Australia

Scotland (10) 10

Tries: Gallagher Cons: Nelson Pens: Nelson

Australia (5) 30

Tries: Miller, Wood, Hoy, Moleko Cons: Wood 2 Pens: Wood 2

Scotland suffered a third successive defeat in the WXV Global Series as clinical Australia proved too strong in Edinburgh.

After losses against Canada and New Zealand – ranked two and three in the world – hopes were high the Scots could get off the mark against the side one place below them in the world rankings.

Despite leading 10-5 at the break, Scotland could not live with the rampant Wallaroos, who ran in three tries in a devastating eight-minute second-half spell to secure a comfortable win.

The sides meet again in Sydney next weekend.

Evie Gallagher, following her two tries against New Zealand last weekend, gave Scotland the lead on 15 minutes, dotting down to round off a period of pressure on the Australian line.

The hosts were on top, with Meryl Smith in midfield and lock Holland Bogan carrying hard and asking questions of the Australian defence, but loose work at the line-out cost Dave Butcher’s team some promising attacking positions.

The Wallaroos grew into the game as the half wore on and hit back with a well-worked try. Scotland repelled a rolling line-out maul close to their own line, but the visitors remained patient and spun the ball wide for Georgina Friedrichs to put Desiree Miller over in the corner.

The Scots hit back immediately when Australia were penalised for holding on straight from the restart, and Helen Nelson banged over a penalty to give her side a five-point lead at the break.

However, Australia flew out of the blocks after the interval and turned the game on its head with three tries in quick succession.

The first came when a rolling line-out maul was halted just short and scrum-half Samantha Wood was on hand to dive over. She converted her own try to nudge the visitors in front for the first time, and it was a double blow for Scotland as Gallagher was sin-binned for illegally bringing down the initial maul.

With the numerical advantage, the Wallaroos came on strong as Brianna Hoy and then Faitala Moleko cut through to score and put the visitors in charge at 24-10.

Wood knocked over a penalty to put Australia beyond two scores and added another late on to cap off a dominant second half from the Wallaroos.

Gary “Angry” Anderson, front man for the Australian rock band Rose Tattoo, has died. He was 79.

News of Anderson’s death came via the band’s Instagram account, which said he died Monday in Sydney. The vocalist had suffered cardiac arrest weeks earlier during Rose Tattoo‘s farewell tour in Europe.

“Angry was a devoted father, and much-loved member of his friends, bandmates and the wider music and entertainment community. His loss will be deeply felt by all those who knew and loved him both here in Australia and overseas,” the band said.

Reports of Anderson’s health problems first came to light when the band canceled an appearance at the Alcatraz Metal Festival in Kortrijk, Belgium, on Aug. 9, stating on their Instagram account that the singer was in the hospital due to a “medical issue.”

By Aug. 10, Rose Tattoo had canceled all remaining shows on the band’s European tour as Anderson stayed in the hospital. Three weeks later, it was revealed via the band’s Instagram that the rocker’s medical issue was cardiac arrest and that he was receiving treatment and care.

Anderson was the most veteran member of Rose Tattoo, a hard rock and blues band that formed in Sydney in 1976. The group is known for tracks including “Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw” and “Bad Boy for Love,” and some of their discography was covered by Guns N’ Roses early in their career, including “Nice Boys” for the 1986 EP “Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide.” Rose Tattoo would later open for the L.A. hard rock band while on tour in Australia in 1993 for their Use Your Illusion Tour.

In the band’s bio, bandmates are described as as “four tall, gaunt men with unnaturally spikey red hair” — which at the time included Pete Wells on slide guitar, Ian Rilen on bass, Dillas “Digger” Royall on drums and Mick Cocks on guitar. Anderson was described as the “fifth out front stocky and furiously shaven” member, standing at 5 feet, 1 inch tall.

“[They] aren’t an average sight,” the biography states. “Even in the realm of Rock ’n’ Roll excesses.”

Apart from his role in the band, Anderson gained fame internationally as a solo artist when his debut 1987 single, “Suddenly,” earned critical acclaim and appeared on the charts in Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The track was used as the wedding theme in an episode of the Australian soap opera “Neighbours,” in which characters Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell got married.

Anderson was also a youth advocate, reportedly serving as an ambassador for national child protection campaigns. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., he has been connected to numerous children’s hospitals, the Starlight Children’s Foundation, as well as the Make-a-Wish Foundation and Canteen, a support organization for youths with cancer.

In 1993, he was made a member of the Order of Australia for his role as a youth advocate.

After longtime members of Rose Tattoo died from various forms of cancer, Anderson became an advocate for men’s health and conducted campaigns to raise awareness about prostate cancer in 2007. Wells, the guitarist, died of prostate cancer in 2006 at age 59.

Anderson stirred controversy with forays into politics. In 2007 he espoused controversial views about immigration and Muslim communities in Australia. In 2016, he was endorsed as Senate candidate by the Australian Liberty Alliance, a right-wing group that opposes Muslim immigration.

Anderson’s son Liam was killed in 2018. The singer is survived by children Galen, Roxanee and Blaine Anderson.

Australian authorities have raised the alarm after OpenAI-powered models hacked into a government health data system in June, slipping past its digital defences and accessing files without authorisation.

This is the first publicly known case of artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” – AI-powered software systems that can carry out tasks autonomously – breaking into a government website, and the latest of several AI breaches of external systems.

The disclosure comes as top AI firms warn of the risk of humans losing control of AI, calling for its development to slow to a pace that allows it to be safely regulated. Global powers must cooperate to ensure this, they have said.

A research scientist at AI firm Anthropic, Evan Hubinger, went so far as to say he believes there is a greater than 10 percent chance AI could “kill all humans” within a decade.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said there is a risk of AI moving “so fast that people can no longer follow what’s happening or intervene when needed”.

“This would obviously be terrible,” he said. “And we should not train models that we cannot make an extremely strong case that we will be able to keep under human control.”

What do we know about the AI breach in Australia?

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed the breach on Wednesday, saying an OpenAI agent had made its way into the public-facing medical statistics portal of Medicare, the country’s universal health insurance system, on July 18.

When OpenAI accessed the government portal while conducting research on public medical spending, Albanese said the AI agent circumvented “blocks” that should have prevented it from breaking into the portal.

“The AI agent found a way around those blocks – didn’t accept no for an answer,” said Albanese.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the information the OpenAI agent accessed was “not particularly sensitive” and was later publicly released.

Still, Albanese called the situation “obviously unacceptable” and said Australia had relayed its “extreme concern” to OpenAI, which had failed to notify the government of the breach until September 10.

Albanese also said several other government websites may have been affected by rogue OpenAI agents, though he did not confirm any other breaches.

He added that an inquiry into the breach would look at how Australian security agencies missed it initially and whether criminal charges could be brought against OpenAI.

How has OpenAI responded?

In a statement, OpenAI said it had “identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services as our models attempted to look up answers” and “took actions we did not intend”.

The company said the incident occurred as its models searched for statistics on medical spending, and that they are not believed to have obtained personal medical records.

OpenAI learned of the incident in August only as it conducted a review of “misaligned model activity”, it added.

Last week, OpenAI said it had put in place a new system to monitor, probe and disclose cases of “misalignment”. That includes instances of AI models that operate “without authorisation, coordinate with other models, or evade oversight”, it said.

Have there been previous AI breaches?

Yes. The Australia data breach is the latest of several instances in which AI agents belonging to OpenAI, Google or Anthropic have accessed external systems without authorisation.

In July, OpenAI reported that two of its most advanced AI models had broken out of a controlled test and hacked another AI company, Hugging Face. OpenAI later said it had detected its AI models communicating with each other and gaining internet access without authorisation months before that hack occurred.

In August, rival Meta AI said its AI model had hacked another company during cybersecurity testing. It said the model made changes to the internal systems of the hacked company, which it did not name, after accessing the public internet because of an error in the setup of its testing environment.

What does this mean for AI safety?

Maurice Chiodo, an Australian mathematician who works at Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, told the Reuters news agency the breach appeared to be “a significant escalation in seriousness from similar incidents we have ‌seen ‌in recent months”.

Experts say the Australia data breach highlights the growing dangers AI poses to cybersecurity as well as possible gaps in monitoring and disclosure capabilities.

“The important matter here is not what OpenAI says its agent can do, it is what the agent actually does when it hits a barrier,” Niusha Shafiabady, a professor of computational intelligence and head of the IT discipline at the Australian Catholic University, said in comments published by science news portal Scimex.

“The deeper technical risk is that autonomous AI does not always know when it is wrong, and humans may not be able to see why it made a decision,” added Shafiabady. “Without strong verification and hard boundaries, probabilistic errors can quietly become operational failures.”

Raffaele Fabio Ciriello, a senior lecturer in business information systems at the University of Sydney Business School, said OpenAI’s delay in reporting the breach was “concerning”.

“The incident occurred in June and only came to light months later,” said Ciriello. “Even if OpenAI did not detect the activity immediately, that still points to weaknesses in detection, escalation, and external notification.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed a security breach of a government website containing Australians’ health data by an “AI agent”, less than a day after signing a joint appeal for “urgent global guardrails” around artificial intelligence.

Albanese co-signed the “A Call for Control of Frontier AI Models” statement on Tuesday together with 21 signatories including Canada, Spain and Germany, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting in New York.

Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Albanese said the agent, developed by OpenAI, accessed public and non-public data on the government’s Medicare portal in June.

Australia’s Labor government is tightening tech regulations with new online safety laws, age bans and proposed digital duty of care frameworks.

Albanese said he had spoken to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to express Canberra’s “extreme concern” about the hack and disappointment that the company took three months to admit the breach.

OpenAI responded in the hours after the news conference, stating that while it was still investigating, there was no evidence patient records were accessed.

The company’s review had identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services as its “models attempted to look up answers”, it said.

World leaders respond to AI warnings

The leaders of artificial intelligence companies warned of the risks of unregulated AI development before a 15-member UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

One of them, Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian considered one of the ‘Godfathers of AI’ and co-chair of the Independent International Scientific Panel, spoke of the “unprecedented threat” and the “real and imminent” dangers of the technology.

China’s UN ambassador Fu Cong told the meeting that Beijing believed continuous improvement of regulatory frameworks, emergency response and cross-border cooperation on AI was needed.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the United Kingdom was ready to lead an international effort to establish AI standards.

“We’ve all heard the warnings which we must heed… so we have to rise to this moment,” he said, but added he also wanted the UK to pursue the benefits of AI.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned against allowing the United States and China to dominate decision-making around AI during his speech to the assembly on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump is at odds with many of his counterparts, comparing the dangers of AI to climate change, which he has called a hoax.

He also proposed rebranding the term AI to SI, or “super intelligence”, during his address to the UNGA on Tuesday, and earlier said he planned to appoint an AI adviser.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said the US was leading the AI race over China, that he was “not going to stifle Growth”, but added ⁠that the US would be careful.

White House science and technology adviser Michael Kratsios echoed Trump in remarks to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

“You cannot govern technology you do not understand. This body and others like it should focus on sharing best practices to build domestic capacity, not establishing a global regulatory scheme,” he said.

Countries including Germany, South Africa and Canada suggest international institution to set and enforce standards.

Twenty countries and the European Union have issued a call for international cooperation to ensure AI remains under human control, including the potential creation of a global oversight body to set and enforce standards.

The countries, including Germany, South Africa, Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, issued the joint statement on Monday as global leaders prepare to discuss the risks posed by rapidly advancing AI at the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.

The declaration, released by the office of Finnish President Alexander Stubb, calls on governments and industry to act immediately to ensure that AI is developed in line with international law and remains under “human direction, oversight and control”.

“To realise AI’s potential, industry, governments and society must act now,” the statement says.

“We must address these risks and strengthen oversight – without widening the gap between countries in access to the benefits of AI.”

The declaration urges countries to develop and coordinate “common standards”, share reports of serious safety incidents, and explore the establishment of an international institution to “set standards, enable verification, and convene states when capability thresholds are crossed”.

Signatories include German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Kenyan President William Ruto, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

The United States and China, the world’s two leading AI powers, did not join the statement, which remains “open for endorsement” by other countries.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss AI when they meet at the White House on Thursday for their third face-to-face summit in less than a year.

Washington and Beijing, which are in a race to dominate cutting-edge technologies, have both rebuffed calls to slow down AI development to ensure greater safety.

Other AI players not among the signatories include India, South Korea, Japan, the UK and France.

The declaration comes as the AI sector is engaged in a heated debate about safety following calls for a slowdown in development by top industry leaders.

In an essay earlier this month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on firms to “slow the pace” of development to mitigate risks, a proposal that was swiftly endorsed by rivals including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Amodei’s call followed a series of cases of AI models engaging in unsanctioned malign activity, including an incident in July in which AI agents being tested by OpenAI hacked the AI start-up Hugging Face.

In the latest intervention by industry on Monday, OpenAI said the US should lead an international effort to develop technical standards for advanced AI.

“The United States is well positioned to lead because its AI industry is at the technical frontier, and it still stands in a privileged global network position in critical areas such as finance, trade, defense, technology, and information systems,” the San Francisco-based AI giant said in a blog post.

“Leading now will determine whether the United States shapes the global AI framework or watches a fragmented, uneven, and conflict-ridden system take hold around it.”

The UN-backed Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which examined the Hugging Face incident, on Monday also added its voice to calls for new guardrails, saying the cyberattack had exposed the “unravelling” of existing safeguards.

The Los Angeles freeway system has its downsides, especially during traffic-jammed weekdays, but the Rams are absolutely looking forward to commuting from their Woodland Hills facility to SoFi Stadium for Monday night’s game against the New York Giants.

After traveling about 16,000 air miles round trip for their season-opener in Australia — and suffering a humiliating loss to the San Francisco 49ers — the home opener requires only a 28-mile journey and offers a chance for a reboot.

And the embarrassed-but-still-Super-Bowl-favorite Rams are eager for the opportunity.

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Aaron Donald will play for the Rams against the New York Giants on Monday, but will Puka Nacua be on the field?

“An eternity,” coach Sean McVay said when asked about the 11-day wait between games. “It has been forever. We’re excited to compete again.”

In the 27-7 defeat by the 49ers, the Rams’ offense never established a rhythm, the defense gave up three touchdown passes and special teams gave up a long kickoff return.

Veteran receiver Davante Adams cautioned about overreaction.

“Everybody’s freaking out, which I understand,” he said. “We didn’t put together the greatest showing out there. But you’re a fool if you think that that’s what it’s going to look like every single week.”

The Rams will be without edge rusher Myles Garrett, who is on injured reserve for at least four games following knee surgery. Star receiver Puka Nacua is listed as questionable because of a hip injury.

But defensive lineman Aaron Donald is expected to give Rams a much-needed boost.

Donald, 35, ended a two-year retirement when he returned to the team a few weeks ago. The three-time NFL defensive player of the year did not travel to Australia for the opener, but McVay is happy to have him available for the first time since 2023.

“Aaron is a stud, and he’s been at the forefront of setting the foundation of everything that we’re about here,” said McVay, who is in his 10th season as Rams coach. “I remember my interview process included meeting with him and he’s looking at me like, ‘This is the guy that they’re thinking about hiring?’”

One of the reasons Donald returned was to play alongside Garrett, a two time NFL defensive player of the year who amassed an NFL season-record 23 sacks last season.

Now that combination — which boasts a combined 236½ sacks — is on hold.

The double- and triple-team schemes Donald thought he had put behind might once again be in full effect.

“You think they’re going to double/triple team me [after] not playing for two years?” Donald quipped when asked about the prospect. “They ain’t worried about me, man. They don’t have to be worried about me.

“They don’t have to worry about me at all. No man, they don’t have to worry about me.”

But does he anticipate getting that kind of attention?

“I don’t know what they’re going to do out there,” he said of opponents. “I don’t know what I’m going to get. All I can know is I got a game plan. I’m going to go out there, execute it, and just try to play ball. That’s it.”

The Giants, under new coach John Harbaugh, are coming off a 28-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart, receiver Malik Nabers, tight end Isaiah Likely and running back Cam Skattebo lead the offense, outside linebacker Brian Burns the defense.

Rams players have said that they quickly put their performance against the 49ers behind and were focused on the Giants.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, the reigning NFL most valuable player, passed for only 155 yards, with an interception, against the 49ers.

“You get trained, whether it’s a game or a play. Good, bad, and different, move on to the next,” said Stafford, an 18th-year pro. “Don’t think too much about it. Don’t harp too much about it. Just be honest with yourself, play in and play out, game in and game out.”

That next game is here.

The Rams will be “primed and ready,” Adams said, “at the right time.”

PM Anthony Albanese asks Apple CEO Tim Cook to back Canberra’s online safety laws to ‘keep Australians safe’.

The Australian government is seeking support from global tech giants as it works to strengthen the country’s online safety laws and artificial intelligence (AI) regulations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who met Apple CEO Tim Cook at the tech company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Saturday, said that “Australia can’t do it alone” when it came to protecting children from the dangers of the internet.

“We spoke about what we’re doing to protect children from online harm and the work ahead,” Albanese wrote on social media.

“We’re putting stronger rules in place to keep Australians safe online,” he said. “And now, big tech companies like Apple are stepping up too.”

Albanese, who is also in the United States for the United Nations General Assembly, used his trip to call for stronger AI regulation after dire safety warnings from industry leaders.

Australia will introduce new standards for AI by the end of the year, he said.

In a video posted to his X account, Albanese said his Labor government is “making sure technology works for Australians”, and not the other way around.

In a post on X, Cook also said he shared with Albanese new “strong and intuitive controls to help keep kids safe online”.

New Australian legislation unveiled this month would place a “duty of care” requirement on the firms behind popular platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, and allow users to turn off their algorithms.

The draft laws will be introduced to parliament later this year after consultation with social media companies, industry bodies and civil society groups.

The opposition Liberal-National Coalition opposes the bill “in its current form”, according to a statement published on September 10, saying that it “contains inadequate safeguards for free speech and journalism, and leaves too much power in the hands of the Communications Minister”.

Australia implemented legislation barring children under 16 from social media platforms last year as part of a world-first crackdown designed to protect children from online bullying and “predatory algorithms”.

However, data last month found that Australians under 16 continued using social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok despite the ban.

So what about the crocodiles?

They’re not mentioned anywhere in the latest update from the IOC and World Rowing and they weren’t referenced in the media release about the technical assessment. That report itself has not yet been made public.

The safety management plan for this weekend’s school regatta does however mention the word “crocodile” 28 times.

“The Fitzroy River is within recognised crocodile country,” it says.

“Event planning must therefore assume that a crocodile sighting is possible… No natural waterway in crocodile country can be guaranteed to be crocodile-free.”

Procedures this weekend include suspending racing and competitors returning to the bank if a croc is spotted. The official signal for a sighting is the call of “crocodile, crocodile, crocodile”.

Asked specifically about crocodiles, New Zealand’s Wickham told the BBC the primary concern was ensuring the “fairest possible course” for rowers. “We would obviously expect any course chosen to be safe for rowers,” he added.

The company owned by Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart, Hancock Prospecting, which supported Rockhampton’s bid and has pumped tens of millions of dollars into sports including rowing, pointed to “fake media” concerns about risks posed by flooding and crocodiles in the Fitzroy.

“The people of Rocky for many years have sent their own children to train in this river, and for competitions, without a single crocodile incident,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

And those who argue the tabloid-friendly crocodile debate is overblown, say the biggest of the creatures live downstream. The less-dangerous freshwater crocodiles are more likely to be spotted in the rowing arena, they say.

Also contested by government is the flood risk, though Rowing Queensland’s O’Loughlin says that their schools event was due to be held on the Fitzroy in August 2024, but had to be moved after the course was washed away.

Brisbane 2032’s chief executive has said organisers are making contingency plans “as we would for any venue”.

The 2000 Olympics venue in Sydney is ready and waiting as a backup – though that would be unconscionable for Queenslanders.

The Rams will be without edge rusher Myles Garrett for at least the next four games.

Will they have Aaron Donald for Monday night’s game against the New York Giants?

“We’ll see how this week goes,” coach Sean McVay said Thursday before practice.

The Rams are coming off an embarrassing 27-7 defeat by the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.

Garrett, who failed to record a tackle or a quarterback hit in the defeat, had surgery on his left knee Monday. He will not play against the Giants, Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills.

McVay noted that Garrett was on crutches Wednesday but walking without them Thursday.

“He’s like Wolverine, healing fast,” McVay quipped, adding that Garrett would not be rushed back.

Donald, 35, ended a two-year retirement when he rejoined the Rams late last month. He did not travel to Australia.

Asked what benchmarks Donald would have to hit before returning, McVay said it was up to how Donald felt after getting more 11-on-11 reps during practice.

“There just hasn’t been a whole lot of opportunities for different reasons … based on the schedule that we’ve had,” McVay said. “But we are hopeful … that he’ll have some good work [Thursday], tomorrow and then hopefully he’s feeling good enough.

“And if he says he’s ready to go, then we’ll be excited to see him rock.”

McVay said the Rams have moved forward from the loss to the 49ers.

“It’s almost like you try and do the ‘Men in Black’ thing,” McVay said, referencing the movie franchise, “where you say all right, ‘hey I don’t remember what happened.’ That was so long ago. We’re not playing in Australia ever again, I hope. Not because it wasn’t a great atmosphere. That will get taken out of context.”

Sydney: Australia will reduce migration by curbing “visa hopping”, tightening rules on students and working holiday makers as well as cracking down on overstayers, its interior minister said Thursday, as the far-right surges in the polls.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the National Press Club in Canberra that immigration was “fundamentally a strength” for Australia, but accepted that housing pressures required changes.

He denied his ruling Labor party was tightening visa rules in response to the rise of One Nation, which has become one of the country’s most popular parties this year with pledges to drastically slash migration. Business groups warned such cuts would cause economic damage.

“We need immigration to soften enough that housing has a chance to catch up,” he said, while stressing the housing shortage was not caused by migrants.

Net overseas migration – the net gain or loss to the population through movement to and from Australia – reached a peak of 538,000 in 2022 after a surge in arrivals when borders re-opened after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Numbers fell to 292,100 in the year to March, data on Thursday showed.

Burke said this was 47 percent below the post-Covid peak — and that policy changes would help to reach a target of 225,000 for next year.

Australians want to know the government was “taking control” of migration but also “being decent about it”, he said.

Students are the largest group of arrivals, with 753,000 international students in Australia, most from China and India, data shows.

Under the new rules, family members seeking to join students in Australia will face new curbs and it will become harder for students to move between courses to extend their stay, Burke said.

A backlog of applications from the UK for working holiday visas would continue to be processed slowly after a record 80,000 applications — a matter that is under discussion with the UK government, he said.

Working holiday makers in rural areas will enter a ballot to stay for a second or third year, with just 5,000 visas available for the latter.

Family members seeking to visit Australians will have “no further stay” conditions attached to their temporary visas.

Migrants with construction and housing skills will be prioritised for visas, he said.

Australia would return to a policy of a decade earlier in which visa overstayers were given two weeks to leave the country or face detention and deportation, he said.

An additional 100 compliance officers and 250 more beds in immigration detention centres would show there are consequences to overstaying a visa, he said.

But he stressed “this is not the sort of operation that some people have seen on TV happening in other countries” — a nod to hardline immigration policies in the United States.

A third of Australia’s resident population of 27.6 million was born overseas, the latest census data shows.

Ospreys will be “stoked” if the new quartet make an impact like Smith did in his first season.

Wales might also be watching with interest after the signing of former Wallabies captain Wright.

The 28-year-old has won six caps but, courtesy of his grandfather from Pembroke, will be eligible to play for Steve Tandy’s side next summer.

That opens up the possibility of Wright targeting a World Cup spot, but the forward is concentrating on Ospreys after injury torment since a shoulder blow suffered playing against Wales in 2024.

“I know that I want to get myself back playing good enough footie and consistent enough footie to push for international honours again,” he told Scrum V.

“I’ve always imagined that for Australia, I didn’t come over here because of the Welsh heritage and trying to flip.

“But given my journey, it would be irresponsible to try and think too far ahead. I want to play good footie for Ospreys and put a lot of minutes under my belt, making sure that I am loving footie again.”

Rescuers continue searching for survivors as the government scales back operations in open waters.

At least one person has died and more than 30 remain missing after a ferry sank off the coast of Vanuatu, Prime Minister Jotham Napat’s office has said in a statement.

The MV Matui, an inter-island ferry, sank in bad weather on Friday while sailing between the islands of Ambae and Santo, in Vanuatu’s north, according to New Zealand’s public broadcaster RNZ.

Of the dozens of crew members and passengers on board, 15 have been accounted for alive, Napat’s office said in a statement posted on Facebook, with search and rescue operations continuing.

The Pacific nation’s government said search efforts “in open waters” were being scaled back “whilst efforts move toward a search along the south-east coast, where currents may have carried survivors”.

It said the sinking “appears to be the result of strong winds and marine warnings not being heeded, and possibly of negligence including overloading of the vessel”, adding that a full investigation would follow to establish the facts and prevent a repeat.

Vanuatu police, the country’s Maritime Safety Authority and the ferry’s operator, Tui Shipping Agency, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the Reuters news agency reported.

Guess Aaron Donald was the smart one. He must have known what was coming for the Rams in Australia against the 49ers so he stayed home. Maybe he’ll all of a sudden have a strained groin and won’t be able to play this season.

Stanley Elrich
Arleta

There is no longer a weekly cover of Sports Illustrated magazine to jinx athletes. But we still have Bill Plaschke! It sure didn’t take long for Bill’s prediction, that the Rams would go 20-0 this season, to jinx the team. The Plaschke Curse strikes again!

Stephen Greenberg
Santa Monica

Do the Rams know they actually have to win some football games? Not just show up and expect the other team to lay down. I know Bill Plaschke put the curse on them by declaring an undefeated season but coach Sean McVay and the Rams have to do better.

Russell Hosaka
Torrance

Can someone please take Bill Plaschke’s computer away from him so he can’t make another unnecessary prediction that could come back to jinx the fans of L.A.? What purpose does it serve for a sportswriter with a dubious history of predictions to go out on a limb and make yet another useless, grand statement? Hasn’t he learned his lesson?

Danny Balber Jr.
Pasadena

Sean McVay’s experiment of not properly acclimating the team to the massive time change in Australia was a huge a risk. McVay cited last year’s London Game (Rams handily beat the Jaguars), when they crossed five time zones (Baltimore to London) without acclimating and thought it would apply to 17 time zones to Melbourne?

It was an embarrassment for the franchise and L.A. and further promoted the idea that the Rams can’t beat the 49ers. Additionally, McVay went to his usual bag of tricks, abandoning a successful running attack in favor of a tired and rusty Matt Stafford passing incessantly, being harassed and ineffective.

This was easily the dumbest head coaching call of McVay’s career. He needs to apologize to his team and the fans.

Axel Hubert
Santa Monica

Thanks, Roger Goodell! Your relentless desire to “expand” the NFL fan base reached its apex Thursday night (or Friday morning?) with the Rams and 49ers game in Australia. It’s bad enough forcing teams to fly eight or nine hours to Europe but this Australian game takes the proverbial cake.

When is “enough is enough” regarding “expanding” the game? The world loves soccer so let them have it; American football is uniquely American so, please, recognize this fact, enjoy the huge revenues from TV and let NFL teams play in the U.S. where the game belongs!

Ken Blake
Brea

Defensive lineman Aaron Donald will not travel with the Rams to Melbourne to play in their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers, coach Sean McVay said Tuesday.

Donald, who rejoined the Rams last month after a two-year retirement, wouldn’t confirm if he was planning to play in the season opener when asked multiple times by reporters on Monday, only saying he was “feeling really good. Feeling great.”

The development isn’t surprising considering McVay and his assistants weren’t pushing Donald to play. Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said Monday that the team was taking a “day-to-day” approach regarding Donald’s status.

“I think he’ll be ready to go sooner rather than later, but we’re making a decision that we think is best for him and for our team,” McVay said. “He’s attacked this the right way, but it would have been a really quick turnaround.”

One person who might be surprised about Donald not playing is 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan. He told reporters Sunday he “definitely” expected Donald to play.

Rams players and staff are scheduled to leave Los Angeles for Melbourne on Tuesday night, arriving in Australia on Thursday morning. The game will take place on Friday at 10:35 a.m. local time (5:35 p.m. PDT Thursday), with the Rams planning to fly back to L.A. soon afterward.

Barring any setback, Donald should play Sept. 21 when the Rams face the New York Giants at SoFi Stadium.

One player who is expected to take the field at Melbourne Cricket Ground is Myles Garrett. McVay said the star defensive end will be “ready to go” after a left knee problem kept him out of practice for multiple weeks before he returned Sunday.

“We’ve been smart with Myles … but his impact has been tremendous, his overall vibe, what kind of teammate he’s been,” McVay said. “And so looking forward to getting him out there with the guys and being a great factor for us.”

Garrett did not practice Tuesday, but said he feels “ready” to play.

In addition to Garrett, cornerback Jaylen Watson also appeared on the Rams’ first injury report of the season after not practicing because of a toe injury.

The Rams will depart for Australia on Tuesday night for their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers.

Will star defensive lineman Aaron Donald be with them?

“Feeling good, feeling really good,” Donald said Monday. “Come up with a game plan and see.”

But could he say for certain he will make the trip?

“I’m feeling really good. Feeling great,” he said. “Come up with a game plan and see what’s going on but I’m telling ya, I feel great.”

Donald, 35, returned from a two-year retirement to join a Rams team that is favored to win Super Bowl LXI. But the three-time NFL defensive player of the year has gone through only one 11-on-11 practice.

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He did that on Sunday, but did not practice Monday. Donald said he did a cardio workout as part of a scheduled day off.

“I’m 35,” he said, chuckling. “You don’t play football in two years, you got to be smart. Even if I feel good, you still gotta be smart.”

Coach Sean McVay has said that Donald’s situation would be evaluated daily.

Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, asked if a decision had been made regarding whether Donald would play against the 49ers, said “everything’s” day by day.

“We’re ready for him if he does, ready for him if he doesn’t,” Shula said, “and we’ll have a plan for however many plays he feels like he can go and we’ll go from there.”

Donald said his ramp-up has gone better than he anticipated.

“Thought I’d be a lot more rusty,” he said, adding that things were “clicking.”

Donald said that during his first full practice, he settled in after a few plays. He is not where he wants to be, “but pretty pretty damn good, if you ask me, to not play football in two years to be moving how I’m moving.”

Donald came back, in part, to team with edge rusher Myles Garrett, a two-time NFL defensive player of the year. They have been in meetings and walkthroughs together, and now have practiced.

“It was good to be on the grass with him and do some stuff, and get a feel,” Donald said. “Because the chemistry of playing with each other, kind of learning how each other rush, how each other play, not just Myles just the whole front. … It’s exciting.”

Donald said he was ready for whatever role he fills, and that he was not going to worry about playing 60 or 70 snaps.

“There’s no pressure on me. I can just go out there play free, play ball, let the game come to me,” Donald said. “Play with the guys around me. Help them, they help me.”

Donald, an eight-time All-Pro, has 111 career sacks.

Star receiver Davante Adams is happy that he returned to join the Rams.

“Nobody knows exactly what he’s going to do statistically, if he’s going to be exactly what he was,” Adams said. “But … I know the type of person that he is and I know the way he’s going to work and I know the way he looks right now.

“It looks like it’s going to be a familiar picture for us all out there.”

Puka Nacua ready for opener

Star receiver Puka Nacua said he was happy to be participating in full-team drills after being sidelined for a few weeks because of a psoas injury sustained during a joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys a few days after the end of training camp.

The NFL has been investigating an incident that led to Nacua being the defendant in a civil lawsuit. If the league determines that Nacua violated the NFL’s personal conduct policy, he could be suspended.

But the league has not taken action, and McVay said he expected Nacua to play against the 49ers.

Did the possibility of a suspension before the season weigh heavily on Nacua?

“Definitely feeling emotion of some of the things that, just trying to handle that in the ways that I can and what’s in my control,” he said. “But also having a realistic understanding of the consequences of some of the things that I put myself in this offseason.

“But I feel like I’ve been able to feel grounded and feel present when I step out there on the football field. That’s been one of the positive things, of every time I step on that football field, never taking that moment for granted.”

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to back a resolution spearheaded by several African countries to adopt a map that shows the continent as much bigger than it is on conventional world maps.

On Friday, the resolution aimed at “a more accurate representation” of continental landmasses on the globe was supported by 164 countries, while the United States voted against it and six other states abstained.

The new map – known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection – “is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world”, the resolution stated.

Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, which drove the resolution, said maps “guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions”.

“The resolution adopted today reaffirms African reality,” he added.

But how does the new map differ from the traditional version, and why did the US object?

What has the UN decided?

The UN has urged member states to adopt a new map in place of the centuries-old, traditional Mercator projection, which was designed for maritime navigation by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.

That projection focused on accurate depictions of the shapes and angles of land masses, but their relative sizes were often inaccurate – in part because of the challenge of rendering a three-dimensional globe onto a two-dimensional surface.

It inflated northern regions and compressed equatorial ones, making Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.

How big are Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania?

It does not look like it on the conventional Mercator map, but Africa is a giant among the world’s continents at about 30.3 million square kilometres (11.7 million square miles).

It is large enough to contain the US, China, India and most of Europe, yet on a Mercator map it looks roughly the same size as Greenland, which is actually about 14 times smaller than the continent.

Latin America covers roughly 20 million sq km (7.7 million sq miles), of which South America accounts for 17.8 million sq km (6.9 million sq miles).

Oceania spans about 8.5 million sq km (3.3 million sq miles), almost all of it Australia.

South Asia is the smallest of the four at about 5.1 million sq km (2 million sq miles), though it is home to about a quarter of the world’s population.

Combined, the four cover about 64 million sq km (24.7 million sq miles), more than 40 percent of the world’s land surface.

Europe, by comparison, is 10.2 million sq km (3.9 million sq miles).

What has the response to the change of maps been?

Largely positive.

France, which co-sponsored the resolution in support of the new map, announced on Friday that it would abandon the Mercator projection.

In that map, “the United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or Southeast Asia”, while “Greenland appears almost as big as Africa,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

“Changing maps obviously doesn’t change the world,” he added. “But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth.”

Only the US voted against it, while six other countries – Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine – abstained.

US representative Yaryna Ferencevych said before the vote that the resolution is “the reason this institution is losing its credibility”.

“Instead of focusing on genuine problems … this body is debating map projects from the 16th century,” she said.

What is Equal Earth?

Equal Earth was launched in 2018 by three cartographers – Bojan Savric of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Tom Patterson of the US National Park Service, and Bernhard Jenny of Monash University.

“Equal Earth preserves the relative surface areas of continents and, as much as possible, shows their shapes as they appear on a globe,” Savric told the AFP news agency in 2025.

The UN resolution encourages governments and institutions worldwide to adopt the Equal Earth projection.

Will the world map actually change?

Friday’s resolution is not binding, but is intended to encourage changes to maps used by default around the world.

The UN said in its report that it is not banning the Mercator projection or imposing a replacement, but is merely encouraging the use of the Equal Earth projection.

The Rams are in Woodland Hills.

The San Francisco 49ers already are on the ground in Melbourne, Australia.

Both teams are preparing for their Sept. 10 opener at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Rams will depart late Tuesday night, arrive in Melbourne about 16 hours later on Thursday and play Friday (5:30 p.m. PDT Thursday).

Rams coach Sean McVay is aware that if his Super Bowl-favorite team plays well and wins, his travel strategy will be hailed as smart. If the Rams lose, it could be ridiculed.

McVay said Friday that the postgame review will be “circumstantial based on what happens,” and that the Rams make decisions based on what they feel is in the best interest of the players.

“I understand the narratives,” McVay said, adding, “That’s just part of the nature, but what you have to do is be able to separate the actual result for what is actually sound in terms of your process.

“I’m comfortable with that. That’s the world that we live in. … That’s kind of the price of doing business.”

The Rams employed a similar travel strategy last season, when they remained in Baltimore after playing the Ravens, and then traveled to London to play the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Rams arrived the day before the game, and then routed the Jaguars.

The flight to Australia is much longer, but McVay said that “staying in our rhythm and routine” was deemed best by a collective that includes Reggie Scott, the Rams’ senior vice-president for sports medicine and performance.

“The thinking in its simplest form is what do we deem the best for our football players and for them to try and be at their best,” McVay said. “There’s different approaches and theories, but I do have a lot of trust in our group and we’ll see. Hopefully, it works out.”

This will be the first NFL game in Australia, a potential boon for a league eager to expand its global footprint.

“What we try to do is focus on the things we can control,” McVay said, “and then just really abide by clear parameters that guys can follow so that it’s seamless and then they feel as fresh as possible.

“Easier said than done. But when you have the right people, it’s served us well over the years.”

Aaron Donald’s status undecided

Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald walks on the practice field on Aug. 30.

(Greg Beacham / Associated Press)

Aaron Donald rejoined the Rams last week, but the three-time NFL defensive player of the year, who retired in 2023, has yet to go through a full 11-on-11 practice.

Can he play against the 49ers?

“Don’t have that sense quite yet,” McVay said, adding, “This week will be a big week for him in terms of how he feels, and then we’ll just kind of take it a day at a time and see where he’s at.

“If he feels good enough to go — great. If not, I’ve got a lot of confidence in the other guys that will be ready to step up if that’s the case.”

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Future Hall of Fame defensive lineman Aaron Donald officially came out of retirement Sunday to rejoin the Rams for their Super Bowl title push.

Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, Poona Ford and Tyler Davis are among the interior linemen who have taken reps since training camp began in July.

Last Sunday, after agreeing to terms with the Rams, Donald said he did not want to be given anything — he wanted to earn his role.

“Ain’t rushing,” he said of his timeline, adding, “Just continue to stack them days and see where we at.”

Donald, 35, is playing on a one-year contract that includes $10 million in base salary, and per-game roster bonuses that could total $10 million, according to Overthecap.com. The deal also includes incentives that could make it worth $30 million.

With four void years added, the salary-cap hit for this season is $5.8 million and $17.9 million next season, according to the website.

Defensive end Myles Garrett, who has been sidelined for a few weeks because of a knee issue, and receiver Puka Nacua (groin) are “making really good progress,” McVay said.

On the Rams’ depth chart, Stetson Bennett is listed as quarterback Matthew Stafford’s backup with rookie Ty Simpson third.

“I look at it as a 2a, 2b,” McVay said. “We’ll see how we approach the game.”

Coral reefs make up just 1 percent of ocean coverage, but host a quarter of all life in the sea.

Coral reefs are experiencing bleaching events so frequently that they no longer have time to recover before the next one strikes, scientists have warned.

Global coral cover is now well below ⁠normal levels and at risk of irreversible decline, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) said in a report released on Monday.

“If we give them enough time, they ‌have the capacity to recover,” lead author Manuel Gonzalez Rivero said. “But we haven’t seen that amount of time being allowed. In fact, the frequency of those bleaching events has pretty much doubled.”

Bleaching occurs when corals expel the colourful algae living in their tissues. Without this algae, they become vulnerable to starvation and disease. Bleached coral are not dead, but they need time in cooler water to recover.

“We had 40 years of coral cover around the world that had remained relatively unchanged until 2010,” said Gonzalez Rivero, a scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. “Since 2010, there has ⁠been a very steep change.”

The latest bleaching in 2023 was the most extensive on record, impacting 77 percent of the world’s coral reef areas.

Rivero warned that another such event is “very likely” this year given elevated temperatures globally.

Coral reefs are critical barometers for global ocean health, supporting more than 25 percent of all marine life despite covering less than 1 percent of the ocean floor.

The GCRMN’s warning came as organisers of the annual Pacific Islands Forum announced that at least five leaders of the 18-nation group will skip the group’s summit.

The forum has been touted for decades as a symbol of regional unity, and is used to discuss pressing matters facing Pacific states, including climate change and ocean health.