IDP Education Reviews Costs As International Student Numbers Dip
Sydney-listed IDP said there was heightened unpredictability in the UK, with further restrictions on student immigration expected, while the international student environment in the US was increasingly negative. Restrictive policies remained in place in Australia and Canada.
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Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
UBS Recommends Options Pair Trade to Ride S&P 500's Grind Higher
(Bloomberg) -- The slow and steady march higher in the US stock market has been a painful ride for traders expecting President Donald Trump's tariffs to derail a rally that's lasted for more than four months. While there's no guarantee the quiet climb to fresh records will continue, those willing to bet it will should consider putting on a moderately bullish options trade known as a call ratio spread, according to Maxwell Grinacoff, head of US equity derivatives research at UBS Group AG. The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider Sunseeking Germans Face Swiss Backlash Over Alpine Holiday Congestion To Head Off Severe Storm Surges, Nova Scotia Invests in 'Living Shorelines' Five Years After Black Lives Matter, Brussels' Colonial Statues Remain For Homeless Cyclists, Bikes Bring an Escape From the Streets The strategy involves buying a call option that's near-the-money, meaning it will profit if the S&P 500 goes up by a relatively small amount in the next month. To fund the trade, he suggests selling twice the number of calls at a significantly higher level. The key to putting on the trade is picking a point where you believe the S&P 500 will be in a month, while correctly choosing a higher level that it's unlikely to hit. 'What ends up happening is, as the market is slowly grinding higher, the one that you're long makes money,' explained Grinacoff. 'And the two that you're short, you typically strike it at a level where you just don't think the S&P is going to get to by expiry.' Grinacoff first suggested the trade to clients in early June and it has performed well. There are good reasons to believe it could continue to be profitable as the index quietly scales new heights following a surprisingly strong earnings season and mostly in-line inflation data that has fueled anticipation of upcoming Federal Reserve rate cuts. Elsewhere in options markets, traders also appear to be expecting further gains ahead. Those who had hedged are abandoning pessimistic positions, pushing the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) — which gauges the expected volatility in the S&P 500 over the next month — to its lowest level since Christmas Eve of last year. The VIX dropped to the same level as the S&P 500's 10-day realized volatility on Tuesday for the first time since late May, indicating concerns over a tariff-driven selloff are fading. The plunge in the VIX — which has dropped to about 14 from over 20 at the start of the month — was driven by 'capitulation' among those hedging for an August tariff tantrum that has yet to arrive, according to Mandy Xu, head of derivatives market intelligence at Cboe Global Markets Inc. The continued move higher in stocks has been 'frustrating a lot of hedgers, who are throwing in the towel at this point,' Xu told Bloomberg. There is one risk on the horizon that could interrupt the continued slow and steady march higher in the S&P 500 in the next month. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at the central bank's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Aug. 23, an annual event that is often used to signal the near-term outlook for US monetary policy. While fed-funds futures traders are currently fully pricing in a quarter percentage point reduction in the benchmark rate in September, and 2.5 cuts of that size by the end of the year, an especially hawkish speech by Powell could suddenly cause expectations to shift and create market volatility. Still, even that event is not expected to shake up the S&P 500 too much: Options markets are pricing in an impled move of about 0.67% on the day of the speech, less than the 0.83% implied move after Nvidia Corp.'s earnings report the following week, according to Citigroup equity trading strategists led by Stuart Kaiser. The call ratio spread recommended by Grinacoff is 'pretty standard trade in this environment,' said Xu. 'What you are looking to express is that the market is going to grind higher.' --With assistance from Jessica Menton. Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates Dubai's Housing Boom Is Stoking Fears of Another Crash Why It's Actually a Good Time to Buy a House, According to a Zillow Economist Bessent on Tariffs, Deficits and Embracing Trump's Economic Plan The Electric Pickup Truck Boom Turned Into a Big Bust ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Business Insider
14 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Western trainers who haven't fought anything like the Ukraine war are readying Kyiv's soldiers to fight the Russians. Oddly, it works.
Western instructors are teaching Ukrainian troops how to fight a war they've never fought themselves, but it works, officials say. More than 56,000 Ukrainian troops have been trained by Western allies under the UK-led Operation Interflex since June 2022, giving Ukraine's soldiers the skills they need to survive and fight in Europe's biggest land war since World War II. Strangely, many of the Ukrainian troops who come to training arrive straight from the front lines — fresh from trench assaults, drone strikes, and days under artillery fire — while some of the instructors have never fought in a war like the one they came from. Col. Boardman, commanding officer for Operation Interflex, told Business Insider that the UK's Ministry of Defence is well aware of this unusual dynamic. Far from being a disadvantage, he said, the mix of Western warfighting doctrine and Ukrainian battlefield experience produces tactics that are better than either side's knowledge alone. "I'm conscious of our need to have credibility even though we may not have up-to-date combat experience of this type," he said. "But I don't see that as a disqualifying factor, if you like, because I think we do have the institutional credibility and expertise that what we're teaching is genuinely valued, not only at the top end of the Ukrainian military, but right all the way down through to those who actually go through the training." A different type of war The West hasn't fought a major war against a powerful, industrialized military in decades. Most NATO combat experience in recent memory comes from the counterinsurgency and counterterrorism campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Western forces enjoyed air superiority and faced smaller, less-equipped adversaries. Some Interflex trainers weren't even in Iraq or Afghanistan, having joined after those conflicts ended. Ukraine is battling one of the world's largest militaries in a grinding, high-casualty war with no control of the skies. Russia's relentless artillery fire, missile strikes, and widespread use of drones have reshaped the battlefield in ways NATO has not faced for generations, or in some cases at all. For years, Western militaries were heavily focused on counterinsurgency skills while maintaining a theoretical capability for large-scale war. Boardman acknowledged this, while saying the UK did not lose the capability for major operations: "I think naturally you do shape yourself for the moment." Now, Boardman said, there's a renewed focus on combating a well-armed foe. That has meant dusting off tactics such as trench warfare and learning as much as possible from Ukraine's front-line soldiers about emerging threats like exploding drones. A win-win scenario Boardman said Ukrainian soldiers bring 'a lot of valuable military experience' to the training. That experience often challenges NATO's best practices and leads to adjustments. The Western officials and instructors behind Interflex are "approaching it with a humility of approach that allows us to provide our opinions and our ideas and our teaching, but also learn from some of the feedback that we get," he said. For example, when learning casualty evacuation, Ukrainians sometimes reject NATO's extraction techniques, explaining that in their war, it may be safer to wait until nightfall to move the wounded. In trench warfare lessons, Ukrainians sometimes correct their instructors based on tactics they used in combat just weeks earlier. Those insights are then incorporated into the training. Both sides are learning from the training exercise. Key lessons from Ukraine are feeding directly into Western planning as militaries across Europe prepare for the possibility of a future conflict with Russia. And NATO allies are sharing their skills with Ukraine. Finland, for example, brings forest-warfare expertise to Interflex that Ukraine lacks. "There's no question that's a benefit to the Ukrainians," Boardman said. He explained that there is a "really rich mutual understanding going on" and that the training program "ends up with the sum being much greater than the parts, which is really valuable for us." Ukraine's expertise with drones, particularly the first-person-view attack drones, has been especially valuable, especially considering the changes to the operating environment since Iraq and Afghanistan. Boardman said that while the UK has drone operators and instructors, 'we are not currently at war, so we are not developing them at the same pace that the Ukrainians are.' He said Ukraine is "very good at sharing the understanding with us," which also helps the UK and other Western militaries. Bracing for more war Boardman said he recognizes that it can be a bit "uncomfortable" for trainers to teach trench assaults without having actually done it personally, but the West has a lot of institutional credibility from past military operations and combat successes that give "us license, effectively, to do this training." Ukraine, he said, is asking for the training. "We're not just asking them to come and be trained here; it's Ukrainians who are asking us to do it." Exit interviews show how much Ukraine values the training, Boardman said: "The overriding theme is one of gratitude for the training that they've been a part of." Highlighting the value of the training, Ukraine has requested that it be extended. He said Ukraine places a lot of value on NATO and Western military doctrine because while "they may have the current battle experience," the Ukrainians "know that we have some of the history, some of the hard-won experience of this in the past." But again, the West also sees tremendous value in learning from this war and the Ukrainian experiences. "This isn't a completely charitable activity," Boardman explained. "There is a big benefit to us in doing this that we are learning an awful lot from our engagement with this war." Boardman said that information and tactics from Ukraine are fed to the UK and allies. The West wants insights from this war, with many European allies fearing Russia may attack elsewhere on the continent. They are closely watching Ukraine to see what kinds of tactics and weaponry they need to adopt for such a conflict. "We want to teach them as much as we can," Boardman said of the Ukrainians and the war against Russia. "We also want to learn from it so we can benefit ourselves."
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Scientists fear political meddling after Ontario premier vows to hunt down anyone testing on dogs
Some researchers say they're concerned about possible political interference in science after Ontario's premier said he would be "hunting down" scientists who use dogs and cats in medical studies. On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford said it was unacceptable for beagles to be used in cardiac research that had been approved by London's Lawson Research Institute and St. Joseph's Health Care London, and promised to introduce legislation to ban testing on certain animals. "I have now directed our team to start hunting down anyone else doing research on dogs or cats," Ford told a news conference in Windsor. "If you're doing this with dogs or cats, you gotta stop before I catch you. ... We're going to legislate this ... You aren't gonna be going after animals like that." Félix Proulx-Giraldeau is executive director of Evidence for Democracy, which advocates for integrating scientific evidence in government decision-making. Proulx-Giraldeau took issue with Ford referencing specific medical work. "In this case, what was a little bit concerning was the threat that seemed to be directly addressed to certain researchers," he said. "We have a strong and independent ethics board in Canada, and their job is specifically to review and oversee all research to ensure it's humane and necessary. My concern is that when politicians publicly direct what kinds of research can or cannot be done, especially with language that sounds like a threat, it risks bypassing those established processes." Ford's comments came after a report by the Investigative Journalism Bureau at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health revealed researchers were inducing three-hour heart attacks in dogs before euthanizing them. On Monday, St. Joseph's said it would immediately end research involving dogs "following consultations with the province." CBC News has made multiple requests for an interview, but the hospital has declined. Ford's office has not responded to questions about whether it directly ordered the cardiac testing to end. Overstepping oversight committees Institutions with researchers seeking federal funding are also required to have an animal care committee (ACC) to oversee any animal-based research. Lawson Research Institute's ACC is through Western University in London. "I can tell you from my many years on the ACC, there isn't a single researcher, veterinarian, vet tech or animal care worker that doesn't have animal welfare at heart," Western ACC chair Arthur Brown said. "But there's an equal amount of pride and accomplishment in terms of what we've been able to do in terms of scientific, and in particular medical, advancements. It's a nuanced and complex issue. The Investigative Journalism Bureau's article "brought out an emotional response in many people, and this included the premier, so it's sort of understandable how he would want to respond. I just wish he would have taken a step back." Brendon Samuels, who served on Western's ethics committee when he was a graduate student, thinks the hospital's decision to end its animal research came down to political pressure. "It's a bit unusual and unprecedented in the sense that normally if research activities were to be discontinued, it would come at the direction of a regulatory body that would have good reason for doing that," he said, adding that welfare committees also check on animals' status throughout the research process. "This is overstepping the role of oversight bodies and expert consensus to deal with issues on the front lines. I don't think it is appropriate for politicians to be micromanaging, inserting themselves and arbitrating what is considered proper or improper in these regulated environments," Samuels said. Eroding public trust The broader concern of politicians interfering with research, according to Proulx-Giraldeau, is an erosion of public trust in science. "It makes it look like evidence is secondary to political opinion," he said, pointing to cuts to medical and other scientific research in the U.S. since the start early this year of President Donald Trump's second administration. "When we see political figures discourage researchers from pursuing certain topics, even those with potential benefits, it actually weakens our research environment as a whole and our global reputation when it comes to research." Proulx-Giraldeau said political interference also perpetuates myths that scientists are paid by the government to do as they're told. "This is not true in reality, so when we have examples like this of science being steered in a direction that works against independence … it really works against the public image of science." Still, all three researchers agree that politicians should have a voice in scientific research, so long as it is informed. "All research is political. What questions we ask, what we invest resources into, how we approach those questions and how we publish those results is culturally determined and political," Samuels said. "I think politicians have an important role to play in driving forward regulatory improvements." Brown said political involvement also allows the public to be part of scientific discussion. "I think the public should have a say through their politicians, who then enact regulations that are carried out for them. That's what we do have [already] — we just need to use it or let it operate correctly."
