Blog

  • Australia’s time has come to be a green energy-intensive export superpower | Rod Sims

    Australia’s time has come to be a green energy-intensive export superpower | Rod Sims

    What is your one big idea?

    One really big idea is to take the steps necessary to see Australia become a renewable energy superpower by exporting green energy-intensive products such as green iron, green aluminium, green transport fuels and green fertilisers. Australia is blessed with some of the best solar and wind resources with world-best availability factors, and comparatively little of this is needed domestically.

    These significant resources can be used to make energy-intensive exports. The key point to understand is that in the fossil fuel world it is low cost to transport, for example, our iron ore, coking coal, gas and thermal coal to north-east Asia where they are used to make iron and steel.

    In the net zero world, however, it is extremely expensive to export the renewable energy and the hydrogen to replace coking coal, which are needed to make green iron. So green iron should be made where the renewable resources are and where the hydrogen is made – in Australia. The change in transport costs flips the economics so that it is logical that more value adding occurs in Australia.

    What are the benefits?

    The benefits for Australia and the world are enormous. Significant investment is required, many skilled workers are needed, and our productivity will be boosted as the technology and learning-by-doing sees continuing improvement in making these products.

    The world benefits as well because if we realise our green energy-intensive export potential, Australia can produce products that will reduce world emissions by up to 10%. Countries that do not have the renewable resources to decarbonise themselves will rely on Australia playing its role, just as we have by being the world’s largest exporter of coal and gas combined.

    Sign up: AU Breaking News email

    What are the downsides?

    The only downside is that we do not know how quickly countries will meet their international commitments and decarbonise. The faster they do, the larger the opportunity for Australia.

    How practical is it?

    Australia as an energy-intensive green export superpower is extremely practical. Indeed, its time has come. Continually talking about the superpower opportunity without projects emerging encourages scepticism and sees other countries gain an advantage over us that they should not have. Other countries are starting projects and gaining the learning-by-doing lessons we should be benefiting from.

    What is needed is for the government to support early projects with 15% to 30% innovation capital grants and to provide initial support to make up for the lack of a world carbon price. If you believe in the climate science that fossil fuel use damages our environment, it is ridiculous that products that do not damage the environment are competing with those that do without the latter paying for the damage they cause.

    While not a necessary component of this big idea, this could all be paid for, with considerable money left over, if Australia introduced a carbon price. This would see Australia decarbonise in an easier and much less costly way than we are now.

    How politically risky is it?

    There are minimal political risks apart from where the government obtains the small amount of money to fund this. The funding is small as only the first few projects will qualify for the innovation grants, and Australia’s green energy intensive exports, once we have made a start, can respond to overseas carbon pricing, as will soon apply in Europe with the introduction of its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and as is emerging in other countries directly or via increasing green product mandates which have the same effect.

    Whereas decarbonising Australia involves some politically difficult decisions, what is not to like about Australia value adding more in Australia, with new jobs outside our cities, and a continuing boost to productivity and prosperity?

    The only downside is talking about it but not taking the steps to bring it about.

    Rod Sims is the chair of the Superpower Institute. He is an expert advisor to the Treasury’s competition taskforce and to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority on digital issues. From 2011 to 2022 he was chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

    Continue Reading

  • IMF flags gaps in Pak corruption detection

    IMF flags gaps in Pak corruption detection


    ISLAMABAD:

    The identification of politically exposed persons remained uneven and there were insufficient corruption-specific red-flags that could detect misuse of the public office in Pakistan, according to initial findings by a corruption diagnostic assessment mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    The IMF has shared the draft observations along with recommendations with the government, giving Islamabad an opportunity to review these before the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment report is released by the end of this month, sources told The Express Tribune.

    “The effectiveness of the politically exposed persons’ identification remains uneven across sectors due to limited access to comprehensive data, absence of automated screening tools in smaller institutions, and a lack of corruption-specific red flag indicators that would help detect misuse of public office, stated the draft report.

    The lender has recommended issuing new guidelines by learning from the best global practices to identify the misuse of the public office and check any corruption in the government contracts. Pakistan committed to the IMF in September last year that it would fully publish the report once it is completed.

    Under the $7 billion deal, the IMF had dispatched the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment Mission to Pakistan this year, which met with about three-dozen government and state institutions.

    On the request of Pakistan, the IMF had extended the deadline to publish the report from July to the end of August this year.

    The politically exposed persons include the head of the state, the head of the government, politicians, bureaucrats, judiciary, military officials, and senior executives of the state-owned enterprises, ambassadors and the members of parliament. There are special checks for the opening and operations of bank accounts of the politically exposed persons.

    Whereas the report has identified some major gaps, it has also acknowledged the efforts that the Pakistani authorities made to put in place a basic structure to minimise the chances of corruption and the misuse of the public office by politically exposed persons.

    The draft report states that the identification of the politically exposed persons is guided by regulatory requirements issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for their respective supervised entities.

    It added that the Financial Institutions and Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Persons (DNFBPs) are required to apply enhanced due diligence measures before dealing with the politically exposed persons. The enhanced scrutiny measures include obtaining senior management approval, establishing the source of wealth, and conducting ongoing monitoring.

    But smaller institutions do not effectively apply these safeguards, observed the special mission in its draft. The draft stated that the institutions are largely responsible for developing their own internal systems to identify and manage the risks beyond the official lists given by the regulators.

    The draft report further stated that reporting institutions to the regulators often lacked clarity on corruption-specific typologies and risk indicators. Sources said that the IMF was of the view that despite the specious transaction report guidelines and the red-flag indicators for various sectors and typologies, reporting institutions have limited access to typologies that reflect common methods of laundering corruption proceeds.

    As part of the safeguards, the FBR had also established an online platform through which financial institutions can screen customers against official lists of federal public officials, including senior civil servants serving in grade 17 to 22 and members of parliament.

    The sources said that the IMF has referred to some best international practices adopted by countries like Canada and Colombia, which helped mitigate chances of corruption through better detection of cases.

    Canada has published red flag indicators for transactions involving government contracts, municipal procurement, and politically exposed persons’ related behaviour, use of corporate entities or consultants in public sector schemes, and layered payments, rapid contract turnover, and unexplained wealth accumulation in low-salary public roles.

    Likewise, Colombia’s financial intelligence unit developed sectoral indicators targeting healthcare procurement during Covid pandemic, SOE-linked laundering via construction firms and extractive industries, and payments routed through regional entities to avoid detection.

    The sources said that Pakistan could benefit from issuing specific guidance on identifying unusual financial behaviour linked to the politically exposed persons and state contracts.

    The spokesman of the Ministry of Finance did not respond to the questions whether the consultations on the IMF findings have been completed and would the report be published by end of this month.

    The sources said that the Ministry of Finance had given last Friday a deadline to the various departments to respond to the IMF’s observations and recommendations. Some of the entities have accepted a few observations while others have sought revisions by disagreeing with the IMF’s findings.

    The sources said that due to the cumbersome process involved in going through every recommendation, there is a possibility that the government may take longer than required time to publish the document.

    Continue Reading

  • Popular Diabetes Drugs Linked to Small Risk of Retinal, Optic Nerve Disorders – MedPage Today

    1. Popular Diabetes Drugs Linked to Small Risk of Retinal, Optic Nerve Disorders  MedPage Today
    2. Study Counters Others on GLP-1, Diabetic Retinopathy Link  Medscape
    3. GLP-1 Therapy for Type II Diabetes Linked to Eye Disorders  Inside Precision Medicine
    4. Weight loss jabs like Mounjaro and Wegovy could make you go BLIND, experts warn  Daily Mail
    5. Ozempic Vision Loss? What to Know About GLP-1 Drugs And Eyes  TODAY.com

    Continue Reading

  • This Chemical Trick Could Turn Losing Malaria Drug Into a Winner

    This Chemical Trick Could Turn Losing Malaria Drug Into a Winner

    The search for new ways to treat malaria — a disease that kills some 600,000 people a year, most of them children in Sub-Saharan Africa — may have just gotten a boost.

    Chemists at UC San Francisco have found a way to rearrange the atoms in a new generation of malaria drugs to make them easier to put into pill form without forfeiting their effectiveness against the malaria parasite.

    New malaria drugs are desperately needed. The parasite that causes the disease has developed resistance to today’s best therapies and is spreading from Southeast Asia into Africa.

    “Now that drug resistance is in Africa, many more lives are at risk,” said Adam Renslo, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry in the UCSF School of Pharmacy and senior author of the paper. “These new molecules could give us the upper hand we need to control this deadly disease.”

    The work, which appears Aug. 8 in Science Advances, was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

    The drawn-out battle against malaria

    For centuries, malaria has been known for causing cyclical and sometimes deadly fevers. In the 1950s, chemists developed new and more potent malaria drugs based on quinine, an anti-malarial compound found in plants.

    Over time, the parasites evolved to resist the best of these drugs, chloroquine, and the global health community scrambled to find new ones.

    Today’s most essential anti-malarial therapies include a compound called artemisinin that is found in sweet wormwood, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. As with quinine, artemisinin gave chemists inspiration to make more effective drugs.

    Artemisinin was combined with other effective drugs into a cocktail, known as artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), that became the standard malaria treatment. But resistance appeared once again.

    “We’ve tracked artemisinin resistance for years in Southeast Asia, but we’re now seeing it spread to Africa, where 95% of cases and 95% of deaths occur,” said Phil Rosenthal, MD, professor of medicine at UCSF and co-author of the paper. “Given how long it takes to develop new drugs, there is widespread consensus that we need better drugs to circumvent this resistance ASAP.”

    Saved by a quirk of drug chemistry

    Two vials of new malaria drugs. Artefenomel, on the left, was supposed to be the next generation of malaria drug, but was pulled from clinical trials because of its difficulty to formulate and make into a pill. In the right-most vial, the researchers rearranged some of the atoms of artefenomel to make it less symmetrical, resulting in a new chemical that dissolves easily and should work much more readily as a medicine.

    Artefenomel, a newer artemisinin-inspired variant, was intended to replace ACTs in time to stanch the spread of artemisinin resistance. It was potent enough that scientists hoped it could cure malaria in a single dose. This would have been an improvement over ACTs, which must be taken for three days in a row to be effective.

    “For a disease like malaria, you would ideally like to cure the patient with one pill or a handful of pills and be done with it,” Renslo said. “A multi-day regimen risks missing a dose.”

    But artefenomel proved difficult to study in clinical trials. Because it resisted dissolving, it needed to be shaken up with a liquid and swallowed quickly. This finicky nature also made it hard to combine with other drugs in a pill.

    Children also had trouble keeping the liquid form down after drinking it, making it hard to know whether they had received the intended dose. In January of 2025, artefenomel was pulled from clinical trials.

    Renslo and his team realized that the symmetry of the artefenomel molecule might be the problem. Highly symmetrical molecules tend to clump into crystals that are slow to dissolve.

    The scientists thought that a less-symmetric version of artefenomel might avoid this clumping and dissolve more readily, making it easier to put into pill form. Their first successful attempt at making this molecule proved them right when it disappeared immediately into a water-like solution.

    The team continued tweaking the new molecules, testing how they worked against malaria parasites in cells, and then animals, and finally against artemisinin-resistant parasites sourced from blood samples from malaria patients in Uganda.

    The optimized compound passed with flying colors: it was just as potent as artefenomel, and much more effective than artemisinin, against artemisinin-resistant parasites.

    “We’re optimistic that a simple chemical change like this can pave the way for an effective successor to artemisinin,” Renslo said, “one that’s cheap to make and easy to combine with other anti-malarial drugs.”

    Authors: Other UCSF authors are Matthew T. Klope, PhD, Poulami Talukder, PhD, Brian R. Blank, PhD, Jun Chen, PhD, Ryan L. Gonciarz, PhD, Priyadarshini Jaishankar, MS, Jenny Legac, Vineet Mathur, Avani Narayan, Juan A.Tapia, MS, and Aswathy Vinod. For all authors see the paper.

    Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (AI075045, AI139179, AI105106, and CA260860).

    Continue Reading

  • LHC refuses to hear Zartaj Gul’s appeals without appearance

    LHC refuses to hear Zartaj Gul’s appeals without appearance





    LHC refuses to hear Zartaj Gul’s appeals without appearance – Daily Times

































    Continue Reading

  • Women who have experienced stalking have a higher risk of heart disease, study shows : NPR

    Women who have experienced stalking have a higher risk of heart disease, study shows : NPR

    A big, new study shows women who are victims of stalking are at significantly higher risk of heart disease.



    ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

    Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, and many of the risk factors, like smoking or high blood pressure, are well known. But new research out today shows there’s something else to consider. Women who have experienced physical threats, specifically stalking, have a 41% higher risk of cardiovascular disease. NPR’s Katia Riddle reports.

    KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: Being stalked is obviously incredibly scary and stressful, but it’s often thought of in terms of a psychological experience. This research links that psychological stress to declines in physical health. Rebecca Lawn is one of the researchers who worked on this study, which was put out by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

    REBECCA LAWN: We knew that violence is not good for health, but it’s still something that’s not commonly considered in health care.

    RIDDLE: The data comes from a study of more than 66,000 women nurses. Researchers followed their health over a period of 20 years.

    LAWN: There’s so many types of violence that women experience, and stalking is one that is particularly understudied.

    RIDDLE: The risk was especially high for women who had obtained a restraining order. That can be an indicator of severe stalking. For people in this group, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease was 70% higher than others. Liz Tobin-Tyler is a professor at Brown University who studies public health and women. She was not involved in the study. She says this research has practical implications for the entire field of health care.

    LIZ TOBIN-TYLER: As a researcher who pays a lot of attention to violence against women and the effect of violence against women on their health, it’s critical that health care providers are aware of the linkages here.

    RIDDLE: The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. Tobin-Tyler says she worries that longitudinal studies that look at risk factors for women are in jeopardy under the Trump administration. They’ve recently canceled funding both for the NIH and for various research efforts that focus specifically on women’s health.

    TOBIN-TYLER: Now, if we’re not studying those things, we’re really going to lose out in terms of understanding a range of issues related to women’s health, including, as this study pointed out, cardiovascular disease.

    RIDDLE: The study may just be about women, she says, but it’s relevant for every member of society.

    Katia Riddle, NPR News.

    (SOUNDBITE OF A-YUE CHAN’S “SINKING”)

    Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

    Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

    Continue Reading

  • Women who have experienced stalking have a higher risk of heart disease, study shows – WRVO

    1. Women who have experienced stalking have a higher risk of heart disease, study shows  WRVO
    2. Risk for Incident CVD Increased for Women Who Reported Experiencing Stalking  Diabetes In Control
    3. Experiencing stalking may raise heart disease, stroke risk in women by over 40 pc: Study  SakshiPost
    4. Study: Women who have been stalked have higher heart health risks  upi.com
    5. Being Stalked Raises Heart Disease Risk for Women  Everyday Health

    Continue Reading

  • Wall Street stocks end down, inflation data, China trade in focus

    Wall Street stocks end down, inflation data, China trade in focus

    Wall Street’s main indexes ended lower on Monday as investors anxiously await inflation data this week to assess the outlook for interest rates and eye U.S.-China trade developments.

    Investors expect the recent shakeup at the U.S. Federal Reserve and signs of labor market weakness could nudge the central bank into adopting a dovish monetary policy stance later this year, fueling much of the optimism.

    July’s consumer inflation report is due on Tuesday, and investors anticipate that the Fed will lower borrowing costs by about 60 basis points by December, according to data compiled by LSEG.

    “The inflation data is starting to embody the more direct tariff impacts on the consumer, raising concern that inflation will remain sticky,” said Eric Teal, chief investment officer at Comerica Wealth Management.

    “Lower inflationary readings and slower growth numbers are needed to support the case for lower rates.”

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 200.52 points, or 0.45%, lower to 43,975.09, the S&P 500 lost 16.00 points, or 0.25%, to 6,373.45 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 64.62 points, or 0.3%, to 21,385.40.

    Shares of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices were volatile through the day, ending 0.35% and 0.28% lower respectively.

    A U.S. official told Reuters the semiconductor majors had agreed to give the United States government 15% of revenue from sales of their advanced chips to China.

    Analysts said the levy could hit the chipmakers’ margins and set a precedent for Washington to tax critical U.S. exports, potentially extending beyond semiconductors.

    Separately, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending a pause in sharply higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports for another 90 days, a White House official said.

    Enabling semiconductor sales to China was an integral issue in the agreement Washington and Beijing signed this year, which expires on Tuesday. Trump lauded China’s cooperation in talks at a White House press conference on Monday.

    Traders took a step back after the S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq last week logged their strongest weekly performances in more than a month.

    Citigroup and UBS Global Research became the latest brokerages to raise their year-end targets for the benchmark S&P 500.

    Micron Technology raised its forecast for fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted profit, boosting its shares 4%.

    Intel rallied 3.5% after a report said CEO Lip-Bu Tan arrived at the White House on Monday. Trump had called for his removal last week.

    TKO surged 10% after Paramount bought the rights from the live entertainment company to exclusively distribute UFC events for the next seven years in a deal valued at around $7.7 billion.

    Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 251 new highs and 98 new lows on the NYSE.

    On the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.24-to-1 ratio.

    The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 73 new highs and 121 new lows.

    Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 15.5 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 18.3 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

    Continue Reading

  • Vestas adds 950 MW to Q3 order intake

    Vestas adds 950 MW to Q3 order intake

    Press Release:

    News release from Vestas-American Wind Technology
    Portland, August 11, 2025
     

    Vestas is proud to have received orders for 950 MW in the USA for undisclosed projects.

    Media inquiries:
    Matt Copeman
    Lead Specialist, Marketing & Communications
    Mail: mtcoe@vestas.com
    Tel: +1 (503) 475-6428

    About Vestas
    Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 190 GW of wind turbines in 88 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 157 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas’ more than 35,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future.

    For updated Vestas photographs and videos, please visit our media images page on: https://www.vestas.com/en/media/images

    We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and following us on our social media channels:

    Continue Reading

  • iOS 26 beta hints at upcoming AirPods live translation gesture

    iOS 26 beta hints at upcoming AirPods live translation gesture

    When Apple announced Live Translation at WWDC25, it highlighted use cases like FaceTime, phone calls, and messages. But one major use case was missing: real-world conversations. As it turns out, that was in the works too.

    New image hints at new AirPods gesture

    In today’s iOS 26 developer beta 6, we spotted a new system asset that appears to depict a gesture triggered by pressing both AirPods stems at once.

    The image displays text in English, Portuguese, French, and German, and it is associated with the Translate app. For now, we can confirm it’s associated specifically with the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and AirPods (4th generation).

    Real-world live translation is right up the wearable wheelhouse

    While Apple didn’t mention real-world translation for AirPods during the WWDC25 keynote, Bloomberg had reported earlier in the year that this feature was in the works. This feels like a natural extension of the Live Translation features already announced for FaceTime, Messages, and Phone, and it is also a strong use case for wearables in general, something we’ve already seen with devices like the Meta Ray-Bans.

    At this point, it’s unclear which iPhones will support the new gesture, as it is very unlikely that the feature will run entirely on the AirPods. But it’s reasonable to assume the cutoff will align with Apple’s official hardware requirements for other Live Translation features:

    Live Translation in Messages is available in Chinese (Simplified), English (UK, US), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain) when Apple Intelligence is enabled on a compatible iPhone, iPad or Mac, as well as on Apple Watch Series 9 and later and Apple Watch Ultra 2 when paired with an Apple Intelligence–enabled iPhone.

    Live Translation in Phone and FaceTime is available for one-to-one calls in English (UK, US), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain) when Apple Intelligence is enabled on a compatible iPhone, iPad or Mac.

    Bit of speculation

    Given the need of an even lower latency for real-world interactons, it is possible that this feature may be exclusive to the iPhone 17 lineup, which could help explain why Apple has kept it under wraps until now.

    Speculation aside, what we do know is that Apple appears to be prepping the release of a live translation feature associated with AirPods, and that’s exciting enough, especially for anyone living abroad or traveling somewhere the language is unfamiliar.

    Could you see yourself using AirPods for live translation? Let us know in the comments.

    AirPods deals on Amazon

    FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

    Continue Reading