Headline: Additional support for healthcare students and graduates from Rural, Regional and Remote locations
Published: 5 February 2025
Released by: Minister for Regional Health, Minister for Regional NSW
Healthcare students and graduates living or seeking employment in rural, regional and remote NSW can now apply for 9 types of scholarships designed to support their studies and boost the state’s regional health workforce.
Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park today opened the first round of the NSW Government’s $5 million Rural and Regional Health Career Scholarships Program for 2025, which support Students of Nursing, Midwifery, Medicine, Dentistry and Allied Health.
Applications are now open for the Diploma of Nursing Rural Travel Support Incentive, which provides financial travel assistance for Diploma of Nursing students from a rural area (Modified Monash Model locations 3 or above) and live more than 100km (one way) from the Registered Training Organisation. Eligible students can apply for a travel incentive of $5,000 to go towards the cost of travel and accommodation related to their Diploma of Nursing studies.
Applications are also open for the New Graduate Nursing and Midwifery Rural Support Incentive, which provides a one-off payment of $1,000 to support relocation costs for non-local graduate registered nurses and midwives seeking employment in identified rural or remote LHD locations.
These scholarships are expected to support more than 1,100 healthcare workers.
The full list of scholarships include:
Diploma of Nursing Rural Travel Support Incentive
New Graduate Nursing and Midwifery Rural Support Incentive
Allied Health Rural Generalist Program (Level 1) Scholarship
Allied Health Rural Generalist Diploma Rural Practice (Level 2) Scholarship
Rural Allied Health Assistant Scholarship
Aboriginal Rural Allied Health University Student Scholarship
Supporting Entry into University Medicine or Dentistry Scholarship (GAMSAT)
Supporting Entry into University Medicine or Dentistry Scholarship (UCAT)
Getting Started in Medicine Scholarship for First Year Students
For more information on the $5 million Rural and Regional Health Career Scholarships Program, including eligibility criteria and opening dates, visit the NSW Health website.
These scholarships build on a series of measures The Minns Labor Government has introduced to strengthen the state’s health workforce including:
Implementing the Safe Staffing Levels initiative in our emergency departments
Providing permanent funding for 1,112 FTE nurses and midwives on an ongoing basis
Abolishing the wages cap and delivering the highest pay increase in more than a decade for nurses and other health workers
Investing an additional $200.1 million in key worker accommodation
Beginning to roll out 500 additional paramedics in regional, rural and remote communities
Boosting subsidies for regional health workers.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park:
“Staffing our regional, rural and remote healthcare facilities is a major challenge.
“This year the program is expected to support 150 nursing and midwifery students, 100 medical and dentistry and 35 allied health students from regional, rural and remote locations while they undertake their healthcare studies.
“This Program is helping to strengthen our regional, rural and remote health workforce in NSW, which will result in improved experiences for patients living in these locations.”
Quotes attributable to Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty:
“Ensuring rural and regional communities have access to the best healthcare is a key priority for the Minns Government and also a significant challenge.
“These scholarships are not just a great opportunity for regional and rural students looking for a career in healthcare, but they will also play a part in helping recruit and retain healthcare workers in our regional communities.”
Milo Hartill is “Black, fat and f**gy”, according to the title of her new cabaret work.
Actor, model, influencer and one helluva singer, 24-year-old Hartill shines. Black, Fat and F**gy is an autobiographical show, tracing defining moments of Hartill’s life as a Black, fat and queer person who grew up in Western Australia and now works in show biz.
Centred in its name, the performance wades through aspects of her intersectional identity. This itself serves as a loose structure for the production: Blackness to fatness to queerness, with clear overlaps.
The unapologetic self
Hartill leans into stereotypes and tropes so hard she ultimately upends them.
An early moment has her teasing an audience member – importantly, a white audience member – with an invitation to touch her hair. It’s a stunning moment within the work as it plays out, an image potentially loaded with racism interjected into performance with subversive, tongue-in-cheek humour and support for the chosen audience member.
It leads immediately into a rendition of Solange’s Don’t Touch My Hair. Other featured songs include Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman, Frank Sinatra’s Something Stupid (performed with puppetry) and Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing, with notable changes to the lyrics to fit the themes and tone of the show.
Hartill is supported onstage by Lucy O’Brien on piano, who regularly chimes in with commentary and humour. The duo share a strong bond, their rapport is apparent and endearing. Within the first minute of the show we are eating from the palm of their hands.
The duo read out examples of real, fat-phobic hate mail sent to Hartill’s social media inboxes.
As an artist and researcher in fat-centred performance, for me, this is one of the more interesting moments in the show. It unapologetically adopts a didactic mode of delivery, revealing to audiences the kinds of despicable, violent language directed at fat people.
Black, Fat and F**gy is an entirely unique, memorable and vital performance work. Matto Lucas/UMAC/Midsumma
Theatre audiences (and makers, especially) tend to despise these kinds of didactic moments, especially pertaining to identity politics, as it marks a shift from “showing” (with metaphor) to “telling” in its messaging.
But how else can performance give contextual significance to something without this kind of direct telling, especially when most audiences will not have an embodied experience of fatness to draw on and make inferences?
Unless you have directly seen or heard the unrelenting, unmitigated hate speech directed at fat bodies, it is difficult to capture or convey. The “unique” aspect of this language, laid bare by Hartill in performance, is that it is delivered with a sense of righteousness: that this person is in a way helping the fat person by shaming them.
Moments like this serve a vital function in how performance can, broadly, capture both actual experiences and associated feelings related to a topic, while aiming to impart some new knowledge or finding for its audience to take away, to sit with, to talk about and maybe go on to learn more on.
A beautiful mixed bag
This didactic mode of delivery is only fleeting within the show. Adopting a cabaret-style delivery (but with standard theatre seated rows), Black, Fat and F**gy weaves together aspects of musical theatre (songs), stand-up (humour) and drag performance (aesthetic): it is a queerly hybrid form.
The show is rough around the edges. The performance allows for a high level of improvisation and audience engagement, which can lead to stalled moments and interruptions of laughter. Performance scholar T.L. Cowan writes the improvisatory nature of cabaret informs a “cabaret consciousness” that “allows an audience to enjoy a show not in spite of the mixed-bag-ness of cabaret, but because of it”.
The mixed-bag-ness of Black, Fat and F**gy is its charm, and Hartill complements this style with a mixed-bag delivery of tricks from her deep repertoire of skills.
The show weaves together songs, stand-up and drag: it is a queerly hybrid form. Matto Lucas/UMAC/Midsumma
Black, Fat and F**gy is an entirely unique, memorable and vital performance work you should move to the top of your list of must-see Midsumma events. The production is a 70-minute-plus romp which will leave you crying, both from laughter and by acknowledging the current climate against Black, fat f*gs everywhere.
Black Fat and F**gy is at the Guild Theatre, University of Melbourne, for Midsumma Festival until February 6.
Jonathan Graffam-O’Meara does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) introduced the Expanded Food Safety Investigation Act (EFSIA), legislation that would grant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to collect microbial samples from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), also known as factory farms, during outbreaks or when there is a public health need.
Factory farming is at the heart of the spread of bird flu. The reintroduction of this legislation comes as public health experts raise alarms about the ongoing threat of H5N1, avian influenza, as variations continue to mutate, and in addition to persistent foodborne illness risks.
The CDC reports that 1 in 6 Americans suffer from foodborne illnesses annually, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Many of these illnesses stem from bacteria and other microbes originating in animal agriculture. Over 55 percent of foodborne Salmonella cases are linked to animals and animal products. Harmful bacteria from animal production facilities also contaminate fields of produce, further endangering consumers.
Despite these clear threats, public health agencies currently lack the authority to conduct microbial sampling on factory farms, limiting their ability to investigate and prevent outbreaks. Investigators are frequently denied access to farms, obstructing efforts to pinpoint the source of outbreaks and implement safeguards.
“Every year, thousands of Americans fall victim to foodborne illnesses,” said Senator Booker. “Currently, the FDA lacks the jurisdiction to investigate outbreaks and identify the sources of contaminated food stemming from animal agriculture. This bicameral legislation will reduce the prevalence of foodborne diseases by empowering the FDA and other public health agencies to properly respond to and investigate outbreaks when they happen and get contaminated food off our grocery shelves.”
“It is clear that corporate consolidation has made our food system more vulnerable—not only to foodborne illness but also to emerging public health threats like H5N1,” said Representative DeLauro. “This crisis is exacerbated by a weak FDA, which lacks the authority to properly investigate outbreaks and remove contaminated food from the market. Under current law, multinational corporations can obstruct FDA foodborne illness investigations, delaying critical public health interventions. That cannot continue. That is why I am reintroducing the Expanded Food Safety Investigation Act, which will ensure FDA has the power to investigate corporate agribusinesses, respond effectively to public health threats, and protect American consumers.”
“The Expanded Food Safety Act would close a critical gap in our public health safety net by allowing outbreak investigators a chance to trace the source of outbreaks on large animal farms,” said Sarah Sorscher, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Center for Science in the Public Interest. “This common sense safeguard is long overdue and can help provide solutions to stop outbreaks at their source.”
The legislation is endorsed by American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Animal Rights Initiative, Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at The George Washington University, Associated Humane Societies, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Ceres Community Project, Chilis on Wheels, Compassionate Action for Animals, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Earthjustice, Environmental Working Group, Farm Forward, Farm Sanctuary, Food and Water Watch, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Friends of the Earth, Godspeed Horse Hostel Inc, Government Accountability Project, Iowa Environmental Council, KWT Consulting, Mercy For Animals, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, Mercy For Animals, PIRG, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Slow Food USA, STOP Foodborne Illness, Strategies for Ethical & Environmental Development (SEED), Texas Humane Legislation Network, Vegan Activist Alliance, and World Animal Protection.
Species fall swiftly and silently to extinction. The language of bird-song collapses. For many peoples, and for many species, apocalypse is past tense.
For climate risk researchers Laurie Laybourn and James Dyke, politics illustrates a doom loop, a political diving-towards apocalypse.
Artists in this year’s Sydney Festival imagine exit strategies from this doom loop – and dream of taking root in its post-apocalyptic rubble.
Anito
Phasmahammer is the alter-ego and ongoing creative project of artist Justin Talplacido Shoulder. Anito is the latest in a series of their theatre-scale works that blend live performance with mythology, story-telling, costume and ceremony.
We begin in the cavernous Carriageworks foyer with a living miniature fig tree.
Damun (as it is known in the Gadigal language), Ficus rubingosa (Latin), the Port Jackson fig, is known for establishing itself insurgently in the pavements and gutters of the city’s colonial (apocalyptic) architecture.
Here, the bonsai sits like a welcome party, stifled and vibrant in its little pot.
In an introductory speech, Shoulder’s collaborator Matthew Stegh acknowledges the city of Sydney as “a theatre and a prison” – tripling in reference to both the experience of producing theatre for institutions, and the stunted experience of our little fig.
Anito blends live performance with mythology, story-telling, costume and ceremony. Sarah Walker/Sydney Festival
He pays homage to the ecological and cosmological traditions of Gadigal Country, and to the ancestral Philippines of Shoulder. In the next breath Stegh shifts his homage to Sydney’s histories of queer and counter-cultural performance, to sex workers, strippers, clowns, club kids and drag queens.
He offers reflections on apocalypse and ruin, referring to the “cultish suicide pact” of white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism and colonialism – to doom loops.
We are led into the auditorium, where Shoulder and fellow performer Eugene Choi animate a series of hallucinatory images.
Using their bodies, costume pieces, puppetry and inflatable set design, they work with immaculate sound (Corin Ileto) and lighting (Fausto Brusamolino).
A ghostly hologram of the buttress of a great tree fills the stage. Metallic roots writhe at its foundation. Shoulder and Choi emerge, and from there, eruptions: the first man and woman, a pair of thunder-lizards, bickering, a quadruped. A scale-bending colonial ghost smothered in lace searches tragically for something among planetary ruins. A stony reef of polyps and anemones blooms and dances. A single clap by three pairs of hands. The Big Bang.
It is often hard to discern exactly how the images are performed. They are both magic and bewildering. Liz Ham/Sydney Festival
By design, it is often hard to discern exactly how these images are performed. They are both magic and bewildering.
For philosopher Ben Ware, thinking about the horizon of the extinction of all biological life on Earth poses a paradoxical opportunity. The only thing that can thwart the end of this world – “a world of converging and multiplying catastrophes” – is the recognition that the politics of this time have one outcome: “the slow unravelling of intimately entangled forms of life”.
The fantasy theatre of Anito makes those intimate entanglements visual. We must begin from understanding that the way the world is organised produces its own end.
Like Shoulder, artist communities of the Pacific know this intimately.
Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania
Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania is an exhibition led by artists of the South Pacific Ocean.
Originally conceived for the Venice Biennale, and curated by Taloi Havini, the exhibition comprises two commissions by Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta and Latai Taumoepeau.
This is a space for conversation, performance, song and activism. Giacomo Cosua/Sydney Festival
The rooms of a freshly-renovated Artspace in Woolloomooloo are transformed by Heta’s architectural interventions. In one, a mass of bricks creates an altar-like structure, on which bowls of coconut milk sit in concentric circles. In another, pavers form a platform for a circle of seats. They function as stages or gathering places for conversation, performance, song and activism.
Within these happenings, Havini and her artists speak to the narrative and politics that have produced and compounded catastrophe in the South Pacific.
Taumoepeau’s interactive installation Deep Communion sung in minor (ArchipelaGO, THIS IS NOT A DRILL) requires visitors to row on standing-paddle-board-like treadmills, which activate immersive songs sung by Taumoepeau and her collaborators.
The physical exacerbation and the ecological trauma on the screens coalesce in our bodies. Giacomo Cosua/Sydney Festival
In conversation with Heta’s installation, these songs rise and fall, the edges of the artworks and activations become blurry. Visitors paddle towards projections visualising the rubble of marine-ecological wastelands produced by regional deep-sea extraction.
The physical exacerbation and the ecological trauma on the screens coalesce in our bodies. To drop the oar enacts the fading of the song from the speakers. We are left with reflections of the connections between bodies and calamity, and the labour of working towards futures beyond ruin.
Plant a Promise
Henrietta Baird’s Plant a Promise, like Anito and Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania, is a performance with blurry edges. Its roots spread out of Bangarra’s Studio Theatre to incorporate installation, in-situ yarns (storytelling and conversation) and tree-planting projects across the city.
Inside the theatre, three contemporary dancers animate recorded stories of Indigenous experiences of bushfires beside frustrations with the surrounding political footballing. The sentiment is clear: less talk, more action.
Plant a Promise beckons audiences into attentiveness to the lives of trees, fire and people. Stephen Wilson Barker/Sydney Festival
At its finale, audience members are invited to the stage to collaborate in the transformation of the set. We are led to take handfuls of verdant eucalyptus and acacia leaves and implant them into large woven columns that have functioned theatrically as abstracted tree-forms. The stage is transformed into a forest of our making together.
Through its many stories, Plant a Promise beckons audiences into attentiveness to the lives of trees, fire and people.
In the shadows of catastrophe, the roots of Indigenous knowledge systems and environmental science cross-pollinate to share and enact care for Country.
The stage is transformed into a forest of our making together. Stephen Wilson Barker/Sydney Festival
Generously, we receive a gift as we exit the theatre. The exchange of a native sapling invites us into casual conversation – into reflections on Country, and how we might, all of us, commit to it.
Again, we begin, from the recognition of an end. More rubble. More roots.
Putricia
At the time of writing, Sydneysiders are enamoured with the life of another plant, gathered around livestreams and making excited trips to the city’s Botanic Gardens.
Putricia, the resident titan arum, or corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanium), has thrown her immense flower spike into the air. She has commenced her slow strip-tease after a week of tantalising her admirers.
In a few weeks we have become attentive to her story of life and renewal. She will likely have bloomed, wilted and returned to the soil before this text goes live.
Performances like Putricia’s blooming, Anito, Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania and Plant a Promise offer new vantage points from which to understand ourselves in relation to the natural world, and to glimpse myriad alternatives to what feels like a diving towards our own demise.
Performances of aliveness beside and within the ecologies we inhabit move us beyond what Ben Ware sees as a naïve sense of “hope”. Instead, these stories make material, make cultural, make real, the impossible task of imagining what comes next.
Amid the smell of rotting corpses, the pillowy puppetry of a theatrical coral spawning event, the planting of a forest or the singing of invocations for the protection of the planet’s oceans, we might yet find ourselves. This is not a drill.
Blake Lawrence does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Many people looking to improve their health try to boost fibre intake by eating more vegetables.
But while all veggies offer health benefits, not all are particularly high in fibre. You can eat loads of salads and vegetables and still fall short of your recommended daily fibre intake.
So, which vegetables pack the biggest fibre punch? Here’s what you need to know.
What is fibre and how much am I supposed to be getting?
Fibre, or dietary fibre, refers to the parts of plant foods that our bodies cannot digest or absorb.
It passes mostly unchanged through our stomach and intestines, then gets removed from the body through our stool.
There are two types of fibre which have different functions and health benefits: soluble and insoluble.
Soluble fibre dissolves in water and can help lower blood cholesterol levels. Food sources include fruit, vegetables and legumes.
Insoluble fibre adds bulk to the stool which helps move food through the bowels. Food sources include nuts, seeds and wholegrains.
Both types are beneficial.
Australia’s healthy eating guidelines recommend women consume 25 grams of fibre a day and men consume 30 grams a day.
However, research shows most people do not eat enough fibre. Most adults get about 21 grams a day.
4 big reasons to increase fibre
Boosting fibre intake is a manageable and effective way to improve your overall health.
Making small changes to eat more fibrous vegetables can lead to:
1. Better digestion
Fibre helps maintain regular bowel movements and can alleviate constipation.
2. Better heart health
Increasing soluble fibre (by eating foods such as fruit and vegetables) can help lower cholesterol levels, which can reduce your risk of heart disease.
3. Weight management
High-fibre foods are filling, which can help people feel fuller for longer and prevent overeating.
Recent research published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet provided some eye-opening stats on why fibre matters.
The researchers, who combined evidence from clinical trials, found people who ate 25–29 grams of fibre per day had a 15–30% lower risk of life-threatening conditions like heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes compared to those who consumed fewer than 15 grams of fibre per day.
Vegetables are excellent sources of both soluble and insoluble fibre, along with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
The following veggies are some of the highest in fibre:
green peas
avocado
artichokes
parsnips
brussels sprouts
kale
sweet potatoes
beetroot
carrots
broccoli
pumpkin
Which vegetables are low in fibre?
Comparatively lower fibre veggies include:
asparagus
spinach (raw)
cauliflower
mushrooms
capsicum
tomato
lettuce
cucumber
These vegetables have lots of health benefits. But if meeting a fibre goal is your aim then don’t forget to complement these veggies with other higher-fibre ones, too.
Vegetables are excellent sources of both soluble and insoluble fibre – but some have more fibre than others. anna.q/Shutterstock
Does it matter how I prepare or cook the vegetables?
Yes.
The way we prepare vegetables can impact their fibre content, as cooking can cause structural changes in the dietary fibre components.
Some research has shown pressure cooking reduces fibre levels more greatly than roasting or microwave cooking.
For optimal health, it’s important to include a mix of both cooked and raw vegetables in your diet.
It’s worth noting that juicing removes most of the fibre from vegetables, leaving mostly sugars and water.
For improved fibre intake, it’s better to eat whole vegetables rather than relying on juices.
What about other, non-vegetable sources of fibre?
To meet your fibre recommendations each day, you can chose from a variety of fibre-rich foods (not only vegetables) including:
legumes and pulses (such as kidney beans and chickpeas)
wholegrain flour and bread
fruits
wholegrains (such oats, brown rice, quinoa, barley)
nuts and seeds (such as flaxseeds and chia seeds)
A fibre-rich day that meets a recommended 30 grams would include:
breakfast: 1⁄2 cup of rolled oats with milk and 1⁄2 cup of berries = about 6 grams of fibre
snack: one banana = about 2 grams
lunch: two cups of salad vegetables, 1⁄2 cup of four-bean mix, and canned tuna = about 9 grams
snack: 30 grams of almonds = about 3 grams
dinner: 1.5 cups of stir-fried vegetables with tofu or chicken, one cup of cooked brown rice = about 10 grams
supper: 1⁄2 a punnet of strawberries with some yoghurt = about 3 grams.
Bringing it all together
Vegetables are a key part of a healthy, balanced diet, packed with fibre that supports digestion, blood glucose control, weight management, and reduces risk of chronic disease.
However, the nutritional value of them can vary depending on the type and the cooking method used.
By understanding the fibre content in different veggies and how preparation methods affect it, we can make informed dietary choices to improve our overall health.
Lauren Ball receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Queensland Health and Mater Misericordia. She is a Director of Dietitians Australia, a Director of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, a Director of the Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network and an Associate Member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
Emily Burch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Released by: Minister for Environment and Heritage
Three pioneering projects have been awarded $1.25 million by the NSW Government to tackle plastic pollution through innovative and impactful solutions.
Previous governments left Greater Sydney on the brink of a waste crisis. Without new waste and recycling solutions, Greater Sydney’s landfill capacity will be exhausted by 2030.
The Minns Labor Government is committed to solving the waste challenges and supporting future technologies that will continue to drive us to a circular economy where nothing is wasted.
Universities and government research institutions were invited to apply for funding under the Plastic Research Program.
Following a competitive process, three exciting projects were successful in securing funding:
Research to develop ways to reliably collect and analyse microplastics in soil, compost and treated sewage (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and CSIRO).
A project to create tools to identify and prioritise harmful chemicals from plastics in agricultural soils (NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and CSIRO).
Study into plastic fabrics like polyester to track harmful chemicals in new and recycled textiles (University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures).
The Plastic Research Program is focused on making NSW a leader in managing plastic waste and the findings from these projects will guide future policies, regulations, and actions.
Each project will receive between $308,000 and $493,000, and completion is expected by 31 May 2027.
Quote attributable to Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe:
“NSW is facing a landfill crisis. New solutions are needed and needed quickly.
“Hidden chemicals in plastic waste make recycling harder.
“This investment into cutting edge research will help uncover hidden chemicals in soils and everyday fabrics, to assist in finding better solutions to get rid of them.”
Melbourne’s status as the sporting capital of Australia is well-established: the Victorian city hosts annual events such as the Australian Open tennis tournament, the Formula 1 Grand Prix, Melbourne Cup horseracing carnival, Boxing Day cricket Test and more.
Now the United States’ National Football League (NFL) is set to join the party.
Now it has been reported the NFL is set to lock-in three regular season games in Melbourne at the MCG, starting in October 2026, just after the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final.
The teams set to feature in the first game are 2022 Super Bowl winners the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles will play in next week’s Super Bowl and feature an Australian, Jordan Mailata, on their team.
The Rams and the Eagles both have international marketing rights to Australia – giving the clubs an opportunity to build brand awareness and fandom beyond the US through fan engagement, events and commercial opportunities.
What’s in it for Victoria?
The NFL contests would pour millions of dollars into the Victorian economy; each team would travel with hundreds of staff, while thousands of fans would likely travel from interstate and overseas.
The Victorian government has not revealed any revenue estimates but last year’s Super Bowl week in Las Vegas generated more than $US1 billion ($A1.61 billion) in economic impact.
Given the NFL’s love of razzmatazz, it would likely host a week-long procession of activities and fan zones across the city before almost certainly filling the MCG with 100,000 spectators.
However, the choice of the MCG as a venue was not without controversy.
The MCG boasts the biggest capacity of any stadium in Australia, but it is an oval shape, not rectangular, which makes the viewing experience more difficult when it hosts sports such as soccer, rugby – or NFL.
American football is far from a dominant sports code in Australia but is still a significant global market for the NFL, with an estimated fan base of more than six million supporters across the country.
The media platforms are essential – we want to reach the most people we can through our media partners, because that’s how most people experience football. But when we bring games (to international markets), it is […] the spark that lights the flame. Playing the games is a big part of making our game global.
The NFL is also looking to Australia for future athletic talent.
In recent years, NFL and college football teams have regularly recruited Australian athletes as punters (specialist kickers), who grew up kicking balls and can transfer their skills to the American game.
The NFL also recently set up a talent academy on the Gold Coast to encourage talented youngsters from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific to pursue their NFL dream.
What fans can expect
Melbourne is not Las Vegas, but even so, if confirmed, the games will deliver some old-fashioned American showbiz to the state.
The MCG will likely be packed with fans (both hardcore and casual) for the contest, and of course the sport’s famous half-time shows.
And then there’s the athletic brilliance of the players: the game is considered by some to be as intellectual as chess but with enormous physical prowess required. The chance to see these massive athletes up close will no doubt be a huge drawcard.
NFL fans in Australia – and very likely New Zealand, the Pacific and even further abroad – will no doubt be waiting with bated breath for the league to confirm the games, and then try to find a way to secure sought-after tickets.
Tim Harcourt supports both the Green Bay Packers to keep his Wisconsin in laws happy and the Minnesota Vikings as he once lived in Minneapolis.
Tree kangaroos are easily spotted with thermal drones.Emmeline Norris
Bennett’s tree kangaroos, one of Australia’s most mysterious marsupials, have long eluded researchers. Our new study, published in Australian Mammalogy today, has achieved a breakthrough: using thermal drones to detect these rare animals with unprecedented efficiency.
Tree kangaroos are found only in the tropical rainforests of Australia and New Guinea. Unlike their ground-dwelling relatives, they spend their lives in treetops, feeding on leaves and vines. Their dependence on rainforest trees makes them vulnerable to deforestation and climate change.
Alarmingly, 12 of the 14 species of tree kangaroos are listed as threatened. Yet we know little about their numbers or habits due to difficulties studying them in dense rainforest.
Our new findings mark a significant step forward, offering hope for improved conservation of these elusive, near-mythical creatures. Thermal drones, which detect animals by their body heat, may help to unravel the mysteries of tree kangaroos and guide efforts to protect them.
Rugged, dense rainforests
Bennett’s tree kangaroos inhabit Australia’s most rugged and densely vegetated rainforests north of the Daintree River in Far North Queensland. They rarely descend from their vine-covered treetop roosts, which can be up to 40 metres high.
Traditional survey methods like spotlighting (that is, methodically using flashlights) or handheld thermal cameras (using infrared sensors to detect warm bodies) often fail to detect tree kangaroos, as these tools are limited to what can be seen from the ground.
As a result, there have been no systematic surveys of Bennett’s tree kangaroos. Population estimates rely on outdated observations and anecdotal evidence, leaving their conservation status unclear.
We need robust population estimates to detect shifting population trends and prevent population declines. This requires new monitoring methods to help us find these elusive animals.
Hotspots in the treetops
Thermal drones are just what they sound like – drones equipped with infrared cameras that detect heat signatures from the air.
Warm-blooded animals like tree kangaroos stand out against the cooler rainforest background, even when partially hidden by foliage. This technology offers a powerful advantage over traditional methods, allowing researchers to scan large areas from above and see past vegetation.
In our study, we conducted three drone flights at the Daintree Rainforest Observatory, Cape Tribulation, during the morning and evening.
To our surprise, we detected six Bennett’s tree kangaroos in under an hour of flight time – an unprecedented result. These included a solitary animal, a pair, and a group of three, all consistent with known home range sizes for the species.
By comparison, traditional ground surveys often require several nights of survey effort to spot a single animal. The drones not only made detection easier but also allowed us to closely observe the animals’ behaviour, such as feeding on specific plant species, without disturbing them.
Side-by-side comparison of the same image in colour and in thermal view, with three tree kangaroos clearly visible (circled in yellow) in the thermal image. Emmeline Norris
Shedding light on a hidden species
Our findings suggest Bennett’s tree kangaroos are thriving in Cape Tribulation’s lowland rainforest.
While this is encouraging, further systematic surveys are needed to assess how population density varies with forest type, elevation and other factors.
Another intriguing discovery was the tree kangaroos’ diet. Using the drone’s colour zoom camera, we identified the vines and leaves they were eating. Mile-a-minute vine (Decalobanthus peltatus) and fire vine (Tetracera daemeliana) were popular choices on the menu.
These observations deepen our understanding of the species’ habitat needs and could inform future conservation efforts.
Conservation research methods must prioritise minimising stress on wildlife. The tree kangaroos showed no signs of disturbance, continuing to forage after briefly pausing to look at the drone.
This non-invasive approach is a promising alternative to traditional methods, like radio tracking (where a tag is attached to the animal), which can disrupt natural behaviours.
A Bennett’s tree kangaroo peeks at the thermal drone through the vines. Emmeline Norris
Craning for a better view
Despite showing promise, drone-based wildlife monitoring has its challenges. Regulations require drone operators to maintain visual line of sight with their drone. This can be difficult in a rainforest due to the height and density of the canopy.
To overcome this, we remotely operated our drone from a 47-metre-high canopy crane designed for research. This extra height allowed us to maintain a clear view while surveying a larger area.
The 47-metre high canopy crane at the Daintree Rainforest Observatory, Cape Tribulation. Emmeline Norris
However, canopy cranes are rare – there’s only one in tropical Australia. Expanding this approach will require alternative strategies, such as using mountaintops or canopy walkways as vantage points.
Our study is just the beginning. The next step is designing methods to estimate population densities more accurately – not only for Bennett’s tree kangaroos but also other tree kangaroo species in the remote mountains of New Guinea. By identifying individual tree kangaroos based on their unique fur markings, we aim to also study their social structure and sex ratios.
Thermal drones have the potential to revolutionise conservation efforts for hard-to-study wildlife. They offer a powerful tool to monitor populations and guide management decisions.
For the rare and remarkable Bennett’s tree kangaroo, this technology could make the difference between obscurity and security.
The study authors flying drones from the upper platform of the canopy crane. Emmeline Norris
Emmeline Norris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United States Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn)
WATCH KLOBUCHAR QUESTIONS HERE
WASHINGTON – At today’s Senate Judiciary hearing on the fentanyl epidemic, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) highlighted the need for Congress to take action to stop online drug trafficking to save children’s lives and give law enforcement what they need to combat the crisis.
Bridgette Norring of Hastings, Minnesota testified about her son’s death from illicit fentanyl. Norring’s 19-year old son Devin died in April 2020 after buying a pill online for tooth pain that he thought was a painkiller but turned out to be a fentanyl laced counterfeit.Bridgette founded the Devin J. Norring Foundation to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl and advocate for stronger drug prevention measures.
“My husband and I are no different than every American parent doing the best we can to protect our kids from the constant threat that social media poses. We did our due diligence in spot-checking our children’s accounts when they were minors. We preached constantly about internet safety and etiquette. None of that stopped Snapchat from allowing my children to open multiple new accounts to avoid our scrutiny. It did not stop them from pushing products designed to addict and exploit America’s young people. It did not stop them from blaming parents when our kids died. And it is no different than when opioid companies created a product they knew was extremely harmful and addictive, told the public that it was safe, and then blamed the parents when kids died as a result,”said Norringat the hearing.
“Social media has been a gateway to drugs for too many kids, and we must meet this threat with the all-hands-on-deck response it requires. We need to crack down on the sale of fentanyl through social media platforms and pass the Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act. And we need to stop these illicit drugs and fake pills from entering our borders in the first place, by making sure law enforcement has the resources they need, including cutting-edge technology to detect and intercept fentanyl at our borders. Thank you to Bridgette Norring for her bravery in coming forward and sharing her story,”said Klobuchar in a statement.
In 2023, nearly 75,000 Americans lost their lives to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, including nearly 950 opioid-related deaths in Minnesota. In Hennepin County, fentanyl kills an average of one resident every day. The number of Minnesotans who died from opioids last year was more than double the total number of people who died from car accidents.
Senator Klobuchar is a leader in the fight to pass theCooper Davis and Devin Norring Act, which would require social media companies to report to the DEA when they know of the sale or distribution of illicit drugs including fentanyl, methamphetamine, or a counterfeit controlled substance on their platforms.
Witnesses at the hearing include:
Bridgette Norring Survivor Parent and Founder Devin J. Norring Foundation Hastings, MN; Jaime Puerta President and Co-Founder of Victims of Illicit Drugs (“V.O.I.D.”) Co-Chair of Project Facing Fentanyl Santa Clarita, CA; Timothy W. Westlake, M.D., FFSMB, FACEP Emergency Physician ProHealth Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital Oconomowoc, WI; Cecilia Farfán, Ph.D. Affiliated researcher Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California San Diego San Diego, CA; Donald Barnes Vice President of Homeland Security, Major County Sheriffs of America Sheriff-Coroner of Orange County, California Orange County, CA.
A transcript of Klobuchar’s full questioning is available below. Video is availableHERE.
Senator Klobuchar:Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Norring, I think everyone was touched by your story and your bravery for coming forward. I’ve been honored to get to know you, and I want to thank you for everything that you’ve done. As you said, “all the hopes and dreams we as parents had for Devin were erased in the blink of an eye, and no mom should have to bury their kid.” Those were your words. And I know the words of your all of your friends there that stand there to support you and have had their own pain. All he did was buy a pill off Snapchat. Thought it was a Percocet. You were there for that testimony with the tech executives, and there’s a bunch of us here that have had some battle wounds going after them when we just want to put some sensible rules in place or get rid of this legal protections that they have that other companies do not have, as you so well pointed out, but no wounds compared to what you have. You heard their testimony back then in January 2024. Do you think the social media companies are doing enough to stop the sale of drugs to kids online?
Bridgette Norring:I do not think that they are doing enough. In fact, it’s still continuing. I was introduced to two new families just last week from Minnesota, both with ties to fentanyl, with their children passing, so no, they’re not doing enough. They could be doing more. I was just informed that Evan Spiegel is in support of theCooper Davis and Devin Norring Act. And I must ask then if you are in such support of it, all these companies are in support of the Kids Online Safety Act. Why? Why aren’t they implementing those features and doing the job now? Why do we have to come before Congress and … have you make them do that?
Klobuchar:Good point, thank you. Mr. Puerta, do you think we should get rid of or reform Section 230 in some way? Just to make this very clear.
Jaime Puerta:Absolutely,Senator Klobuchar. In 1996, as we all know, this legislative body came up with Section 230 C of the Communication Decency Act, and what it was meant to do was to protect free speech. But what’s happening right now cannot be free speech. When you have a drug dealer selling illicit fentanyl to unsuspecting children, that’s not free speech. Or a grown man sending unwarranted pictures to young ladies, sexual exploitation. This is not free speech. This is criminal behavior. And like Ms. Norring said, if it’s criminal, if it’s a criminal act in the real world, then it should be as well in the social media world.
Klobuchar:So you’re looking for that reform, which also I appreciate you bringing up Senator Cruz and I have thisTAKE IT DOWN Act. There’s a number of other bills involving pornography as well. Sheriff Barnes, … thank you for your testimony and being here. Funding, as we look into this next year, funding for law enforcement, do you think that that is important to take on this Fentanyl crisis, as well, as well as the HIDTA program that helps your deputies get fentanyl off the streets?
Donald Barnes:Senator, yes, thank you for the question. The HIDTA funding has been stagnant and still for the last 10 years. Hasn’t grown. If you look at the time value of money, it’s about 1/3 reduction over the last 10 years, and our costs have gone up, so it’s about 50 cents on the dollar. It’s not a fully funded program. My HIDTA program is funded at about 1/6 of the costs that we put into it and mostly subsidized through my investment of stabilizing that as other municipal agencies have withdrawn personnel. So yes, I think at this, the nation’s worst time in history, we have to reinvest those monies. We have to look at the use of those monies. And I think we have to look at what I call a Super HIDTA, the original intent of the gateway HIDTA, to invest on the greatest offense, which is our border HIDTA, and stop as much as drugs as we can at the border before they make it into the content of the United States.
Klobuchar: Thank you. Dr Westlake, why does class-wide scheduling reduce the incentives for drug cartels to create new fentanyl variants?
Timothy Westlake:So the incentives were there before because when they initially created these without under the normal Controlled Substances Act, they were legal. So they could modify it. Instead of putting an ethyl group in, you could put a methyl group in. It’s a legal substance. I was on the controlled substance board in Wisconsin 2015. We had nine different fentanyl variants, fentanyl-related substances that were killing people. We could schedule them immediately, and then they were illegal. And when you schedule them and make them illegal, there’s no incentive for them to be created anymore, and there’s a cookbook of changes that you can do easily, look up the research to find what different chemicals to use. So, it literally just stops the incentive. It doesn’t stop illicit fentanyl incentive, but it closes the speculative fentanyl substances.
Klobuchar:Thank you. One last point. Ms. Norring, and we’ll talk more in this committee. I am so pleased that Senator Grassley and Durbin will lead this together on some of the social media issues that go way beyond the ones we’ve talked about now. But you’ve also embarked on an education campaign, along with a lot of our sheriffs in Minnesota, that I think has been pretty effective going back in the schools with “One Pill Can Kill.” Ten seconds on that, and I’m out of time.
Norring:We have to do it because nobody else is doing it. It falls back on us. If we sit by and say nothing, children continue to die. So we feel it’s our obligation to get out there educate our community and the children because, as the ranking chair mentioned, the conversation really begins at home. It really has to begin at home.
Applications under the fifth round of the National Industry PhD Program have opened for PhD candidates and businesses interested in turning their big ideas into new products and services, with scholarships set to build on $13.3 million of funding on 70 projects underway since the Program started.
Assistant Minister for Education, Anthony Chisholm, said the program was part of a $296 million initiative creating powerful opportunities for developing a new workforce skilled in turning our world-class research into commercial outcomes.
“Empowering our aspiring researchers through this program will make it easier for industry to tap into an inspiring talent pool of PhD candidates or for industry employees to undertake a PhD, helping to turn those ideas into Australian inventions that contribute to a stronger and more productive economy,” Assistant Minister Chisholm said.
“It’s been really encouraging to see how the previous four rounds of this program have supported innovators from academia and industry with a passion for big ideas, and who are contributing to the success of Australia.
“Projects recently kick-started include improving the safety of self-driving vehicles through better driver interaction, improving the lives of people with dementia, and supporting the medical profession to predict a patient’s response to therapy.”
Four PhD students at Griffith University have been some of the latest researchers to commence their study thanks to the support offered through the National Industry PhD Program.
Their work with cutting edge renewable energy start-up RedX aims to create world-leading expertise in energy storage and grid stability, with these four PhD students also being brought on board by RedX to integrate research findings into the start-up’s operations.
“We are thrilled to embark on this promising collaboration with RedX. When academia and industry join forces, the pace of innovation accelerates, and this project is a testament to that potential,” Professor Alan Liew, Head of School, the School of Information and Communication Technology at Griffith University said.
“The Industry PhD Program supports our employees to pursue a PhD with guidance from a world-leading university, allowing them to explore innovative ideas and create something beneficial for society,” RedX CEO Jonathan Chen said.
PhD Student and Director of Software Engineering at RedX Chois Cai said: “The support and structure provided by the National Industry PhD Program has been instrumental in driving this research forward.”
Applications for Round 5 close on 14 March 2025. Further information about the program and application process can be found here.
Lake Alice Hospital, one of many institutions investigated by the abuse-in-state-care inquiry.Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
A new study using a large collection of demographic data has revealed the lasting and damaging consequences for children placed in state care between 1950 and 1999 – including huge disparities in life expectancy compared with the general population.
The study utilised the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure – a large collection of linked data sets about people and households from across many government agencies, Stats NZ surveys, and non-government organisations.
From a substantial sample of approximately 20,000 children placed in care between 1950–1999, the study also found about 11% of this group had subsequently died, on average much younger than the rest of the population.
The causes of death were also generally more violent, though self-harm, motor vehicle accidents and assaults, at rates greater than the general population.
These findings support the conclusions of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care, which exposed significant harms experienced by Māori tamariki (children) and whānau (families), revealing systemic failures and breaches of te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi.
Inside the demographic data
The Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) allows researchers to conduct cross-sector research, to track a broad range of outcomes, compare them with the general population, and potentially explore links across generations.
We examined a range of social and health outcomes for a group of children in state care between 1950–1999. Information about these children was collected from handwritten records of state care institutions.
These lists were matched by officials in the Ministry of Health and the Department of Corrections. All identifiable information (names, birth dates, addresses, etc.) were removed or encrypted and made available to our research team from Stats NZ.
We linked this initial group to the IDI and retrieved records of available socio-demographic, health and life-event data. We were left with a list of just over 20,000 children, a substantial sample of the many hundreds of thousands of children placed in care during this time.
Life expectancy and cause of death
Basic demographic information reflects what is already widely known about children placed in state care: they are overwhelmingly male and Māori.
The birth years of the children are also significant. We see an increase in placement into state care of children who were born between 1960 and 1989. The Royal Commission’s final report records that the disproportional representation of Māori children in state care begins at this point, as shown in the graph below.
The government approach of the times, as espoused in the 1961 Hunn report into the Department of Māori Affairs, was to assimilate Māori into the European way of life. The effects of state action to deal with Māori perceived to have fallen short of these expectations can clearly be seen in these data.
By 2018, the sample group of children in our study were in their late 40s. Using mortality data, we know that approximately 11% of this group have died. Astonishingly, they have an average age at death of 46 years, compared to an average age of 70 for people in the general population born at the same time.
This corresponds to an average 24 years of life lost for those in state care. We can extrapolate this further when we examine the primary causes of death in this group and compare them with the general population.
Cancer, heart disease and strokes are the primary causes in the general population. These causes tend to increase with age; you are more likely to be affected the longer you live. As those in state care are less likely to reach old age, they have lower rates of death from these conditions.
Rather, we see they are subject to much more violent deaths through self-harm, motor vehicle accidents and assaults, at rates many times greater than the population at large.
Historical context and modern policy
As the Royal Commission of Inquiry documented so thoroughly, tamariki Māori were placed in environments where tikanga Māori was disregarded, their whakapapa and whenua were disconnected, and their identity as Māori denied.
Many faced neglect, abuse, and the loss of connection to mātauranga and wairua, leaving trauma that continues to affect whānau today.
The royal commission’s report coincided with the National-led government’s reintroduction of military-style youth training academies for young offenders, colloquially known as “boot camps”.
In mid-2024, Prime Minister Christopher Luxton dismissed concerns from the chief commissioner for children about the policy:
I don’t care what you say about whether it does or doesn’t work. We can have that intellectual conversation all day long, but we are […] going to try something different because we cannot carry on getting the results that we’ve been getting.
Based on our research findings – together with the royal commission’s report and significant international and local evidence about the real risks of such policies – we would argue the current approach in New Zealand needs to be revisited.
More broadly, extensive international scholarship demonstrates Indigenous people are particularly and uniquely affected by longstanding trauma through colonisation. Specific acts of oppression that remain unaddressed often result in the inter-generational transfer of trauma and trauma responses.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, as with many other colonised Indigenous territories, the forced removal of Māori children from their families to be placed in a range of state and church institutions was a key plank of colonial policy and practice.
We must accept that poor outcomes across a range of areas in health, welfare, education and justice exist within a historical and contemporary context. Those impacts are linked across generations and affect whānau to this day.
A paper based on these findings will be submitted for publication shortly. Research is continuing to expand the analyses explored here and to link outcomes across affected generations.
We would like to acknowledge Tui Barrett, Professor Tim McCreanor and Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes for their input and guidance.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP)
Belinda Borell receives funding from Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga, Centre for Research Excellence at the University of Auckland, and the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Jose S. Romeo receives funding from Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga, Centre for Research Excellence at the University of Auckland and the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Teachers will be able to upskill for free with a new microcredential course focused on teaching phonics, launched by the University of Adelaide.
The Teaching Phonics microcredential will help primary and secondary teachers learn how to teach synthetic phonics in a systematic and explicit way using contemporary, evidence-based practices.
The evidence shows explicit instruction is a very efficient strategy for helping students learn by breaking down new information into smaller learning outcomes and modelling each step.
Students are more likely to progress in their reading skills from the explicit teaching of phonics, especially for children at risk of reading difficulties.
It is a focus of many reforms, including the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement and changes being made to strengthen initial teacher education.
The Albanese Government is investing more than $3 million in funding to the University of Adelaide to design and deliver microcredentials courses for teachers.
The Teaching Phonics microcredential is the third free course for teachers funded by the Albanese Government and developed by the University of Adelaide.
It adds to the Explicit Teaching microcredential and Classroom Management microcredential released in 2024.
As of January 2025:
More than 1,800 educators have enrolled in the classroom management microcredential (5 months after launch)
More than 900 educators have enrolled in the explicit teaching microcredential (1.5 months after launch)
More than 750 educators have begun one of the four-module courses and completed at least one assessment task, and
95 educators have completed an entire microcredential – a total of 48 hours of learning.
More than 4,300 teachers across the country have registered interest in the phonics microcredential program.
The free courses will provide vital professional development opportunities for teachers, school leaders and other school staff.
The qualifications will offer teachers a potential credit pathway towards post-graduate study with the School of Education at the University of Adelaide.
This investment is part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan and builds on the Government’s Engaged Classrooms initiative, which is developing free classroom management resources for teachers.
The self-paced online course can be completed in the teacher’s own time, at their own pace, to fit in around their other commitments.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. Fourth quarter revenue was a record $7.7 billion, gross margin was 51%, operating income was $871 million, net income was $482 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.29. On a non-GAAP(*) basis, gross margin was 54%, operating income was a record $2.0 billion, net income was a record $1.8 billion and diluted earnings per share was $1.09.
For the full year 2024, AMD reported record revenue of $25.8 billion, gross margin of 49%, operating income of $1.9 billion, net income of $1.6 billion, and diluted earnings per share of $1.00. On a non-GAAP(*) basis, gross margin was a record 53%, operating income was $6.1 billion, net income was $5.4 billion and diluted earnings per share was $3.31.
“2024 was a transformative year for AMD as we delivered record annual revenue and strong earnings growth,” said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. “Data Center segment annual revenue nearly doubled as EPYC processor adoption accelerated and we delivered more than $5 billion of AMD Instinct accelerator revenue. Looking into 2025, we see clear opportunities for continued growth based on the strength of our product portfolio and growing demand for high-performance and adaptive computing.”
“We closed 2024 with a strong fourth quarter, delivering record revenue up 24% year-over-year, and accelerated earnings expansion while investing aggressively in AI and innovation to position us for long-term growth and value creation,” said AMD EVP, CFO and Treasurer Jean Hu.
GAAP Quarterly Financial Results
Q4 2024
Q4 2023
Y/Y
Q3 2024
Q/Q
Revenue ($M)
$7,658
$6,168
Up 24%
$6,819
Up 12%
Gross profit ($M)
$3,882
$2,911
Up 33%
$3,419
Up 14%
Gross margin
51%
47%
Up 4 ppts
50%
Up 1%
Operating expenses ($M)
$3,022
$2,575
Up 17%
$2,709
Up 12%
Operating income ($M)
$871
$342
Up 155%
$724
Up 20%
Operating margin
11%
6%
Up 5 ppts
11%
Flat
Net income ($M)
$482
$667
Down 28%
$771
Down 37%
Diluted earnings per share
$0.29
$0.41
Down 29%
$0.47
Down 38%
Non-GAAP(*) Quarterly Financial Results
Q4 2024
Q4 2023
Y/Y
Q3 2024
Q/Q
Revenue ($M)
$7,658
$6,168
Up 24%
$6,819
Up 12%
Gross profit ($M)
$4,140
$3,133
Up 32%
$3,657
Up 13%
Gross margin
54%
51%
Up 3 ppts
54%
Flat
Operating expenses ($M)
$2,125
$1,727
Up 23%
$1,956
Up 9%
Operating income ($M)
$2,026
$1,412
Up 43%
$1,715
Up 18%
Operating margin
26%
23%
Up 3 ppts
25%
Up 1 ppt
Net income ($M)
$1,777
$1,249
Up 42%
$1,504
Up 18%
Diluted earnings per share
$1.09
$0.77
Up 42%
$0.92
Up 18%
Annual Financial Results
GAAP
Non-GAAP(*)
2024
2023
Y/Y
2024
2023
Y/Y
Revenue ($M)
$25,785
$22,680
Up 14%
$25,785
$22,680
Up 14%
Gross profit ($M)
$12,725
$10,460
Up 22%
$13,759
$11,436
Up 20%
Gross margin %
49%
46%
Up 3 ppts
53%
50%
Up 3 ppts
Operating expenses ($M)
$10,873
$10,093
Up 8%
$7,669
$6,616
Up 16%
Operating income ($M)
$1,900
$401
Up 374%
$6,138
$4,854
Up 26%
Operating margin %
7%
2%
Up 5 ppts
24%
21%
Up 3 ppts
Net income ($M)
$1,641
$854
Up 92%
$5,420
$4,302
Up 26%
Diluted earnings per share
$1.00
$0.53
Up 89%
$3.31
$2.65
Up 25%
Segment Summary
Data Center segment revenue in the quarter was a record $3.9 billion, up 69% year-over-year primarily driven by the strong ramp of AMD Instinct™ GPU shipments and growth in AMD EPYC™ CPU sales.
For 2024, Data Center segment revenue was a record $12.6 billion, an increase of 94% compared to the prior year, driven by growth in both AMD Instinct and EPYC processors.
Client segment revenue in the quarter was a record $2.3 billion, up 58% year-over-year primarily driven by strong demand for AMD Ryzen™ processors.
For 2024, Client segment revenue was a record $7.1 billion, up 52% compared to the prior year, due to strong demand for AMD Ryzen processors in desktop and mobile.
Gaming segment revenue in the quarter was $563 million, down 59% year-over-year, primarily due to a decrease in semi-custom revenue.
For 2024, Gaming segment revenue was $2.6 billion, down 58% compared to the prior year, primarily due to a decrease in semi-custom revenue.
Embedded segment revenue in the quarter was $923 million, down 13% year-over-year, as end market demand continues to be mixed.
For 2024, Embedded segment revenue was $3.6 billion, down 33% from the prior year, primarily due to customers normalizing their inventory levels.
Recent PR Highlights
AMD continues expanding its partnerships to deliver highly performant AI infrastructure at scale:
IBM announced plans to deploy AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators to power generative AI and HPC applications on IBM Cloud.
Vultr and AMD announced a strategic collaboration to leverage AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators and AMD ROCm™ open software to power Vultr’s cloud infrastructure for enterprise AI development and deployment.
Aleph Alpha announced that it will leverage AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators and ROCm software to enable its tokenizer-free LLM architecture, a new approach to generative AI that aims to simplify the development of sovereign AI solutions for governments and enterprises.
Fujitsu and AMD announced a strategic partnership to develop more sustainable computing infrastructure to accelerate open source AI.
AMD expanded strategic investments to advance the AI ecosystem and solutions, including investments in LiquidAI, Vultr and Absci.
AMD is accelerating its AI software roadmap to deliver a robust open AI stack for the ecosystem:
AMD released ROCm 6.3 with numerous performance enhancements enabling faster inferencing on AMD Instinct accelerators as well as additional compiler tools and libraries.
AMD shared an update on its 2025 plans for the ROCm software stack to enable easier adoption of and improved out of box support for both inferencing and training applications.
Dell and AMD announced that AMD Ryzen AI PRO processors will power new Dell Pro notebook and desktop PCs, bringing exceptional battery life, on-device AI, Copilot+ experiences and dependable productivity to enterprise users. For the first time, Dell will offer a full portfolio of commercial PCs based on Ryzen processors, marking a significant milestone in the companies’ collaboration.
AMD expanded its broad consumer and commercial AI PC portfolio:
New AMD Ryzen AI Max and Ryzen AI Max PRO Series processors deliver workstation-level performance and next-gen AI performance for gaming, content creation and complex AI-accelerated workloads.
Expanded Ryzen AI 300 and Ryzen AI 300 PRO Series processors bring premium AI capabilities to mainstream and entry-level notebooks, as well as enhanced security, manageability and support for Microsoft Copilot+ experiences tailored for business users.
Additional Ryzen 200 and Ryzen 200 PRO Series processors offer incredible AI experiences, performance and battery life for everyday users and professionals.
More than 150 Ryzen AI platforms are expected to be available from leading OEMs this year.
AMD extended its leadership in high performance computing (HPC), enabling the most powerful and many of the most energy efficient supercomputers in the world:
The El Capitan supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory became the second AMD supercomputer to surpass the exascale barrier, placing #1 on the latest Top500 list.
The Hunter supercomputer at the High-Performance Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart (HLRS), powered by AMD Instinct MI300A APUs, began service, delivering HPC and AI resources for scientists, researchers, industry and the public sector.
AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct accelerators power many new supercomputing projects and AI deployments, including the Eni HPC 6 system, the University of Paderborn’s latest supercomputer and the Sigma2 AS system which is slated to be the fastest system in Norway.
AMD powers incredible experiences for gamers across a broad range of devices:
At CES 2025, AMD announced new AMD Ryzen 9000X3D, Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen 9000HX processors, extending its leadership in desktop, mobile and handheld gaming.
AMD shared the latest version of AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™, 24.9.1, continuing to enhance gaming experiences with AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 and AMD HYPR-RX.
AMD continues to deliver leadership compute performance and capabilities at the edge with an expanded portfolio of solutions:
New AMD Versal™ Gen 2 portfolio with next-generation interface and memory technologies for data-intensive applications in the data center, communications, test and measurement and aerospace and defense markets.
AMD Versal RF Series adaptive SoCs, combining high-resolution radio frequency data converters, dedicated DSP hard IP, AI engines and programmable logic in a single chip.
Vodafone and AMD announced they are collaborating on mobile base station silicon chip designs to enable higher-capacity AI and digital services.
Current Outlook
AMD’s outlook statements are based on current expectations. The following statements are forward-looking and actual results could differ materially depending on market conditions and the factors set forth under “Cautionary Statement” below.
For the first quarter of 2025, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $7.1 billion, plus or minus $300 million. At the mid-point of the revenue range, this represents year-over-year growth of approximately 30% and a sequential decline of approximately 7%. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be approximately 54%.
AMD Teleconference AMD will hold a conference call at 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET) today to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results. AMD will provide a real-time audio broadcast of the teleconference on the Investor Relations page of its website at www.amd.com.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
(in millions, except per share data) (Unaudited)
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
December 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
GAAP gross profit
$
3,882
$
3,419
$
2,911
$
12,725
$
10,460
GAAP gross margin
51
%
50
%
47
%
49
%
46
%
Stock-based compensation
6
5
6
22
30
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
252
233
215
946
942
Acquisition-related and other costs (1)
—
—
1
1
4
Inventory loss at contract manufacturer (2)
—
—
—
65
—
Non-GAAP gross profit
$
4,140
$
3,657
$
3,133
$
13,759
$
11,436
Non-GAAP gross margin
54
%
54
%
51
%
53
%
50
%
GAAP operating expenses
$
3,022
$
2,709
$
2,575
$
10,873
$
10,093
GAAP operating expenses/revenue %
39
%
40
%
42
%
42
%
45
%
Stock-based compensation
333
346
368
1,385
1,350
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
332
352
420
1,448
1,869
Acquisition-related and other costs (1)
46
55
60
185
258
Restructuring charges (3)
186
—
—
186
—
Non-GAAP operating expenses
$
2,125
$
1,956
$
1,727
$
7,669
$
6,616
Non-GAAP operating expenses/revenue %
28
%
29
%
28
%
30
%
29
%
GAAP operating income
$
871
$
724
$
342
$
1,900
$
401
GAAP operating margin
11
%
11
%
6
%
7
%
2
%
Stock-based compensation
339
351
374
1,407
1,380
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
584
585
635
2,394
2,811
Acquisition-related and other costs (1)
46
55
61
186
262
Inventory loss at contract manufacturer (2)
—
—
—
65
—
Restructuring charges (3)
186
—
—
186
—
Non-GAAP operating income
$
2,026
$
1,715
$
1,412
$
6,138
$
4,854
Non-GAAP operating margin
26
%
25
%
23
%
24
%
21
%
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
December 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
GAAP net income / earnings per share
$
482
$
0.29
$
771
$
0.47
$
667
$
0.41
$
1,641
$
1.00
$
854
$
0.53
(Gains) losses on equity investments, net
—
—
(1
)
—
1
—
2
—
(1
)
—
Stock-based compensation
339
0.21
351
0.21
374
0.23
1,407
0.86
1,380
0.85
Equity income in investee
(12
)
(0.01
)
(7
)
—
(6
)
—
(33
)
(0.02
)
(16
)
(0.01
)
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
584
0.36
585
0.36
635
0.39
2,394
1.46
2,811
1.73
Acquisition-related and other costs (1)
46
0.03
56
0.03
61
0.04
187
0.11
262
0.16
Inventory loss at contract manufacturer (2)
—
—
—
—
—
—
65
0.04
—
—
Restructuring charges (3)
186
0.11
—
—
—
—
186
0.11
—
—
Income tax provision
152
0.10
(251
)
(0.15
)
(483
)
(0.30
)
(429
)
(0.25
)
(988
)
(0.61
)
Non-GAAP net income / earnings per share
$
1,777
$
1.09
$
1,504
$
0.92
$
1,249
$
0.77
$
5,420
$
3.31
$
4,302
$
2.65
(1
)
Acquisition-related and other costs primarily include transaction costs, purchase price fair value adjustments for inventory, certain compensation charges, contract termination costs and workforce rebalancing charges.
(2
)
Inventory loss at contract manufacturer is related to an incident at a third-party contract manufacturing facility.
(3
)
Restructuring charges are related to the 2024 Restructuring Plan which comprised of employee severance charges and non-cash asset impairments.
About AMD For more than 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, LinkedIn and X pages.
Cautionary Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) such as, the opportunities for continued growth based on AMD’s product portfolio and growing demand for high-performance and adaptive computing; AMD’s ability to position itself for long-term growth and value creation; the features, functionality, performance, availability, timing and expected benefits of future AMD products; and AMD’s expected first quarter 2025 financial outlook, including revenue and non-GAAP gross margin, which are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as “would,” “may,” “expects,” “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “projects” and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this press release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this press release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Such statements are subject to certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond AMD’s control, that could cause actual results and other future events to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. Material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, without limitation, the following: Intel Corporation’s dominance of the microprocessor market and its aggressive business practices; Nvidia’s dominance in the graphics processing unit market and its aggressive business practices; competitive markets in which AMD’s products are sold; the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry; market conditions of the industries in which AMD products are sold; AMD’s ability to introduce products on a timely basis with expected features and performance levels; loss of a significant customer; economic and market uncertainty; quarterly and seasonal sales patterns; AMD’s ability to adequately protect its technology or other intellectual property; unfavorable currency exchange rate fluctuations; ability of third party manufacturers to manufacture AMD’s products on a timely basis in sufficient quantities and using competitive technologies; availability of essential equipment, materials, substrates or manufacturing processes; ability to achieve expected manufacturing yields for AMD’s products; AMD’s ability to generate revenue from its semi-custom SoC products; potential security vulnerabilities; potential security incidents including IT outages, data loss, data breaches and cyberattacks; uncertainties involving the ordering and shipment of AMD’s products; AMD’s reliance on third-party intellectual property to design and introduce new products; AMD’s reliance on third-party companies for design, manufacture and supply of motherboards, software, memory and other computer platform components; AMD’s reliance on Microsoft and other software vendors’ support to design and develop software to run on AMD’s products; AMD’s reliance on third-party distributors and add-in-board partners; impact of modification or interruption of AMD’s internal business processes and information systems; compatibility of AMD’s products with some or all industry-standard software and hardware; costs related to defective products; efficiency of AMD’s supply chain; AMD’s ability to rely on third party supply-chain logistics functions; AMD’s ability to effectively control sales of its products on the gray market; long-term impact of climate change on AMD’s business; impact of government actions and regulations such as export regulations, tariffs and trade protection measures; AMD’s ability to realize its deferred tax assets; potential tax liabilities; current and future claims and litigation; impact of environmental laws, conflict minerals related provisions and other laws or regulations; evolving expectations from governments, investors, customers and other stakeholders regarding corporate responsibility matters; issues related to the responsible use of AI; restrictions imposed by agreements governing AMD’s notes, the guarantees of Xilinx’s notes and the revolving credit agreement; impact of acquisitions, joint ventures and/or strategic investments on AMD’s business and AMD’s ability to integrate acquired businesses; our ability to complete the acquisition of ZT Systems; impact of any impairment of the combined company’s assets; political, legal and economic risks and natural disasters; future impairments of technology license purchases; AMD’s ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; and AMD’s stock price volatility. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in AMD’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to AMD’s most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
(*)
In this earnings press release, in addition to GAAP financial results, AMD has provided non-GAAP financial measures including non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating expenses/revenue%, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. AMD uses a normalized tax rate in its computation of the non-GAAP income tax provision to provide better consistency across the reporting periods. For fiscal 2024, AMD used a non-GAAP tax rate of 13%, which excludes the tax impact of pre-tax non-GAAP adjustments. AMD also provided adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow and free cash flow margin as supplemental non-GAAP measures of its performance. These items are defined in the footnotes to the selected corporate data tables provided at the end of this earnings press release. AMD is providing these financial measures because it believes this non-GAAP presentation makes it easier for investors to compare its operating results for current and historical periods and also because AMD believes it assists investors in comparing AMD’s performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that it does not believe are indicative of its core operating performance and for the other reasons described in the footnotes to the selected data tables. The non-GAAP financial measures disclosed in this earnings press release should be viewed in addition to and not as a substitute for or superior to AMD’s reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP and should be read only in conjunction with AMD’s Consolidated Financial Statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the data tables in this earnings press release. This earnings press release also contains forward-looking non-GAAP gross margin concerning AMD’s financial outlook, which is based on current expectations as of February 4, 2025, and assumptions and beliefs that involve numerous risks and uncertainties. Adjustments to arrive at the GAAP gross margin outlook typically include stock-based compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets and acquisition-related and other costs. The timing and impact of such adjustments are dependent on future events that are typically uncertain or outside of AMD’s control, therefore, a reconciliation to equivalent GAAP measures is not practicable at this time. AMD undertakes no intent or obligation to publicly update or revise its outlook statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Millions except per share amounts and percentages) (Unaudited)
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
December 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
Net revenue
$
7,658
$
6,819
$
6,168
$
25,785
$
22,680
Cost of sales
3,524
3,167
3,042
12,114
11,278
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
252
233
215
946
942
Total cost of sales
3,776
3,400
3,257
13,060
12,220
Gross profit
3,882
3,419
2,911
12,725
10,460
Gross margin
51
%
50
%
47
%
49
%
46
%
Research and development
1,712
1,636
1,511
6,456
5,872
Marketing, general and administrative
792
721
644
2,783
2,352
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
332
352
420
1,448
1,869
Licensing gain
(11
)
(14
)
(6
)
(48
)
(34
)
Restructuring charges
186
—
—
186
—
Operating income
871
724
342
1,900
401
Interest expense
(19
)
(23
)
(27
)
(92
)
(106
)
Other income (expense), net
37
36
49
181
197
Income before income taxes and equity income
889
737
364
1,989
492
Income tax provision (benefit)
419
(27
)
(297
)
381
(346
)
Equity income in investee
12
7
6
33
16
Net income
$
482
$
771
$
667
$
1,641
$
854
Earnings per share
Basic
$
0.30
$
0.48
$
0.41
$
1.01
$
0.53
Diluted
$
0.29
$
0.47
$
0.41
$
1.00
$
0.53
Shares used in per share calculation
Basic
1,623
1,620
1,616
1,620
1,614
Diluted
1,634
1,636
1,628
1,637
1,625
ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Millions)
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
(Unaudited)
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents
$
3,787
$
3,933
Short-term investments
1,345
1,840
Accounts receivable, net
6,192
4,323
Inventories
5,734
4,351
Receivables from related parties
113
9
Prepaid expenses and other current assets
1,878
2,312
Total current assets
19,049
16,768
Property and equipment, net
1,802
1,589
Operating lease right-of-use assets
623
633
Goodwill
24,839
24,262
Acquisition-related intangibles, net
18,930
21,363
Investment: equity method
149
99
Deferred tax assets
688
366
Other non-current assets
3,146
2,805
Total Assets
$
69,226
$
67,885
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable
$
1,990
$
2,055
Payables to related parties
476
363
Accrued liabilities
4,260
3,082
Current portion of long-term debt, net
—
751
Other current liabilities
555
438
Total current liabilities
7,281
6,689
Long-term debt, net of current portion
1,721
1,717
Long-term operating lease liabilities
491
535
Deferred tax liabilities
349
1,202
Other long-term liabilities
1,816
1,850
Stockholders’ equity:
Capital stock:
Common stock, par value
17
17
Additional paid-in capital
61,362
59,676
Treasury stock, at cost
(6,106
)
(4,514
)
Retained earnings
2,364
723
Accumulated other comprehensive loss
(69
)
(10
)
Total stockholders’ equity
57,568
55,892
Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity
$
69,226
$
67,885
ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Millions) (Unaudited)
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net income
$
482
$
667
$
1,641
$
854
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization
172
164
671
642
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
583
635
2,393
2,811
Stock-based compensation
339
374
1,407
1,384
Amortization of operating lease right-of-use assets
31
25
113
98
Deferred income taxes
(300
)
(219
)
(1,163
)
(1,019
)
Inventory loss at contract manufacturer
—
—
65
—
Other
62
(23
)
12
(54
)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities
Accounts receivable, net
96
(379
)
(1,865
)
(1,339
)
Inventories
(362
)
94
(1,458
)
(580
)
Prepaid expenses and other assets
494
(34
)
343
(383
)
Receivables from and payables to related parties, net
30
29
108
(107
)
Accounts payable
(585
)
(181
)
(109
)
(419
)
Accrued and other liabilities
257
(771
)
883
(221
)
Net cash provided by operating activities
1,299
381
3,041
1,667
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchases of property and equipment
(208
)
(139
)
(636
)
(546
)
Purchases of short-term investments
(786
)
(410
)
(1,493
)
(3,722
)
Proceeds from maturity of short-term investments
65
770
1,416
2,687
Proceeds from sale of short-term investments
25
52
616
300
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired
—
(117
)
(548
)
(131
)
Related party equity method investment
—
—
(17
)
—
Issuance of loan to related party
(100
)
—
(100
)
—
Purchase of strategic investments
(210
)
(6
)
(341
)
(11
)
Other
—
—
2
—
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities
(1,214
)
150
(1,101
)
(1,423
)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Repayment of debt
—
—
(750
)
—
Proceeds from sales of common stock through employee equity plans
127
120
279
268
Repurchases of common stock
(256
)
(233
)
(862
)
(985
)
Common stock repurchases for tax withholding on employee equity plans
(42
)
(45
)
(728
)
(427
)
Other
—
(1
)
(1
)
(2
)
Net cash used in financing activities
(171
)
(159
)
(2,062
)
(1,146
)
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash
(86
)
372
(122
)
(902
)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period
3,897
3,561
3,933
4,835
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period
$
3,811
$
3,933
$
3,811
$
3,933
ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. SELECTED CORPORATE DATA (Millions) (Unaudited)
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
December 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
Segment and Category Information(1)
Data Center
Net revenue
$
3,859
$
3,549
$
2,282
$
12,579
$
6,496
Operating income
$
1,157
$
1,041
$
666
$
3,482
$
1,267
Client
Net revenue
$
2,313
$
1,881
$
1,461
$
7,054
$
4,651
Operating income (loss)
$
446
$
276
$
55
$
897
$
(46
)
Gaming
Net revenue
$
563
$
462
$
1,368
$
2,595
$
6,212
Operating income
$
50
$
12
$
224
$
290
$
971
Embedded
Net revenue
$
923
$
927
$
1,057
$
3,557
$
5,321
Operating income
$
362
$
372
$
461
$
1,421
$
2,628
All Other
Net revenue
$
—
$
—
$
—
$
—
$
—
Operating loss
$
(1,144
)
$
(977
)
$
(1,064
)
$
(4,190
)
$
(4,419
)
Total
Net revenue
$
7,658
$
6,819
$
6,168
$
25,785
$
22,680
Operating income
$
871
$
724
$
342
$
1,900
$
401
Other Data
Capital expenditures
$
208
$
132
$
139
$
636
$
546
Adjusted EBITDA (2)
$
2,212
$
1,887
$
1,576
$
6,824
$
5,496
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments
$
5,132
$
4,544
$
5,773
$
5,132
$
5,773
Free cash flow (3)
$
1,091
$
496
$
242
$
2,405
$
1,121
Total assets
$
69,226
$
69,636
$
67,885
$
69,226
$
67,885
Total debt
$
1,721
$
1,720
$
2,468
$
1,721
$
2,468
(1
)
The Data Center segment primarily includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) accelerators, server microprocessors (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), accelerated processing units (APUs), data processing units (DPUs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Smart Network Interface Cards (SmartNICs) and Adaptive System-on-Chip (SoC) products for data centers.
The Client segment primarily includes CPUs, APUs, and chipsets for desktops and notebooks.
The Gaming segment primarily includes discrete GPUs, and semi-custom SoC products and development services.
The Embedded segment primarily includes embedded CPUs, GPUs, APUs, FPGAs, System on Modules (SOMs), and Adaptive SoC products.
From time to time, the Company may also sell or license portions of its IP portfolio.
All Other category primarily includes certain expenses and credits that are not allocated to any of the operating segments, such as amortization of acquisition-related intangible asset, employee stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related and other costs, inventory loss at contract manufacturer, restructuring charges and licensing gain.
(2
)
Reconciliation of GAAP Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
(Millions) (Unaudited)
December 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
GAAP net income
$
482
$
771
$
667
$
1,641
$
854
Interest expense
19
23
27
92
106
Other (income) expense, net
(37
)
(36
)
(49
)
(181
)
(197
)
Income tax provision (benefit)
419
(27
)
(297
)
381
(346
)
Equity income in investee
(12
)
(7
)
(6
)
(33
)
(16
)
Stock-based compensation
339
351
374
1,407
1,380
Depreciation and amortization
186
171
164
685
642
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles
584
585
635
2,394
2,811
Inventory loss at contract manufacturer
—
—
—
65
—
Acquisition-related and other costs
46
56
61
187
262
Restructuring charges
186
—
—
186
—
Adjusted EBITDA
$
2,212
$
1,887
$
1,576
$
6,824
$
5,496
The Company presents “Adjusted EBITDA” as a supplemental measure of its performance. Adjusted EBITDA for the Company is determined by adjusting GAAP net income for interest expense, other (income) expense, net, income tax provision (benefit), equity income in investee, stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, inventory loss at contract manufacturer, acquisition-related and other costs, and restructuring charges. The Company calculates and presents Adjusted EBITDA because management believes it is of importance to investors and lenders in relation to its overall capital structure and its ability to borrow additional funds. In addition, the Company presents Adjusted EBITDA because it believes this measure assists investors in comparing its performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that the Company does not believe are indicative of its core operating performance. The Company’s calculation of Adjusted EBITDA may or may not be consistent with the calculation of this measure by other companies in the same industry. Investors should not view Adjusted EBITDA as an alternative to the GAAP operating measure of income or GAAP liquidity measures of cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA does not take into account changes in certain assets and liabilities that can affect cash flows.
(3
)
Reconciliation of GAAP Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow
Three Months Ended
Year Ended
(Millions except percentages) (Unaudited)
December 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
December 28, 2024
December 30, 2023
GAAP net cash provided by operating activities
$
1,299
$
628
$
381
$
3,041
$
1,667
Operating cash flow margin %
17
%
9
%
6
%
12
%
7
%
Purchases of property and equipment
(208
)
(132
)
(139
)
(636
)
(546
)
Free cash flow
$
1,091
$
496
$
242
$
2,405
$
1,121
Free cash flow margin %
14
%
7
%
4
%
9
%
5
%
The Company also presents free cash flow as a supplemental Non-GAAP measure of its performance. Free cash flow is determined by adjusting GAAP net cash provided by operating activities for capital expenditures, and free cash flow margin % is free cash flow expressed as a percentage of the Company’s net revenue. The Company calculates and communicates free cash flow in the financial earnings press release because management believes it is of importance to investors to understand the nature of these cash flows. The Company’s calculation of free cash flow may or may not be consistent with the calculation of this measure by other companies in the same industry. Investors should not view free cash flow as an alternative to GAAP liquidity measures of cash flows from operating activities.
Media Contact: Drew Prairie AMD Communications 512-602-4425 drew.prairie@amd.com
Investor Contact: Matt Ramsay AMD Investor Relations 512-602-0113 matthew.ramsay@amd.com
CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gibson Energy Inc. (“Gibson” or the “Company”) announced that Sean Brown has stepped down today from his role as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
“On behalf of the Board and leadership team, I want to thank Sean for his role in building Gibson’s strong financial foundation,” said Curtis Philippon, President & Chief Executive Officer. “Also, his contributions to date to ensure a seamless transition are appreciated and I wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Concurrently, the Company is pleased to announce that effective immediately Riley Hicks, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Marketing & Strategy, will succeed Mr. Brown as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
“Since joining Gibson in 2018, Riley has held critical roles in several areas of the business and was the ideal choice to step into the role of Chief Financial Officer,” Mr. Philippon added. “His deep knowledge of the business and proven leadership will be instrumental in driving our financial strategy forward, delivering long-term value to shareholders and will help position Gibson for future successes.”
Riley Hicks Biography Mr. Hicks joined Gibson in 2018 and most recently held the position of Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Marketing & Strategy. Prior to this position, Riley held various leadership roles across the finance, commercial, and marketing organizations. Before joining the Company, Riley developed a comprehensive understanding of the midstream and energy sector through experience in accounting, equity research, and corporate valuation consulting for energy clients. Riley holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from Trinity College, an MBA from Northeastern University, and is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada and Alberta (CPA).
About Gibson Gibson is a leading liquids infrastructure company with its principal businesses consisting of the storage, optimization, processing, and gathering of liquids and refined products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, the Company’s operations are located across North America, with core terminal assets in Hardisty and Edmonton, Alberta, Ingleside and Wink, Texas, and a facility in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Gibson shares trade under the symbol GEI and are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.gibsonenergy.com.
Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information and statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) including, but not limited to, statements concerning Gibson’s ability to execute its corporate strategy and achieve the expected outcomes therefrom. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘contemplate’’, ‘‘continue’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘propose’’, ‘‘might’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘will’’, ‘‘shall’’, ‘‘project’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘would’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘predict’’, ‘‘forecast’’, ‘‘pursue’’, ‘‘potential’’ and ‘‘capable’’ and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements.. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this press release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company does not undertake any obligations to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by securities law. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of numerous risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties described in “Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s Annual Information Form and Management’s Discussion and Analysis, each dated February 20, 2024, as filed on SEDAR+ and available on the Gibson website at www.gibsonenergy.com.
Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) announced that their bipartisan legislation designating this week, beginning February 3, 2025, as “National Tribal Colleges and Universities Week” passed the U.S. Senate. This week is dedicated to the recognition and support for the achievements of students pursuing postsecondary educational opportunities in Tribal Colleges and Universities.
“I’m pleased the Senate passed my resolution designating this week as National Tribal Colleges and Universities Week. This resolution recognizes the vital role of Tribal colleges and universities in creating opportunities for the next generation of Tribal leaders, upholding Tribal educational sovereignty, and preparing Native students for careers they can build their families around in their home communities,” said Heinrich.
“Our tribal colleges and universities play a vital role in Montana’s communities and provide incredible opportunities for higher education on or near Montana’s reservations,” said Daines. “I’m proud to introduce legislation so the hard work and great achievements of our Montana students, teachers and educational institutions can be recognized nationally.”
Read the full text of the resolution here.
The resolution was led by Heinrich and Daines. U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) cosponsored the resolution.
Source: United States Senator for New York Charles E Schumer
Last Month, The Trump Administration Quietly Removed All Members Of The Nonpartisan ‘Aviation Security Advisory Committee,’ Created Following 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 That Tragically Killed 35 Syracuse University Students And Others From Across Upstate NY & America
Schumer Says Just-Confirmed DHS Secretary Noem Must Immediately Right This Wrong — And That This Unwise Move Clearly Usurps Congressional Intent, Possibly Violating The Law, And Guts Panel That Has Helped Create Hundreds Of Changes To Improve Airplane Safety
Schumer: DHS Must Bring Back Pan Am Flight 103-Inspired Safety Committee To Continue To Guard and Improve The Safety Of Our Skies
After the U.S. Department of Homeland Security gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which was created following the deadly terror attack on Pan American Flight 103 that took the lives of 35 Syracuse University students and many others, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer today called on DHS to immediately reinstate this vital safety panel so they can continue their vital work in airline safety.
Schumer said, “This unwise, unjustified and dangerous move risks the safety of our skies by taking away a key tool to strengthen aviation security, and it possibly violated the law. Beyond that, it is deeply insulting to the memory of those lost that day, including the 35 precious students from Syracuse University.” The senator is now demanding the Trump administration reverse course and bring back the committee to continue its vital air travel safety work.
“Dismantling the aviation security committee inspired by Pan Am Flight 103, and the awful loss of the 35 Syracuse University students and other Americans murdered that day, is callous and risks airline safety. For decades, nonpartisan members of the Committee, including family members of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, have made life-saving recommendations to the federal government to enhance aviation security. Now all that work will cease. It makes absolutely no sense. The Department of Homeland Security needs to immediately right this wrong,” said Senator Schumer. “These members turned their grief into action, to ensure that what happened to their loved ones never happen again. Calling this Committee a ‘misuse of resources’ is insulting to the lives lost by an act of terror nearly 40 years ago and to the Committee’s decades of work. Effectively shutting down operations by removing all members clearly attempts to skirt the mandated congressional intent and possibly violates the law. The Trump administration must reverse course and bring back this committee now.”
“This action by the Trump Administration will undermine aviation security in the United States and across the globe. We are grateful to Senator Schumer for pushing to reverse this action so that the vital work of ASAC can continue,” said Kara Weipz, President of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103. Weipz’s brother, Rick Monetti, was a Syracuse University student.
“Those of us whose loved ones were killed in the Pan Am 103 bombing cannot imagine a greater tribute to their memories than protecting the threat to our national security posed by those who wish to attack the United States using our aviation system,” said Stephanie Bernstein, a member of the Committee until it was disbanded. Bernstein’s husband was killed in the bombing.
In 1988, a mid-air explosion killed 259 passengers on Pan American Flight 103, including 35 Syracuse University students and others from across New York and America. The nonpartisan Aviation Security Advisory Committee comprised of 34 volunteer members, including family members of the victims, was created following this attack. Schumer explained that the Committee provided advice to federal government on measures to increase aviation safety since 1989 and Congress made the Committee permanent in 2014. 95 percent of the Committee’s recommendations have been adopted, and the Committee’s research on bomb-detection scanners and recommendations helped federal authorities tighten security following 9/11.
Last month, however, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security delivered termination notices to the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, removing all of its members.
In a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Schumer said this change was not only wrong but risked the safety of our skies and potentially violated the law by clearly attempting to evade congressional intent. Schumer demanded the Committee and its members, especially family members of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 who were callously removed, be re-instated immediately.
Schumer’s letter to Secretary Noem can be found below:
Dear Secretary Noem:
I write to you today regarding a critical issue that directly impacts aviation security throughout our country and across the globe, which is the elimination of all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory committees, including the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC). The elimination of ASAC could have perilous effects to the safety of the flying public and the security of our skies, and I have serious concerns for the manner in which DHS has terminated the members of this committee.
As you may know, ASAC was created following the deadly terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988, which killed 259 onboard, including 35 Syracuse University students. The Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2014 made ASAC permanent. However, in a memo dated January 20, 2025, members of ASAC, including family members of victims of Pan Am Flight 103, were informed by DHS that all current memberships on its advisory committees were being immediately terminated, as the agency prioritizes national security and eliminates a ‘misuse of resources’.
The assertion that ASAC is a ‘misuse of resources’ by the Agency is insulting to the lives lost by an act of terror nearly 40 years ago, and to the work done by ASAC to create security and safety reforms across the board that have created a safer flying public since that tragic day. Since the creation of ASAC, approximately 95% of its recommendations to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have been adopted, including when the committee had studied and recommended the use of bomb-detection scanners amongst federal security agencies which was implemented quickly in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
It is no question that since ASAC’s inception, which was directly in response to the Pan Am 103 crash, our skies have gotten safer and more secure. Effectively shutting down ASAC by removing all of its members clearly avoids congressional intent of mandating this permanent committee. The safety of our skies needs to be a top priority for DHS, especially in the wake of recent instances of security breaches in our airports and our ever-evolving threat environment. Therefore, I urge you to immediately reinstate ASAC and the members that were dismissed.
Both Mexico and Canada managed to buy some time. After urgent phone calls with Trump on Feb. 3, their leaders each secured a one-month reprieve. But Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada’s Justin Trudeau also made it clear to their U.S. counterpart: If these tariffs go through, they’ll hit back with their own trade restrictions. The world is watching the opening moves of what could become another costly trade war.
As a professor of economics, I can explain why this poses significant risks to the U.S. economy and American consumers. Economic theory suggests that tariffs distort market efficiency, raising production costs while limiting consumer choice and increasing prices.
Who really pays for tariffs?
While politicians often frame tariffs as a way to punish other countries, they actually hit domestic consumers and businesses hardest. Whether they’re facing higher grocery bills or disruptions in manufacturing, Americans will feel the strain.
Worse yet, such measures commonly set off a cycle of retaliation. During past trade disputes involving the U.S., affected nations have responded with counter-tariffs on American products, including textiles, steel and agricultural goods. Such retaliatory efforts have led to sharp declines in U.S. exports.
History also shows that trade wars are self-defeating. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which imposed tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods, prompted swift retaliation from trading partners and contributed to deepening the Great Depression.
Modern trade wars have other consequences
Modern trade wars hit closer to home than most Americans realize. The recent tariff threat against Colombia reveals why. In 2023, Colombian farmers supplied US$1.14 billion worth of fresh-cut flowers to U.S. florists. In a near-crisis that lasted a weekend, Trump threatened to slap steep tariffs on the South American nation, right when flower shops across America were stocking up for one of their busiest seasons: Valentine’s Day.
The same tariffs would have hit Colombian coffee too, affecting everything from neighborhood cafes to grocery store prices. This shows how modern trade disputes can instantly disrupt the everyday purchases Americans make.
Other key trading partners, including the European Union, have also come into the crosshairs. On Jan. 30, 2025, the president issued a stark warning to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the so-called BRICS nations – threatening 100% tariffs if they continued efforts to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar as their reserve currency.
These threats can do more than alienate strategic partners; they risk accelerating dedollarization – pushing nations to develop alternative financial systems that weaken U.S. influence in global trade.
A more effective approach
Beyond causing immediate economic pain, constant tariff threats risk damaging America’s credibility as a reliable trading partner. The U.S. helped establish the rules-based international trading system, but regular tariff threats erode global trust and push trading partners to seek alternatives to the U.S. market.
I believe the path to maintaining America’s economic leadership lies in embracing a smarter, more strategic trade policy – one that builds alliances instead of breaking them. A strategy that prioritizes negotiation, fosters innovation and enhances competitiveness – and that doesn’t rely on protectionist tactics more often used by developing nations – would strengthen cooperation and stability, ensuring long-term economic prosperity.
Bedassa Tadesse 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.
If U.S. voters reelected Donald Trump hoping for relief from higher prices, his recent threats to impose tariffs on America’s three largest trade partners might make them think again.
While Canadaand Mexico negotiated monthlong reprieves on Monday, the new tariffs on China went into effect as expected Tuesday, Feb. 4. And while the ultimate shape of Trump’s tariff policy remains to be seen, the president warned that American consumers could feel “some pain” as a result.
U.S. consumers might be surprised to find out that almost every economic sector could be affected by this opening salvo of tariffs, should they go ahead in March. Imports from Mexico and Canada reached close to US$1 trillion in 2024, almost double the amount the U.S. imports from China.
Meanwhile, the 10% tariffs on Chinese goods will likely boost the price of electronics, and China has already imposed retaliatory measures. Trump has also proposed 25% tariffs on Taiwan and its semiconductor industry, in an attempt to push Taiwanese companies to invest more in U.S. manufacturing. If that tariff were to go into effect, prices for U.S. consumers would be even higher.
A tax by any other name …
Tariffs are an import tax. They’re passed through the supply chain in the form of higher prices and are eventually paid by consumers. Traditionally, governments have used tariffs as a fiscal tool to encourage businesses and consumers to move away from foreign-made products and support domestic businesses instead.
In theory, new tariffs could encourage foreign businesses to invest in the U.S. and make more stuff on American soil. Unfortunately, domestic manufacturing has seen a systemic decline since the 1980s, resulting in lower prices for consumers but severely limiting U.S.-produced products. In the short term, at least, import taxes on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese products would ultimately be paid by U.S. consumers.
Although this round of tariff threats may seem arbitrary to some, the Trump administration says it considers tariffs deeply intertwined with national security concerns. Stephen Miran, Trump’s pick to chair the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, has laid out a path for Trump’s tariff plan, which he says is aimed at putting American industry on fairer ground against the rest of the world.
In the long term, it’s unclear whether Trump’s threatened trade war will bring domestic manufacturing back to the U.S. and start a new industrial renaissance. In the meantime, American consumers will likely be stuck holding the bag.
Jason Reed 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.
Rivers shape ecosystems and economies, yet hydrologists have limited tools to study them. Enter Confluence—a groundbreaking, open-source framework leveraging NASA’s SWOT mission and HLS data to estimate river discharge and sediment levels worldwide. Hosted by PO.DAAC, Confluence delivers rapid, global insights, revolutionizing hydrology with cloud-based efficiency. A game changer for river monitoring.
Rivers and streams wrap around Earth in complex networks millions of miles long, driving trade, nurturing ecosystems, and stocking critical reserves of freshwater. But the hydrologists who dedicate their professional lives to studying this immense web of waterways do so with a relatively limited set of tools. Around the world, a patchwork of just 3,000 or so river gauge stations supply regular, reliable data, making it difficult for hydrologists to detect global trends. “The best way to study a river,” said Colin Gleason, Armstrong Professional Development Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “is to get your feet wet and visit it yourself. The second best way to study a river is to use a river gauge.” Now, thanks to Gleason and a team of more than 30 researchers, there’s another option: ‘Confluence,’ an analytic collaborative framework that leverages data from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission and the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 archive (HLS) to estimate river discharge and suspended sediment levels in every river on Earth wider than 50 meters. NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) hosts the software, making it open-source and free for users around the world. By incorporating both altimetry data from SWOT which informs discharge estimates, and optical data from HLS, which informs estimates of suspended sediment data, Confluence marks the first time hydrologists can create timely models of river size and water quality at a global scale. Compared to existing workflows for estimating suspended sediment using HLS data, Confluence is faster by a factor of 30.
I can’t do global satellite hydrology without this system. Or, I could, but it would be extremely time consuming and expensive.
Colin Gleason
Nikki Tebaldi, a Cloud Adoption Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Co-Investigator for Confluence, was the lead developer on this project. She said that while the individual components of Confluence have been around for decades, bringing them together within a single, cloud-based processing pipeline was a significant challenge. “I’m really proud that we’ve pieced together all of these different algorithms, got them into the cloud, and we have them all executing commands and working,” said Tebaldi. Suresh Vannan, former manager of PO.DAAC and a Co-Investigator for Confluence, said this new ability to produce timely, global estimates of river discharge and quality will have a huge impact on hydrological models assessing everything from the health of river ecosystems to snowmelt. “There are a bunch of science applications that river discharge can be used for, because it’s pretty much taking a snapshot of what the river looks like, how it behaves. Producing that snapshot on a global scale is a game changer,” said Vannan. While the Confluence team is still working with PO.DAAC to complete their software package, users can currently access the Confluence source code here. For tutorials, manuals, and other user guides, visit the PO.DAAC webpage here. All of these improvements to the original Confluence algorithms developed for SWOT were made possible by NASA’s Advanced Intelligent Systems Technology (AIST) program, a part of the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), in collaboration with SWOT and PO.DAAC. To learn more about opportunities to develop next-generation technologies for studying Earth from outer space, visit ESTO’s solicitation page here. Project Lead: Colin Gleason / University of Massachusetts, Amherst Sponsoring Organization: Advanced Intelligent Systems Technology program, within NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a cosmic bullseye! The gargantuan galaxy LEDA 1313424 is rippling with nine star-filled rings after an “arrow” — a far smaller blue dwarf galaxy — shot through its heart. Astronomers using Hubble identified eight visible rings, more than previously detected by any telescope in any galaxy, and confirmed a ninth using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Previous observations of other galaxies show a maximum of two or three rings. “This was a serendipitous discovery,” said Imad Pasha, the lead researcher and a doctoral student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “I was looking at a ground-based imaging survey and when I saw a galaxy with several clear rings, I was immediately drawn to it. I had to stop to investigate it.” The team later nicknamed the galaxy the “Bullseye.”
Hubble and Keck’s follow-up observations also helped the researchers prove which galaxy plunged through the center of the Bullseye — a blue dwarf galaxy to its center-left. This relatively tiny interloper traveled like a dart through the core of the Bullseye about 50 million years ago, leaving rings in its wake like ripples in a pond. A thin trail of gas now links the pair, though they are currently separated by 130,000 light-years. “We’re catching the Bullseye at a very special moment in time,” said Pieter G. van Dokkum, a co-author of the new study and a professor at Yale. “There’s a very narrow window after the impact when a galaxy like this would have so many rings.” Galaxies collide or barely miss one another quite frequently on cosmic timescales, but it is extremely rare for one galaxy to dive through the center of another. The blue dwarf galaxy’s straight trajectory through the Bullseye later caused material to move both inward and outward in waves, setting off new regions of star formation. How big is the Bullseye? Our Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years in diameter, and the Bullseye is almost two-and-a-half times larger, at 250,000 light-years across.
The researchers used Hubble’s crisp vision to carefully to pinpoint the location of most of its rings, since many are piled up at the center. “This would have been impossible without Hubble,” Pasha said. They used Keck to confirm one more ring. The team suspects a 10th ring also existed, but has faded and is no longer detectable. They estimate it might lie three times farther out than the widest ring in Hubble’s image.
Pasha also found a stunning connection between the Bullseye and a long-established theory: The galaxy’s rings appear to have moved outward almost exactly as predicted by models. “That theory was developed for the day that someone saw so many rings,” van Dokkum said. “It is immensely gratifying to confirm this long-standing prediction with the Bullseye galaxy.” If viewed from above, it would be more obvious that the galaxy’s rings aren’t evenly spaced like those on a dart board. Hubble’s image shows the galaxy from a slight angle. “If we were to look down at the galaxy directly, the rings would look circular, with rings bunched up at the center and gradually becoming more spaced out the farther out they are,” Pasha explained. To visualize how these rings may have formed, think about dropping a pebble into a pond. The first ring ripples out, becoming the widest over time, while others continue to form after it. The researchers suspect that the first two rings in the Bullseye formed quickly and spread out in wider circles. The formation of additional rings may have been slightly staggered, since the blue dwarf galaxy’s flythrough affected the first rings more significantly.
Individual stars’ orbits were largely undisturbed, though groups of stars did “pile up” to form distinguishable rings over millions of years. The gas, however, was carried outward, and mixed with dust to form new stars, further brightening the Bullseye’s rings. There’s a lot more research to be done to figure out which stars existed before and after the blue dwarf’s “fly through.” Astronomers will now also be able to improve models showing how the galaxy may continue to evolve over billions of years, including the disappearance of additional rings. Although this discovery was a chance finding, astronomers can look forward to finding more galaxies like this one soon. “Once NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope begins science operations, interesting objects will pop out much more easily,” van Dokkum explained. “We will learn how rare these spectacular events really are.” The team’s paper was published on the February 4, 2025 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA. Explore More
Media Contact: Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Claire Blome and Ray VillardSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointments:
Mark Tollefson, of Rancho Cordova, has been appointed Chief Deputy Director at the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Tollefson has been Undersecretary of the California State Transportation Agency since 2022. He was Senior Counselor on Infrastructure and Fiscal Affairs in the Office of Governor Newsom in 2022, where he was previously Deputy Cabinet Secretary from 2019 to 2022. Tollefson held several positions at the California Department of Finance from 2007 to 2019, including Assistant Program Budget Manager, Principal Program Budget Analyst, and Finance Budget Analyst. Tollefson earned a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from California State University, Sacramento and a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $275,004. Tollefson is a Democrat.
Ken DaRosa, of Sacramento, has been appointed Chief Deputy Director at the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety. DaRosa has been the Chief Deputy Director of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities since 2021. He was the Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery from 2012 to 2021. DaRosa held multiple positions at the California Department of Finance from 2004 to 2012, including Program Budget Manager from 2011 to 2012, Assistant Program Budget Manager from 2010 to 2011, Principal Program Budget Analyst from 2006 to 2010, and Staff Finance Analyst from 2004 to 2006. He earned a Master of the Arts degree in Literature, and a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Psychology from the California State University, Sacramento. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and compensation is $185,004. DaRosa is registered without party preference.
Sloane Viola, of Sacramento, has been appointed Chief Deputy Director at the California Conservation Corps, where she has been the Deputy Director of Legislative and External Affairs since 2024. Viola was the Acting Assistant Secretary of Climate Change at the California Natural Resources Agency in 2024. She has had several positions at the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation from 2019 to 2024, including Council Program Manager from 2021 to 2024, Acting Deputy Director of Climate Resilience in 2022, and Legislative Director from 2019 to 2021. Viola held two positions in the Office of Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom from 2017 to 2018, including Sea Grant Fellow in 2017 and Staff Scientist from 2018 to 2019. She held multiple positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2010 to 2016, including Graduate Student Researcher from 2014 to 2016, Teaching Assistant from 2015 to 2016, and Laboratory Assistant I, Marine Science Institute from 2010 to 2014. Viola is a member of American MENSA. She earned a Master of the Arts degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aquatic Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and compensation is $170,004. Viola is a Democrat.
Mandi Bane, of Redondo Beach, has been appointed Deputy Director of Hazardous Waste Management at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. Bane has been an Environmental Protection Specialist at the United States Environmental Protection Agency since 2024. She has held multiple positions at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health from 2011 to 2024, including CENS Unit Manager, Substance Abuse Prevention and Control from 2021 to 2024, Staff Analyst, Environmental Health Division from 2015 to 2021, and Research Analyst II; Assistant Staff Analyst, Family Services Unit from 2011 to 2015. Bane earned her Doctor of Philosophy and Master of the Arts degrees in Sociology from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Oregon. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and compensation is $199,128. Bane is registered without party preference.
Georgia “Pat” Urena, of Calexico, has been reappointed to the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission, where she has served since 2018. Urena was a Recreation Supervisor at the City of El Centro from 1982 to 2024. She is the Chair of the Calexico Wellness Center and the Juvenile Justice Commission, and a Board Member of Rite Track. This position requires Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Urena is a Democrat.
Press Releases, Recent News
Recent news
Feb 4, 2025
News What you need to know: Governor Gavin Newsom today issued an executive order removing bureaucratic barriers, extending deadlines, and providing critical regulatory relief to help LA fire survivors rebuild, access essential services, and recover more quickly. LOS…
Feb 3, 2025
News Sacramento, California – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring February 2025 as Black History Month.The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below: PROCLAMATIONThis month, we pay homage to the rich history and contributions of…
Feb 2, 2025
News What you need to know: At Governor Gavin Newsom’s directive, crews have been working around the clock to install nearly 60 miles of emergency protective materials in the recent Los Angeles-area burn scars. Los Angeles, California – As another storm system is…
Project VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System To Access Agricultural Resources) aims to develop a unified, federated digital ecosystem for agriculture by integrating reliable, validated and up-to-date resources across platforms. It focuses on enhancing scalability, accessibility and inclusivity of digital solutions while enabling two-way communication to incorporate farmer feedback. By driving center-state convergence, fostering partnerships with stakeholders and aligning with broader efforts of ICAR Institutes and State Agricultural Universities. VISTAAR supports the development of robust Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for agricultural extension. Its goal is to empower farmers with actionable information, streamline collaboration and ensure the long-term sustainability of digital agricultural extension initiatives.
Digitalization of the existing agricultural extension system aims to expand its outreach substantially and enable every farmer to access high-quality advisory services on crop production, marketing, value and supply chain management and Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices, weather advisories etc. The advisory services provide information about all Government schemes related to agriculture & allied sectors from which the farmers are benefited.
The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with states of Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to onboard their technical and content review committees onto the network and have started work on small pilots.
Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare supports existing VISTAAR project implementation. No separate funds are allotted.
VISTAAR aims integration with all initiatives and federal solutions via the network for access of farmers to up-to date information. This includes leveraging AI enabled chatbots deployed at the ground level and subsequent integration with Agristack.
Efforts for VISTAAR includes extension worker training on the digital bots. This can be facilitated through existing partnerships and network volunteers for conducting training to Front Line Extension Workers (FLEW) to enhance video production skills and handling advanced IT tools to access required information at field level for providing further training to farmers in a phased manner.
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have been signed with EkStep Foundation which is a not for profit organization for development of the VISTAAR DPI network on pro-bono basis. VISTAAR is also supported by not for profit organizations like Digital Green for content development on pro-bono basis. IIT-Madras has signed an MoU with DA&FW for sharing content on Agri-Startups for the benefit of farmers on pro-bono basis.
This information was given by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Ramnath Thakur in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
Thanks Radical Graffiti for informing me where my next job is!
This is the message I woke up to on January 26, as one of my research participants saw some anti-colonial graffiti in Melbourne posted on the popular Instagram page. The “job” he refers to is that of removing graffiti – a costly, relentless and largely overlooked maintenance operation in modern cities.
Graffiti removal is an ongoing practice in big cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. Sabina Andron
You may have heard of various statues being defaced across the country to protest Australia Day. And if you live in Melbourne, you’ve probably come across the city’s iconic “Pam the Bird” graffiti. Pam’s creator was arrested on January 30, about a week after a massive image of the bird appeared on the Novotel hotel in South Wharf.
What you don’t see, however, are the groups of workers standing by to evaluate and repair the damage done by graffiti artists. These graffiti removal technicians, or “buffers”, often posses a more detailed knowledge of the urban fabric than many architects and planners.
With millions invested in graffiti removal in Australia, as part of a visual policing of surfaces, I argue “buff” deserves recognition as a cultural and aesthetic practice of its own.
Buff commonly appears as mismatched rectangular shapes. Sabina Andron
What is “buff” and how does it work?
Graffiti removal is the practice of removing, erasing or obliterating unauthorised displays from publicly visible urban surfaces.
In graffiti culture, this removal is colloquially known as “buff”. The name comes from a chemical train washing facility deployed by the Municipal Transit Authority in New York City in the 1970s, when graffiti clean-up efforts first started.
Buff is typically conducted by authorised municipal officers or private contractors and businesses. It involves the chemical and mechanical treatment of urban surfaces, often underpinned by zero tolerance policies that have turned it into a global billion dollar industry.
Greg Ireland demonstrating his products inside his Graffiti Removal Chemicals training facility in Melbourne. Sabina Andron
Whether they work for local councils through apps such as Snap Send Solve, run private businesses, or operate independently as anti-graffiti vigilantes, buffers either remove unwanted marks, or paint over them to obstruct them from view.
And with the removal of one image, comes the creation of another.
In this example chemicals are used to destroy the surface paint, leaving behind a ‘ghost’ image. Sabina Andron
A symbiotic relationship
It’s a common misconception that buff is strictly an image removal process – a zero sum game aimed at returning public surfaces to a pristine material state. This assumption is the main reason it has been afforded little attention as a creative practice.
In fact, buff produces some of the most interesting visual forms within contemporary cities. It contributes to the visual cultures of cities worldwide, not just through maintaining visual order, but through delivering easily overlooked painterly compositions.
The visual forms of buff done by vigilantes can be even more jarring than the graffiti they cover. Sabina Andron
Much like graffiti, buff is a widespread visual and symbolic feature of contemporary cities. These two practices need each other, and engage with cities in symmetrical and symbiotic ways.
Buff will sometimes closely follow the contours of the graffiti it obstructs. Sabina Andron
Also, although they operate on different mandates, graffiti writers and buffers largely respect each others’ resourcefulness and creativity. As one buffer has repeatedly told me, “tagging and buffing are more related than people are prepared to see.”
Buffers and writers use walls collaboratively. Here, a graffiti writer acknowledges the abater with a message: ‘legendary buff’. Sabina Andron
Graffiti removal as aesthetic practice
Keen urban enthusiasts have been documenting buff in many forms, from the early photographs of Avalon Kalin in the United States, to artist Lorenzo Servi’s The City Is Ours bookzine on graffiti removal, to Hans Leo Maes’ photographic collection of buff from the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Most famously, buff made the object of a 2001 experimental documentary by Matt McCormick. This cult favourite popularised the idea of graffiti removal as a subconsciously creative act with aesthetics that resemble the works of abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko or Agnes Martin.
The abstract expressionist aesthetics of repeated buff interventions. Sabina Andron
Three different buff treatments of the same wall. Sabina Andron
Others such as activist Kyle Magee have served prison sentences for buffing public ads, raising questions about not only the legitimacy of public images, but the legitimacy of their obstruction.
An example of activist buff on street posters. Sabina Andron
Beyond visual order mandates
Involuntarily perhaps, creativity is everywhere. Urban surfaces are prized visual and material assets in cities, with the potential to generate huge symbolic and economic capital.
No matter how many millions of dollars are invested in removing graffiti, or pursuing criminal cases against its creators, public surfaces will always be contentious forums of visual production, obstruction and collaboration.
Textured surfaces resulting from visual dialogues between graffiti and buff. Sabina Andron
Alongside graffiti, posters, stickers and myriad other inscriptions, buff adds new textures to the surfaces of our cities. Its aesthetic and cultural value should be celebrated.
Sabina Andron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The economic cost of food waste in Australia is staggering. It’s estimated $36.6 billion is lost to the economy every year. Much of our fresh produce never even makes it to stores, rejected at the farm gate due to cosmetic reasons, such as its appearance, size or ripeness.
We’ve known about this problem for a long time, which has given rise to the “ugly” food movement. Once-rejected produce has been rebranded as “wonky” in the UK, “inglorious” in France, “naturally imperfect” in Canada or an “odd bunch” in Australia.
While the existence of these campaigns is commendable, there’s another major marketing challenge if we want to reduce food waste – acceptance of climate-affected produce.
Broadly speaking, this refers to produce affected by extreme or moderate weather events. Droughts are an example of such climate events, predicted to become more intense and frequent as a result of global climate change.
Climate-affected produce resembles “ugly” food as it is often smaller, misshapen or has surface imperfections.
Climate-affected produce often has a lot in common with ‘ugly’ fruit, but may also differ in taste and texture. Alexey Borodin/Shutterstock
But in contrast to “ugly food”, the taste and texture of climate-affected produce can be quite different.
Under the effects of drought, apples may become sweeter and more granular, chillies hotter and onions more pungent. In the case of mild or moderate droughts, such produce is still edible.
Our recent research points to some uncomfortable truths. Many consumers prefer to avoid climate-affected produce altogether. And when price is a factor, they won’t choose it without a discount.
But our research also offers suggestions on how purchases of such produce could be encouraged – including marketing messages that highlight the “resilience” of climate-affected produce.
Our research
We carried out two discrete choice experiments with consumers who buy fresh fruit and vegetables. One sample was drawn from among Australian students, the other from members of the wider Australian population.
Participants were shown eight different apple options simulating a shopping environment, which were described with a range of different attributes including firmness, sweetness, appearance and size.
The apples were also labelled with a price tag and information on whether they were sold at a supermarket or farmers’ market. All climate-affected apples were presented with a “resilience” message: “resilient apple – survived the drought”.
We sought to examine how produce’s “organoleptic” properties – the way it impacts our different senses – as well as levels of empathy toward the farmers impact consumers’ willingness to choose climate-affected produce, and how much they’d pay for it.
Drought can make apples sweeter, smaller, and less firm. The Conversation, Natthapol Siridech/Shutterstock, PickPik
A preference for perfect
We found when an apple’s firmness, size and aesthetics were important and empathy towards farmers was low, consumers tended to avoid climate-affected produce. They instead chose unaffected alternatives at higher prices (no such effect was observed for sweetness).
This finding might not be surprising, but it’s still cause for concern. If farmers cannot repurpose climate-affected produce into spreads, jams, smoothies or animal feed, it can’t enter supply chains and may end up as waste.
Previous campaigns for “ugly” fruit and vegetables may not offer much help with this problem, either. These campaigns emphasise the unaffected taste and texture of the produce. Marketing climate-affected produce needs a different approach.
Otherwise, we expect a discount
When price was important to consumers, they chose climate-affected produce, regardless of their levels of empathy toward farmers. But they were only willing to pay discounted prices for it.
That might seem like a more positive outcome. But consumer expectations that climate-affected produce will always be discounted may disadvantage farmers with lower profit margins and diminish its value as a still-usable resource.
Getting climate-affected (but still edible) produce into supply chains can help reduce food waste. Ekaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock
The power of “resilience” messaging
Importantly, we found when the “resilience” message resonated with consumers, they were more inclined to consider climate-affected apples. This was true even when their empathy towards farmers was low.
This suggests that when empathy fails, leveraging marketing messages that highlight “resilience” could be another avenue worth exploring.
Our research team is now exploring what types of “resilience” messages can encourage purchases of climate-affected produce.
Australians have been conditioned for many years to expect only aesthetically pleasing fruit and vegetables.
Given extreme weather events are unlikely to become less frequent in the future, climate-affected produce is likely here to stay. If we want consumers to embrace it, we need to have uncomfortable conversations around its different taste and texture, and rethink what we’re willing to accept.
This research was supported by the University of Western Australia Business School Future Fund Research Grant.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has doubled down on his commitment to sack thousands of public servants if he’s elected prime minister.
Dutton has again highlighted the “wasteful” 36,000 increase in public service jobs under Labor, which he says has made the Australian Public service “bloated and inefficient”.
While there is considerable political hyperbole and Trumpian allusions in Dutton’s statements, there are areas where legitimate savings could be made by whoever wins the coming election. That includes a second-term Albanese government, which would need to find efficiencies to offset promised wage increases.
Dutton’s commitment
Dutton unrealistically mentioned A$24 billion in potential savings over four years by reversing the growth in the number of new public service jobs since the last election.
Dutton’s claim of 36,000 extra bureaucrats under the Albanese government is broadly correct. The latest State of the Service Report shows the ongoing workforce increased from 133,976 in June 2021 to 170,186 in June last year. This was offset by a reduction of around 4,000 non-ongoing employees.
Labor has reduced the use of consultants and contractors, though at best those savings only partially offset the costs of the public service expansion.
Reversing the net increase in costs in the next term of Parliament, however, will not be easy and could not be done immediately.
In turn, Labor is hiring fewer consultants and contractors. Those numbers could rise again if permanent positions are axed under a Coalition government.
Dutton is careful not to make any specific commitments regarding the number of jobs that would go nor the dollar savings involved. However, he and his shadow ministers have repeatedly referred to the 36,000 new positions under Labor.
While the Coalition won’t be detailing any spending cuts until after the election, Dutton has alluded to US President Donald Trump’s playbook by targeting “culture, diversity and inclusion advisers”.
Dutton contends these roles add to costs while providing little public service:
Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians.
Putting the public service growth into context
Despite Dutton’s combative language, the growth of the Australian Public Service is not nearly as dramatic as he claims, nor is it concentrated in Canberra.
The State of the Service Report shows the Australian Public Service headcount is lower now (0.68%) as a percentage of the Australian population than it was in 2008 (0.75%). It is also a smaller share of the overall Australian workforce (1.36% compared to 1.52%).
Despite Dutton’s often repeated claim that all of the additional public servants are based in Canberra, the proportion of the public service working in the capital has decreased to just 36.9%.
The numbers back up the government’s claim that the expanded bureaucracy has delivered improvements to critical public services such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Veterans’ Affairs and Centrelink outside of Canberra.
Labor has also committed to savings
Despite its defence of the public service, a re-elected Labor government would also need to find efficiencies.
The Australian Financial Review has drawn attention to the mid-year budget update, which forecast no growth in the public service wages bill from 2025–26 to 2027–28. This is despite an enterprise bargaining agreement to increase wages by 11.2% over the three years to March 2026.
Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher has dismissed the Coalition’s claims of a $7.4 billion black hole. She says Labor’s forecasting method is the same as the one the Liberals used in government
And the minister has restated Labor’s commitment to finding its own savings through the 1% efficiency dividend, which she says is “largely a good thing”.
In other words, the Albanese government is assuming pay increases will be offset by efficiency measures over the next three years. That will require some effort.
Where savings could actually be made
Regardless of who forms the next government, there are savings to be made across the public service, which has become too top heavy.
Remuneration is a mess, with extraordinary variations in pay, particularly among the senior executive level.
A wholesale change in the membership of the Remuneration Tribunal, which sets public service pay levels, and a review of its methodology are much needed.
There should also be more emphasis on skills and capability, and less on diversity. A strong business case exists to maximise the talent pool the public service draws on, but care is needed to not compromise the merit principle in the pursuit of equity.
Dutton’s plan raises legitimate concerns
Dutton’s populist rhetoric about the public service raises legitimate concerns beyond the potential job cuts.
There’s a real risk the Coalition will resurrect its ideological preference for the private sector, with its associated extra costs and conflicts of interest.
Nor is there any clear commitment to avoiding a return to the politicisation of the bureaucracy evident under former prime minister Scott Morrison, which contributed to the Robodebt scandal.
The Albanese government has sadly dropped the ball by failing to legislate to promote merit-based appointments, leaving open opportunities for politically based hirings and firings.
With election day fast approaching, voters may reasonably be wary of both sides of politics when it comes to the independence and performance of the public service.
Andrew Podger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lea Frermann, Senior Lecturer in Natural Language Processing, The University of Melbourne, The University of Melbourne
Until a few weeks ago, few people in the Western world had heard of a small Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company known as DeepSeek. But on January 20, it captured global attention when it released a new AI model called R1.
R1 is a “reasoning” model, meaning it works through tasks step by step and details its working process to a user. It is a more advanced version of DeepSeek’s V3 model, which was released in December. DeepSeek’s new offering is almost as powerful as rival company OpenAI’s most advanced AI model o1, but at a fraction of the cost.
Within days, DeepSeek’s app surpassed ChatGPT in new downloads and set stock prices of tech companies in the United States tumbling. It also led OpenAI to claim that its Chinese rival had effectively pilfered some of the crown jewels from OpenAI’s models to build its own.
We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models, and will share information as we know more. We take aggressive, proactive countermeasures to protect our technology and will continue working closely with the US government to protect the most capable models being built here.
The Conversation approached DeepSeek for comment, but it did not respond.
But even if DeepSeek copied – or, in scientific parlance, “distilled” – at least some of ChatGPT to build R1, it’s worth remembering that OpenAI also stands accused of disrespecting intellectual property while developing its models.
What is distillation?
Model distillation is a common machine learning technique in which a smaller “student model” is trained on predictions of a larger and more complex “teacher model”.
When completed, the student may be nearly as good as the teacher but will represent the teacher’s knowledge more effectively and compactly.
To do so, it is not necessary to access the inner workings of the teacher. All one needs to pull off this trick is to ask the teacher model enough questions to train the student.
This is what OpenAI claims DeepSeek has done: queried OpenAI’s o1 at a massive scale and used the observed outputs to train DeepSeek’s own, more efficient models.
A fraction of the resources
DeepSeek claims that both the training and usage of R1 required only a fraction of the resources needed to develop their competitors’ best models.
There are reasons to be sceptical of some of the company’s marketing hype – for example, a new independent report suggests the hardware spend on R1 was as high as US$500 million. But even so, DeepSeek was still built very quickly and efficiently compared with rival models.
This might be because DeepSeek distilled OpenAI’s output. However, there is currently no method to prove this conclusively. One method that is in the early stages of development is watermarking AI outputs. This adds invisible patterns to the outputs, similar to those applied to copyrighted images. There are various ways to do this in theory, but none is effective or efficient enough to have made it into practice.
There are other reasons that help explain DeepSeek’s success, such as the company’s deep and challenging technical work.
The technical advances made by DeepSeek included taking advantage of less powerful but cheaper AI chips (also called graphical processing units, or GPUs).
DeepSeek had no choice but to adapt after the US has banned firms from exporting the most powerful AI chips to China.
While Western AI companies can buy these powerful units, the export ban forced Chinese companies to innovate to make the best use of cheaper alternatives.
The US has banned the export of the most powerful computer chips to China. Nor Gal/Shutterstock
Training AI models using publicly available internet materials is fair use, as supported by long-standing and widely accepted precedents. We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for US competitiveness.
This argument will be tested in court. Newspapers, musicians, authors and other creatives have filed a series of lawsuits against OpenAI on the grounds of copyright infringement.
Of course, this is quite distinct to what OpenAI accuses DeepSeek of doing. Nevertheless OpenAI isn’t attracting much sympathy for its claim that DeepSeek illegitimately harvested its model output.
The war of words and lawsuits is an artefact of how the rapid advance of AI has outpaced the development of clear legal rules for the industry. And while these recent events might reduce the power of AI incumbents, much hinges on the outcome of the various ongoing legal disputes.
Shaking up the global conversation
DeepSeek has shown it is possible to develop state-of-the-art models cheaply and efficiently. Whether they can compete with OpenAI on a level playing field remains to be seen.
Over the weekend, OpenAI attempted to demonstrate its supremacy by publicly releasing its most advanced consumer model, o3-mini.
OpenAI claims this model substantially outperforms even its own previous market-leading version, o1, and is the “most cost-efficient model in our reasoning series”.
These developments herald an era of increased choice for consumers, with a diversity of AI models on the market. This is good news for users: competitive pressures will make models cheaper to use.
And the benefits extend further.
Training and using these models places a massive strain on global energy consumption. As these models become more ubiquitous, we all benefit from improvements to their efficiency.
DeepSeek’s rise certainly marks new territory for building models more cheaply and efficiently. Perhaps it will also shake up the global conversation on how AI companies should collect and use their training data.
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.
Antibiotics, antivirals and anti-inflammatory drugs were all associated with reduced dementia riskSlladkaya/ Shutterstock
There’s currently no cure for dementia. Although some recently developed drugs show promise in slowing the progress of the disease, these are both costly and may have limited benefit for many patients.
However, a recent Cambridge-led study has found a link between commonly used prescription drugs – including antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines – and a lower risk of dementia.
Given these drugs are already licensed and their safety profiles well established, this could enable faster and more cost-effective clinical trials in the search for a cure.
The study analysed health data from 130 million people, including one million people who had been diagnosed with dementia. Having identified possible links with prescription drugs and dementia risk, the researchers conducted a systematic review of 14 studies to explore these links further and understand which prescription drugs might affect dementia outcomes.
This led them to the conclusion that antibiotics, antivirals and anti-inflammatory drugs were all associated with reduced dementia risk. The researchers also found a link between the hepatitis A, typhoid and diphtheria vaccines and lower dementia risk.
It’s unknown how long participants had been taking any of these prescription drugs or how many times they’d been prescribed them during their lifetime, so it will be important for future studies to investigate these factors.
Immune reponse and brain health
Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that the protective effects that these prescription drugs appear to have may be because they reduce inflammation, control infections and improve overall brain health.
This supports the theory that common types of dementia could be triggered by viral or bacterial infections. We know that infections that last a few days to several weeks, whether bacterial or viral, can cause great damage to the brain. This is because infections cause an enhanced immune response from the body, which can damage brain cells – disrupting brain connections and accelerating memory decline.
Antibiotics and antivirals help to combat infections.
Antivirals and antibiotics help combat infections, which in turn may dampen this excessive immune response. Meanwhile, vaccines can prevent these infections from occurring in the first place. In both cases, this can significantly reduce the risk of prolonged infections and their potentially devastating consequences for brain health.
It’s also worth noting that other studies have also shown an association between the BCG vaccine, which protects against tuberculosis, and a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s (a type of dementia).
Regarding the new study’s finding of a link between the use of anti-inflammatory medications and a reduced risk of dementia, notably non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen were identified as potentially protecting against memory decline.
Again, this is another piece of evidence suggesting that inflammation plays a central role in dementia.Inflammation is the body’s natural way of defending itself against injury or infection. But when inflammation lasts too long, it can cause harm – particularly to the brain. Long-lasting inflammation releases chemicals that can damage healthy tissue. These chemicals can damage brain cells and disrupt communication between them, which leads to memory loss.
Anti-inflammatory drugs work by blocking the production of certain molecules that cause inflammation. By doing this, they might help protect brain cells from damage caused by long-term inflammation.
Next steps
The evidence for the benefits of other types of drugs on dementia risk was less consistent. The study found that certain blood-pressure drugs, antidepressants and diabetes drugs were linked to both a lower and higher risk of dementia.
One possible reason is that these prescription drugs affect different biological processes. Even drugs designed to treat the same condition may target different biological mechanisms, which might explain the varying results.
For example, some blood pressure medications – such as ACE inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) – improve brain health by enhancing blood flow and reducing inflammation. On the other hand, beta-blockers primarily lower heart rate and may not provide the same neuroprotective benefits.
Diabetes drugs also had mixed associations with dementia risk. But as people with diabetes are already at a higher risk of developing dementia, this makes it difficult to determine whether this association was due to the effects of the drugs themselves, or if diabetes is the main factor at play.
Overall, more research is needed to confirm this study’s findings and better understand how all these drugs appear to influence dementia risk. Randomised controlled trials will be crucial to see if these prescription drugs really can be repurposed to prevent dementia effectively. At the same time, looking into the biological mechanisms that are potentially affected by these drugs could shed light on the causes of dementia.
This research highlights the importance of addressing inflammation and infections as part of a broader strategy for maintaining brain health. And by finding new uses for existing drugs, scientists could deliver treatments to patients more quickly – offering hope in the fight against dementia.
Rahul Sidhu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
When we see “tested under laboratory conditions”, we often assume real-world conditions will lead to faster degradation of a product.
But experts from Stanford University have found the opposite is true for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Their new research shows traditional laboratory testing leads to faster degradation, while real-world use gives substantially more battery life, extending the lifespan of the entire EV. Researchers found the stop-start way we drive and the variable rate the battery discharges power actually prolongs battery life by up to 38% compared to traditional tests.
This is good news for EV drivers – and for efforts to electrify transport. This extra battery life would translate to more than 300,000 more kilometres an EV could drive before needing battery replacement, the researchers say.
Longer-lasting batteries would reduce the total cost of EV ownership – and benefit the environment by getting more use out of each battery.
How do we usually test battery degradation?
Common battery chemistries such as lithium-ion will degrade over time. As lithium ions shuttle back and forth across the electrode, some will be diverted or trapped. As batteries age, they don’t hold as much charge.
So how do you measure this?
When you make an EV battery, you don’t want to spend 20 years testing its longevity before release. To test batteries more quickly, researchers have tended to estimate battery degradation rates by using a constant rate of battery discharge. Studies of EV battery degradation are normally done in a laboratory environment under controlled conditions.
In the lab, researchers subject the battery to rapidly repeated charge-discharge cycles. Power is discharged at a constant rate. Observing the gradual drop in capacity gives us the degradation levels over time. This is how we get estimates such as “retains 80% capacity in ten years time”.
But while this method is widely used, it has limitations. Discharging power at a constant rate is not how we really drive. We might accelerate fast to get onto the freeway, spend lots of time accelerating and braking in stop-start traffic, or do a quick run to several shops. Plus, much of the time the battery is not being used. Instead of a constant drain on the battery, it’s a mix.
What the Stanford researchers have done is test EV batteries in realistic ways, imitating the way we actually drive. This is known as “dynamic cycle testing”.
Mimicking real world use
To replicate real-world usage and driving patterns, the Stanford team designed different discharge patterns for EV batteries, some based on real driving data. The researchers then tested 92 commercial lithium-ion batteries for more than two years across the different profiles.
The results showed batteries tested using real life scenarios degraded substantially slower than expected and had higher battery expectancy than those tested under lab conditions. Even better, the more realistic the battery use, the slower the battery degraded.
Battery researchers have long assumed rapid acceleration is bad for battery life. But this isn’t the case. Short acceleration and regenerative braking – where EVs charge their batteries during braking – were actually associated with slower battery degradation rates.
Is this backed up in practice?
A number of other recent studies have looked at how batteries perform in practice using data from EVs in operation, including commercial vehicles. These studies also found correlations between real-world use and lower battery degradation rates.
A 2024 report by GEOTAB researchers used telematic remote monitoring to get data from 10,000 EVs. The study found improved battery technology is leading to slower degradation. Newer EVs lose about 1.8% of their health per year – a sharp drop compared to the 2.3% degradation rate in 2019.
Several factors influenced battery longevity other than use patterns. One of these is worth noting – frequent use of DC fast chargers by high-use vehicles is linked to faster battery degradation. The effect is more notable in hot climates. By contrast, slower “level 2” charging is better for battery longevity. Overall, the researchers found the best way to prolong battery life was to keep charge between 20% and 80%, reduce exposure to extreme temperatures and limit fast charging.
You can prolong battery life still further by avoiding overuse of DC fast chargers and extreme temperatures. Halfpoint/Shutterstock
Another 2024 report analysed the batteries of 7,000 EVs used intensively over 3-5 years. The report found lower degradation rates than expected.
This report found most batteries still had had good capacity (more than 80%) even after propelling vehicles more than 200,000 km. Factors such as use patterns, advances in cell chemistry and optimised battery management were also found to influence battery ageing.
What does this mean for the EV transition?
These results suggest EV owners may not need to replace expensive battery packs for several additional years. Over the lifetime of an EV, this means lower operating costs.
The findings are also encouraging for fleet operators. Batteries in high-mileage commercial EVs should remain reliable even after heavy use.
Car manufacturers and technology providers can benefit by updating their EV battery management software to take these findings into account. This would help to increase battery longevity under real-world conditions.
Fewer battery replacements will mean fewer batteries to recycle. Once removed from the vehicle, EV batteries can be used to store energy for homes or businesses for years. These findings suggest a longer and more reliable second life for the batteries.
In recent years, the electric vehicle transition has hit a couple of speedbumps. Cost-of-living pressures and uncertainty about charging have seen more Australians take up hybrids than pure electric vehicles.
These findings may help reassure drivers interested in electric vehicles but unsure about battery lifespan.
Hussein Dia receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the iMOVE Australia Cooperative Research Centre, Transport for New South Wales, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, and Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex
The website for the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), the world’s biggest aid donor, has gone dark.
Donald Trump’s new administration plans to place the autonomous agency under the control of the state department. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has now declared himself as head of the agency to “align” it with Trump’s priorities.
Several days ago, on January 26, Rubio said: “Every dollar we spend, every programme we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”
But the decision to freeze USAid, which is part of Trump’s policy to put “America first”, places everyone at risk. Organisations that provide vital care for vulnerable people around the world are being forced to halt operations. The boss of one such organisation said: “People will die.”
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close adviser to Trump, is playing an active role in the destruction of USAid. He has claimed – without providing any evidence – that the agency is “beyond repair”. “It needs to die,” Musk wrote on X.
Musk, who leads the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), is gearing to cut trillions of dollars from the US budget. However, by seeing cuts to USAid as a solution, Trump and Musk are catering to an audience that has a fundamental misunderstanding about US foreign aid more generally.
Surveys demonstrate that Americans believe 25% of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid. In reality, the US gives about 0.2% of its gross national product (GNP), the total value of goods and services produced by a country, to foreign aid – or less than 1% of its federal budget. This is far below the UN target of 0.7% of GNP.
But, despite this, USAid provided 42% of all humanitarian aid globally in 2024. This included about US$72 billion (£58 billion) in aid in a wide range of areas, from helping people access clean water, sanitation, healthcare and energy, to providing disaster relief, shelter and food.
USAid also delivered programmes aimed at supporting democracy, civil society, economic development and landmine clearance in war zones, as well as working to prevent organised crime, terrorism and conflict. The gutting of USAid will have a profound impact on human security.
The Trump administration has granted a waiver for the continuation of “life-saving humanitarian assistance”. This includes a programme that helps 20 million people living with HIV/Aids access anti-retroviral drugs. But there are questions about the future of US Aids organisation, the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar).
To date, over 43 million people worldwide have died from Aids. But one of the biggest success stories of the George W. Bush administration was its launch of Pepfar in 2003. The World Health Organization says that Pepfar, working in partnership with USAid, has saved 26 million lives.
Pepfar employs more than 250,000 doctors, nurses and other staff across 55 countries. One of the functions that USAid performs is ordering and procuring the drugs used by Pepfar to keep the millions infected with HIV alive. It remains to be seen whether federal payments to USAid’s locally run partner organisations will be stopped.
We are, in any case, likely to see an uptick in other infectious diseases. USAid had been working to prevent current outbreaks of mpox and Marburg virus from spreading beyond Africa. It is not clear what the future is for these programmes.
And USAid’s work with malaria, a disease that kills about 450,000 children under the age of five each year, is facing uncertainty. From 2000 to 2021, USAid’s work helped to prevent 7.6 million deaths from malaria. Also in doubt is USAid’s work to develop and implement the malaria vaccine, which was considered a gamechanger for combating the disease.
At the same time, USAid responds to an average of 65 natural disasters each year. In 2024 alone, it responded to 84 separate crises across 66 different countries. The government is letting go all of the staff important for implementing these types of programmes.
Dozens of senior USAid officials have been placed on leave, while contractors working on the agency’s programmes have been furloughed. Up to 3,000 aid workers in Washington DC could reportedly be laid off this week.
What Trump’s team misunderstand is that the work of USAid is also vital for preserving American interests. China, which has poured more than US$1 trillion of assistance into infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America since 2013, will now be given an opportunity to exert more influence around the world. The void in US aid is a gift for China in the battle for soft power.
White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, lists some of what she calls the ‘insane priorities’ that USAid has been spending money on.
Global aid sector in disarray
Foreign aid relies on certainty and transparency about the future of aid programmes. But the Trump administration has offered little clarity while US foreign aid programmes are all being reviewed. One aid organisation referred to the situation as an “absolute dumpster fire” due to the uncertainty.
There have already been reports of total confusion in health clinics previously supported by USAid, which were shut down without warning. Africa will probably be the region most negatively affected. Local workers in healthcare-related projects on the continent will lose their jobs, while nurses, doctors and healthcare workers across clinics will be unable to continue their vital work.
The Democrats have claimed that Trump does not have the legal authority to eradicate a congressionally funded independent agency. They have said court challenges are already in motion and have pledged to try to block approval of Trump’s state department nominations until the shutdown is reversed.
Trump did try to cut US foreign aid during his first term, but Congress refused. He then tried – and ultimately failed – to freeze the flow of aid appropriated by Congress. This time, Trump is not bothering to play by the rules.
Natasha Lindstaedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrew Clapham, Associate Professor of Education Policy, Nottingham Trent University
Ofsted, England’s education inspectorate, has released proposals for a new approach to inspecting schools and other education providers. The proposals are now under consultation, with parents, teachers, education professionals and learners invited to share their views.
These proposals mark the latest changes to Ofsted after the public outcry following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry in January 2023. The coroner’s report in December 2023 ruled that the Ofsted inspection had contributed to Perry’s suicide. But the proposals neglect key areas that we, having researched people’s experiences of Ofsted, believe should change. These include the behaviour of inspectors and the process of inspecting schools.
Crucially, the proposal document emphasises the continuing importance and authority of Ofsted in raising achievement in the school system. And in a recent speech on the proposals, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The improvements in inspection and accountability starting in the 90s have been instrumental for raising standards in our schools. With Ofsted’s role right at its heart. And to those who call for the abolition of a strong, independent, effective inspectorate, I have said before and I will say again: never.”
Our current research work, analysing written submissions of experiences of Ofsted to the education select committee, has found a stark picture of the inherently unfair and unhealthy nature of Ofsted inspections and the toll they take on teachers.
Ofsted’s chief inspector Martyn Oliver explains the proposed report cards.
Anticipating an Ofsted inspection informs almost everything teachers do, and under these proposals, this will not change. If Ofsted’s position of power and authority over schools remains and these problems stay unaddressed, it will continue to cause risk and harm to those working in the state education sector in England.
Report cards
Central to the proposed changes is the introduction of report cards, which will replace a system which gave schools a headline judgement of “inadequate”, “requires improvement”, “good” or “outstanding”. Instead, a range of aspects of a school’s remit – including leadership and governance, achievement, inclusion, attendance and personal development and wellbeing – will each be assessed on a five-point scale.
These range from “causing concern” (red on the report card) to “attention needed” (amber), “secure” (light green), “strong” (green) and “exemplary” (dark green).
These grading scales will also focus on how schools support disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils, and there will be more emphasis on the local circumstances which schools operate in. Whether a school meets its safeguarding responsibilities will be assessed not on a scale but as either “met” or “not met”.
Ofsted will also publish contextual data on the school. These data will include categories such as the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities, performance data, attendance and absence data along with socio-economic indicators for the area the school serves.
But concerns are already being raised. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union the NAHT, has argued that the new system will repeat the high stakes of the previous single-word judgements.
Inspector behaviour and accountability
There are two specific areas where we believe the new proposals have particularly failed. The first concerns inspectors’ conduct.
The consultation document states that “professional dialogue between inspectors and leaders will be a priority”. But the appalling behaviour that has been alleged of some inspectors is not acknowledged, and there is no indication as to how this culture of harm is being addressed.
The second concerns the inspection process. There is no mention of Ofsted becoming more accountable. In her independent learning review for Ofsted, former chief inspector Dame Christine Gilbert recommended the institution of an improved complaints system for when a school believes an inspection outcome is unfair. But this is not mentioned in the proposals.
Neither is there any consideration of sharing the evidence base – the information gathered by Ofsted inspectors during their visit to a school – on which an inspection judgement is made. Presumably this would be too time consuming, as suggested by Amanda Spielman, another previous chief inspector of Ofsted.
It is perhaps unsurprising that Ruth Perry’s sister, Julia Waters, has commented that the risk of harm from Ofsted remains.
We would therefore seek far more than a simple rebrand of the previous Ofsted model. Only a root and branch reform of the inspectorate would address the fundamental issues affecting teachers and schools.
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.
