‘Highly CONFLICTED': Trump sparks fall that wipes away billions as he pushes for Intel CEO to resign
'The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,' Trump posted on Truth Social. 'There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!'
Trump made the post after Senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel chairman Frank Yeary expressing concern over CEO Lip-Bu Tan's investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, and asked the board whether Tan had divested his interests in these companies to eliminate any conflicts of interest.
Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment, so it is not immediately clear if Tan, who took over as Intel's CEO in March, has divested his interests in the companies.
Intel shares slid 3.1 per cent, wiping billions off the market value of the $US86.5 billion ($132.6 billion) company on a day when Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq index edged higher
'In March 2025, Intel appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO,' Cotton wrote in the letter. 'Mr. Tan reportedly controls dozens of Chinese companies and has a stake in hundreds of Chinese advanced-manufacturing and chip firms. At least eight of these companies reportedly have ties to the Chinese People's Liberation Army.'
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Cotton specifically called out Tan's recent leadership of Cadence Design Systems in the letter. According to the US Department of Justice, Cadence, in July, agreed to plead guilty to resolve charges that it violated export controls rules to sell hardware and software to China's National University of Defence Technology, which is linked to the Chinese military. Tan was the CEO of Cadence when the company violated the rules between 2015 and 2021.
The US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security also fined Candence $US95 million ($146 million) for the same breaches, saying Cadence admitted that 'employees of its Chinese subsidiary knowingly transferred sensitive US technology to entities that develop supercomputers in support of China's military modernisation and nuclear weapons programs.'
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West Australian
16 minutes ago
- West Australian
‘AI-powered manipulation' will still reach children's inboxes under Australia's under 16s ban, experts warn
Porn and 'AI-powered manipulation' will still be able to reach children 's inboxes in Australia's under 16s social media ban, as experts warn parents still need to teach digital literacy. Bubbling beneath the surface of Messenger's chat-interface, users can still access a string of extreme artificial intelligence-powered chat bots and receive unsolicited sexual-related messages. Unlike YouTube, Facebook , Tik Tok , X, or Instagram , the app won't be excluded under rules released by the Federal Government — despite being owned by Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company. The rules state 'services that have the sole or primary purpose of enabling end‑users to communicate by means of messaging, email, voice calling or video calling' will not be captured in the ban. While Messenger had previously been part of Facebook's interface, it has become its own separate communication platform — meaning users no longer have to hold an active Facebook profile to access it. A deep dive into the app has found AI bots based on 'Satan', 'Your drunk dad', 'POTUS Trump', 'Illuminati' and 'Smash or pass' that users can join. Created by a user called ' the Satan AI bot claims to have sent 1.8 million messages. Once engaged, the bot brags of a world where 'weaklings beg for scraps' and it encourages users to 'speak your failures'. Another AI bot focused on the violent video game Call of Duty offered up 'tips on a specific gun' and 'weapon builds'. An AI Bot called 'Smash or Pass?' claims to be 'flirtations and playful' and encourages users to engage in a 'simple game' for rating images of sometimes topless AI-generated characters. When asked if underage users could play, it sought confirmation the respondent was an adult but swiftly dropped the age-verification request when asked a new question. Messenger users can also be added to mass chat rooms containing sexually-suggestive messages, pornographic references and external links. A handful uncovered by The West Australian referenced an 'adult chat room', 'adult webcam chat' and 'passion room'. La Trobe University senior lecturer Alexia Maddox warned messaging apps had 'weaker safety infrastructure' than major social media sites and called for a government rethink on the ban rather than playing 'whack-a-mole with platforms'. 'These AI chatbots represent a fundamental shift in online risk — they're not human predators we can arrest, they're algorithmic systems designed to exploit psychological vulnerabilities,' she said. 'The social media ban may inadvertently push children toward less regulated messaging platforms where they're actually more vulnerable to these new AI-powered threats. 'Rather than playing whack-a-mole with platforms, we need safety-by-design across the entire digital ecosystem. 'This requires a completely different safety approach than traditional child protection measures.' As generative AI advances, Dr Maddox expressed concern that 'Satan' and sexual content-type bots would likely only get 'more sophisticated, more persuasive, more psychologically targeted', while legislation failed to keep pace. Dr Maddox called for greater focus on platform accountability rather than user restrictions. She was sceptical about the effectiveness of a government ban and predicted youth would find their way around it with virtual private networks. Instead, she flagged the importance of open communication between parents and children about online activities and the need for platforms to create safer spaces. 'We can't ban our way to child safety online. We need platforms to take responsibility for safety by design, and we need to equip young people with the digital literacy skills to navigate whatever spaces they'll inevitably use for social connection.' She said WhatsApp had already shown via automatic spam detection, easy reporting tools, default privacy settings that other message-based apps could implement greater accountability tools. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had flagged concern during a National Press Club address in June that apps were continuously adapting and adding features, such as AI chat bots. The Commission has released advice dedicated to parents about the use of AI bots and dangers to young people. Mr Albanese has acknowledged that the ban won't be foolproof but has publicly argued that it's still worth doing. Dr Maddox also said there were still unanswered questions about what age verification technology platforms would use. 'Of course, anyone who doesn't have the ability to be recognised by their age tech, or is in some kind of identity transition they will not have access, and that includes all adults,' she added. 'So we definitely need to see what's going to happen with that.' A spokesman for Communication Minister Anika Wells said while some messaging apps were exempt, platforms still had a 'digital duty of care' to prevent harm under the Online Safety Act. 'The duty will complement existing powers under the Act that allow the eSafety Commissioner to direct the removal of cyberbullying material targeted at a child or cyber abuse material targeted at an adult,' he said. 'We are also creating a safer space online through classifications laws and industry codes.' The spokesman said the exemption acknowledged messaging apps were an 'important tool' for young people to communicate.
The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Chaos: Trump drops weather BOM, super tax delay demand, EVs power down
The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable."
AU Financial Review
3 hours ago
- AU Financial Review
Albanese government green lights Chinese critical minerals investor
The Albanese government has waved through Chinese investment in Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources in a surprise move, as Labor has wanted to break Beijing's stranglehold on the global critical mineral supply chain. The decision to allow Chinese battery minerals supplier Canmax Technologies to own almost 2 per cent of Liontown, for about $50 million, comes after the federal government's National Reconstruction Fund Corporation this week also took a $50 million stake in the Perth-based miner.
