News In Brief

Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from Jan 7 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.

NSW Ambassadors Announced

Sydney, Jan 7: Local Government Areas across NSW will welcome 111 Australia Day Ambassadors in 2026 as the program enters its 36th year, with participation by both ambassadors and councils increasing on 2025. Representatives from fields including interior design, motorsport, music, television and the culinary arts will attend events from Balranald and Kyogle to Parramatta and Blacktown, presenting Citizen of the Year awards, joining citizenship ceremonies and taking part in local festivities such as thong throwing, yabby races, watermelon eating and backyard cricket.
Minister for Jobs and Tourism the Hon Steve Kamper said: “Australia Day is an opportunity to celebrate what unites us. Our shared values. Our diversity. The spirit of mateship that defines our nation and what makes us inherently Australian.
“It is wonderful to see so many inspiring individuals volunteering their time to support Australia Day 2026 in NSW communities. The breadth of their collective achievements is truly remarkable.
“The Australia Day Ambassador program and the sheer volume of local events planned across the state are a reminder of how strong our sense of community in NSW truly is.”

Drones Track Dolphin Health

Perth, Jan 7: Drone-mounted thermal cameras are emerging as a promising non-invasive way to monitor dolphin health, according to new research from Flinders University. In a study published in the Journal of Thermal Biology, marine mammal experts analysed more than 40,000 thermal drone images to test how accurately they could measure dolphin surface temperature and breathing rates without capturing or restraining the animals.
“Monitoring the health of dolphins is important for assessing environmental impacts and supporting conservation, but because they spend most of their lives underwater traditional health checks often require capture, restraint or invasive probes, which can be logistically challenging and potentially stressful for the animals,” says PhD candidate Charlie White, from the Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL) at Flinders University.
“At the optimal flight conditions – 10m to 15m directly overhead of a dolphin – we confirmed that the drone measurements were precise enough to detect biologically meaningful changes in surface temperature and respiration rate – two important indicators of physiological state and health.”
Working with 14 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under human care at Queensland’s Sea World, the team compared thermal readings from a drone flown at different heights with close-range measurements and found the drone could reliably capture heat from blowholes, body surfaces and dorsal fins, and accurately count respiration.
Senior author Associate Professor Guido Parra says the study shows drone-based infrared thermography can accurately and reliably estimate vital signs under controlled conditions and, with further refinement in wild settings, has “the potential to support safer and less intrusive health monitoring of marine mammals in both managed care and the wild.”

Alibaba Cloud Leads

China, Jan 7: Alibaba Cloud has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: AI Infrastructure Solutions, Q4 2025, recognising its strength in cloud infrastructure and AI innovation. The company is one of five leaders among 13 vendors assessed, and received the highest possible score (5.00) in seven of the 13 criteria in the current offering category, including configuration, data management, management-operations, fault tolerance, efficiency and deployment locale. It also achieved the highest scores possible in the roadmap and pricing flexibility and transparency criteria under strategy.
According to the report, Alibaba Cloud’s roadmap coordinates architecture, infrastructure improvements and governance to meet future requirements, while its simple, upfront pricing is less complex than competitors, helping customers plan and consume services. Customers are noted as frequently praising the platform’s performance, scalability, pace of open-source innovation and customer service.
“For us, this recognition from Forrester validates our unwavering commitment to pioneering the cloud and AI infrastructure that will power tomorrow’s digital economy. We’re building the essential foundation enterprises need to harness AI’s transformative potential — delivering solutions that are not only high-performing and scalable, but also secure and compliant with local requirements. We’re proud to be recognised as a leader in this space, and we remain dedicated to helping our customers accelerate their digital transformation and unlock new opportunities for growth,” said Jiangwei Jiang, Senior Researcher and General Manager of Infrastructure Products, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
The accolade follows Alibaba Group’s announcement in February 2025 of plans to invest at least RMB380 billion over three years to advance its cloud computing and AI infrastructure under its “AI+Cloud” strategy, scaling up capabilities to support the next wave of AI-driven innovation for businesses and developers.

AI Boosts Holiday Spend

Perth, Jan 8: U.S. consumers spent a record $257.8 billion online during the 2025 holiday season (Nov. 1–Dec. 31), up 6.8 per cent year-on-year, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.
The season also saw 25 days where online spending topped $4 billion in a single day, up from 18 days in 2024.
Mobile continued to dominate, accounting for 56.4 per cent of online transactions (up from 54.5 per cent in 2024), and peaking on Christmas Day when smartphones drove 66.5 per cent of online sales.
Cyber Week (Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) delivered $44.2 billion in online sales, with Cyber Monday remaining the biggest e-commerce day at $14.25 billion, followed by Black Friday at $11.8 billion.
Adobe said discounts encouraged shoppers to “trade up”, with the share of units sold for the most expensive goods rising 20 per cent compared to the rest of the year, led by electronics, sporting goods and appliances. Buy Now Pay Later also hit a milestone, contributing $20 billion in online spend, with 82.2 per cent of BNPL purchases made on smartphones.
Generative AI tools played a growing role in shopping behaviour, with traffic to retail sites from AI-powered services increasing 693.4 per cent year-on-year, while Adobe noted overall usage remains modest.
“This 2025 holiday season, consumers embraced generative AI more than ever as a shopping assistant in their purchasing decisions,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. “Competitive discounts and flexible payment options like Buy Now Pay Later also contributed to driving record spend of $257.8 billion throughout this holiday season.”

Holiday Break Burnout

Perth, Jan 8: Many Australian workers are struggling to properly switch off over summer, with new research from Indeed finding three in five (60 per cent) have difficulty disconnecting while on holiday.
The survey suggests work pressures are following employees into their downtime, with 39 per cent contacted outside of hours and 18 per cent saying their employer refuses to respect personal boundaries. More than one in four reported workload stress, while 28 per cent said they are expected to be on call for “urgent” issues. A quarter also reported feeling guilty about switching off.
Most workers are still checking in with work while away, with four in five (79 per cent) reading work emails or messages during holidays. More than half (51 per cent) check daily, on average every 4.82 hours. Among those who do manage to unplug, 63 per cent need at least a few days to shift into holiday mode, while 17 per cent need a full week. A small but notable group — 6 per cent — said they rarely, if ever, fully disengage.
The research also highlighted the awkwardness of running into colleagues while away, with more than one in five respondents saying they would rather undergo a colonoscopy than bump into their boss on holiday. Despite that, more than half (55 per cent) said they miss their colleagues or workplace during breaks.
“Indeed’s data shows many Australian workers still can’t switch off when holidaying. They check their phones, remain available for an ‘urgent’ ping and carry guilt when disengaged.” “When work follows people to the sun lounger, boundaries are clearly blurred. Employers need to give employees real permission to disconnect.”
“Plenty of workers fantasise about quitting and the possibility of easier ways to make money while on holiday which is likely only fueled by intrusive work responsibilities and boundaryless employers.”
“Indeed’s data shows us that workers crave a clean break on holiday. The desire to avoid colleagues isn’t rude, it’s about creating boundaries. Even a casual encounter can snap someone straight back into work mode.”

Stripe Powers Copilot Checkout

Perth, Jan 8: Stripe says it is powering a new in-chat shopping feature called Copilot Checkout, which will let Copilot users in the United States buy products from Etsy businesses and retailers including Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie without leaving the conversation.
Under the new experience, when a Copilot chat naturally turns into shopping, a Stripe-powered checkout can appear directly inside the chat. Microsoft connects to Stripe via an integration, and Stripe then connects with sellers through its Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard codeveloped by Stripe.
Stripe said the flow uses a Shared Payment Token, designed to enable payment processing without exposing a buyer’s credentials. The token is passed to the seller, who can complete the purchase via Stripe or another payment provider, while still drawing on Stripe’s fraud risk signals. Stripe added that sellers remain the merchant of record and retain control of their data.
“AI is changing how commerce works, and as with every technology shift, it needs new infrastructure. Stripe is building that infrastructure, and Microsoft is putting it to use by enabling commerce inside Copilot,” said Kevin Miller, head of payments at Stripe.
“With Copilot, we want to make discovering and purchasing products as effortless as possible. As we bring new AI-powered experiences to life, we are collaborating with Stripe to provide the reliable and fast-improving infrastructure that makes this new era of AI-powered commerce possible,” said Nayna Sheth, head of product for agentic payments at Microsoft.
Stripe said Microsoft will also work with Stripe to integrate the Agentic Commerce Suite to help onboard more merchants, covering discoverability for AI agents, checkout, fraud protection and payments through a single integration. Stripe noted Microsoft has been a Stripe customer since 2022 and later adopted Stripe Connect for marketplace initiatives.