BRISBANE, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has agreed to a 50-50 funding arrangement for infrastructure, including stadiums, venues, and roads for the Games in 11 years. The deal was struck on April 26, more than an hour before the 5 pm deadline for guarantees to be sent to the International Olympic Committee. As part of the agreement, a jointly owned, funded, and run Olympic infrastructure agency will be set up to oversee all projects. “Our offer is for a genuine partnership, with shared costs and shared responsibilities, working together to make this the best Olympics on record,” Morrison said. “This takes the…
Author: zenger.news
Russian artillery batteries destroyed a simulated enemy with the support of drones during a recent military exercise near the city of Orenburg. The war game, a realistically staged military battle that included 1,000 servicemen and more than 300 units of military and special equipment, took place April 15 in the Central Military District, which is the largest such zone in the Russian Federation. It covers roughly 2,730,000 square miles. The Russian Ministry of Defense shared a video of the mock battle on its Facebook page, showing tanker subdivisions of the 2nd Combined Arms Army destroying a simulated enemy’s convoy of…
Better Hearing and Speech Month in May provides a good opportunity to look at three Israeli companies bringing the power of artificial intelligence to the $4 billion speech therapy market. Approximately 1.5 billion people globally deal with voice, speech or language impairments. For therapy to be effective, it must be supported by consistent at-home practice, and that is one of the myriad ways artificial intelligence can help. TikTalk Speech language pathologists use games and props to engage children in their sessions. TikTalk’s cloud-based virtual assistant brings that aspect home, motivating kindergartners to sixth graders to practice the articulation skills they’re…
Financial technology has emerged as a high-tech sector where women are taking key management positions. London-based fintech research and analytics provider Findexable reports that in 2019, the proportion of women in senior management roles globally grew to 29 percent, the highest number ever recorded. One bright spot for woman is in Israel. Over the past few years, a strong financial technology ecosystem has evolved in the country. According to FinTech Aviv, there are more than 850 fintech companies in Israel, which bills itself as Startup Nation. The group is conducting a Gender Diversity Radar Survey with the University of Illinois “to…
BALMAIN, Australia — The families of veterans who have died by suicide are owed a royal commission, Australian Labor leader Anthony Albanese said. Addressing the Anzac Day service at Loyalty Square in the city of Balmain, Albanese said many wars do not end when they leave the battlefield. “It comes as some relief that, after a long campaign by relatives who’ve lost love ones, there will finally be a royal commission into veteran suicide,” he said. “This year alone, we have already lost 18 to suicide – and it is only April.” Labor leader Anthony Albanese. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image)“To them, and all those…
CANBERRA, Australia — Big business wants Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to make it easier for women to get back into work by fixing both the nation’s broken child care and paid parental leave systems in next month’s budget. Business Council of Australia (BCA) chief executive Jennifer Westacott argues that Australia’s population is growing at its lowest rate since World War I. It is critical female participation is lifted to make the most of homegrown talent. “A women’s budget is not just about fixing the cultural problems we’ve seen writ large across society; it’s also an economic imperative,” Westacott said in a statement on April…
DARWIN, Australia — It’s a story fit for Hollywood. Two cinema tragics in their twilight years head bush and re-open an outback movie hall for one last chance to do what they love. Together the men find a simple life far from the city and a Northern Territory town rediscovers its love of the flicks as it opens its arms to the newcomers. But like all good tales, adversity is close. The business, like most maimed by the Covid-19 pandemic, is struggling and the ending to this would-be classic is still being written. “Movies belong on the big screen,” says 68-year-old Greg…
DARWIN, Australia — The final resting place of a previously missing Australian World War I soldier has been identified in France. Private Leslie Styles of the 40th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, came from Ringarooma in northeast Tasmania. He enlisted on March 4, 1916, and during the Battle of Amiens on Aug 12, 1918, was killed in action shortly after he and three other soldiers successfully took two German machine-gun posts. Veterans Affairs Minister Darren Chester said Private Styles was initially buried near his death. Still, his body could not be identified when he later recovered and was buried as an Unknown Soldier of the…
CANBERRA, Australia — The Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (RSPCA) of Australia fears a federal government call for technological solutions to live export welfare monitoring could lead to independent observers no longer boarding ships to do the job. “The risk is that technology will replace independent human observation,” Jed Goodfellow from the animal body said. His concerns follow a call by Agriculture Minister David Littleproud earlier this month for technological solutions to improve the regulation of trade. “More than AUD 2.3 million ($1.79 million) worth of Australian livestock are exported each year by sea and air, and Australia…
DARWIN, Australia — Australia’s Port of Darwin lease is one of the many deals that have been sewn up with China and one that Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, could consider ending after she tore up Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative with the Asian giant last week. The Belt and Road Initiative, known in Chinese and formerly in English as One Belt One Road or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations. The Northern Territory government signed a 99-year lease for the Port…