hipkins.
Later in the week, Marape is scheduled to travel to Hamilton where he will meet with the NZ Papua New Guinea Business Council and with Papua New Guinea scholarship recipients at Waikato University.
James Marape is accompanied by his spouse Rachael Marape and a ministerial delegation including Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, Trade Minister Richard Maru, Minister for Livestock Seki Agisa and Higher Education Minister Kinoka Feo.
This is Marape’s first official visit to New Zealand following his re-election as prime minister in the last national elections in 2022.
According to the PNG government, the visit signals a growing relationship between the two countries, especially in trade and investment, cultural exchange, and the newly-added Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme that New Zealand has extended to Papua New Guineans to work in Aotearoa.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University
Less than two months from an election, the Albanese government last night presented a budget that aims to swing the voting pendulum its way.
$8.5 billion to encourage more GP bulk billing and to train doctors and nurses
$1.7 billion to help public hospitals reduce their waiting lists
$644 million to establish 50 more urgent care clinics
$689 million to reduce the price of prescriptions to $25 for non-concessional patients
$793 million for women’s health, to provide greater access to contraception, treatment for urinary tract infections and greater access to perimenopause and menopause care.
These announcements were already strategically made over the past month to maximise media coverage and build election momentum.
Australians want more access to affordable health care – and the budget delivers this for many. But it doesn’t push the process of health reform forward, which is needed to secure the health system’s long-term sustainability.
How does this compare to previous health budgets?
While the budget contains large health expenditure items, a significant amount was not strictly new funding, but already provided for by the government.
Consequently, the budget only allocates an additional $7.7 billion to health compared to actual spending for 2024-25.
This increase aligns with steady long-term spending trends from previous years. It reflects a 6.6% increase in nominal spending (when inflation is included), but only a 3.9% increase in real spending (when inflation is taken out).
Actual and estimated expenditure from the health portfolio
Health spending as a proportion of the budget is reducing. Treasury
The proportion of the budget spent on health could be considered historically low, projected to be 15.9% for 2025-26.
It’s unclear whether Australians want more of the budget allocated to health, but there is certainly a need for greater investment.
Will this health budget improve Australians’ health?
The Albanese government is trying to kill three birds with one stone with this health budget. It wants to reduce the cost of living, improve health outcomes, and win an election.
Keeping the cost of living down and improving health services are the top two most important issues for this election. Headline health announcements directly address these two issues.
However, they also deliver a political benefit by shifting the media spotlight away from Opposition leader Peter Dutton. He was unable to legitimately counter attack headline health announcements given his unpopularity when he was a health minister. Instead, he promised to match some health announcements if elected.
Increasing bulk-billing rates and reducing prescription prices will directly reduce out-of-pocket costs for many Australians. This will mostly be for people without a concession card.
Increasing access to urgent care clinics will also help reduce cost of living pressures because they deliver services free of charge.
Making health care cheaper for patients will also improve health outcomes. Many Australians sometimes choose not to access health care because of its cost, which can lead to worse health outcomes and expensive hospital care.
The magnitude of any health improvement will depend on how patients respond to cheaper health care.
More health benefit will go to patients who start seeing their GP rather than staying at home and trying to manage their condition themselves.
The health benefit will be less for patients who start seeing their GP instead of an emergency department or urgent care clinic, because they are substituting one place of care for another.
Is this good health policy?
There is an “opportunity cost” every time the government spends money. Using the health budget to reduce the cost of living means less money to improve the health system elsewhere.
In that context, this health budget has missed an opportunity to build a more sustainable health system.
Medicare is not the best way to fund community care from GPs, nurses and allied health providers. It imposes barriers to establishing seamless multidisciplinary team-based care. These include restricting the types of services non-GP clinicians deliver, and not funding enough care coordination. People with chronic disease, such as diabetes and heart disease, often fall through the cracks and become sicker.
A review of general practice incentives submitted to the health department last year recommended transition towards new funding models. This could include funding models that pay for a bundle of services delivered together as a team, rather than a fee for every service delivered by each team member.
But payment reform is extremely hard. Medicare has not substantially changed since 1984 when it was first introduced.
Given this budget allocated $7.9 billion to increase bulk billing alone, and $2.4 billion ongoing, this budget has a missed opportunity to start the payment reform process. This extra funding will reinforce current payment structures, and could have been used as leverage to get GPs over the line on reforming Medicare.
The government also missed an opportunity to start reforming the health workforce. An independent review, also submitted last year, sought to improve access to primary care, improve care quality, and improve workforce productivity.
It outlined 18 recommendations, including payment reform, to remove barriers to increase access to care delivered by multidisciplinary teams of doctors, nurses and allied health providers such as psychologists and physiotherapists.
Again, there was nothing in this budget to suggest this will be pursued in 2025-26.
What happens next?
What next usually depends on which party wins the election.
In this case, Dutton has agreed to match the health budget spending on bulk billing and price reductions for PBS scripts. But the Coalition has not committed to 50 more urgent care clinics.
Whichever party wins, there is an urgent need to substantially reform health care if our health system is to remain one of the world’s best.
Henry Cutler was a member of the Expert Advisory Panel that delivered its final review of general practice incentives mentioned in this article. He received remuneration from the Department of Health and Aged Care for this role.
Hill says the framework focuses too much on addressing gender inequality and changing attitudes, while overlooking crucial opportunities to address drivers of violence such as child maltreatment, alcohol and gambling.
So what does the evidence say works to prevent violence against women?
Australia’s plan to reduce and prevent violence
The World Health Organisation RESPECT framework guides most global intervention programs and includes seven specific strategies to prevent violence against women:
Relationship skills strengthening
Empowerment of women
Services ensured
Poverty reduced
Environments (schools, workplaces, public spaces) made safe
Child and adolescent abuse prevented
Transformed attitudes, beliefs and norms.
These are embedded in the 12 actions of Australia’s prevention framework, called Change the Story, but are not explicitly listed.
Interventions are usually separated into three complementary, but overlapping approaches: primary (prevention), secondary (early intervention) and tertiary (responses).
Primary prevention in Change the Story is aimed at addressing the underlying drivers of violence before it occurs. But most interventions have dual purposes of reducing or preventing current and future violence, as we transform into a violence-free community.
Australia’s national plan includes reducing the harmful use of alcohol, support for children to live free from violence, holding perpetrators to account, changing the law, and promoting gender equality in public and private lives.
Together, these strategies chip away at harmful underlying attitudes that drive domestic violence.
Systematic reviews of interventions to prevent or reduce violence against women and girls find that sufficient investment into the right programs can address the core drivers of violence and lead to a significant reduction and prevention of violence.
The reviews identify that most successful interventions do not typically separate out prevention from early intervention and response. They focus on gender dynamics, power and control, and locally relevant social structures that disempower women and girls.
The global program What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls, for example, reviewed 96 evaluations of interventions. Of these, seven interventions had positive effects across all three domains of responding to, reducing and preventing domestic violence.
None of the effective interventions were the same, but they had common features.
One of the common indicators of success was that they addressed multiple drivers of violence while being relevant to what was important in the participants’ lives, such as an intervention to reduce HIV or couples counselling. These two interventions were designed to challenge gender inequity and the use of violence, while empowering couples with improved communications skills.
Effective interventions also commonly included support for survivors, for things such as mental health support, safe spaces, empowerment activities and mediation skills.
Effective interventions incldue support for survivors and empowerment activites. Oleg Elkov/Shutterstock
Equally important was including work with perpetrators or key influencers, such as other family members or local leaders. One example developed in Tajikistan involved in-laws, which enabled young women to attend and implement ideas from the program into their family life.
The final two key components of successful interventions were related to implementation of the programs: having the ability to deliver the program with sufficient, well-trained and supported staff, and for a length of time allowing reflection and learning through experience.
The Transforming Masculinities program in the Democratic Republic of Congo promoted gender equality and positive masculinity within faith communities. Careful selection of staff and volunteers was crucial to the intervention’s success.
Effective interventions were delivered over 15 to 30 months. They included a combination of community activities and weekly workshops, allowing facilitators to build on content from previous sessions.
Putting this all together, the most effective programs were rigorously planned and suitable to the client group. They focused on multiple core drivers of violence against women and girls. They worked with perpetrators and community influencers. They also worked with and supported survivors.
Elements which prevented programs from being effective included short-term or inadequate funding, and a lack of sufficient planning to ensure the intervention was adapted to the client’s context.
We have clear evidence about they types of programs that can prevent and reduce violence against women and girls, both internationally and in Australia. We also have service providers and program leaders who have been sharing evidence with governments for more than five decades. What we need now is the will and commitment for intensive programming.
Kristin Diemer has received funding from the Australian Research Council, ANROWS, the Department of Social Services, the Victorian Government and is on the Advisory Group for the Australian National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey.
Researchers at the University of Otago, Wellington – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke, are looking to genetics to understand why Fijian New Zealanders are at higher risk of having heart attacks or developing angina at a young age.
The research is led by Heart Foundation Research Fellow Dr Pritika Narayan from the Department of Surgery and Anaesthesia who says people from Fiji make up almost two per cent of Aotearoa’s population, but experience 20 per cent of the heart attacks or angina in people under the age of 40.
“Some have died in their twenties from undiagnosed cardiac conditions. There is a striking inheritance pattern, with grandparent, child, grandchild affected independent of risk factors such as smoking, obesity and diabetes.
“In one case we know of, a grandfather had a heart attack in his sixties, his son in his forties and his grandson in his twenties.”
The study, funded by the Heart Foundation, is the first in the world to look for a genetic link to premature coronary artery disease among Fijians and Fijian Indians.
Dr Narayan speculates that people with a heightened risk of premature coronary artery disease may have a variation in their genetic code.
“It is possible that variation helped their ancestors survive historical famine events and infectious disease outbreaks but is having the opposite effect now food is relatively abundant, causing fat to accumulate in the arteries and leading to these very premature heart attacks.”
Dr Narayan hopes her research will lead to gene-based improvements in screening, diagnosis and treatment options for Fijian New Zealanders who have a predisposition to developing the disease.
“It will also help Fijian New Zealanders understand their risk of heart disease and give them the chance to access potentially life-saving medicines, such as blood-pressure lowering medicines, or statins to reduce their cholesterol levels, before any damage to their heart occurs.”
Dr Narayan says the genetic research could lead to better care and prevention strategies for other ethnic minority groups who the peoples of Fiji share ancestry with, particularly the 10 million Melanesian people living in the Pacific and the 25 per cent of the world’s population who are South Asian.
She hopes to recruit at least 40 Fijian or Fijian Indian New Zealanders to take part in the study. They will be asked to have a blood test at their nearest Awanui Labs blood collection centre, and scientists will analyse the blood sample so they can study their DNA and RNA and look for biomarkers related to heart health and disease.
To be eligible to take part in the research, participants must have New Zealand citizenship or permanent residency, have Fijian (i-Taukei) or Fijian Indian (Girmit) ancestry and have had their first heart attack, experienced angina, or had related surgery (such as a stent or bypass) before the age of 55. They may also be able to take part if they have a close relative who has had a heart attack at a young age.
A Wellington-based participant in the study is available to be interviewed about the research and why it is an important study for his family. Please get in touch with Pritika if you are interested in arranging an interview with him.
You might have heard the term ‘tech bro’ – a shorthand for the hypermasculine culture synonymous with the startup world. But while it’s often associated with Silicon Valley, that same culture is alive and well in New Zealand’s innovation scene too, say researchers Professor Anne de Bruin and Dr Janine Swail.
Entrepreneurial ecosystems: the networks, organisations, and funding systems that support startup ventures, might seem open to all. But they’re far from gender neutral, the researchers say.
“The strong association of masculine traits with entrepreneurship persists, hindering gender equity,” says de Bruin.
In a new paper, de Bruin and Swail examine how gender dynamics shape startup ecosystems, and how feminist theories can be used to make them more inclusive and equitable.
“If you think about Auckland’s startup sector, it’s still pretty ‘tech bro’,” says Swail. “We need to rethink what it means to be inclusive in entrepreneurship.”
She says this starts with challenging the norms that shape entrepreneurial culture – norms that can make women and non-binary people feel unwelcome.
“Imagine you’re a female deep-tech entrepreneur looking for a lab or an accelerator programme,” says Swail. “You walk into a space that feels overwhelmingly masculine; in-jokes, blokey language, a boys club. It can be difficult to feel like you belong, let alone thrive.”
One of the biggest barriers? Unacknowledged gender bias baked into the structures and language of entrepreneurship. De Bruin points to New Zealand’s finance ecosystem, where most venture capitalists are men.
“The way people communicate and operate in that world is often coded in a very masculine way. Language matters, and when we start to unpack it, we see how women and others are often excluded, even unintentionally.”
If New Zealand wants to develop a genuinely diverse startup sector, we need to question who it’s built for, and who’s being left out.
Feminist theories argue for a shift from accepting the status quo to actively creating gender-equitable ecosystems.
One international organisation the researchers point to doing just that is Coralus (originally SheEO). Formerly led in New Zealand by Dame Theresa Gattung, Coralus was launched in Canada in 2015 as an experiment in more equitable funding for women and nonbinary people. Since then, it has flipped the traditional funding model favouring male-led ventures and distributed nearly $19 million to more than 190 female- and non-binary-led ventures using a collective decision-making model.
“By challenging traditional funding structures, Coralus reimagines what an entrepreneurial ecosystem can look like,” says Swail. “Even the name change – from SheEO to Coralus – reflects a broader, more inclusive vision.”
If New Zealand wants to develop a genuinely diverse startup sector, we need to question who it’s built for, and who’s being left out, says de Bruin. “We can create new pathways and build a future for entrepreneurship that’s more inclusive, more equitable, and ultimately, more innovative.”
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Nick Brown today told legislators they can save lives by passing permit to purchase legislation for gun buyers (HB 1163).
“This policy gives us the tools we need to ensure gun buyers aren’t doing so illegally under existing state and federal laws,” Brown said in his testimony to the Senate Committee on Law & Justice. “Through background checks, training, and other safety steps, we can make meaningful use of the critical time between someone’s choice to purchase a firearm and when they obtain that weapon.”
The bill, which the committee is scheduled to vote on Thursday, enhances permitting for firearms by requiring applicants to complete State Patrol-certified safety training, including essential firearm safety procedures, responsible firearm handling, and live-fire exercises to ensure practical firearm proficiency.
“Research and data clearly show that permit-to-purchase programs reduce gun-related deaths, curb gun trafficking, and improve law enforcement officer safety. This bill will save lives,” said Senate Law & Justice Committee Chair Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond.
HB 1163 also establishes in-depth background checks conducted to receive a permit, background checks at the point of purchase, and an annual re-check to ensure permit holders remain eligible. Together, these elements provide more certainty that people who are prohibited from owning guns are quickly and consistently identified and won’t be able to purchase a firearm.
“Gun violence is the number one cause of death for our kids. Not disease, not vehicular collisions, not drugs. As a mom of two little kids, and having lost someone I love to gun violence, this is personal to me,” said House Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle, the bill’s lead sponsor. “But I am not alone. Being afraid that our children will suffer from gun violence should not be part of our daily lives. It is unacceptable, it is unsustainable, and we must act today. Permit to Purchase will save lives and make all our communities safer.”
Connecticut enacted similar permit-to-purchase legislation 30 years ago and saw a 40% drop in gun homicides in the decade that followed, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.
“This bill builds on our commonsense requirement that background checks be part of the process for buying firearms in Washington,” said Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds. “By having people get a permit and background check before they purchase, we can ensure only responsible owners are the ones who have access to firearms in our state/”
The bill previously passed out of the House on a vote of 58-38.
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Critics have long accused the agency — and its affiliated outlets such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia — of being a propaganda arm of US foreign policy.
But to the current president, the USAGM has become a promoter of “anti-American ideas” and agendas — including allegedly suppressing stories critical of Iran, sympathetically covering the issue of “white privilege” and bowing to pressure from China.
Propaganda is clearly in the eye of the beholder. The Moscow Times reported Russian officials were elated by the demise of the “purely propagandistic” outlets, while China’s Global Times celebrated the closure of a “lie factory”.
Meanwhile, the European Commission hailed USAGM outlets as a “beacon of truth, democracy and hope”. All of which might have left the average person understandably confused: Voice of America? Wasn’t that the US propaganda outlet from World War II?
Well, yes. But the reality of USAGM and similar state-sponsored global media outlets is more complex — as are the implications of the US agency’s demise.
For the better part of a century, Voice of America has broadcast into countries whose governments censored free information. The Trump administration has dismantled VOA’s parent organization, put all of its employees on leave and ended funding for independent media agencies.… pic.twitter.com/TzagYQwNIx
Public service or state propaganda? The USAGM is one of several international public service media outlets based in Western democracies. Others include Australia’s ABC International, the BBC World Service, CBC/Radio-Canada, France Médias Monde, NHK-World Japan, Deutsche Welle in Germany and SRG SSR in Switzerland.
Part of the Public Media Alliance, they are similar to national public service media, largely funded by taxpayers to uphold democratic ideals of universal access to news and information.
Unlike national public media, however, they might not be consumed — or even known — by domestic audiences. Rather, they typically provide news to countries without reliable independent media due to censorship or state-run media monopolies.
On the other hand, the independence of USAGM outlets has been questioned often, particularly as they are required to share government-mandated editorials.
Leaving a void Ultimately, these global media outlets wouldn’t exist if there weren’t benefits for the governments that fund them. Sharing stories and perspectives that support or promote certain values and policies is an effective form of “public diplomacy”.
Yet these international media outlets differ from state-controlled media models because of editorial systems that protect them from government interference.
The Voice of America’s “firewall”, for instance, “prohibits interference by any US government official in the objective, independent reporting of news”. Such protections allow journalists to report on their own governments more objectively.
In contrast, outlets such as China Media Group (CMG), RT from Russia, and PressTV from Iran also reach a global audience in a range of languages. But they do this through direct government involvement.
Though RT states it is an autonomous media outlet, research has found the Russian government oversees hiring editors, imposing narrative angles, and rejecting stories.
A Voice of America staffer protests outside the Washington DC offices on March 17, 2025, after employees were placed on administrative leave. Image: Getty Images/The Conversation
Other voices get louder The biggest concern for Western democracies is that these other state-run media outlets will fill the void the USAGM leaves behind — including in the Pacific.
Worryingly, the differences between outlets such as Voice of America and more overtly state-run outlets aren’t immediately clear to audiences, as government ownership isn’t advertised.
An Australian senator even had to apologise recently after speaking with PressTV, saying she didn’t know the news outlet was affiliated with the Iranian government, or that it had been sanctioned in Australia.
Switched off Trump’s move to dismantle the USAGM doesn’t come as a complete surprise, however. As the authors of Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America described, the first Trump administration failed in its attempts to remove the firewall and install loyalists.
This perhaps explains why Trump has resorted to more drastic measures this time. And, as with many of the current administration’s legally dubious actions, there has been resistance.
But for many of the agency’s journalists, contractors, broadcasting partners and audiences, it may be too late. Last week, The New York Times reported some Voice of America broadcasts had already been replaced by music.
A bill introduced to parliament this week, if passed, would limit the government’s power to reconsider certain environment approvals when an activity is harming the environment.
It fulfils Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s promise last month to introduce new laws to allow salmon farming to continue in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour. This salmon farming is currently mooted for reconsideration.
There’s no doubt Australia’s nature laws need reform. The latest review found “Australians do not trust that the EPBC Act is delivering for the environment, for business or for the community”.
But stopping the government from reconsidering a past decision is no way to fix these flaws. Reconsidering decisions is necessary if new evidence shows the activity is causing much more harm to nature, or a different kind of harm, than anticipated.
Salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour
Salmon have been farmed in Macquarie Harbour for almost 40 years, but activity has increased over the past decade.
But then-Environment Minister, Tony Bourke, declared no further consideration was needed and the action could proceed, because the proposal was not
“a controlled action”. Under the Act, a controlled action is any activity likely to impact on a matter of national environmental significance, such as a threatened species. A project or development deemed a controlled action then requires approval from the environment minister.
However, Bourke’s decision was subject to conditions – most importantly, to ensure no significant impacts to the Maugean skate.
In late 2023, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek received a series of requests to reconsider Bourke’s 2012 decision.
New evidence comes to light
The power to request a reconsideration is available to anyone. If substantial new information justifies it, the minister may revoke the original decision and make a new one.
In the Macquarie Harbour case, these reconsideration requests relied on scientific studies completed after 2012. One highlighted the skate’s vulnerability to changing water conditions. Another released last month showed a strong correlation between more intense salmon farming and increased extinction risk for the skate.
Plibersek has not made a decision yet. However, documents her office released under Freedom of Information laws show new evidence. This evidence supports a declaration that salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour should be reconsidered. That could trigger a full review of salmon farming in the Harbour.
However, the bill Labor has introduced would strip the minister’s powers to reconsider the earlier decision.
Prime minister promises law change to protect salmon farms, February 2025 (ABC News)
This bill is very specific – it’s a minor change, with extremely strict criteria – focused on giving Tasmanian workers certainty while government investments protect the Maugean Skate. The existing laws apply to everything else, including all new proposals for coal, gas, and land clearing.
But we disagree. The bill describes the circumstances in which the minister can reconsider a decision. These are cases (such as Macquarie Harbour) where an activity is allowed to proceed without full assessment and approval, in a “particular manner”. The “particular manner” must include complying with a state or territory management arrangement. For example, the salmon farmers have to comply with a Tasmanian government plan for Macquarie Harbour. Finally, these activities must be currently underway, and ongoing in that way, for at least five years.
It is not uncommon for “particular manner” decisions to require compliance with state or territory management arrangements. So the new legislation will catch more than just the Macquarie Harbour project in the “net”.
For instance, our quick search of the EPBC Act portal revealed a similar particular manner decision. This means that, after five years of operation, this second decision will also be immune from challenge.
There would be more where that came from. The bill will not only protect salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.
What’s more, reconsideration powers have been used sparingly – there seems no reason to limit their use further. A search of the EPBC Act public portal reveals only 52 reconsideration requests since the Act began, averaging just two a year. Many of these requests were made by proponents, disgruntled with a “controlled action” decision made in relation to their own projects.
One bad bill after another
This may sound familiar, because Labor’s bill is similar to Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck’s private bill proposed in December, which also concerned protecting salmon farming jobs in Macquarie Harbour.
The Senate’s Environment and Communications Legislation Committee made a single recommendation on that bill: that it not be passed.
The majority report (from Labor, Greens and Independent senators) provided sensible reasons for recommending the bill be abandoned. It noted the power to request a reconsideration already has “appropriate safeguards”.
Furthermore, these “safeguards strike an appropriate balance by providing industry with confidence and certainty that a decision made will not be easily reversed, while allowing decisions to be reconsidered should new and significant information relating to the decision arise”.
Just four months later, these remain compelling reasons for maintaining the power to reconsider decisions.
We don’t have time to go backwards
This amendment will not achieve the comprehensive reforms the EPBC Act needs. In fact, it will actively undermine these goals. It has been rushed through after years of effort to improve nature laws, on the eve of an election, in a marginal electorate, and has been put to Parliament on the day of a budget lockup.
Despite removing this scrutiny, the bill is unlikely to resolve the controversy in Macquarie Harbour.
Phillipa McCormack receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Program, Natural Hazards Research Australia, Green Adelaide and the ACT Government. She is a member of the National Environmental Law Association and an affiliated member of the Centre for Marine Socioecology.
Justine Bell-James receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Queensland Government, and the National Environmental Science Program. She is a Director of the National Environmental Law Association and a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.
The Help to Buy program provides shared-equity loans to first-time homebuyers so they can purchase properties with smaller deposits. Under this program, the government buys a portion of the property to lower the required mortgage amount for buyers.
Under the initial terms of the scheme, the Commonwealth offered up to 30% of the price for existing homes and 40% for new constructions, while restricting eligibility to households within specific income and property value ranges.
Now, the Albanese government has raised cap levels to enable more people to become eligible. The income ceiling for single buyers will increase from $90,000 to $100,000, while the maximum income limit for couples and single parents will rise from $120,000 to $160,000.
These higher caps mean more than five million Australian properties would fall under the scheme’s scope, significantly expanding buyers’ choice.
2-Investing in prefabricated and modular homes:
In November 2024, the Albanese government announced a $900 million productivity fund to reward states and territories that boost housing supply by removing barriers to prefab and modular construction.
And now, the Albanese government is budgeting another $54 million for the advanced manufacturing of prefab and modular housing industry. This includes $5 million to create a national certification system to streamline approvals and eliminate red tape.
This aims to speed up home construction through off-site manufacturing technologies, which produce components in factories before assembling them on-site.
Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic claims these homes can be finished in half the time of conventional construction. Even a 20–30% time saving would be significant.
These buildings are also more energy efficient, more resilient and cheaper.
The big picture problem is, Australia has simply not been building enough homes for its growing population.
According to the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s State of the Land Report 2025, the federal government will fail (by 400,000 dwellings) to meet its target of constructing 1.2 million new homes by 2029.
Some countries use it much more: Sweden boasts more than 100 years of prefab construction experience, where more than 80% of homes are produced in factories and then assembled at their destinations.
Modular housing can be described as a promising step forward. But while they offer potential improvements in speed and cost efficiency, it cannot solve the massive housing deficit on its own without structural policy reforms in the near future.
What about the Help to Buy scheme?
Shared-equity loans tackle a different side of the problem: affordability for buyers.
While its impact on general house prices and universal housing affordability is minimal, policymakers worry that programs like these unintentionally push up prices by boosting demand.
State governments control planning, zoning and most of the levers that determine how quickly homes can be approved and built (such as releasing land for development or approving apartment projects).
The federal government mainly controls funding and high-level programs, so the success of the Albanese government’s plan will depend a lot on cooperation with the states and territories.
However, there’s some inherent tension here: Canberra can set targets and provide incentives (funding), but it can’t directly build houses or force local councils to approve projects faster.
That’s one reason behind the prefab certification idea: it removes one potential regulatory hurdle at a national level.
Political timing
The timing of this housing plan announcement is no coincidence.
Australia will have a federal election by May 2025. Most voters will likely consider housing costs and cost-of-living to be primary issues.
The expansion of Help to Buy enables Labor to target first-home buyers, which may be important in the election.
The new housing plan is ambitious in scope and certainly a welcome effort to turn the tide on housing affordability.
However, renters and prospective buyers are unlikely to experience quick benefits from these housing initiatives, as it will require sustained action and cooperation well beyond the upcoming election cycle.
The Help to Buy program will begin later in 2025, and the positive effects of investing in prefabricated/modular housing will require a period of time before they become apparent.
It is unclear whether these measures will effectively persuade voters and produce substantial improvements.
Dr. Ehsan Noroozinejad has received funding from both national and international organisations to support research addressing housing and climate crises. His most recent funding on integrated housing and climate policy comes from the James Martin Institute for Public Policy.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
March 25, 2025
Durbin questions a majority witness on whether the January 6 insurrection was protected free speech; highlights the Trump Administration’s assault on the First Amendment
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today questioned witnesses during the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing entitled “The Censorship Industrial Complex.”
Durbin began by asking Benjamin Weingarten, a Commentator and Senior Contributor to The Federalist, about the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Mr. Weingarten has written about the existence of a so-called Censorship Industrial Complex that he believes has been directed by the Biden Administration. As part of this, Weingarten has stated, “the Capitol riot fueled the war on wrongthink” and that “[c]lemency for Capitol rioters, perhaps above all other opening actions [by the Trump Administration], should represent the start of the end of that war.”
“Do you think the January 6 riot at the Capitol was protected free speech?” Durbin asked.
Mr. Weingarten responded, “I think to the extent there was peaceful protest, that is free speech, and when it bleeds into violence to action, that’s when it certainly crosses a line.”
Durbin responded, “You believe that some of the individuals who received full and unconditional pardons by the President of the United States had in fact crossed the line and were guilty of criminal conduct?”
Mr. Weingarten stated that “some people [on January 6] committed crimes.”
“They certainly did [commit crimes]—140 policemen were assaulted by these rioters. I’m on the policemen’s side and I hope you are too,” said Durbin.
Durbin then asked about Mr. Weingarten’s “whole-of-society war” rhetoric and what it means. Mr. Weingarten said it’s when “government is working hand-in-hand with civil society to achieve some sort of outcome.”
“Do you think that’s inherently wrong or insidious?” Durbin asked.
Mr. Weingarten responded, “On its face, it’s potentially chilling when you have government and civil society working hand-in-glove because that blurring of the line between civil society and the state can cross into potentially draconian methods and outcomes.”
Durbin then asked about whether Mr. Weingarten’s definition of “whole-of-society-war” is in line with the former President George W. Bush’s actions following 9/11.
Durbin then asked Dr. Mary Anne Franks, a Professor at George Washington University Law School, about the Trump Administration’s attacks on law firms. The Trump Administration has recently targeted several law firms for their association with the President’s perceived enemies, including Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss. Reportedly, the Administration has created a list of more than a dozen firms that it may target.
“I think this attack on law firms for representing unpopular clients—unpopular with this Administration—is one of the most dangerous developments I’ve seen and the violation of basic free speech… What do you think about the future of legal representation at these law firms, at least one of them has reached a settlement with the Trump Administration?” Durbin asked.
Dr. Franks responded, “I very much share your alarm about those actions because as you mentioned, access to the courts is a very key principle of our freedoms, and to threaten law firms that are trying to do what all of us should rely on which is to defend people’s rights in court, is extremely chilling.”
Durbin concluded by asking Gabe Rottman, Vice President of Policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), about the Trump Administration’s views on freedom of the press. The Trump White House recently refused to allow the Associated Press (AP) in the White House press pool for using “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America.”
“You use the term ‘Gulf of Mexico’ [and] you’re not welcome in the White House,” Durbin said.
Mr. Rottman responded, “it’s explicit viewpoint discrimination that underpins retaliatory actions by the White House and that makes it a First Amendment violation.”
Video of Durbin’s questions in Committee is availablehere.
Audio of Durbin’s questions in Committee is availablehere.
Footage of Durbin’s questions in Committee is availableherefor TV Stations.
Source: United States Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
Welch: “Although we agree that government should not infringe on free speech, I don’t believe that’s what has been happening here.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, addressed far-right false claims of a vast censorship conspiracy during a Subcommittee hearing titled “The Censorship Industrial Complex.” Instead of focusing the first Subcommittee hearing on actual and proven instances of censorship by the Trump Administration against journalists, political adversaries, and critics, the Majority focused the first Subcommittee hearing on an alleged—and unproven—censorship enterprise against conservatives.
“On this question of the ‘censorship industrial complex,’ the basic allegation here, as I understand it, is that there is government-facilitated interference with free speech. And we’re going to hear from the witnesses on that. But the underlying premise of this, as I understand it, is the taxpayers are essentially footing the bill for this. My view is that facts don’t support that allegation,” said Senator Welch. “Although we agree that government should not infringe on free speech—I am with you on that and with all of my colleagues here—I don’t believe that’s what has been happening here.”
Watch the hearing below:
Read Senator Welch’s opening remarks as delivered here.
Witnesses for the Democratic Minority included Professor Mary Anne Franks, and Gabe Rottman. Dr. Franks is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington University School of Law, and an expert in the First Amendment and technology. Mr. Rottman is the Vice President of Policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In this role he works at the intersection of press freedom and technology.
Witnesses for the Majority included Mollie Hemingway, senior editor for The Federalist, Jonathan Turley, conservative legal scholar, and Benjamin Weingarten, a Senior Contributor for The Federalist.
Read excerpts of Senator Welch’s questioning below:
Sen. Welch: Mr. Rottman, you’ve got an incredible job because the press is on the front lines, and Ms. Hemingway, you know that as well. What do you see as problematic for the press right now in the current administration, if anything?
Mr. Rottman: So, as I touched on both in the written testimony and just a few minutes ago, one of the key concepts in First Amendment jurisprudence is this notion that the government cannot use its vast authority to pick and choose sides in public debate. And the legal term for that is viewpoint discrimination. The various examples that I’ve pointed out in my testimony involve viewpoint discrimination. The AP case at the White House, right? The White House has said explicitly it is taking these actions because of the AP’s editorial choice to continue to use the term ‘Gulf of Mexico’—
Sen. Welch: Let me interrupt for just a second. The government can have a viewpoint, so obviously President Trump has a significantly different viewpoint than President Biden had. Is there any reservation on their ability to express what their viewpoint is?
Mr. Rottman: No, until the government uses its power to try and enforce that viewpoint on others.
WASHINGTON — The first university-owned feed mill in Iowa was the site for the kickoff of the 2025 Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week, an annual training and educational event that reminds agriculture industry employers and workers about the potentially deadly hazards present in confined spaces, including grain engulfment.
This year’s event, held March 24-28, is a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Alliance Program, the Grain Handling Safety Council, the Grain Elevator and Processing Society, and the National Grain and Feed Association. At the Iowa State University in Ames, the opening event focused on worksite housekeeping, hearing conservation, preventing struck-by incidents, and railway safety.
OSHA’s Alliance Program, in collaboration with state workplace safety officials and industry leaders, helped reduce fatal grain entrapments by 25.7 percent from 2022 to 2023. Despite those efforts, half of reported grain entanglements in 2024 were fatal.
“Every worker should be able to go home safe at the end of the day,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Amanda Wood Laihow. “By working together with our alliance and industry partners, we’re making grain handling safer and raising awareness to protect the people who produce our nation’s vital food supply.”
Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week features open discussions and daily interactive webinars with experts on OSHA regulations and topics including fatigue, emergency safety planning, worksite housekeeping, railway safety, and alternative grain storage.Learn more, register for the webinars, and find local live event information.
Alliance members will share information through newsletters, emails, the Stand Up 4 Grain Safety webpage, and social media using the hashtag #StandUp4GrainSafety.
OSHA’s Grain Handling Safety Standards address six major hazards: engulfment, falls, auger entanglement, struck-by incidents, combustible dust explosions, and electrocution. Learn more aboutagriculture safety resources.and learn about OSHA.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alfonso Lee Seals, a Woodbury man, has been sentenced to 182 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for possessing a firearm as a felon and interfering with commerce by robbery, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.
According to court documents, on June 14, 2023, Minneapolis police responded to a 911 call reporting a shootout between two cars along University Avenue Northeast. Responding officers found an abandoned car crashed into a utility pole. On the floorboard of the driver’s seat, law enforcement discovered a Glock model 27 .40 caliber pistol with a “switch” or “auto-sear” attached to it, making it fully automatic. Forensic testing confirmed that that the defendant, Alfonso Lee Seals, 28, possessed the pistol. On November 7, 2023, law enforcement executed a search warrant at the defendant’s brother’s home where they recovered a Taurus model G2S 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, which had been reported stolen from Mounds View, Minnesota, in October 2022. Forensic testing confirmed that the defendant possessed that pistol as well. On October 17, 2023, the defendant and an accomplice robbed a convenience store at gunpoint in Oakdale, Minnesota. Security camera footage showed the defendant ordering the victim cashier to his knees, placing a semiautomatic firearm to the cashier’s back, forcing him to open a cash register, and repeatedly threatening to kill the cashier during the robbery.
On December 23, 2024, Seals pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm as a felon and one count of interfering with commerce by robbery. In his plea agreement, Seals admitted that he knowingly and willingly possessed both firearms and that he possessed the Glock in connection with two other felonies—felony drive-by shooting and intentionally discharging a firearm under circumstances that endanger the safety of another. He also admitted that he and his accomplice robbed the convenience store at gunpoint and threatened to kill the victim cashier. Because Seals has multiple prior felony convictions for assault in both Hennepin and Dakota Counties, he is prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition at any time.
“Minnesotans should have no tolerance for armed and violent career criminals,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick. “This behavior is shocking and unacceptable. My office will continue to hold Seals—and others who would terrorize our community—accountable.”
Seals was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Donovan W. Frank.
This case is the result of an investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department, the Oakdale Police Department, the Dakota County Drug Task Force, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Campbell Warner prosecuted the case.
HOUSTON, March 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE: WTI) (“W&T” or the “Company”) today announced the promotion of Huan Gamblin to Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. Mr. Gamblin has over 20 years of energy industry experience.
Tracy W. Krohn, Chairman and CEO, commented, “We are very pleased to promote Huan to Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, where he will become an integral part of our executive leadership team. Mr. Gamblin has extensive industry experience and over the past four plus years has taken on more responsibilities at W&T and has been instrumental in our acquisitions strategy. We look forward to Huan’s continued contributions to our success as a leading Gulf of America operator.”
Huan Gamblin joined the Company in 2020 and was named Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer in March 2025. Since joining W&T in 2020, he has served as Manager of Acquisition and Divesture and, in May 2022, as Vice President of Business Development. Mr. Gamblin has 20 years of domestic and international industry experience. Prior to joining W&T, Mr. Gamblin was the Algeria Reservoir Engineering Manager with Occidental Petroleum (“Occidental”). Before Occidental, Mr. Gamblin held various engineering positions at Anadarko Petroleum’s U.S. onshore, Gulf of America, and international assets.
Mr. Gamblin is a graduate of the University of Texas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering.
About W&T Offshore
W&T Offshore, Inc. is an independent oil and natural gas producer with operations offshore in the Gulf of America and has grown through acquisitions, exploration and development. As of December 31, 2024, the Company had working interests in 52 fields in federal and state waters (which include 45 fields in federal waters and seven in state waters). The Company has under lease approximately 646,200 gross acres (502,300 net acres) spanning across the outer continental shelf off the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, with approximately 493,000 gross acres on the conventional shelf, approximately 147,700 gross acres in the deepwater and 5,500 gross acres in Alabama state waters. A majority of the Company’s daily production is derived from wells it operates. For more information on W&T, please visit the Company’s website at www.wtoffshore.com.
CONTACTS:
Al Petrie Investor Relations Coordinator investorrelations@wtoffshore.com 713-297-8024
Sameer Parasnis Executive VP and CFO sparasnis@wtoffshore.com 713-513-8654
Under the terms of a deal announced on March 25, 2025, by the U.S. and agreed upon in Saudi Arabia, both sides of the conflict committed to ensuring “safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,” according to a White House statement.
The naval aspect of the Ukraine war has gotten less attention than events on land and in the skies. But it is, I believe, a vital aspect with potentially far-reaching consequences.
Not only have Russia’s Black Sea losses constrained Moscow’s ability to project power across the globe through naval means, it has also resulted in Russia’s growing cooperation with China, where Moscow is emerging as a junior party to Beijing on the high seas.
Battle over the Black Sea
The tradition of geopolitical theory has tended to paint an oversimplification of global politics. Theories harkening back to the late 19th century categorized countries as either land powers or maritime powers.
Thinkers such as the British geopolitician Sir Halford Mackinder or the U.S. theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan characterized maritime powers as countries that possessed traits of democratic liberalism and free trade. In contrast, land powers were often portrayed as despotic and militaristic.
While such generalizations have historically been used to demonize enemies, there is still a contrived tendency to divide the world into land and sea powers. An accompanying view that naval and army warfare is somewhat separate has continued.
And this division gives us a false impression of Russia’s progress in the war with Ukraine. While Moscow has certainly seen some successes on land and in the air, that should not draw attention away from Russia’s stunning defeat in the Black Sea that has seen Russia have to retreat from the Ukrainian shoreline and keep its ships far away from the battlefront.
As I describe in my recent book, “Near and Far Waters: The Geopolitics of Seapower,” maritime countries have two concerns: They must attempt to control the parts of the sea relatively close to their coastlines, or their “near waters”; meanwhile, those with the ability and desire to do so try to project power and influence into “far waters” across oceans, which are the near waters of other countries.
The Black Sea is a tightly enclosed and relatively small sea comprising the near waters of the countries that surround it: Turkey to the south, Bulgaria and Romania to the west, Georgia to the east, and Ukraine and Russia to the north.
Control of the Black Sea’s near waters has been contested throughout the centuries and has played a role in the current Russian-Ukraine war.
Russia’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 allowed it to control the naval port of Sevastopol. What were near waters of Ukraine became de facto near waters for Russia.
Controlling these near waters allowed Russia to disrupt Ukraine’s trade, especially the export of grain to African far waters.
But Russia’s actions were thwarted through the collaboration of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey to allow passage of cargo ships through their near waters, then through the Bosporus into the Mediterranean Sea.
Ukraine’s use of these other countries’ near waters allowed it to export between 5.2 million and 5.8 million tons of grain per month in the first quarter of 2024. To be sure, this was a decline from Ukraine’s exports of about 6.5 million tons per month prior to the war, which then dropped to just 2 million tons in the summer of 2023 because of Russian attacks and threats. Prior to the announcement of the ceasefire, the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture had forecasted a decline in Ukrainian grain exports for 2025.
But efforts to constrain Russia’s control of Ukraine’s near waters in the Black Sea, and Russia’s unwillingness to face the consequences of attacking ships in NATO countries’ near waters, meant Ukraine was still able to access far waters for economic gain and keep the Ukrainian economy afloat.
For Putin, that sinking feeling
Alongside being thwarted in its ability to disrupt Ukrainian exports, Russia has also come under direct naval attack from Ukraine. Since February 2022, using unmanned attack drones, Ukraine has successfully sunk or damaged Russian ships and whittled away at Russia’s Black sea fleet, sinking about 15 of its prewar fleet of about 36 warships and damaging many others.
Russia has been forced to limit its use of Sevastopol and station its ships in the eastern part of the Black Sea. It cannot effectively function in the near waters it gained through the seizure of Crimea.
Russia’s naval setbacks against Ukraine are only the latest in its historical difficulties in projecting sea power and its resulting tendency to mainly focus on the defense of near waters.
In 1905, Russia was shocked by a dramatic naval loss to Japan. Yet even in cases where it was not outright defeated, Russian sea power has been continually constrained historically. In World War I, Russia cooperated with the British Royal Navy to limit German merchant activity in the Baltic Sea and Turkish trade and military reach in the Black Sea.
In World War II, Russia relied on material support from the Allies and was largely blockaded within its Baltic Sea and Black Sea ports. Many ships were brought close to home or stripped of their guns as artillery or offshore support for the territorial struggle with Germany.
During the Cold War, meanwhile, though the Soviet Union built fast-moving missile boats and some aircraft carriers, its reach into far waters relied on submarines. The main purpose of the Soviet Mediterranean fleet was to prevent NATO penetration into the Black Sea.
And now, Russia has lost control of the Black Sea. It cannot operate in these once secure near waters. These losses reduce its ability to project naval power from the Black Sea and into the Mediterranean Sea.
Ceding captaincy to China
Faced with a glaring loss in its backyard and put in a weak position in its near waters, Russia as a result can project power to far waters only through cooperation with a China that is itself investing heavily in a far-water naval capacity.
Joint naval exercises in the South China Sea in July 2024 are evidence of this cooperation. Wang Guangzheng of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Southern Theater said of the drill that “the China-Russia joint patrol has promoted the deepening and practical cooperation between the two in multiple directions and fields.” And looking forward, he claimed the exercise “effectively enhanced the ability to the two sides to jointly respond to maritime security threats.”
Warships of the Chinese and Russian navies take part in a joint naval exercise in the East China Sea. Li Yun/Xinhua via Getty Images
This cooperation makes sense in purely military terms for Russia, a mutually beneficial project of sea power projection. But it is largely to China’s benefit.
Russia can help China’s defense of its northern near waters and secure access to far waters through the Arctic Ocean – an increasingly important arena as global climate change reduces the hindrance posed by sea ice. But Russia remains very much the junior partner.
Moscow’s strategic interests will be supported only if they match Chinese interests. More to the point, sea power is about power projection for economic gain. China will likely use Russia to help protect its ongoing economic reach into African, Pacific, European and South American far waters. But it is unlikely to jeopardize these interests for Russian goals.
To be sure, Russia has far-water economic interests, especially in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa. And securing Russian interests in Africa complements China’s growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean to secure its own, and greater, global economic interests. But cooperation will still be at China’s behest.
For much of the Ukraine war, Russia has been bottled up in its Black Sea near waters, with the only avenue for projecting its naval power coming through access to Africa and Indian Ocean far waters – and only then as a junior partner with China, which dictates the terms and conditions.
A maritime deal with Ukraine now, even if it holds, will not compensate for Russia’s ongoing inability to project power across the oceans on its own.
Colin Flint does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Ministry of Ayush has taken multiple initiatives towards integration of Ayush systems of medicine with Allopathic system
Posted On: 25 MAR 2025 6:11PM by PIB Delhi
The Ministry of Ayush has taken multiple initiatives towards integration of Ayush systems of medicine including Ayurveda with Allopathic system:
The Ayush Vertical under Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), established by the Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW), serves as a dedicated institutional mechanism for planning, monitoring, and supervising Ayush-specific public health programs. This vertical provides technical support to both Ministries in developing strategies for public health, healthcare, Ayush education, and training.
The Ministry of Ayush and MoH&FW have jointly established Integrated Ayush Departments in Central Government Hospitals to promote integrative healthcare. As part of this initiative, Department of Integrative Medicine has been set up and is operational at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi through All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi and Central Ayurveda Research Institute (CARI), Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi respectively. No separate funding is allocated for establishing these centres.
An Advisory committee was constituted under the chairpersonship of Dr. V.K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog to study the existing knowledge and efficacy of different models of Integrative Medicine and its benefits at large and to propose a framework of comprehensive Integrative Health Policy.
Government of India has adopted a strategy of Co-location of AYUSH facilities at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs), thus enabling the choice to the patients for different systems of medicines under a single window. The engagement of AYUSH doctors/ paramedics and their training is supported by the MoH&FW under National Health Mission (NHM), while the support for AYUSH infrastructure, equipment/ furniture and medicines are provided by the Ministry of Ayush under National AYUSH Mission (NAM) as shared responsibilities.
The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has undertaken research studies such as Operational study to explore the feasibility of integrating Ayurveda with modern system of medicine in a tertiary care hospital (Safdarjung Hospital New Delhi) for the management of Osteoarthritis (Knee), Feasibility of introducing the Indian System of Medicine (Ayurveda) in the National Reproductive and Child Health services at the Primary Health Care (PHC) level in Himachal Pradesh and Integration of AYUSH systems in the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke (NPCDCS) and Feasibility of introducing Ayurveda Intervention in Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) in PHCs of the Selected district (Gadchiroli) of Maharashtra (Effectiveness of Ayurvedic intervention for Ante-Natal care (Garbhini Paricharya) at Primary Health Care level: A Multi Centre Operational Study). Details of the collaborative projects by the Council in the last five years are given in AnnexureI.
Further, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and CCRAS has taken an initiative to set up Ayush-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research (AI-ACIHR), at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to conduct research on identified areas focusing on integrative healthcare under Extra Mural research Scheme of ICMR. Under this program, four research areas in four AIIMS have been identified, which are as follows:
AIIMS Delhi:
Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research in Gastro-intestinal Disorders
Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research in Women and Child Health
AIIMS Jodhpur: Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research in Geriatric Health
AIIMS Nagpur: Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research in Cancer Care
AIIMS Rishikesh: Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research in Geriatric Health.
In All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi, integrative medical services are available under, Centre for Integrative Cancer Therapy, Centre for Integrative Dentistry, Centre for Integrative Critical Care & Emergency Medicine, Centre for Integrative Orthopedics, Centre for Integrative Dietetics and Nutrition and Causality OPD Section. Integrated services are also provided through Satellite Clinical Services Units established at Integrative Medical Services Unit at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, Integrative Medical Services Unit AIIMS Jhajjar and Centre for Integrative Oncology at National Cancer Institute – AIIMS, Jhajjar.
Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), conducts integrated research and also has visiting allopathic doctors for consultation.
The Ministry of Ayush has been implementing the Central Sector Scheme namely Ayurswasthya Yojana since 2021-22. The Scheme has 02 components viz. (i) Ayush & public health (PHI) component and (ii) Upgradation of facilities to the centre of excellence. Under the Centre of Excellence, financial assistance is provided to support creative and innovative proposals of prestigious organizations with well-established buildings and infrastructure and wish to work for Ayush systems to the level of Centre of Excellence. Nine organizations of National repute have been funded under the Centre of Excellence component of Ayurswasthya Yojana under the activity-based/research-based Centre of Excellence for research and development to integrate the knowledge of Ayurveda with the modern system of medicine. Details of organizations are given at Annexure II.
Annexure I
LIST OF COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS OF LAST FIVE YEARS 2020-21 TO 2024-25
COMPLETED PROJECTS
S.
No.
Name of Project
Name of the Collaborating Institutes
1.
Evaluation of Add on Efficacy & Safety of an Ayurvedic coded Formulation in the management of Dengue Fever & Prevention of its complications – A Double Blind Clinical Study
National Institute of Traditional Medicine, Belagavi, KLE University’s Department of Integrative Medicine, Kolar.
2.
A Randomized Placebo Controlled Prospective Phase II Clinical Study of an Ayurvedic Coded Drug ‘AYUSH-D’ on Glycemic control in Pre- Diabetic Subjects
Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Bengaluru
AIIMS, New Delhi
RRA Poddar Medical College, Mumbai
KLEU’s Shri BMK Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Belgavi
3.
A Randomized Placebo Controlled Phase II Clinical Study of an Ayurvedic Coded Drug ‘AYUSH-D’ in the management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus as add on Therapy to Metformin
Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Bengaluru
AIIMS, New Delhi
RRA Poddar Medical College, Mumbai
Rajiv Gandhi PG Govt Ayurveda College, Paprola
4.
Multi-centric Collaborative Double Blind study on clinical evaluation of AYUSH-SL in chronic Filarial Lymphoedema in patients receiving mass drug administration Multi-centric Collaborative Double Blind study on clinical evaluation of AYUSH-SL in chronic Filarial Lymphoedema in patients receiving mass drug administration
Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine (CSTM) in collaboration with CARI, Kolkata
Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Bhubaneswar
Regional Ayurveda Research Institute, Vijayawada
5.
Feasibility of introducing Ayurveda intervention in Reproductive and Child Health
30 PHCs of Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra
(RCH) in PHCs of selected district (Gadchiroli) of Maharashtra (Effectiveness of Ayurvedic Intervention for Ante-Natal care (Garbhini Paricharya) at Primary Health Care level: A Multi Centre Operational Study)
6.
Randomized control study to evaluate the efficacy of Ayush CCT and Rajyoga Meditation versus conventional treatment on clinical recovery and post-operative outcomes following elective adult cardiothoracic surgeries
AIIMS, New Delhi
7.
Clinical evaluation of the efficacy of “Ayush- SS Granules” in exclusively breast feeding mothers with Insufficient Lactation (Stanyalpata)-A Randomized double blind placebo control Trial”
Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi
8.
A comparative clinical study of Ayush LND a coded Ayurvedic formulation in the management of Asrigdara (Abnormal Uterine Bleeding)
Regional Ayurveda Research Institute,, Nagpur
Govt. Medical College, Nagpur
9.
A Randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of Marma therapy in Lumbar disc Herniation with Radiculopathy.
Uttrakhand Ayurved University, Dehradun
10.
Efficacy of Ayurveda nutritional supplements and Yoga protocol in the prevention and reduction of the severity of Acute Mountain Sickness: an open-label randomized controlled study
2118 field hospitals, Nimu/Leh under the AFMS, Northern Command of Indian Army
11.
A pilot study to assess the effect of intranasal oil instillation (Pratimarsha Nasya) on nasal barrier function among healthy individuals
Dr D Y Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune
12.
Prospective double blind randomized controlled clinical study on Ayurvedic intervention (Sarpagandha Mishran) vs. Amlodipine in the management of stage-I Primary Hypertension
AIIMS Delhi
13.
Randomized double blind placebo controlled clinical study Ayurvedic coded drug AYUSH-A in the management of Bronchial Asthma (Tamaka Shwasa)
AIIMS Delhi
14.
Study the physiological basis and gut bacterial modulation induced by Virechana Purgation therapy in the healthy adults: A prospective longitudinal study.
Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi
15.
Morbidity and Healthcare-seeking behaviour of
Directorate General Armed Force
the patients visiting the Ayurveda healthcare facilities of the DGAFMS Hospitals: A multicentre cross-sectional survey study
Medical Services- facilities
16.
A Randomized Controlled Study to Assess the Effect of Marsha Nasya Karma in Motor, Sensory, Memory and Cognitive Parameters elicited through f – MRI in Apparently Healthy Individuals.
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Cochin, Kerala
17.
Evaluation of Ayush-GMH in the subjects of mild to moderate Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)-A double blind randomized control clinical study
KLE’s Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Belagavi ICMR – National Institute of Traditional Medicine, Belegavi
18.
A randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of multimodal Ayurveda interventions in Jannu Sandhigatavata (Primary Knee – osteoarthritis)
AIIMS Delhi
19.
Clinical evaluation of Ayurvedic management in Allergic Rhinitis- A Randomized controlled Trial
Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi
ONGOING PROJECTS
S.
No.
Name of Project
Name of the Collaborating Institutes
1.
A phase II trial to study efficacy, toxicity and imunomodulatory effect of Carctol-S in high grade serous epithelial ovarian cancer at first serological relapse collaborative project.
Tata Memorial Hospital ACTREC Mumbai & Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Mumbai
2.
Evaluation of Hepatoprotective activity of PTK as an add on therapy in the patients of Tuberculosis on ATT – A double blind randomized control clinical study
KLE’s Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Belagavi
3.
Evaluating the efficacy of Ayurvedic intervention as add on to conventional treatment and explore the interaction of epigenetics, neuro/gut biomarkers and neuroimaging in pediatric ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperacidity Disorder)
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru
4.
Double blind randomized placebo controlled multicentric clinical trial of Ayush M-3 in the management of Migraine.
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru
5.
Ayurveda therapeutic regiman as on Add-on
to optimized conventional management of Parkinson’s disease: an RCT for assessment
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru
of clinical Cortical excitability neuroimmune and Autonomic function parameters.
6.
Efficacy and safety of Ayurveda Formulation Trikatu as add on to standard care in Dyslipidemia – a randomized controlled trial
AIIMS, Bhubaneswar
7.
Efficacy of Ayurveda regimen (mild purgation and internal oleation) in comparison with Allopathic regimen (Letrozole) along with Yoga module in the management of unexplained and anovulatory female infertility: A RCT
IIT, Mandi
8.
Topical Oil Pooling (Karnapurana) with Kshirabala Taila and supple mentation of Ashwagandha churna (TOPMAC) in presbycusis – An exploratory randomized controlled trial
Institute for Communicative and Cognitive Neurosciences(ICCONS), Shoranur, Kerela
9.
Prospective, Randomized, Open-Label, Blinded End Point exploratory clinical study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Ayurvedic regimen as an adjunct to Hydroxyurea in the management of Sickle cell disease.
AIIMS, Bhopal
10.
A multi-center study to assess the treatment adherence & tolerability of Ayush SR in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Shri B.M. Kankanawadi Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Belgavi; Vaidyaratnam PS Varier Ayurveda College, Kotakkal; Sri Sri College of Ayurvedic Science and Research, Bengaluru; Adichunchanagiri Ayurvedic Medical College, Bengaluru
11.
Impact of Mukta Shukti Bhasma and Saubhagya Shunti in reversal of bone mineral density among Lactating women consuming traditional diet foods in Maharashtra: A randomized Controlled preliminary clinical study
ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health, Mumbai
12.
Efficacy of Ayurveda interventions (Hridyarnava Rasa and Harityakyadi yoga) as an add-on to standard care in Stable Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) assessed through Global Longitudinal Strain Imaging Technique (GLSIT) – A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Ayurvedic Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre, Madhavbaugh, Pune
13.
Prospective double blind randomized controlled clinical study on Ayurvedic intervention (Pushkar guggulu & Haritaki churna) in the management of stable coronary artery disease.
Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi
14.
A randomized double blind placebo control clinical study to evaluate the immunomodulatory effect of Swarnaprashan in moderately malnourished children.
Sanjiv Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow
15.
Randomized controlled trial of Anshumati Ksheer Paka in hypertension induced left ventricular hypertrophy
Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi
16.
Anemia control among adolescent girls through Ayurveda interventions in the five districts under Mission Utkarsh
All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi;
National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, Public Health Foundation India’s IIPH- Delhi
17.
An exploratory series of n of 1 responder restricted study of Ayurveda regimen on quality of life among elderly population in Ballabgarh district of Haryana- A community based study.
AIIMS, Ballabhgarh
ANNEXURE II
NINE ORGANIZATIONS OF NATIONAL REPUTE FUNDED UNDER CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE COMPONENT OF AYURSWASTHYA SCHEMETO INTEGRATE KNOWLEDGE OF AYURVEDA WITH MODERN SYSTEM OF MEDICINE AYURSWASTHYA SCHEME:
S.
No.
Name of the Organization
State
Project Name
Fund Released (Amount in Crore)
2022-23
2023-24
2024-25
1.
Tata Memorial Centre, (TMC) Mumbai
Maharashtra
Centre of
Excellence for
Discovery and Development of AYUSH
Medicine for Cancer Care
–
2.00
1.62
2.
Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI),
Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh
Center of
Excellence for Fundamental and Translation Research in
Ayurveda at Central Drug Research Institute
–
2.00
1.99
3.
Jawaharlal Nehru University, (JNU) New Delhi
Delhi
Functional-based CoE on Ayurveda
and Systems Medicine
–
1.01
2.44
4.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi
Delhi
Centre of
Excellence in Sustainable Ayush for Advanced technological solutions, startup support and net zero sustainable solutions for
Rasausadhies
–
2.00
1.14
5.
Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bengaluru
Karnataka
Centre of
Excellence in
Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders
–
2.00
1.82
6.
Centre for
Delhi
Centre of
2.05
2.04
–
Integrative Medicine and Research (CIMR), AIIMS
New Delhi
Excellence for
Yoga &
Ayurveda
7.
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS),
Bangalore
Karnataka
Centre of
Excellence in Ayush Research
0.85
0.37
–
8.
Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS)
Delhi
Effects of Indian Foods and Ayurvedic drugs
on healthy and diseases Liver
2.61
–
–
9.
Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Jodhpur
Rajasthan
Centre of
Excellence in AYURTech for Integrative Precision Health and Medicine
–
4.00
–
Total
5.51
15.42
9.01
This information was given by Union Minister of State (I/C) for Ayush, Shri Prataprao Jadhav in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Over 130 influential family office principals and family members from the Mainland, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East gathered at a principal dinner organised by the Government this evening (March 25) to set the stage for the third edition of the annual Wealth for Good in Hong Kong Summit (WGHK) to be held tomorrow (March 26), reaffirming the city’s role as a premier global hub for family offices.
In his welcome remarks, the Acting Chief Executive, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, said, “Hong Kong is a ‘super connector’ bringing together people and ideas. We are a platform for visionaries looking to create lasting legacies, a dynamic hub where your offices and families can flourish.”
The evening was graced with the presence of notable speakers Ms Maye Musk and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Irene Tracey, at an inspiring fireside chat moderated by the Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, Ms Alpha Lau. The speakers shared their insights on women’s influence in leadership and legacy-building with a focus on the critical role of female leadership in shaping the future of business, innovation, and societal progress. The engrossing session fostered an atmosphere of collaboration, paving the way for insightful discussions and new partnerships at tomorrow’s summit, themed “Hong Kong of the World, for the World”.
The event also charmed visitors with a captivating lion ballet performance against the dazzling night view of Victoria Harbour, amazing the attendees with a unique blend of cultural richness and the city’s legendary skyline.
The WGHK will take place tomorrow afternoon with over 300 participants. The summit will not only convene principals and family members to discuss the future of wealth management in the region, but also encourage attendees to experience the city’s dynamic offerings through its vibrant neighbourhoods, dynamic arts scene and strong community spirit, which make the city an ideal destination for both families and businesses.
Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led a group of her colleagues in demanding detailed answers from the Department of Education (DOE) about the cancellation of over $600 million in federal funding for teacher training grants — and warning about the detrimental impacts the illegal cancellation is already having for communities across the country, including a program designed to bring more special education teachers to Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).
“We write to raise serious objections and call for the immediate reinstatement of federal funding provided in the Department of Education’s appropriations laws intended to help strengthen our educator workforce in at least 34 states and improve teaching and learning for our nation’s students,” wrote Baldwin and the Senators. “It is shocking to us that the Department would take such disruptive action to take away funding from schools as they work to implement their approved plans to improve outcomes for our nation’s students.
The grants were already awarded, in use, and in many cases, already spent down when terminated by the Trump administration—and local budgets are counting on these resources. Schools and institutions of higher education have deployed the grants, provided by Congress on a bipartisan basis, to address educator shortages and improve the quality of the teaching workforce.
This included an over $3 million grant for a partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MPS to help students receive a special education master’s degree program while getting on-the-job training through a teaching residency program in schools. In exchange, students signed on to work at MPS for three years after graduation, helping address the dire need for special education teachers at Wisconsin schools.
In the letter, the Senators note these grant cancellations come as students have not yet recovered from the devastating effects of the pandemic, and the country is facing dire teacher shortages with 49 states this school year reporting to the Department critical shortages in math, science, or special education teachers.
“With teachers and principals being the most important in-school factors to student learning, these grant cancellations will hinder pandemic learning recovery and break President Trump’s promises of ‘great principals and great teachers,’” Baldwin and the Senatorscontinued.
In addition to Senator Baldwin, the letter was led by Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and co-signed by 20 of their Senate colleagues.
A full version of this letter is available here and below.
Dear Secretary McMahon:
We write to raise serious objections and call for the immediate reinstatement of federal funding provided in the Department of Education’s (“Department”) appropriations laws intended to help strengthen our educator workforce in at least 34 states and improve teaching and learning for our nation’s students. Approximately two weeks ago, the Department announced that it terminated “over $600 million in divisive teacher training grants” and created confusion for schools and institutions of higher education around our nation. The amount of reported savings is misleading since many of the terminated grants had already been partially spent and were in active use. Further, it appears that terminated grantees received no information from Department staff in response to their requests for additional information, even for grants with obligated and spent funds. It is shocking to us that the Department would take such disruptive action to take away funding from schools as they work to implement their approved plans to improve outcomes for our nation’s students. Thankfully, a federal judge ordered the administration to temporarily restore these grants in eight states and just yesterday, another federal judge ordered the reinstatement of more than 100 of these grants, but every impacted grantee deserves immediate action.
U.S. students have not recovered from the devastating effects of the pandemic. National scores are below pre-pandemic levels in all tested grades and subjects, and gaps continue to grow between higher-performing and lower-performing students. A February 2025 analysis found that our students are approximately half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement in math and reading. With teachers and principals being the most important in-school factors to student learning, these grant cancellations will hinder pandemic learning recovery and break President Trump’s promises of “great principals and great teachers.”
The cancellation of these grants comes at a time when our country faces dire teacher shortages. A recent analysis of state-identified teacher shortages found that in recent school years, nationally, 1 in 8 of all teaching positions — or over 400,000 positions — are vacant or filled by a teacher who is not fully certified for their position. This school year, 49 states reported to the Department critical shortages in math, science, or special education teachers. In rural America, to attract and retain teachers in many places, including in states like Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, districts were forced to move to 4-day school weeks, despite the unknown impact on student achievement. Research shows that principals are the second most important in-school factor to student learning and also impact teacher retention. Yet, about one in ten principals leave the field every year.
Congress created and funded the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP), Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED), and Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Fund programs in a bipartisan manner to ensure that all students have access to an effective educator workforce. The Department’s decision to terminate locally-driven grants previously awarded to schools, institutions of higher education, and other partners to address educator shortages and improve the quality of the teaching workforce will have long-term consequences on student outcomes. These terminations create confusion for dozens of local communities supported by now unavailable grant funds. Cutting off grant funds already adopted and in use in local budgets shows utter disregard to local officials who are now faced with a lengthy process for challenging the terminations and are required to adjust their adopted budgets and plans. These local communities may also face difficult decisions to curtail activities paid for by these terminated grant funds, such as recruiting teachers in rural communities, improving literacy, and mentoring early-career teachers to improve retention. Ultimately, the Department’s decision to terminate these grant funds simply passes necessary expenses onto local and state taxpayers, who may have to sustain costs previously supported by federal funds that have been taken away by the Trump administration.
We are deeply disappointed that despite claims of radical transparency from President Trump and other administration officials, the Department has not provided any transparency to Congress or the public about its teacher training grant terminations. Instead, the President’s disregard for the law and his desire to find savings to pay for his tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations seems to be driving these terminations. Given the need for actual transparency, stability, and productivity in government, as well as the bipartisan support these critical education training programs have received for many years, it is critical for the Department to provide accurate, timely responses on its use of taxpayer resources provided by the laws passed by Congress. We request you provide written answers to the following questions as soon as possible but not later than March 26, 2025:
Please describe the policy and procedure established for the review of grants terminated on or after January 20, 2025.
Are they the same as any grant terminations prior to this date? If not, how and why were they different, including in the use of any program or technology not previously employed?
Please identify the offices and titles of staff involved in the review.
How many employees involved in the review were onboarded at the Department on or after January 20, 2025? Please describe each of such employee’s role in the review.
Please provide the total costs, including all personnel and non-personnel costs, of the review.
Please identify any other program currently undergoing or planned for the same or similar review and the associated timeline for each such review.
Please specifically identify each program undergoing a different review and explain each difference and the reason for each such difference for such program.
Please explain the policy and procedure for offering grantees the opportunity to clarify, explain or modify any element of their approved application prior to termination to avoid the disruption to grant activities that the Department’s termination has caused. Please explain why an opportunity was not offered in each case of it not being offered.
Please explain the policy and procedure for offering grantees the opportunity to appeal their grant termination. When will appeals be reviewed, and when will grantees receive a decision on their appeal?
For each program that includes a terminated grant, please provide the following about all such terminated grants:
The total number of grants terminated by fiscal year of initial funding,
The total amount of funding expected under the approved budgets of terminated grants on official documentation as of January 1, 2025 for each fiscal year,
The total amount of funding outlaid as of the date of response to this letter for each fiscal year, and
The total amount of funding deobligated by fiscal year as of the date of termination.
For each program that includes a terminated grant, please provide the following about all such terminated grants:
The total number of educators expected to participate in professional development activities,
The total number of new educators expected to be prepared,
The expected number of years of service that were expected from participants under each grant,
The number of years of service that had already been completed,
The total number of schools expected to benefit from any grant activities, and
The total number of states in which any grant activities were expected to take place.
For each program that includes a terminated grant, please provide the following:
The name of each recipient of a grant not terminated by program and fiscal year of initial funding,
An assurance that each non-terminated grant was subject to the same policy and procedure described in response to the first question, and as applicable, the reason for not doing so, and
Please provide the most recent annual performance report submitted by each non-terminated grantee prior to January 1, 2025.
For each terminated grant, please provide the most recent annual performance report submitted by such grantee prior to January 1, 2025, if applicable.
For each terminated grant, please provide the following:
The Department’s definition of divisive ideology,
The Department’s definition of inappropriate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and
The specific evidence demonstrating how the grantee’s approved grant activities are inconsistent with such definitions of divisive ideology and DEI.
Please explain how and when you will comply with the temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges on March 10, 2025 and March 17, 2025.
Please provide a detailed plan on how the Department will prioritize training and preparing educators for the classroom.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We look forward to your prompt response.
