University Of New South Wales: UNSW researchers awarded more than $2.3m to build research infrastructure – India Education | Latest Education News | Global Educational News | Recent Educational News
University Of New South Wales: Bacteria use ancient mechanisms to self-repair – India Education | Latest Education News | Global Educational News | Recent Educational News
The Sunak government’s growing hostility to the Xi regime in China has, at this stage in its evolution, a silicon-based flashpoint. The prime minister does not want one of the few remaining wafer fab plants anywhere in the UK to fall into Chinese hands. The plant at the eye of this diplomatic storm is based in Newport, south Wales.
At the end of 2019, the Chinese group Wingtech — part controlled by the Chinese state — had acquired one of the Newport fab’s biggest customers, the Dutch group Nexperia. Earlier that summer, Nexperia had increased its Newport order flow and promised capital support for the Welsh plant’s development programme. In return, the Dutch group acquired a 14 per cent stake in the wafer fab. Within
Marcus Rashford’s brace helped England reach the knockout phase as group winners and brought Wales’ first World Cup appearance since 1958 to an end.
Welsh hopes of progressing were hanging by a thread heading into a Group B finale in which Gareth Southgate’s men only needed to avoid a four-goal loss to progress to the last 16.
The 104th meeting of the old foes was the first to be played at a World Cup and England comprehensively won Tuesday’s clash 3-0 in the desert as Phil Foden scored inbetween Rashford’s fine goals.
Their reward is a last-16 meeting with Senegal on Sunday, by which point Robert Page’s side will have long since left Qatar after their first appearance on the world stage in 64 years ended in frustration.
Wales’ draw with the United States and heart-breaking late loss to Iran meant they faced an uphill battle against their neighbours, who controlled a lifeless first half without creating too many clear-cut chances.
Chesney Hawkes’ surprising half-time appearance was the most entertaining moment of the evening until the 50th minute, when Rashford stepped up to score a stupendous free-kick.
But it was not to be his one and only goal in Al Rayyan.
Foden turned home a fine Harry Kane cross within two minutes of the opener, before Rashford ended a mazy run by finishing through back-up goalkeeper Danny Ward’s legs.
Marcus Rashford gets a hug from manager Gareth Southgate (Adam Davy/PA).
The 25-year-old, making his first England start since June 2021, left to a standing ovation when he was substituted late on.
There was a great atmosphere ahead of kick-off at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, where rousing renditions of the national anthems were followed by both teams taking the knee before kick-off.
England were quickest out of the blocks and would have gone ahead inside 10 minutes had it not been for Ward’s quick thinking.
Kane’s smart, defence-splitting ball put Rashford through, only for the goalkeeper – in for suspended Wayne Hennessey – to smother the attempt having dashed off his line.
Foden drove wide and Rashford saw a fizzing drive headed away by Neco Williams as England toiled in their attempts to prise open a tight Welsh defence.
Wales’ Neco Williams was forced off with a suspected concussion (Mike Egerton/PA).
Nevertheless, English supporters confidently chanted “you’re going home in the morning” before a break in play as Williams was left with a suspected concussion.
The delay in taking the full-back off after blocking Rashford’s shot is sure to be scrutinised in the coming days.
Connor Roberts came into a defence that was nearly undone by a superb free-flowing move soon after, only for Foden to lash off target at the end of it.
Joe Allen blazed well off target too as Wales had their first attempt deep in stoppage time.
The half-time performance of popstar Hawkes was as surprising as the news that Brennan Johnson was replacing Wales captain Gareth Bale at the break.
Marcus Rashford (far left) opens the scoring with a fine free-kick (Adam Davy/PA).
But Page and Wales quickly saw hopes of a first win against England since 1984 extinguished.
Joe Rodon was adjudged to have fouled Foden and Rashford took the resulting free-kick from 24 yards, unleashing a sensational effort that beat Ward and found the back of the net in the 50th minute.
Within two minutes England were celebrating again.
Rashford pressed Ben Davies on the right flank and the ball ricocheted forward to Kane, who sent a low driven cross to the far post where Foden coolly passed home.
Wales attempted to reduce the deficit. Jordan Pickford was panicked by a curling Daniel James effort and produced a fine reaction save to prevent Harry Maguire deflecting a Kieffer Moore shot home.
Phil Foden celebrates England’s second goal (Nick Potts/PA).
Southgate rung the changes with the game seemingly over, allowing Kane to get a breather, Kyle Walker to come off after his first start since October and Kalvin Phillips to get some minutes under his belt.
Wales defender Davies limped off and Aaron Ramsey joined James on a booking after a poor challenge on Jordan Henderson as the match looked set to peter out.
Rashford had other ideas.
The forward ran behind, showing good footwork and composure before sending a fierce strike through Ward’s legs for England’s 100th goal at World Cup finals tournaments.
The Wales goalkeeper soon denied the 25-year-old his hat-trick, before thwarting Jude Bellingham and watching Foden hook the rebound wide under pressure.
Allen became the next Welsh player to limp off and “that’s why you’re going home” greeted a wayward Moore shot.
England fans chanted Southgate’s name just days after boos greeted the final whistle against the United States and John Stones went close in stoppage-time to adding gloss to an emphatic win.
Mounted police patrolled Bondi Beach, Sydney, as a part of their compliance operations in 2021
More than 33,000 Covid fines will be withdrawn or refunded in Australia’s most populous state after a court deemed them invalid.
An Australian legal advocacy group challenged the pandemic-era fines on the basis they were “too vague”.
The “fail to comply” fines were issued for a range of alleged offences – from carpooling to attending a public gathering.
They ranged from $1,000 (£559) to $3,000 (£1,677).
Ultimately, government lawyers conceded the fines did not meet legal requirements in the New South Wales Supreme Court. Shortly after the decision was handed down, the Commissioner of Fines Administration withdrew 31,121 of the 62,138 fines.
In a statement, Revenue NSW said it prioritised the health and safety of residents during the pandemic.
However, while it said it would withdraw the “fail to comply” fines, it added the decision “does not mean the offences were not committed”.
Before the ruling, centre solicitor Samantha Lee said “this case is about more than just two people’s fines”.
“It is about the need to properly adhere to the rule of law, even during a pandemic.”
The RLC has also alleged fines were disproportionately issued to people living in poorer areas, saying statistics “show the majority of Covid-19 fines were issued to those residing in low-socioeconomic areas and areas with a large proportion of First Nations populations”.
An independent review into Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic found women, children and people with disabilities – among others – “bore the brunt”.
It also found Australians in the lowest 20% of socioeconomic status were three times more like to die of Covid-19 than those in the top 20%.
Members of the Australian Defence Force were deployed to help police enforce compliance with NSW restrictions in 2021
Australian states and territories imposed strict restrictions during the pandemic, which included limits on travel and movement outside the home and bans on travelling interstate.
The NSW Government plans to utilize drones through Local Land Services to map weeds and invasive species.
“Through this program, Local Land Services will roll out drones to councils across the Central West and set them up to help map weed infestations – and ultimately deploy larger drones to spray invasive plants from the air.
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.
Connect Assist is celebrating winning Bronze atthe annualEuropean Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards for its innovative helpline for the Deaf community, Sign Assist.
The ECCCSAs are the industry’s largest and most prestigious awards programme, recognising organisations, teams and projects across Europe that are leading the way in delivering exceptional service to customers.
The annual event was held in London, hosted by TV presenter and journalist Fiona Bruce, with awards presented by former British Olympic athlete Linford Christie.
Connect Assist’s British Sign Language (BSL) video helpline, Sign Assist, was commended in the Best Innovation in Customer Service category, reflecting its ground-breaking customer innovation. Launched in April 2022, this unique service is designed to remove barriers for those in the Deaf community, allowing BSL users to access support and communicate in their native language.
As the first UK contact centre to offer the service, Sign Assist uses their live video engagement platform to connect Deaf and hearing-impaired people directly to staff fluent in BSL and those with lived experience from the Deaf community, to offer a truly inclusive experience for all.
The result follows a win for Sign Assist in the ‘Best Inclusion Strategy’ category at last month’s Welsh Contact Centre Awards.
Connect Assist is a market-leading provider of contact centre and digital services. Since launching in 2006, Connect Assist, which is based in Nantgarw in South Wales, has been working with organisations in the public, private and third sectors, ensuring the delivery of high-quality contact centre services that have a positive impact on thousands of people every day. It currently employs more than 400 people.
Ron Moody, CEO at Connect Assist, said:
“With Sign Assist, we want to be able to support the Deaf Community by giving them the help and support they need by communicating with them in the right way. It’s very gratifying that this innovative service has again attracted industry recognition”.
Amanda Mullans, Sales Director at Connect Assist, said:
“We are absolutely delighted that the ECCCSA judging panel have recognised this service as a Winner in the Best Innovation in Customer Service awards category, for the outstanding contribution we offer to the Deaf community. We hope to inspire others to push for greater innovation to meet customers’ needs and raise standards in the industry.”
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About Connect Assist
Founded in 2006, Connect Assist is a market-leading provider of contact centre services that supports some of society’s most vulnerable people. With more than 400 employees, Connect Assist offers services that include 24/7 helpline services, counselling, emotional support, signposting, debt advice, and Sign Assist for BSL users.
In 2021, Connect Assist joined Maximus in a partnership that will accelerate its plans for growth, strengthening their customer service and digital capabilities to support thousands more people.
About Maximus in the UK
Maximus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maximus, Inc., and delivers services that helpmore than 2 million people each yearin the UKto move forward with their lives. Operating from more than 285 locations, Maximus is one of the largest providers of employment, health, and disability support programmes in the country.
Maximus employs over 5,000 people, including more than 1,000 employment advisors and 1,400 doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and other Healthcare Professionals. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and Living Wage Employer
The Art Gallery of New South Wales was founded in 1871 “as a museum of contemporary art”, according to Steven Miller, the head of the gallery’s National Art Archive and Research Library. In 1874, when the gallery purchased its first work, it did so under its primary stated aim of supporting living Australian artists. That first purchase was a watercolour titled Apsley Falls (1874) by Conrad Martens (pictured above), the colony’s most senior living artist, who was ill at the time and struggling financially. Supporting artists was foremost in the minds of the gallery’s founders, who organised annual shows to help artists find buyers for their work. “They didn’t intend to collect artworks. That came later,” Miller says. In the 1930s and 40s, the gallery continued to support living Australian artists by pioneering a series of multi-lender solo exhibitions. The first such exhibition was devoted to the Australian Impressionist Arthur Streeton, in 1931. Subsequent solo exhibitions focused on other prominent artists such as Hans Heysen, Roland Wakelin, William Dobell, Margaret Preston and Lloyd Rees.
Exterior view of the now demolished original Art Gallery of New South Wales in the Botanic Gardens, circa 1881. Photo: AGNSW
1880—The gallery’s first home
The Art Gallery of New South Wales’s first home was built in 1879 and stood across the road from the site of Sydney Modern. It was built as the Fine Arts Annexe of that year’s Sydney International Exhibition and was the first freestanding public art gallery in Australia. “Even though the National Gallery of Victoria was founded ten years before us, it shared premises and administration with the public library and museum as was the custom in all Australian states apart from New South Wales,” says Steven Miller. On 22 September 1880, after the Sydney International Exhibition had closed, the Fine Arts Annexe was officially dedicated as the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In pride of place in the first exhibition was Ford Madox Brown’s painting Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1847-51).
Between 1896 and 1909 the gallery’s historic sandstone home was built on a hill overlooking Sydney Harbour. The site was opposite and just metres south of the original gallery building in the Royal Botanic Garden. This 1906 photograph shows record crowds coming to see Holman Hunt’s painting The Light of the World. The institution’s early name, the National Art Gallery, can be seen on the front. Walter Liberty Vernon designed the sandstone building, and Miller believes it will harmonise perfectly with the new building. “Modernism always sits beautifully with Classicism, because it emphasises form and structure and geometry,” he says.
In 1959 a group of recently commissioned Pukumani grave posts went on view in the historic Grand Courts of the gallery. The placement of the Indigenous works in the context of the Old Masters made a powerful statement about their status as art and not an “ethnographic curiosity”. The posts were created in 1958 by Melville Island artists Laurie Nelson Mungatopi, Bob Apuatimi, Jack Yarunga, Don Burakmadjua and Charlie Kwangdini. They were commissioned when Tony Tuckson, the deputy director, went to Melville Island to see the artists making the work and was enthralled by the encounter. The artists themselves became passionate about the Pukumani grave posts commission, seeing in the project an important chance to heighten a wider understanding of their culture. “One of the descendants of the artists said what they wanted is the outside world ‘to be cultured’,” Miller says. In 1994 the gallery opened Yiribana, the world’s largest single space devoted to the permanent exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture.
In 2021 the gallery celebrated the 150th anniversary of its foundation. Refurbishments to the original sandstone building commenced, including the reinstallation of the collection in the historic Grand Courts and 20th-century galleries, as well as the relocation of the Research Library and National Art Archive. “It’s a key moment when the gallery transformed itself to be a museum for 21st-century audiences and art,” Miller says. Major building projects had taken place in 1972 and 1988, together doubling the gallery’s size. Sydney Modern almost doubles the gallery’s space again. But it takes a major step further, offering a separate building whose connection to the historic sandstone edifice is via a large landscaped “public art garden”.
• Read all of our articles on the Sydney Modern Project here
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Three people have been arrested after the bodies of two babies were found in a house in south Wales.
Officers were called to the house in Wildmill, Bridgend, at just before 8pm on November 26.
Two men aged 37 and 47, and a 29-year-old woman, have been arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child and they remain in police custody.
An investigation is ongoing and detectives are keen to hear from anyone with information.
Superintendent Marc Attwell, from South Wales Police, said: “This is very distressing incident, and we are appealing for anyone with information, to please get in touch.
“There will be a visible police presence in the area as extensive inquiries continue over the weekend and we encourage anyone with information or concerns to talk to officers.”
Two people have been taken to hospital after they reportedly “came off” a ride at Winter Wonderland in Cardiff. The incident happened at around 5.15pm on Saturday, November 26, at the showpiece event in the capital’s civic centre.
According to eyewitnesses a number of people fell from the Ice Skater ride after a “massive bang” was heard. A spokesman from the Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed that two patients were taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff following the incident, which they said had seen two people “reportedly come off a ride” at the event.
Seren McCallum-Weller was at Winter Wonderland celebrating her birthday along with her family. The 13-year-old said she saw a number of people on the floor and that the experience left her panicked.
She said: “I was on the Ice Skater ride with my cousin. We were just having a fun time then we suddenly heard a massive bang. I didn’t know what it was. We looked behind us and the ride was still going and then we saw a lady on the floor. We then saw a second lady who was pushed into the railings and the railings had moved. She was lodged in between the ride and the railings. I think a third lady was also thrown into the railings. There were a few children on the ride who were no older than 11 or 12.”
Seren said the ride involves several clusters of around four seats which spin and move diagonally “very fast”. She said staff tried to stop the ride as soon as they could but it took a few minutes to slow down.
The incident happened at Winter Wonderland near the civic centre(Image: WalesOnline)
She said: “The ride was slowing down and it came to a stop about one or two minutes after it happened. The attendants were trying to stop it straightaway. One of the ladies had damaged her head and there was blood. I think she possibly broke her ankle as well. I think [one of them] was unconscious. I was panicking. I saw one woman get up and as I was leaving I heard one of them crying. I hope the ladies are okay.
“You see things like this happen on YouTube and hear them happening to other people but it’s scary when it happens to you. It has scared me and I’m giving theme parks and rides a miss in the future.”
Seren (left) with her cousin on a different ride at Winter Wonderland(Image: Harry Weller)
Laura Rogers from Pontypridd was visiting Winter Wonderland with her family when she also saw the incident unfold. The 29-year-old said: “We were playing on the games opposite and we heard a bit of commotion. As we looked over we saw all the security running around all frantic. We noticed they rushed to a cabin. They then left with some sort of medical bag. As they rushed past us we followed. Then I realised there was an accident on the ride.
“Then they pulled one railing off on the side. I then noticed a lady or girl on the side pinned against it. As I walked on I noticed another girl that looked unconscious. There were shoes on the floor that seemed to be flown off during this time. I stood for a little while and then I noticed one of the security staff talking to my mother-in-law.
“He told her that the bars had flung open…. It was shocking to see for my five-year-old daughter who goes on this ride – also for everyone that had to witness it happening when they only went out for a good time.” She added: “My five-year-old daughter is tall for her age and can ride on it. Someone might not be so lucky next time and I hope the people involved have a speedy recovery.”
A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said: “We had a call at 5.15pm that two patients had reportedly come off a ride at Winter Wonderland. We deployed our cycle response team who were in the city centre for the rugby match. A conveying ambulance was requested to take two patients to hospital.”
It is understood that Winter Wonderland opened as expected on Sunday, November 27, but the Ice Skater ride is not running. A spokesman for Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland said: “We are aware of an incident that occurred on the Ice Skater ride at Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland on the evening of Saturday, November 26. Safety is always a priority for us and a full investigation into the incident is now taking place. We, as the event organisers, are working closely with the ride owner/operator and all relevant organisations to investigate. The ride will remain closed during this time.”
A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive said: “HSE is aware and making the appropriate inquiries.” A Cardiff council spokesman said: “We are aware of the incident which occurred at Winter Wonderland on Saturday evening and will be supporting any investigations that will be undertaken in due course.”
