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The Illawarra's much-loved Wodi Wodi Walking Track is open again. Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading After significant improvements along a 2.15km section, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) South Coast Branch opened the track in the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area just before Christmas. The track, designed to provide a comfortable circular trip, starts at Stanwell Park Station and ends near Coalcliff Station. Classified as Grade 4 Australian walking track, the mostly uphill route weaves through dense forest and features amazing sandstone stairs and elevated boardwalks. The walk winds its way through tranquil creeks, unique flora, and offers stunning ocean glimpses. The $2 million upgrade took 18 months to complete in challenging, remote terrain, requiring careful planning and several helicopter operations . Track realignments were made to better manage and preserve cultural and environmental features, while stormwater management has been improved through grade reversals, drainage, and paved swales. "Thank you to the workers for the great job they've done on the sandstone steps and repair to the track, just in time for the summer holidays," Member for Heathcote, Maryanne Stuart "This is a beautiful part of the northern Illawarra and connection to our coastal walking tracks." The Minister for the Illawarra and South Coast was equally delighted. "This is a beautiful part of the world, and I'm so proud and excited it gets to feature as part of the Great Southern Walk . "This project will bring people from all over the world and allow them to enjoy the wonders of our region, while also protecting our local natural environment," Ryan Park said. The Wodi Wodi upgrade marks another milestone in the broader 67-kilometre Great Southern Walk, a multi-day hike that will eventually stretch from Sydney to Wollongong. The NSW Government has invested $17.46 million to the Great Southern Walk project, which will start in Kamay Botany Bay National Park, and finish at the Gateway Centre, Bulli Tops. More from Environment Newsletters & Alerts DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Get the latest property and development news here. WEEKLY Find out what's happening in local business. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily!An online debate over foreign workers in tech shows tensions in Trump’s political coalition

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US to Ukraine: Draft 18-year-olds to fight RussiaBy MICHELLE L. PRICE WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer , a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer’s comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks , whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government , weighed in, defending the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. Musk, the world’s richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect , was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump’s movement but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Related Articles National Politics | Should the U.S. increase immigration levels for highly skilled workers? National Politics | Trump threat to immigrant health care tempered by economic hopes National Politics | In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families National Politics | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National Politics | New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire guns Trump’s own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration , including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order , which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump’s businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club , and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the “All-In” podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump’s budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.Aminu Abdullahi, the Commissioner Higher Education Sokoto state, is the Iya Sokoto, a highly respected titleholder of the Sultanate. Before his appointment by Governor Ahmed Aliyu, he was for nine the nine years the state’s accountant general. He was also the permanent secretary in the ministries of environment and animal health. In this syndicated interview he spoke on the Aliyu adnistration’s 9-Point agenda as it concerns higher education. Chamba Simeh brings excerpts: Without thinking twice about it I would say that it has been a wonderful experience superintending over this critical sector. I am indeed very grateful that I am contributing my quota to ensuring that Sokoto state children receive qualitative education. And when you work with a governor that’s wholeheartedly committed to the development of education and that’s supportive that definitely makes your assignment less stressful. Before we go far into the interview I think it’s important that I explain the difference between the ministries of higher education, science and technology and basic which in a sense shows the importance the governor attaches to the education sector. The first reason for the creation of the three separate ministries is that the governor wants an effective supervision of the education sector which by the way is huge. So in Sokoto state like some other states we have three ministries – basic and secondary, science and technology and higher education,though we might be three ministries but we collaborate because we are dealing with essentially the same raw materials or if you like we are in a sense like the 3 arms of government- the executive, the legislature and the judiciary- though distinct we must work harmoniously to deliver development to the people. So the Ministry of Higher Education is solely concerned with tertiary education – the institutions of higher learning that offer different courses to students after their secondary level of education. We have Diploma, Certificate and Degree Awarding Instuitions under the ministry numbering about ten (10). But at the recent State Executive Council meeting the Council in its wisdom took the decision to return the School of Nursing to the Ministry of Health and the School of Legal Studies to the Ministry of Justice, for more effective supervision. The fact is that these five(5) tertiary institutions were transferred to their mother ministries in line with the laws establishing them. Only God knows why the previous administration decided to put them under ministry of higher education. We equally have 20 private tertiary institutions in Sokoto state that are also under our supervision only because the government doesn’t fund them like it funds its own schools. Like every other sector when this administration assumed office things were at different levels of decay and the education sector wasn’t spared which is most unfortunate. The handover note that officials of the ministry put together for me was depressing because the situation in all our institutions was alarming ...the morale of the workers was expectedly low because their course were not accredited and they were not paid their teaching incentives. For instance, the state university was without power for more than three years. Most of the lecture theatres were in a state of dilapidation. On assumption of office Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto instantly instructed the Kaduna Power Company to restore power immediately to the university and the other institutions after reaching an agreement with them on payment of the backlog. That singular act elicited wild jubilation and confirmed that a Daniel has indeed come to judgement. I am ashamed talking about what Sokoto State suffered in the hands of Aminu Tambuwal, a man who at one time was the number four citizen and who could have been president in line with the constitutional succession process and who on his own had attempted being the president of our dear country twice. Governor Aliyu has shown by words and actions that his commitment to the development of education is not political, that he in fact means his campaign promise to revamp the educational sector. He has paid all outstanding salaries, including the teaching allowances and rehabilitated dilapidated infrastructures in our higher institutions ...if you visit them you will find an environment that is conducive for learning... we can’t be blaming the students for poor performance when we haven’t provided them with the necessary tools and environment to study. The situation we met was terrible. We have equally gotten most courses being run by institutions accredited under one year. How on earth can any institution worth its salt run unaccredited courses? It certainly amounted to a sheer waste of everybody’s time, especially that of the students. Thankfully the examination bodies have shown an understanding which has gone a long way in resolving the issues. The governor has approved the payment of accreditation fees to the various bodies like the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). Governor in all sincerity has restored the hope of these students that was dashed by the past administration. As a mark of his commitment there is no memo from this ministry seeking his intervention on any urgent matter that hasn’t received his prompt response. He understands the importance of education and is determined to change the narrative. It’s important that I make the point that the governor is well guided in his decision to create the three ministries. It’s backed by the decision of the National Council of Education which is the highest policy making body on education in Nigeria on the separation of the ministries for effective supervision. It is a national policy ...the governor could have chosen to ignore it,but being a firm believer in the rule of law and convinced that it is the right decision he decided to go along with it wholeheartedly because it serves his purpose of the sector being vigorously supervised. The courses that were not accredited cut across the various departments of the schools. For instance some science courses were not accredited same with some social science courses, depending on the school. The most important point is that we have solved a problem which was why the governor was elected. He saw problems and offered himself to solve them, that’s the mentality of Governor Aliyu. While he believes in accountability he equally believes that the misdeeds of the past shouldn’t be an excuse, shouldn’t hold us back and every appointee understands this fact. We have spent about N3 billion on the rehabilitation of our institutions. For accreditation the cost is huge. For some courses we paid N35 million and for others N70 million, it depended on the course. Thankfully accreditation is once in five years, so we have some breathing space. So far virtually all our institutions have their courses accredited and the cost is running into millions of naira. Some few months back we paid the NUC about N100 million for courses being run at the state university and they were very impressed with our governor for his efforts in running a university that is truly a center of learning and research. In fact they followed up with a letter of appreciation to the governor. The governor on his part is extremely happy because he is seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I can tell you for free that the university surpassed the NUC conditions, and that we didn’t cut corners, we adhered to their guidelines. According to the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 which aims at ensuring the prudent management of resources and to promote transparency and accountability, if a public officer steals money he would be charged to court of law and tried. Also according to that same law if an officer commits an irresponsible act he or she is liable for persecution. But it wasn’t their fault that the Tambuwal administration refused to accredit the courses their schools were running. They didn’t commit a deliberate and irresponsible act because they kept drawing the attention of government to the problem and there is overwhelming evidence. So it would have been heartless sacking them for a crime they didn’t commit. I wish I could provide you with the answer considering the importance of our schools running courses that are accredited. It beats my imagination why they didn’t. I am not saying this to paint the previous administration in bad light, but just to put the facts before the public and nothing more. The governor has since moved on from what they didn’t do to doing them. Sokoto state is lucky to have a calm and dedicated governor after the disastrous eight years of Tambuwal. In November 2023, several countries under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the recommendation on education for peace and human rights, international understanding, cooperation, fundamental freedoms, global citizenship and sustainable development. Today, UNESCO remains the only global standard-setting instrument that lays out how education can and should be used to bring about lasting peace and sustainable development and in positioning education as a key driver of peace and international understanding. Education in the 2024 budget was allocated the highest percentage and in 2025 it has equally maintained its number one position in terms of budgetary allocation. Sokoto State in the last two years has in fact surpassed the UNESCO budget recommendation. And what does this say about Governor Aliyu’s unwavering commitment to education? It no doubt clears whatever doubt about his desire to rewrite the ugly story of education in the state. As a professional accountant I prefer to talk more in terms of releases because you can be allocated a fantastic budget without it being cash backed. So we say thank you to the governor for not only allocating funds to education, but for his express approvals and for cash backing them. Our modest achievements are due to his leadership and support. Our mandate and responsibilities includes policy formulation for higher education and recommending same to the governor who in the case of the university is the Visitor, carrying out needs assessment to determine the state’s needs in higher education in both public and private institutions. We also advice the government on the appointment of heads of the various institutions working in collaboration with their governing bodies. The other critical responsibility is in assisting the various tertiary institutions with accreditation from the relevant bodies. We also have the mandate to establish linkage programmes with other institutions of higher learning; and in the area preparing and implementing an annual budget, the revenue and expenditure of state tertiary institutions. Monitoring is critical, so we also carry out a rigorous monitoring exercise to ensure that they are performing the functions why they were established. Finally, we oversee the disbursement of scholarships to state indigenes in higher learning institutions. We do produce Performance Reports to the governor who is interested in knowing the progress being recorded. There is a close collaboration between the three ministries. About out of school children it’s a challenge but I can assure you that we are addressing it on all fronts. To some extent the Nigerian culture of marrying many wives and having many children is partly responsible for the problem. But things are beginning to change. I’m glad because in the past only the few of us went to school, but now there is no household that you will not find with students in higher institutions. Education would help people understand the importance of producing children they can cater for. Mmeanwhile, we would continue to deploy policies that would help address the problem. You know the story of Sokoto State. We remain eternally grateful to our father who by the way was my teacher and leader Senator Aliyu Magatarda Wamakko for laying a solid foundation for our education system using his experience as an educationist. As governor of Sokoto State, he put in a place several fundamental policies; free and compulsory education, he encouraged girl child education and so many other policies. We certainly won’t be increasing fees rather we would continue to encourage our students with incentives like scholarships to pursue their education to the highest level. The robust policies of Governor Aliyu have continued to attract more students to enroll into schools in the state and abroad. In fact enrollment has increased and very interestingly is the fact that students have stopped skipping school. We have achieved all these due to the policy of Governor Aliyu who understands the importance of education and is walking the talk. The previous government had for inexplicable reasons stopped the stipends and other privileges of the students which Governor Aliyu immediately restored. Yes. It’s important I make this additional point, in Sokoto state non-indigenes are treated as indigenes, they don’t pay school fees and the government doesn’t exclude them when it is paying examination fees. Once you are resident in Sokoto state you are automatically an indigene of the state, you pay the fees that the indigenes are paying. Back to your question, the Aliyu administration understands that schools must be well funded. From next year the governor has directed that schools would be given N200,000 monthly allowance to meet minor expenses which would help them face desks, repairs of toilets etc. So this is a government that understands its responsibility to its schools and indeed all government departments. You must also be aware of the efforts of the governor ensuring the availability of water 2/4/7 in the state. The interesting thing about developmental partners is that they only come in when they see what you are doing. It’s only when they see your seriousness and enthusiasm that they would partner with you. Our budget outlook which is friendly attracted them. We actually have a synergy with them and several other projects with different development partners. UNESCO that you mentioned earlier linked us up with other partners because they are impressed with what we are doing. They are facilitating and augmenting what the government is doing. So we are happy with the relationship. Yes. But that is in Basic and Secondary Education. It would be great if you equally interview the commissioner in charge of the ministry. TETFund was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria in its farsighted wisdom in 2011 to disburse, manage, and monitor education tax to government-owned tertiary institutions. You know that before the establishment of the agency in 2011, government-owned tertiary institutions were poorly funded so the scheme was designed to improve the crisis in the sector through its interventions especially in the area of facilities where the decay was monumental.In fact facilities in most schools had almost collapsed, teachers and lecturers morale were at their lowest. The enabling environment for conducive teaching and learning was absent. So the government took this step to arrest the rot. This background is important so we can appreciate the seriousness of the situation and why the agency was set up. TETFund’s interventions is only for the universities. Primary schools have the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that is saddled with the responsibility of providing greater access to, and ensuring quality of basic education throughout the country. The Universal Basic Education Programme was introduced in 1999 by the Federal Government of Nigeria to also address the rot in the sector. Each year TETFund intervenes based on specific requests of the concerned institution. They don’t decide for you,because you know what you need most. For example if we need a Laboratory, we will spell out our specific needs to TETFund and they would react appropriately. So they can’t come and build hostels for us when what we need is a lecture hall or ICT facilities. Our schools have well equipped hostels, we have beds so we don’t need them, so we can’t ask them to buy beds that we have. So the answer is a big yes. The state university has tremendously benefited from the intervention of the Fund in various areas. Governor Aliyu is absolutely clear about what he wants to achieve in education, which is development of human capital that’s important to the development of the state. The governor is driving the economic development of the state, so it’s important that we have indigenes that are skilled to work in the industries he is attracting. We recently graduated 80 medical doctors and being our citizens they can operate better in our environment because they understand the language and culture of the people. He sees education as both a social and economic investment. An educated person would easily understand the need to pay his/her tax and to be law abiding. I would give you the example of an educated woman – she is a nurse, and the first teacher of her children, so if she is educated that would certainly impact on their healthcare and education because she would be able to give them proper care and teach them alphabets before they start school. Governor Aliyu means business with his well thought out 9-Point Smart Agenda. In housing he has delivered. He was recently crowned the Urban and Housing-Friendly Governor of the Year 2024 in recognition of his achievements in the sector. It’s not a joke to deliver 1,000 housing units under two years. In the area of legal reforms he has equally done well. During our last State Executive Council meeting the Secretary to the State Government announced the execution of over 180 projects that have been completed in the last one and half years. The governor is serious minded; he won’t fail himself, his father Senator Wamakko or the people who have stood solidly behind him. The National Policy on Education introduced entrepreneurship into the curriculum of higher institutions. In the year 2000 the federal government and UNESCO partnered to incorporate Entrepreneurship Education (EEd) into Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) curricula. The main goals of entrepreneurship education in Nigeria include, preparing the students to be self-reliant and self-employed, creating employment opportunities, helping students to transition from a traditional economy to a modern industrial economy, training students to be creative and innovative in identifying business opportunities and to establish careers in small and medium-sized businesses. In Sokoto State our tertiary institutions have embraced the entrepreneurial message. I understand that even at the secondary school level the students are being thought Entrepreneurship. This is the way to go because government has a limited capacity to create jobs. Yes they are being adequately supervised. We regularly send out supervisors who are experts in their respective subjects to go and supervise the teachers. It’s actually part of the system it’s just that the last administration the government bluntly refused funding their assignment. That was a huge challenge. You don’t expect a public servant to spend his/her money to carry out government duties. So logistics were largely responsible for that responsibility not being carried out like it ought to. When I resumed office I was told by the officials of the ministry and I believe them that they use to contribute money to buy fuel to run the generator and buy stationeries. All that changed immediately with the coming of Governor Aliyu. Ministries are now being funded to be able to carry out their functions. The governor without much noise has restored the monthly allocations to the ministries and agencies. It’s important that I stress that we take our monitoring role very seriously. And that we treat both privately or publicly owned institutions the same way. We usually carry out unannounced and random visits. We don’t want them to prepare for our visit which would defeat the purpose. Yes it is working. We have the right to close the schools, when they are not operating in line with the laid down criteria. But closing such schools isn’t our usual approach. We normally enter into conversations with them which enable both parties to discuss the breaches. We are partners in progress. We have a duty of ensuring that standards are adhered to. We don’t want them producing half baked graduates. On the whole yes,but I know we have some departments that are over staffed while others are lacking personnel but that’s being addressed. Recently we carried out an audit, which enabled us to identify some departments that had surplus staff and the departments that were lacking. So we are working on moving staff from over staffed departments to areas of needs and where they can contribute more efficiently to the overall goals of the institution. Not yet. We are taking things one at a time. Yes all courses being run by the School of Nursing are accredited. It would also interest you to know that the State University is equally offering nursing. Our degree is HND unlike other universities that prefer awarding B.Sc Nursing. It’s a matter of choice. Like I said earlier the governor has been very generous in approving our projects and providing the necessary funds. In the year ending we have executed over 30 impactful projects worth over N3 billion spread across the various tertiary institutions.Talbot County Department of Social Services treated 35 local resource and adoptive family members to a holiday celebration at the Easton Volunteer Fire Department on Dec. 7. In addition to enjoying a holiday meal prepared by the Chesapeake Culinary Center, children received gifts, played games, made crafts, enjoyed a hot cocoa bar, learned about diverse winter holidays and took a photo with Santa Claus. “We look forward to this family event every year. It is our way of thanking our resource and adoptive parents for providing loving and stable homes for children,” said Linda Webb, Director of the Talbot County Department of Social Services. To learn more about becoming an adoptive or resource parent, call the Talbot County Department of Social Services at 410-820-7371 or visit midshoreresourceparents.com .