The site is home to two 700 MWe PHWRs (Image: screengrab from NPCIL video)
Unit 7 at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project is the third 700 MWe indigenous pressurised heavy water reactor to be connected to the Indian grid.
The unit - which is also known as RAPP-7 - reached first criticality in September and was connected to the northern grid early on Monday.
"With the clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board AERB and passing all tests with flying colours, unit 7 is now synchronised with the National Grid," Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) said in a video released to mark the achievement.
Once a new unit has been connected to the grid, it undergoes a process known as power ascension testing when its power levels are gradually raised - under approval from the regulator - until it reaches full capacity. It will then enter commercial operation.
RAPP-7 follows Kakrapar 3 and 4 in a planned fleet of 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs): unit 3 achieved first criticality in July 2020, was connected to the grid in January 2021 and was declared to be in commercial operation in July 2023. Unit 4, which reached first criticality in December 2023, was connected to the grid in February and entered commercial operation in March 2024.
"NPCIL has mastered the art of building and operating these reactors," the company said.
A second 700 MWe unit, RAPP-8, is also under construction at the site at Rawatbhata, which is already home to six operating PHWRs with a total capacity of 1180 MW. NPCIL said it expects RAPP-8 to be operational "in 2025-26".
The government has sanctioned the "fleet mode" construction of further 700 MWe units at Kaiga in Karnataka; Gorakhpur in Haryana; Chutka in Madhya Pradesh; and Mahi Banswara in Rajasthan.Earlier this year, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman outlined ambitions for the development of at least 100 GW of nuclear energy by 2047 to support India's energy transition efforts. This new capacity would include the development of Indian-designed small modular reactors to be operational by 2033, with amendments to Indian legislation to encourage private sector participation in nuclear projects.India welcomes newest Rajasthan unit to the grid
10-yo paramedic Jack Dawson teaches lifesaving skills – SWNS
Meet the 10-year-old paramedic who teaches adults life-saving procedures as an in-demand mini-medic.
Jack Dawson was just two-years-old when it became obvious he was interested in becoming a paramedic.
His grandfather owns a first response company in Staffordshire, England, and Jack would ride along in his ambulances with the flashing blue lights. By age three, he would start “randomly performing CPR on his teddies, pumping the bear’s chest”.
“So, at the same time he was learning to speak, my husband and I decided to teach him first aid,” said his mother, Danielle. “He was like a sponge. He just picked everything up so quickly.”
Jack, quickly grasped the act of CPR, understanding the different recovery positions, and learned how to use a defibrillator.
Then, at age seven, the youngster started to lead workshop sessions of his own, overseen by his father and other trainers for their charity, Tamworth Have A Heart, which aims to make automatic defibrillators publicly accessible and train people to use them confidently.
Jack teaches both children and adults how to perform CPR and use defibrillators, while also patrolling his town centre and checking that the public defibrillators’ pads and batteries are up to date and fit for use. (Watch a demonstration at the end of the article…)
“His motto was ‘if I can save a life, then you can’,” says Danielle.
The sessions often draw 20-40 people and sometimes Jack gives presentations teaching in front of 100 people.
10-yo mini-medic Jack Dawson teaches lifesaving skills to adults – SWNS
He does step-by-step walkthroughs on how to perform CPR with practice dummies laid on the floor, informing people about the dangers—including “looking into patients airways before pumping, in case of vomit or blood”. He gives tutorials on how to operate defibrillators which are used to revive someone from sudden cardiac arrest.
“He absolutely loves teaching,” Danielle told SWNS news agency. “I’ve never seen him so confident before and the fact he’s helping people to save a life determines him even more.”
“People are very surprised. He gets a lot of positive feedback and even special requests to teach people.
“I think people appreciate the information coming from a child, as it makes them think that if a 10-year-old can do it, then they can.”
Under the name ‘Mini Medic’, Jack has a YouTube channel and a page on TikTok posting medical tutorials and training nights for those unable to attend.
As a result of his community work, the 10-year-old is a finalist for Children of Courage Birmingham Awards.
RSPB Geltsdale Reserve – credit: Ian Taylor CC 2.0.
The British equivalent of the Audubon Society has just announced that what was already England’s largest bird reserve will be increased by 33% after a recent land purchase.
Described as a place that “swarms” with life, the Geltsdale Reserve in the North Pennines range of Cumbria, northern England, will now cover 13,590 acres of moorland, meadows, blanket bog, and woodland.
Owned and operated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Geltsdale is one of the last places in Britain where one can see the hen harrier in its natural habitat. Birds of every description and conservation status inhabit the reserve, and it’s also a UNESCO Geopark for its unique geological formations.
“This is going to be a reserve on a different scale from many of our other sites in England,” said Beccy Speight, the RSPB’s chief executive.
“We are going to achieve an abundance of species and a size that will be unmatched for bird reserves elsewhere. It is going to demonstrate what is possible when it comes to rewilding and protecting birds.”
A hen harrier in Baltisan, Pakistan – credit Imran Shah CC 2.0.
For birdwatchers reading, Geltsdale abounds in black grouse, redshank, nightjar, snipe, whinchat, curlews, ospreys, short-eared owls, and lapwings, dispersed across a vertical rise of 650 meters from an achingly green valley bottom up stately moorland and pasture at an elevation similar to the lower-peaks of the Appalachian range.
“Geltsdale is now the biggest in England,” said Speight. “And that size makes such a difference. When you walk through the reserve during breeding season, it is incredible. The place just swarms with birdlife.”
While Geltsdale is by appearance a slice of old-fashioned and natural England, the RSPB says it has some hi-tech solutions in mind for tackling conservation challenges like vagrant livestock grazing.
Speaking with the Guardian, Dave Morris, the RSPB’s area operations manager for Cumbria and Northeast England, said that the society will work with local ranchers whose properties overlap with the reserve to implement a GPS-monitored ‘invisible’ fencing system.
Because traditional wooden fencing is actually a hazard for low-flying birds like black grouse, cattle and calves will be fitted with collars that emit a high-pitched tone if the animal comes too near a boundary line.
Take care lovers, wherever you are, as Valentine’s Day is soon upon us. Whether you’re in a relationship or want to be in a relationship, research over a number of years shows that February 14 can be a day of broken hearts and broken wallets.
A study by US psychologists in 2004 found that relationship breakups were 27% to 40% higher around Valentine’s Day than at other times of the year. Fortunately, this bleak trend was only found amongst couples on a downward trajectory who weren’t the happiest to begin with.
For stable or improving couples, Valentine’s Day thankfully didn’t serve as a catalyst for breakup. (That said, science has more to say on the predictions of any breakup in a relationship.)
But it’s hard to avoid the pressure of Valentine’s Day. This time of year, television, radio, printed publications and the internet are littered with advertisements reminding people of the upcoming celebration: Buy a gift! Make a reservation! Don’t forget the flowers! And by all means be romantic!.
Think you’re safe and single? Not so fast – ads urging those not in romantic relationships to seek one out (namely, via fee-based dating websites) are rife this time of year.
The origins of Valentine’s Day go back many centuries and it is a time of dubious repute. Originally it was a day set aside to celebrate Christian saints named Valentine (there were many). The association with romantic love was only picked up in the UK during the Middle Ages. Thank you, Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Mass-produced paper Valentines appeared on the scene in the 1800s, and it seems that the commercialisation of the day has increased ever since. Now, many refer to Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark Holiday” – a reference to the popular producer of many Valentine’s cards.
No matter the history, or whether you are a conscientious objector to the commercialisation of love, it is difficult not to get swept up in the sentiment.
Despite the research (mentioned earlier) that Valentine’s Day can be calamitous for some, other research speaks to how to make this day a positive and beneficial one for you and your loved ones.
My funny Valentine
For those not in a romantic relationship, it’s hard to avoid the normative message that you are meant to be in one. But is it worth risking social rejection by asking someone for a date on Valentine’s Day?Unfortunately, science can’t answer that one. What we do know is that social rejection hurts –- literally – according to Professor Naomi Eisenberger, a social psychologist and director of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at UCLA. She found that being socially rejected results in activation in the same brain areas that are active during physical pain.
Even though we may treat physical pain more seriously and regard it as the more valid ailment, the pain of social loss can be equally as distressing, as demonstrated by the activation of pain-related neural circuitry upon social disconnection.
A low dose of over-the-counter pain-killer can buffer against the sting of rejection. And, as silly as it seems, holding a teddy bear after the fact can provide relief.
If you do decide to seek a partner, dating websites and smartphone apps are a popular option. In 2013, 38% of American adults who were “single and looking” used dating websites or apps.
Dating websites such as eHarmony even claim to use scientific principles in their matching system (though this claim has been heavily critiqued by relationship researchers).
On this point, US psychology professor Eli Finkel provides a timely commentary on smartphone dating apps such as Tinder. He says he can see the benefits but he also points out that “algorithm matchmaking” is still no substitute for the real encounter.
As almost a century of research on romantic relationships has taught us, predicting whether two people are romantically compatible requires the sort of information that comes to light only after they have actually met.
The multi-billion dollar dating website industry would have you think it is a path to true-love. Though the fact of the matter is, despite several studies, we simply don’t know if dating websites are any more effective than more traditional approaches to mate-finding. So, on this point, single-and-looking payer beware.
Can’t buy me love
Speaking of money, the consumerism surrounding Valentine’s Day is undeniable. Australians last year spent upwards of A$791 million on gifts and such. Americans are estimated to spend US$19 billion (A$24 billion) this year.
Spending in and of itself, however, isn’t a bad thing. It turns out it’s how you spend that matters.
First, given the choice between buying a thing and buying an experience – ongoing research by Cornell University’s psychology professor Thomas Gilovich favours opting for the latter. Chances are, you’ll be happier.
In the case of Valentine’s Day, spending on a shared experience will make your partner happier too – research from US relationship researcher Art Aron suggests that spending on a shared experience will reap more benefit than a piece of jewelry or a gadget, especially to the extent that this shared experience is new and exciting.
Second, if you’re going to part with that cash in the end, you might as well spend it on someone else. Across numerous experiments (see here, here, here, here and here), individuals instructed to spend on others experienced greater happiness than those instructed to spend the same amount on themselves.
The effect is even stronger if you spend that money on a strong social bond, such as your Valentine.
It’s not always about the gift, sometimes it’s the shared encounter that’s more important. Flickr/julian wylegly, CC BY
Third, if you do give a gift, you’re best to pay heed to any dropped hints by your partner about desired gifts.
This is especially the case if your loved one is a man. In one study, men who received an undesired gift from their partners became pessimistic about the future of their relationship. Women didn’t react quite so poorly to a bad gift.
All you need is love
Of course, don’t think that love is just for lovers – even on Valentine’s Day.
Love Actually anyone?
Given the robustly supported conclusion that close non-romantic friendships can be just as rewarding (and health promoting) as romantic relationships, an alternative is to treat Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to celebrate all of your social relationships.
Scientific research supports the benefits of the following, simple (and free) acts:
simply engaging in chit-chat with those around you could be extremely rewarding
just a few minutes of loving-kindness mediation – wishing for happiness for yourself and those around you – can lead to a sense of deeper connection with others.
If all else fails on Valentine’s Day, then settle back and listen to Stephen Stills’ classic song Love The One You’re With: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”
For its recent Spring/Summer 2025 show, fashion brand Diesel filled a runway with mounds of denim offcuts, making a spectacle of its efforts to reduce waste.
Haunting yet poetic, the “forgotten” byproducts of fashion production were reclaimed and repurposed into something artful. But the irony isn’t lost, given fashion shows like this one demand significant resources.
Diesel’s event is an example of a growing trend towards the “spectacle of sustainability”, wherein performative displays are prioritised over the deeper, structural changes needed to address environmental issues.
Can the fashion industry reconcile its tendency towards spectacle with its environmental responsibilities? The recent spacesuit collaboration between Prada and Axiom Space is one refreshing example of how it can, by leaning into innovation that seeks to advance fashion technology and rewrite fashion norms.
Performance art instead of substantive change
The fashion industry has always relied on some form of spectacle to continue the fashion cycle. Fashion shows mix art, performance and design to create powerful experiences that will grab people’s attention and set the tone for what’s “in”. Promotional material from these shows is shared widely, helping cement new trends.
However, the spectacle of fashion isn’t helpful for communicating the complexity of sustainability. Fashion events tend to focus on surface-level ideas, while ignoring deeper systemic problems such as the popularity of fast fashion, people’s buying habits, and working conditions in garment factories. These problems are connected, so addressing one requires addressing the others.
It’s much easier to host a flashy event that inevitably feeds the problem it purports to fix. International fashion events have a large carbon footprint. This is partly due to how many people they move around the world, as well as their promotion of consumption (whereas sustainability requires buying less).
The pandemic helped deliver some solutions to this problem by forcing fashion shows to go digital. Brands such as Balenciaga, the Congolese brand Hanifa and many more took part in virtual fashion shows with animated avatars – and many pointed to this as a possible solution to the industry’s sustainability issue.
But the industry has now largely returned to live fashion shows. Virtual presentations have been relegated to their own sectors within fashion communication, while live events take centre stage.Many brands, including Prada, held fashion shows without guests during lockdowns in 2021.
Towards a sustainable fashion future
Technology and innovation clearly have a role to play in helping make fashion more sustainable. The recent Prada-Axiom spacesuit collaboration brings this into focus in a new way.
The AxEMU (Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit) suits will be worn by Artemis III crew members during NASA’s planned 2026 mission to the Moon. The suits have been made using long-lasting and high-performance materials that are designed to withstand the extreme conditions of space.
By joining this collaboration, Prada, known for its high fashion, is shifting into a highly symbolic arena of technological advancement. This will likely help position it at the forefront of sustainability and technology discussions – at least in the minds of consumers.
Prada itself has varying levels of compliance when it comes to meeting sustainability goals. The Standard Ethics Ratings has listed it as “sustainable”, while sustainability scoring site Good on You rated it as “not good enough” – citing a need for improved transparency and better hazardous chemical use.
Recently, the brand has been working on making recycled textiles such as nylon fabrics (nylon is a part of the brand DNA) from fishing nets and plastic bottles. It also launched a high-fashion jewellery line made of recycled gold.
Innovating for a changing world
Prada’s partnership with Axiom signifies a milestone in fashion’s ability to impact on high-tech industries. Beyond boosting Prada’s image, such innovations can also lead to more sustainable fashions.
For instance, advanced materials created for spacesuits could eventually be adapted into everyday heat-resistant clothing. This will become increasingly important in the context of climate change, especially in regions already struggling with drought and heatwaves. The IPCC warns that if global temperatures rise by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, twice as many mega-cities are likely to become heat-stressed.
New innovations are trying to help consumers stay cool despite rising temperatures. Nike’s Aerogami is a performance apparel technology that supposedly increases breathability. Researchers from MIT have also designed garment vents that open and close when they sense sweat to create airflow.
Similarly, researchers from Zhengzhou University and the University of South Australia have created a fabric that reflects sunlight and releases heat to help reduce body temperatures. These kinds of cooling textiles (which could also be used in architecture) could help reduce the need for air conditioning.
One future challenge lies in driving demand for these innovations by making them seem fashionable and “cool”. Collaborations like the one between Prada and Axiom are helpful on this front. A space suit – an item typically seen as a functional, long-lasting piece of engineering – becomes something more with Prada’s name on it.
The collaboration also points to a broader potential for brands to use large attention-grabbing projects to convey their sustainability credentials. In this way they can combine spectacle with sustainability. The key will be in making sure one doesn’t come at the expense of the other.
On Halloween, the cinemas and TV channels are filled with horror movies. But what should you do if you have a young child who wants to watch too?
Many of us have a childhood memory of a movie that gave us nightmares and took us to a new level of fear. Maybe this happened by accident. Or maybe it happened because an adult guardian didn’t choose the right movie for your age.
For me it was The Exorcist. It was also the movie that frightened my mum when she was a youngster. She had warned me not to watch it. But I did. I then slept outside my parents’ room for months for fear of demonic possession.
Parents often ask about the right age for “scary” movies. A useful resource is The Australian Council of Children and the Media, which provides colour-coded age guides for movies rated by child development professionals.
Let’s suppose, though, that you have made the decision to view a scary movie with your child. What are some good rules of thumb in managing this milestone in your child’s life?
Watch with a parent or a friend
Research into indirect experiences can help us understand what happens when a child watches a scary movie. Indirect fear experiences can involve watching someone else look afraid or hurt in a situation or verbal threats (such as “the bogeyman with sharp teeth will come at midnight for children and eat them”).
Children depend very much on indirect experiences for information about danger in the world. Scary movies are the perfect example of these experiences. Fortunately, research also shows that indirectly acquired fears can be reduced by two very powerful sources of information: parents and peers.
In one of our recent studies, we showed that when we paired happy adult faces with a scary situation, children showed greater fear reduction than if they experienced that situation on their own. This suggests that by modelling calm and unfazed behaviour, or potentially even expressing enjoyment about being scared during a movie (notice how people burst into laughter after a jump scare at theatres?), parents may help children be less fearful.
How a parent discusses the movie with their child is also important. Children do not have enough experience to understand the statistical probability of dangerous events occurring in the world depicted on screen. For example, after watching Jaws, a child might assume that shark attacks are frequent and occur on every beach.
Children need help to contextualise the things they see in movies. One way of discussing shark fears after viewing Jaws might be to help your child investigate the statistics around shark attacks (the risk of being attacked is around 1 in 3.7 million) and to acquire facts about shark behaviours (such as that they generally do not hunt humans).
These techniques are the basis of cognitive restructuring, which encourages fact-finding rather than catastrophic thoughts to inform our fears. It is also an evidence-based technique for managing excessive anxiety in children and adults.
Exposure therapy
If your child is distressed by a movie, a natural reaction is to prevent them watching it again. I had this unfortunate experience when my seven-year-old daughter accidentally viewed Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, which featured a monster with knives for limbs who ate children’s eyeballs for recreation.
My first instinct was to prevent my daughter watching the movie again. However, one of the most effective ways of reducing excessive and unrealistic fear is to confront it again and again until that fear diminishes into boredom. This is called exposure therapy.
To that end, we subjected her and ourselves to the same movie repeatedly while modelling calm and some hilarity - until she was bored. We muted the sound and did silly voice-overs and fart noises for the monster. We drew pictures of him with a moustache and in a pair of undies. Thankfully, she no longer identifies this movie as one that traumatised her.
However, when done well and with adequate support (you may need an experienced psychologist if you are not confident), it is one of the most effective techniques for reducing fear following a scary event like an accidental horror movie.
Fear is normal
Did I ever overcome my fear of The Exorcist? It took my mother checking my bed, laughing with me about the movie, and re-affirming that being scared is okay and normal for me to do so (well done mum!)
Colette Baker, Finley Jarvis, and Zoey Pidgeon-Hampton with their new Open Bionics arms – credit: SWNS
Three children were overjoyed after receiving ‘the best Christmas present in the world’—bionic arms.
Zoey Hampton-Pigeon, Finley Jarvis, and Colette Baker were given their new ‘life-changing’ Hero Arms on December 12th thanks to the fundraising work of a woman whose own child needed a prosthetic years ago.
Sarah Lockey saw her daughter Tilly lose both hands to meningitis. Today though, Tilly is a confident young woman who wears two Hero Arms daily, who hosts, together with her mom, a fundraising campaign every year called the Big Hero 3, which selects three random children across the UK to receive a prosthetic made by the Open Bionics Foundation.
Advanced, intuitive, robust, and light, the Hero Arm is “the world’s most affordable advanced multi-grip prosthetic arm,” according to the Foundation. The Hero Arm is available in over 801 locations across the US for below-elbow amputee adults and children aged 8 and above, and all throughout the UK where it is manufactured.
This year, the Big Hero 3 campaign raised £20,000. Two other charitable foundations, along with an anonymous donor, made up the rest of the £40,000 required, allowing Finley, Colette, and Zoey to have what will probably be the best Christmas ever.
To wit, Colette’s mom Alyse said her daughter ‘screamed’ when she found out she was not only receiving a Hero Arm, but would get one before Christmas.
“For Ettie, she’s excited about being able to do things like handstands, ride her bike without an adaption, and tying her shoes,” she said. “As parents, we are excited about these things too, but also all the other ways the Hero Arm will change Ettie’s life.”
Zoey was born with a missing limb, which the family discovered during an ultrasound in the 20th week.
“When Zoey was born she saw several specialists but there are no answers about why this happened to Zoey, it’s just one of those things,” said her father Thomas.
His daughter is an active young girl and member of a gymnastics club. She goes to swimming lessons and loves trampolining, but she’s most looking forward to being able to use a jump rope.
“A Hero Arm will make such a massive difference to her independence enabling her to do all these tasks, as well as her beloved skipping, without relying on help from others.”
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The last child is Finley Jarvis—born with no hand due to his mom being involved in a serious car accident whilst carrying him.
“Finn is a happy-go-lucky boy—he is kind, fearless, and extremely switched on,” said his father Ben. “He is now 11 and about to attend Brymore Academy secondary school—an agricultural school. With this opportunity of a Big Hero Arm the possibilities for him to excel are endless.”
The 2025 Australian Open (AO) broadcast may seem similar to previous years if you’re watching on the television. However, if you’re watching online via the official Australian Open TV YouTube channel you’ll encounter a distinctly different kind of coverage.
The channel’s “AO Animated” coverage looks more like a Wii Sports tennis match than a real one, with players’ physical forms replaced with virtual avatars.
Fans that have viewed the live streams are divided, with comments ranging from “This is the best kinda live” to “What the hell is this? Why can’t we watch normal? This is utterly ridiculous”.
So what’s the answer? Why can’t we watch normal?
How does it work?
The system that creates the AO Animated streams uses 12 cameras that track the silhouette of the players. This data is then fed into a system and stitched to 29 points on an animated character – the player’s graphical reproduction. The result is a live stream with a two-minute delay that includes commentary and sound from the court.
For those who have seen it, you’ll notice the system is far from perfect. There are glitches with the ball, racquets vanishing and reappearing, clothes changing or appearing to have holes, and fingers remaining straight when they should be gripping the racquet. As Tennis Australia’s director of innovation, Machar Reid, notes, “It’s not as seamless as it could be.”
Although AO Animated was introduced last year, it has only recently become a major talking point among tennis fans. Many learned about the animated live streams through an X post by tennis reporter Bastien Fachan, who points them out as a way for the Australian Open to sidestep limits placed by current media rights agreements.
Nine has paid A$425 million for a five year deal (until 2029) that allows the network the domestic linear and digital rights to the Australian Open and lead-in events, including the United Cup.
Internationally, the BeIN media group has the broadcast rights for 24 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, while ESPN has held the broadcast rights for the United States and Canada since 1984 (and will remain these rights until at least 2031).
Yet the AO has found a way to sidestep these exclusive media rights deals by using animated avatars on YouTube – a decision that raises several questions about the future of sports broadcasting and media rights deals.
Future media rights
As of when this article was published, the AO Animated video of Botic van de Zandschulp playing Alex de Minaur had more than 35,000 views. The most viewed match, with more than 160,000 views, was between Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca.
But these are paltry numbers compared to the 1.9 million Australians who tuned into Nine’s TV broadcast of the night session on day three (in which Botic van de Zandschulp played Alex de Minaur).
A closer look at the ratings also reveals it is overwhelmingly older Australians who are tuning in, with 838,000 viewers aged 25–54, compared to 414,000 aged 16–39. You might suspect younger Australian are streaming the tennis via Nine’s video-on-demand platform, but even here an older viewership dominates.
It’s possible many young people are turning to other platforms such as YouTube, which reportedly had almost 21 million active users in Australia in 2024 (almost 80% of the population). In this light, what looks like an effort by Tennis Australia to dodge media rights deals could also be viewed as an effort to reach new, younger audiences.
It seems Tennis Australia’s Machar Reid had this in mind. He told The Guardian the AO Animated videos were targeting the “community that engages with animated or virtual or gaming products”.
This strategy makes sense. Millions of young people are already hooked on YouTube’s huge selection of gaming content. For instance, last year videos related to the viral Roblox game Dress to Impress were viewed more than 4 billion times in the US alone, according to YouTube’s data.
Similarly, more than 645 million people in the United Kingdom watched videos related to the video game franchise EA Sports FC in 2024. This number was even greater in the Middle East and North Africa, at 950 million.
AO is not the first
The AO is not the first to live-stream sports matches in which players are animated. Last year, North America’s National Hockey League used player tracking technology to stream a “MultiVersus NHL Face-Off” game. The players of Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights were replaced with Warner Brothers characters including Batman, Bugs Bunny and the Scooby Doo gang.
The National Football League also recreated a simulation of a live game in which players from the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys were replaced by Simpson’s characters. The entire look and feel of the broadcast reflected The Simpsons.
These US-based examples, together with the recent AO Animated coverage, suggest animated simulations could play a larger role in future media rights deals – and could provide media rights holders unique marketing and collaboration opportunities.
In the future we may see an expansion of the AO Animated live streams. It’s possible the Mii-style characters could even be replaced with popular characters, similar to the examples above. Such a change would further enhance Tennis Australia’s ability to collaborate with its media rights holders, both domestically and internationally.
Imagine a gathering so large it dwarfs any concert, festival, or sporting event you’ve ever seen. In the Kumbh Mela, a religious festival held in India, millions of Hindu pilgrims come together to bathe in rivers considered sacred.
This year more than 400 million people are expected to attend the Kumbh Mela in the city of Prayagraj across 48 days.
How do you manage a crowd of this magnitude, in which the challenges are as colossal as the event itself?
The Kumbh Mela’s significance
The 2025 Kumbh Mela officially kicked off yesterday. Already, millions of people have taken a bath at the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of India’s most sacred river, the Ganges, with the Yamuna River and the Saraswati River.
The Kumbh Mela is one of the most important religious festivals in Hinduism and the largest human gathering on Earth. It is held periodically at one of four sacred locations – Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), Haridwar, Nashik, and Ujjain – on a rotational basis, depending on specific astrological alignments.
There are four types of Kumbh Melas. The festival that’s currently on, the Maha (great) Kumbh Mela, takes place every 12 years at Prayagraj, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It holds the highest significance due to its rarity, scale and profound spiritual importance.
The event draws millions of devotees, ascetics and spiritual leaders who come to bathe in sacred rivers, a ritual believed to cleanse sins and grant liberation from the cycle of life and death.
The festivals’ origins are rooted in Hindu mythology, and specifically in the story of the Samudra Manthan, or the churning of the ocean of milk. According to this legend, gods and demons churned the ocean in search of the nectar of immortality (amrita). During this struggle, drops of the nectar fell at the four sites where Kumbh Mela events are now held.
A great pilgrimage brings great risks
Mass gatherings, regardless of their purpose, carry inherent health and safety risks. The sheer scale of these events makes overcrowding and crowd crushes a constant threat, even without other risk factors.
However, religious gatherings add yet another dimension of risk. The heightened emotions and urgency associated with such events can escalate the potential for disaster.
India, with its tradition of large-scale religious festivals, has tragically become a hotspot for crowd-related catastrophes. Nearly 70% of India’s deadly crowd disasters have happened during religious mass gatherings.
Reports of crowd disasters during the event date back as far as 1820, showing this challenge is far from new.
How has India prepared in 2025?
Indian authorities have implemented a range of measures to manage this year’s event in Prayagraj, using modern solutions and technology to tackle an age-old safety challenge.
A temporary tent city has been erected on the riverbanks in Prayagraj, with some 160,000 tents, 150,000 toilets and temporary hospitals.
Infrastructure upgrades include 98 “special trains” introduced to ensure smooth transport, along with centralised “war rooms” to monitor the operations.
Authorities have also installed 2,700 CCTV cameras across the grounds, all of which are integrated into an AI-powered surveillance system.
This setup enables the real-time monitoring of crowds, with AI used to analyse live feeds from thousands of fixed and drone cameras positioned across key festival zones, including entry points, bathing areas and congregation spaces.
Algorithms are used to measure the number of people in specific areas and provide information on crowd density. If density thresholds are exceeded, authorities are alerted and can respond on the ground, mitigating the risk of overcrowding and potential crushes.
For the first time, underwater drones are also being used to monitor the riverbeds of the Ganges and Yamuna.
Smaller gatherings remain a concern
The combination of massive, dense crowds, coupled with the deep devotion and excitement inherent in religious mass gathering, creates dynamics that are prone to safety risks.
These factors introduce a level of unpredictability to crowd behaviour, which can make said crowds difficult to manage.
While it’s reassuring Indian authorities have taken proactive measures to mitigate risks associated with the Kumbh Mela, risks persist in smaller religious gatherings across the country.
Smaller events, while they often lack media attention and resources, have proven just as prone to catastrophe as major ones.
The safety measures rolled out at this year’s Maha Kumbh Mela should serve as a blueprint for managing religious and cultural gatherings across India.
This is Luca Arpin, better known to his neighbors as “Poopa Scoopa Luca.“
His moniker is well-earned, as the 6-year-old styled himself the neighborhood’s #1 number to call for cleaning up after dogs and cats.
“People hate picking up dog poop,” said the first-grader from Warwick, Mass. Speaking with WJAR, Arpin said he has an appreciation for all things tidy, and prefers cleaning up above other activities.
His rate is $15 for one dog, or $20 for multiple dogs. He even has his own business card.
His mother says that volunteering is one of their family’s core values. She and Luca have an enduring love for animals and together have fostered 98 four-legged friends through her work at a local animal shelter.
First to fold laundry or mop a floor, Luca’s mother said that his tendencies to offer his help pro bono at the shelter slowly landed him in a predicament where he wanted to afford to permanently adopt a cat, but couldn’t afford to do so.
Asking mom how he could earn money, the two settled on that poo patrol, which he says is work he doesn’t mind at all.
“I have the coolest kid in the entire world,” said his mother proudly.
Ross and Hugo Turner attempting to break a record, flying a paraglider-style aircraft at 10,000ft in the French Alps – via SWNS
The ‘World’s Most Intrepid Twins’ announced they’ve broken a world record, by flying a tandem electric para-motor 8,000ft over the French Alps.
Ross and Hugo Turner, known as the Turner Twins, took the custom-made aircraft 2,438 meters high, floating over the mountains.
The British siblings have submitted the information on an application to FAI—the World Air Sports Federation—to claim a world record for tandem electric altitude.
The brothers based in Devon, England, have already set a world record while becoming the first twins to row the Atlantic Ocean.
For this recent flight, the twins had to wait months for the “perfect weather conditions.”
“It was great to get the weather we finally needed for the record and having waited months for perfect conditions we had the perfect flight,” said Hugo.
“The flight was smooth, which was surprising as we were expecting turbulent conditions, and the battery lasted much longer than we expected—probably due to the colder conditions keeping the battery cooler.”
Ross said their official observer for the record didn’t think the electric battery would be able to do it.
“He said we won’t have enough power, this won’t work. Thankfully, we proved him wrong.”
Ross and Hugo, the Turner Twins, on a para-motor flying over French Alps breaking altitude record – via SWNS
Their quest for adventure was born following a terrible auto accident in which Hugo broke his neck at age 17 and narrowly missed paralysis. In the mix of heightened emotions came a drive to follow their passion for exploration—always guided by their values and “always doing them together”.
The daring duo made headlines at age 21 when they rowed the Atlantic in just 41 days. They also helped set a world record as part of the youngest crew ever to complete that challenge.
Since then they have climbed Mt. Elbrus and they cycled 1,550 miles (2500km) across South American to reach another goal, traveling through deserts and jungles in the searing heat. The pair also used bikes to ride 2.6K across North America, cycling across mountains, desserts, and national parks.
They also attempted a hike across the Greenland and Iceland wearing kit and clothing worn by early polar explorers like Sir Ernest Shackleton.
The Turner Twins making final preparations for a world altitude record in a tandem electric paramotor – SWNS
During many of their missions they’re testing new technology, like driving the Cyberster EV car from MG Motors on a 10,000-mile drive from London to China, posting videos about their adventures in the red convertible electric sports car.
Ross and Hugo Turner attempting to break a record, flying a paraglider-style aircraft at 10,000ft in the French Alps – via SWNS
The ‘World’s Most Intrepid Twins’ announced they’ve broken a world record, by flying a tandem electric para-motor 8,000ft over the French Alps.
Ross and Hugo Turner, known as the Turner Twins, took the custom-made aircraft 2,438 meters high, floating over the mountains.
The British siblings have submitted the information on an application to FAI—the World Air Sports Federation—to claim a world record for tandem electric altitude.
The brothers based in Devon, England, have already set a world record while becoming the first twins to row the Atlantic Ocean.
For this recent flight, the twins had to wait months for the “perfect weather conditions.”
“It was great to get the weather we finally needed for the record and having waited months for perfect conditions we had the perfect flight,” said Hugo.
“The flight was smooth, which was surprising as we were expecting turbulent conditions, and the battery lasted much longer than we expected—probably due to the colder conditions keeping the battery cooler.”
Ross said their official observer for the record didn’t think the electric battery would be able to do it.
“He said we won’t have enough power, this won’t work. Thankfully, we proved him wrong.”
Ross and Hugo, the Turner Twins, on a para-motor flying over French Alps breaking altitude record – via SWNS
Their quest for adventure was born following a terrible auto accident in which Hugo broke his neck at age 17 and narrowly missed paralysis. In the mix of heightened emotions came a drive to follow their passion for exploration—always guided by their values and “always doing them together”.
The daring duo made headlines at age 21 when they rowed the Atlantic in just 41 days. They also helped set a world record as part of the youngest crew ever to complete that challenge.
Since then they have climbed Mt. Elbrus and they cycled 1,550 miles (2500km) across South American to reach another goal, traveling through deserts and jungles in the searing heat. The pair also used bikes to ride 2.6K across North America, cycling across mountains, desserts, and national parks.
They also attempted a hike across the Greenland and Iceland wearing kit and clothing worn by early polar explorers like Sir Ernest Shackleton.
The Turner Twins making final preparations for a world altitude record in a tandem electric paramotor – SWNS
Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience is a six-part reality show following five British trainees over 100 days as they debut as a Korean-pop (K-pop) idol boy group called Dear Alice. In collaboration with SM Entertainment, a K-pop powerhouse, the show will introduce the behind-the-scenes of making a K-pop idol through an immersive training system.
Showing a glimpse of the lives of K-pop trainees, the first episode introduces K-pop as a multi-billion global phenomenon, stating: “Six of the top 20 best-selling artists in the world were K-pop and 90 billion streams were by K-pop idols.”
K-pop is becoming increasingly popular in the UK. Girl group Aespa and boy group BTS have sold out shows in the country’s largest arenas.
In 2023, the group Blackpink became the first Korean band to headline a UK festival at BST Hyde Park, where they played to an audience of 65,000. They were also awarded honorary MBEs by the king for their role in encouraging young people to engage with the global UN climate change conference at COP26 in Glasgow 2021.
There is certainly an appetite for shows about K-pop for western audiences. Netflix have released their own version of Made in Korea, Pop Star Academy: Katseye.
The docuseries follows 20 girls from Japan, South Korea, Australia and the UK going through a year of K-pop training to become the group Kasteye. It’s a collaboration between the K-pop label Hybe and US label Geffen (a subsidiary of Universal).
Generally speaking, K-pop is characterised by catchy and lively melodies and highly choreographed dance routines in perfect unison and fancy outfits. Inspired by various pop music genres – including but not limited to electronic dance, hip hop, and R&B – the genre became distinctive from the nation’s traditional music, especially after a handful of pioneers began producing idol groups in the 1990s.
I’m South Korean and I’m studying cultural industries, so it’s interesting for me to see westernerss becoming K-pop-inspired idol groups. It’s a famously competitive industry, which is already oversaturated with hopeful K-idols. Considering that the domestic market is small and highly saturated, their success will be a breakthrough for SM Entertainment and HYBE, as well as other K-pop companies, proving whether they can continue to grow beyond east Asia.
The production and delivery of this popular music genre have become more international than ever in recent years, with hundreds of choreographers, composers and producers worldwide contribute to creating K-pop songs and performances. In contrast, K-pop performers have until recently been predominantly Korean. But as the new shows demonstrate, this too is changing.
K-pop companies have hosted auditions outside the country to recruit foreign trainees to make their idols appeal to global audiences. Huge global music corporations like Sony, Universal Music Group and Virgin Records have also got in on the game, signing distribution contracts with major K-pop idols to promote their music in foreign markets.
This search isn’t because there is a lack of willing hopefuls in Korea. There were around an estimated 800 trainees waiting to debut in 2022. But Korea’s population is only around 50 million and record companies want to appeal beyond the domestic market, so they are hoping recruiting non-Korean stars will help do that.
Music agencies in the west tend to find new artists who are already gifted and then largely serve as intermediaries arranging things like tours, marketing and artists’ wider schedules. However, major K-pop companies have developed a unique system of finding and launching new artists. This involves hosting auditions with a competition of at least 1,000 to 1 odds. The winners then undergo years of of acting, vocal, and dance training before debuting.
To make the vocals flawless and the dance moves precise, trainees, known as yeonseupsaeng (연습생), are expected to spend up to 17 hours per day practising performances and training for several years – although they aren’t guaranteed to become professional artists. Even if they do become successful, their private lives – including their dating lives – are strictly controlled.
It is no exaggeration to say that the industry is labour-intensive as well as capital-intensive, built on the blood, sweat and tears of yeonseupsaeng.
The first episode of Made in Korea ends with SM’s director Hee Jun Yoon’s critique of the Britons’ first performance. It’s difficult viewing for those unfamiliar with the harsh world of K-pop. To borrow the words of BBC’s unscripted content head, Kate Phillips, it makes “Simon Cowell look like Mary Poppins.”
Some might question the prefix “K-” being used to describe these international groups but the genre will remain decidedly Korean. It is Korean companies which will lead the production mechanisms and the domestic market will continue to serve as the testbed for new artists. But the success of Dear Alice and Katseye is important if the genre is to survive and continue to grow beyond Korea.
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Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuels continue to increase, year on year. This sobering reality will be presented to world leaders today at the international climate conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Our latest annual stocktake shows the world is on track to reach a new record: 37.4 billion tonnes of CO₂ emitted from fossil fuels in 2024. This is an increase of 0.8% from the previous year.
Adopting renewable energy and electric vehicles is helping reduce emissions in 22 countries. But it’s not enough to compensate for ongoing global growth in fossil fuels.
There were also signs in 2023 suggesting natural systems may struggle to capture and store as much CO₂ in the future as they have in the past. While humanity is tackling deforestation and the growth in fossil CO₂ emissions is slowing, the need to reach an immediate peak and decline in global emissions has never been so acute.
The Global Carbon Project
The Global Carbon Budget is an annual planetary account of carbon sources and sinks, which soak up carbon dioxide and remove it from the atmosphere.
We include anthropogenic sources from human activities such as burning fossil fuels or making cement as well as natural sources such as bushfires.
When it comes to CO₂ sinks, we consider all the ways carbon may be taken out of the atmosphere. This includes plants using CO₂ to grow and CO₂ being absorbed by the ocean. Some of this happens naturally and some is being actively encouraged by human activity.
Putting all the available data on sources and sinks together each year is a huge international effort involving 86 research organisations, including Australia’s CSIRO. We also use computer models and statistical approaches to fill out the remaining months to the end of the year.
Fossil fuel emissions up
This year’s growth in carbon emissions from fossil fuels is mainly from fossil gas and oil, rather than coal.
Fossil gas carbon emissions grew by 2.4%, signalling a return to the strong long-term growth rates observed before the COVID pandemic. Gas emissions grew in most large countries, but declined across the European Union.
Oil carbon emissions grew by 0.9% overall, pushed up by a rise in emissions from international aviation and from India.
The rebound in international air travel pushed aviation carbon emissions up 13.5% in 2024, although it’s still 3.5% below the pre-COVID 2019 level.
Meanwhile, oil emissions from the United States and China are declining. It’s possible oil emissions have peaked in China, driven by growth in electric vehicles.
Coal carbon emissions went up by 0.2%, with strong growth in India, small growth in China, a moderate decline in the US, and a large decline in the European Union. Coal use in the US is now at its lowest level in 120 years.
The United Kingdom closed its last coal power plant in 2024, 142 years after the first one was opened. With strong growth in wind energy replacing coal, the UK CO₂ emissions have almost been cut in half since 1990.
Changing land use
Carbon emissions also come from land clearing and degradation. But some of that CO₂ can be taken up again by planting trees. So we need to examine both sources and sinks on land.
Global net CO₂ emissions from land use change averaged 4.1 billion tonnes a year over the past decade (2014–23). This year is likely to be slightly higher than average with 4.2 billion tonnes, due to drought and fires in the Amazon. That amount represents about 10% of all emissions from human activities, the rest owing to fossil fuels.
Importantly, total carbon emissions – the sum of fossil fuel emissions and land-use change emissions – have largely plateaued over the past decade, but are still projected to reach a record of just over 41 billion tonnes in 2024.
The plateau in 2014–23 follows a decade of significant growth in total emissions of 2% per year on average between 2004 and 2013. This shows humanity is tackling deforestation and the growth of fossil CO₂ emissions is slowing. However, this is not enough to put global emissions on a downward trajectory.
Annual CO₂ emissions continue to increase, reaching a record high in 2024. The shaded area around each line shows the uncertainty in the estimates. Global Carbon Project, CC BY
More countries are cutting emissions – but many more to go
Fossil CO₂ emissions decreased in 22 countries as their economies grew. These countries are mainly from the European Union, along with the United States. Together they represent 23% of global fossil CO₂ emissions over the past decade (2014–23).
This number is up from 18 countries during the previous decade (2004–13). New countries in this list include Norway, New Zealand and South Korea.
In Norway, emissions from road transport declined as the share of electric vehicles in the passenger car fleet grew – the highest in the world at over 25% – and biofuels replaced fossil petrol and diesel. Even greater reductions in emissions have come from Norway’s oil and gas sector, where gas turbines on offshore platforms are being upgraded to electric.
In New Zealand, emissions from the power sector are declining. Traditionally the country has had a high share of hydropower, supplemented with coal and natural gas. But now wind and particularly geothermal energy is driving fossil generation down.
We are projecting further emissions growth of 0.2% in China, albeit small and with some uncertainty (including the possibility of no growth or even slight decline). China added more solar panels in 2023 than the US did in its entire history.
In the 1960s, our activities emitted an average of 16 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year globally. About half of these emissions (8 billion tonnes) were naturally removed from the atmosphere by forests and oceans.
Over the past decade, emissions from human activities reached about 40 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year. Again, about half of these emissions (20 billion tonnes) were removed.
In the absence of these natural sinks, current warming would already be well above 2°C. But there’s a limit to how much nature can help.
In 2023, the carbon uptake on land dropped 28% from the decadal average. Global record temperatures, drought in the Amazon and unprecedented wildfires in the forests of Canada were to blame, along with an El Niño event.
As climate change continues, with rising ocean temperatures and more climate extremes on land, we expect the CO₂ sinks to become less efficient. But for now, we expect last year’s land sink decline will recover to a large degree as the El Niño event has subsided.
About half of the CO₂ emissions were removed from the atmosphere by forests and oceans. When we tally up all of the sources compared to the sinks, the budget should balance. We find a slight imbalance of 1.6Gt/year due to limitations of the data. Global Carbon Budget 2024/Global Carbon Project, CC BY
Looking ahead
Our latest carbon budget shows global fossil fuel emissions continue to increase, further delaying the peak in emissions. Global CO₂ emissions continue to track in the middle of the range of scenarios developed by the Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We have yet to bend the emissions curve into the 1.5–2°C warming territory of the Paris Agreement.
This comes at a time when it’s clear we need to be reducing emissions, to avoid worsening climate change.
We also identified some positive signs, such as the rapid adoption of renewable energy and electric cars as they become cheaper and more accessible, supporting the march toward a net-zero emissions pathway. But turning these trends into global decarbonisation requires a far greater level of ambition and action.
The site is home to two 700 MWe PHWRs (Image: screengrab from NPCIL video)
Ross and Hugo Turner attempting to break a record, flying a paraglider-style aircraft at 10,000ft in the French Alps – via SWNS
Ross and Hugo, the Turner Twins, on a para-motor flying over French Alps breaking altitude record – via SWNS
The Turner Twins making final preparations for a world altitude record in a tandem electric paramotor – SWNS
