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Technology

5 Great Features You Only Get in Samsung’s Version of Android

two phones connected to two different computers

While the device care utilities will always be running in the background to look out for problems, you can also tap the Optimize Now button to perform a manual optimization—very handy if you think there might be a few issues with your smartphone.

The optimization process includes looking for duplicate or large files on your device that might be taking up room unnecessarily, for example, or hunting down apps that are draining battery power, or closing down apps running in the background unnecessarily.

Customize the Always-On Display

Samsung phones give you more control than most over what’s shown on your lock screen, and how it’s shown, too. From Settings, head to lock screen and Always On Display to configure it—though note that some budget Samsung handsets don’t offer the feature.

You’ll see that you’ve got all sorts of settings to play around with. You can, for instance, choose how long the always-on display stays visible for and pick your preferred clock style from a variety of digital and analog options.

Other available settings let you switch between portrait and landscape orientation and choose how bright the text is on the lock screen. It’s also up to you whether or not the media playback controls are shown via the always-on display.

You can even download entire themes for the always-on display: Tap Themes from Settings, then pick ODA to see what’s on offer. The quality can vary, but you should find at least a few options that suit your tastes.

Put Items in a Secure Folder

If you own a mid-range or flagship Samsung smartphone then you have access to a Secure Folder: a specially protected area of ​​your device where you can store any kind of file you want that no one else has access to.

Accessing the Secure Folder on your Samsung phone requires extra authentication—a fingerprint, a PIN code, or a pattern—and all the data inside it is fully encrypted, which means it’s almost impossible for it to be hacked.

From Settings, choose Biometrics and security and then Secure Folder. Once you’ve set your authentication method and brought up the Secure Folder, you can add new files and apps to it by tapping on the + (plus) button.

You can also add files to the Secure Folder from several other apps on your handset. In the Gallery app, for example, you can select photos and videos and then tap More and Move to Secure Folder.

Samsung DeX lets you use your phone like a desktop PC.

Courtesy of Samsung

Run Samsung DeX

Samsung DeX is a way of operating your smartphone with a keyboard, mouse, and computer monitor. If you’ve got a lot of image editing or word processing to do on your phone, for example, then it can be useful.

What you’re essentially doing is turning Android and OneUI into a desktop operating system, with all the benefits that brings—floating windows, more intuitive control of your apps, keyboard shortcuts, and so on.

You need some specific hardware: This only works with a Galaxy S series phone, and you need a specific DeX cable from Samsung to connect it to your monitor and your peripherals. You can also plug it into a laptop or desktop computer and use the peripherals attached to that instead.

Samsung has a full guide to DeX that you can consult, but it’s not difficult to get up and running and should seriously increase your mobile productivity—both in what you can do on your phone and how quickly you can get it done.

Source

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Entertainment

Edwina Bartholomew returns to Sunrise after welcoming son on maternity leave

Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew (pictured) returned to Brekky Central on Monday after taking five months' maternity leave

Newsreader Edwina Bartholomew returns to Sunrise after welcoming son Thomas on maternity leave: ‘It’s lovely to come back to work’

By Jo Scrimshire For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew returned to Brekky Central on Monday after taking five months’ maternity leave.

The 39-year-old and husband Neil Varcoe welcomed baby son Thomas during her absence. They are also parents to daughter Molly, born in late 2019.

Edwina, who was previously a roving weather presenter before being promoted to the news desk, said it was ‘lovely’ to be back in the studio.

Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew (pictured) returned to Brekky Central on Monday after taking five months' maternity leave

Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew (pictured) returned to Brekky Central on Monday after taking five months’ maternity leave

She was joined by co-anchors Natalie Barr and David Koch, while sports reporter Mark Beretta provided updates on the Aussie swimmers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games live from Birmingham, England.

Meanwhile, weatherman Sam Mac crossed live from the Gold Coast.

‘It’s been such a lovely five months,’ Edwina said.

‘We’ve had such a lovely time as a family unit, so it was a bit sad to leave them at home, but also lovely to come back to work.’

She was joined by co-anchors Natalie Barr (centre) and David Koch (right) on the news desk

She was joined by co-anchors Natalie Barr (centre) and David Koch (right) on the news desk

Sports reporter Mark Beretta provided updates on the 2022 Commonwealth Games live from Birmingham, England, while weatherman Sam Mac crossed live from the Gold Coast

Sports reporter Mark Beretta provided updates on the 2022 Commonwealth Games live from Birmingham, England, while weatherman Sam Mac crossed live from the Gold Coast

Natalie added: ‘Eddie has come back to work for a rest, like most new mums! He it can be much more restful at work than at home.’

Edwina and Neil announced the birth of their son in early March.

‘Some little news from our family. Thomas Donald Elliott Varcoe born on the 1st of March, 2022,’ she wrote on Instagram alongside a gallery of photos of the newborn.

Edwina and Neil announced the birth of their son Thomas in early March

Edwina and Neil announced the birth of their son Thomas in early March

‘At such a difficult time for so many, many people, we hope Tom’s little face puts a smile on yours,’ she added.

The journalist had filmed her last episode of Sunrise before starting maternity leave the previous month.

She was dressed in a light blue top for the broadcast, which many viewers took as a hint at the gender of her unborn child.

They are also parents to daughter Molly, born in late 2019

They are also parents to daughter Molly, born in late 2019

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Sports

Penrith coach confident Nathan Cleary will hit ground running after suspension

Penrith Panthers coach Ivan Cleary (right) walks with halfback Nathan Cleary on the field after losing the 2020 NRL grand final.

History shows why Penrith coach Ivan Cleary can be confident about son Nathan returning for the NRL finals in top gear despite being suspended until the end of the regular season.

Cleary was hit with a five-game ban for a spear tackle on Parramatta’s Dylan Brown. He will be sidelined until week one of the finals.

It means the halfback will have only played one full game — a July 23 win over Cronulla — between State of Origin III and the Panthers’ first finals appearance.

But his father said on Monday he would hit the ground running when he returned from his lengthy suspension.

“There has been enough experience for Nathan out of the last few years, probably starting in 2018,” Cleary said.

“He missed eight weeks, came back and had a couple of good games and he made his Origin debut.

“He has always come back from time out pretty much firing, so I think he will be fine.”

Halves partner Jarome Luai remains sidelined with a knee injury for a similar time frame. However, Cleary was confident the duo would pick up where they left off.

“They’ve played together for six years, so that’s a help, and they’ll be training together once Romie (Luai) is up and about.

“I feel like that training should get us in a good enough position for those guys to click back together.”

Despite the lengthy ban, the halfback will join the rest of the squad on a mid-season camp to Kiama on the NSW South Coast before Saturday’s trip to Canberra.

Nathan Cleary tips Dylan Brown onto his head
Cleary was sent off for the first time in his career following an ugly spear tackle. (Getty Images: Joshua Davis)

Cleary said the Panthers had considered fighting the severity of his son’s grade-three charge but chose not to, given what was at stake.

If the NRL judiciary had upheld the grading, Cleary would have missed the first week of the finals campaign as well as the Panthers’ remaining five regular-season games.

“I definitely thought we had a case there but in the end the risk was too high for him to lose another week,” said Cleary, whose side finished the season with games against Canberra, Melbourne, South Sydney, the Warriors and North Queensland.

The challenge for the Panthers is now to wrap up a minor premiership with a relatively inexperienced halves pairing.

Sean O’Sullivan will be partnered with either utility Jaeman Salmon or two-game rookie Kurt Falls, although Cleary would not be drawn on who would get the nod to play the Raiders.

Cleary was unable to confirm if center Stephen Crichton would be back after suffering a laceration to his ear in the win over the Sharks.

AAP

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Categories
Australia

New Zealand’s borders fully open after long pandemic closure

Passengers board an Air New Zealand flight at Christchurch Airport

New Zealand’s borders fully reopened to visitors from around the world on Monday, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic closed them in March 2020.

The country started reopening in February, first for New Zealanders returning home, and restrictions have progressively eased.

The process of reopening the borders ended last night with visitors who need visas and those on student visas now also allowed to return.

New Zealand is now also letting cruise ships and foreign recreational yachts dock at its ports.

International students were a significant contributor to New Zealand’s economy and educational providers are hoping the reopening of the borders will again provide a boost to schools and universities around the country.

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New Zealand’s border opening plan revealed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday during a speech at the China Business Summit in Auckland that the final staged opening of the borders had been an enormous moment.

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Categories
US

As Manchin pushes for speedy passage of new deal, Sinema stays quiet

As Manchin pushes for speedy passage of new deal, Sinema stays quiet

Senate Democrats are aiming to pass a major spending bill this week that includes funding for climate change, health care and tax increases on corporations.

The deal was unexpectedly struck last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and a key centrist, Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., giving Democrats optimism that they’ll have a robust agenda to run on in competitive races ahead of the midterm elections this fall.

While Manchin appeared on five Sunday programs to defend the deal and call for its passage, another centrist who holds a swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., whom Democrats consider a difficult negotiator, has been quiet about whether she’d vote for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, released Wednesday.

Sinema’s vote could make or break the bill. Democrats, with no hope of winning Republican support, need every member of their caucus to be present and voting — not guaranteed given recent absences of senators infected with Covid — for it to clear the Senate.

A spokesperson for Sinema said Sunday she had no comment on the bill, adding that “she’s reviewing text and will need to see what comes out of the parliamentarian process,” referring to the Senate official who determines whether bills comply with the chamber’s strict budget rules .

Without her support, it’s still unclear if Senate Democrats will be able to pass it this week.

Democrats are also hoping to pass the PACT Act to extend medical care to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service, a bipartisan measure that Senate Republicans blocked last week.

Party leaders were aiming to schedule another vote on that legislation for Monday but it could be delayed, leaving less time for the filibuster-proof bill. Republicans tanked the proposal amid anger that Democrats decided to proceed with the climate and tax legislation, which they had thought was dead due to Manchin’s earlier resistance.

Schumer’s office has said they intend to pass the legislation before the chamber’s August recess. But they haven’t shut the door to delay it if they need to be.

Why is Sinema undecided?

Sinema has been amenable to most provisions in the Democrats’ spending bill, which are consistent with a White House framework released Oct. 2021 that she endorsed. The big exception is the limitation of the carried interest tax break, which benefits investment managers.

Last year, Sinema made clear to Democratic leaders she opposed closing what many in her party called the “carried interest loophole,” according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations. The provision was dropped from the House-passed Build Back Better Act, which stalled indefinitely in the Senate earlier this year. But Manchin favors ending the tax break, and it was re-added to the new bill.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who is being encouraged by some Democrats to challenge Sinema in 2024, said lawmakers should vote for the bill.

“Blocking this bill that will reduce inflation and make investments in reducing climate change to protect a loophole for the ultra wealthy would not be prudent,” Gallego told NBC News.

On NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Manchin defended the legislation and said he hopes Sinema will support it.

“Kyrsten Sinema’s a friend of mine, and we work very close together,” he said. “She has a tremendous amount of input in this piece of legislation. And I would like to think she would be favorable towards it, but I respect her decision. Ella she’ll make her own decision based on the contents.

House Democrats in tough races are excited about passing the bill — if it gets through the Senate.

“I anticipate being being very supportive of it,” Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., told NBC News in an interview Saturday at Huntington Beach Pier. “Medicare should be able to negotiate prices… The climate part of it, I think, is something that really will set our economy up to compete with countries like China in the future.”

Even Porter’s Republican challenger, Scott Baugh, said he’s “interested” in the drug pricing provisions, some of which are broadly popular in surveys, and has to “fully evaluate” them before taking a position. But he opposes the rest of the bill.

“They’re doubling down on a failed policy,” he said in an interview at his campaign office in Newport Beach. “You can’t spend more money and increase taxes and solve the problem.”

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a conservative fiscal staunch, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “it really looks to me like Joe Manchin has been taken to the cleaners.”

“The corporate tax increase is going to slow down growth, probably exacerbate a recession that we’re probably already in,” Toomey said.

Manchin, however, sounded committed to the legislation and defended the 15% corporate minimum tax, a centerpiece of the new revenues, and rejected Republican criticisms of it.

“You would at least think that they would be paying at least 15%. Most businesses and all corporations that I know pay 21%. So that’s not a tax increase. It’s closing a loophole,” he said Sunday. “The last two years have been massive, record profits.

“And with that being said, it’s been the lowest investment of capital expenditure that we’ve ever had. So it’s not the taxes that’s driving this.”

Categories
Business

Phil Ruthven, the business futurist Kerry Packer turned to, dies at 82

Phil Ruthven, the business futurist Kerry Packer turned to, dies at 82

“Phil Ruthven had a great vision for the future of Australian business based on facts and research,” he said. “We will miss his advice and counsel from him.”

Ruthven was ubiquitous in the 1980s, when for a time he was Australia’s highest-paid professional speaker, in part because he used his grasp of statistics and macroeconomic trends to customize every address.

When Packer had $805 million to play with after selling his television interests to Alan Bond in 1987, it was to Ruthven and IBISWorld that he went for advice.

The forecaster was instrumental in Packer’s decision to expand his pastoral holdings with an emphasis on cotton, cattle and wool, to the extent he became Australia’s second-largest landowner.

“Agriculture is going through a fascinating watershed which is going to see that industry be reborn,” Ruthven told The Australian Financial Review reporter Martin Peers at the time.

“It’s one of the most underrated industries in Australia.”

Asset sales from Packer’s Consolidated Pastoral ended up helping heir James survive the global credit crunch of 2009.

Born and raised in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills, Ruthven moved to Melbourne in the late 1960s.

The first decade of his career was spent in the food industry, but it was while running an Edgells’ factory in 1967 that Ruthven went on a Rotary study exchange to the US which inspired him to change course.

Forecasting demand

He visited a “war room”, a concrete bunker beneath an airport tarmac in Oklahoma, and was amazed by the amount of nonsense information being sourced to aid the American cause in Vietnam.

“It was like something out of Dr Strangelove, it blew my mind,” Ruthven told The Age in 2014.

“I thought, one day, I want to start a company that is going to be the most information-intensive company ever seen.”

Ruthven went back to Edgells and tracked down the company’s entire production records back to 1926. Plotting out historical trends and cycles on graph paper, he was soon forecasting demand for Edgells’ 220 product lines better than the marketing department.

When Ruthven took his soothsaying ability and left Edgells to form IBISWorld, the concept of specialist market research companies was new.

But it grew in step with the professionalisation of corporate life in Australia, and overseas where IBISWorld would eventually have three satellite offices and source most of its revenue, which by 2020-21 was nearly $100 million a year.

Thousands of businesses came to trust Ruthven’s ability to pick trends early.

He often claimed his best call was one made in the mid-1980s, when he predicted that families would increasingly pay outsiders to do their childcare, cooking and lawnmowing for them.

“The business world was laughing at me,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald 20 years later, by which time Australia’s outsourced household services market was well on its way to being the $510 billion-a-year behemoth it is now.

Ruthven acted like the futurist he was. In 1987, the Financial Review reported he had organized one of Australia’s first satellite teleconferences, providing post-budget analysis to business in remote WA mining towns.

rules for success

Ruthven passed executive control of IBISWorld to his children in 2001, and stepped down as chairman in 2015.

In 2014 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, in recognition of his service to business and the community. He never stopped speaking for free at Rotary events, in gratitude for that life-changing trip in 1967.

Ruthven devoted much of his later life to The Ruthven Institute, which helped clients refine their business strategy based on “12 rules for business success” which he patented.

“Phil had a deep understanding of what Australian businesses could do better. We scrutinized his ‘rules’ from him and found he had distilled down core strategy lessons fantastically well, ”said Andre Sammartino, an associate professor at University of Melbourne who helped established the institute.

“He wanted the next generation of business leaders to get wiser, and we hope we can achieve this legacy.”

Ruthven is survived by three sons from his former wife, Robyn (deceased) – Shane, Justin and Kerryn, their partners and eight grandchildren, as well as his long-term partner, Deborah Light, former editor of the Financial Review.

Categories
Technology

Intel confirms 14th Gen Meteor Lake has ‘Versatile Processing Unit’ for AI/Deep Learning applications

Intel confirms 14th Gen Meteor Lake has 'Versatile Processing Unit' for AI/Deep Learning applications

Versatile Processing Unit for deep learning and AI inference

Intel is adding VPU to Meteor Lake and newer.

A new commit to Linux VPU driver today confirms that the company has plans to introduce a new processing unit into consumer 14th Gen Core processors, a Versatile Processing Unit.

The VPU driver is included into the Linux Direct Rendering Manager (DRM), the same way their graphics driver is integrated. The VPU appears 6 years after Intel acquired a company called Movidius, which has been developing their own VPUs. It is not entirely clear if and how Intel plans to incorporate Movidius designs into Meteor Lake, it could be a full-blown SoC-like integration or just a copy of architecture bits needed for Meteor Lake. Obviously after so many years, VPU design should be much more complex.

The confirmation on VPU comes from Kerner.org patches, where the following description is added:

Intel VPU for Meteor Lake, Source: kernel.org

Thus, Intel confirms the new VPU has five components, including CPU to VPU integration unit, memory management, RISC controller, network on chip and the most important part, the Neural Compute Subsystem (NCS) doing the actual work. This VPU unit could be considered Intel’s alternative to NVIDIA’s Tensor Cores, a dedicated chip that is heavily focused on AI algorithms.

Intel Meteor Lake is now officially coming next year, eventually it should become available for mobile and desktop platforms packed with new hybrid architecture featuring Redwood Cove and Crestmont CPU cores and Intel’s newest Xe-LPG graphics architecture.

Intel Mainstream CPU Roadmap (RUMORED)
VideoCardz Alder Lake Raptor Lake Meteor Lake
Desktop Launch Date Q4 2021 Q4 2022 Q4 2023
CPU node Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 4
Big Core µArch Golden Cove raptor cove Redwood Cove
Small Core µArch Gracemont Gracemont Crestmont
Graphics µArch Xand-LP Xand-LP Xand-LPG
Max CPU Core Count 16 (8c+8c) 24 (8c+16c) TBC
Max GPU Core Count 96 EU 96 EU 128-192 EU
desktopsocket LGA1700 LGA1700 LGA 1851
memory support DDR4/DDR5-4800 DDR4/DDR5-5600 DDR5
PCIe Gene PCIe 5.0 PCIe 5.0 PCIe 5.0
Intel Core Series 12th GenCore 13th GenCore 14th Gen Core

Source: Phoronix via Tom’s Hardware, TechPowerUP



Categories
Entertainment

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson ‘will only appear in half’ of My Kitchen Rules

MKR is returning to Channel Seven on Sunday, August 7, and will feature new judge Nigella Lawson (pictured) alongside old favorite Manu Feildel. But the British celebrity chef will only appear in half of the episodes, a new report has claimed

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson ‘will only appear in half’ of the episodes on Channel Seven’s rebooted My Kitchen Rules despite ‘huge’ pay day

By Marta Jary For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

My Kitchen Rules is returning to Channel Seven on Sunday, August 7, and will feature new judge Nigella Lawson alongside old favorite Manu Feildel.

But the British celebrity chef will only appear in half of the episodes, a new report has claimed.

On Monday, The Australian reported that Nigella, 62, ‘will appear only for the first round of the show with Manu Feildel.’

MKR is returning to Channel Seven on Sunday, August 7, and will feature new judge Nigella Lawson (pictured) alongside old favorite Manu Feildel. But the British celebrity chef will only appear in half of the episodes, a new report has claimed

MKR is returning to Channel Seven on Sunday, August 7, and will feature new judge Nigella Lawson (pictured) alongside old favorite Manu Feildel. But the British celebrity chef will only appear in half of the episodes, a new report has claimed

Chef Matt Preston will then replace her for the second round, before Colin Fassnidge and Curtis Stone man the show’s finals.

Nigella’s scant appearance comes despite her ‘reputedly huge fee’ the paper reports.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Seven for comment.

On Monday, The Australian reported that Nigella, 62, 'will appear only for the first round of the show with Manu Feildel.' Manu is pictured left

On Monday, The Australian reported that Nigella, 62, ‘will appear only for the first round of the show with Manu Feildel.’ Manu is pictured left

Global home-cooking sensation Nigella is replacing disgraced Pete Evans, who was axed from the Seven network in 2020 amidst the show’s falling ratings in its then eleventh year of production.

Nigella has previously spoken about her excitement about starring on the series.

‘When you think about the food you love, it’s nearly always home cooking,’ she said.

The cooking show was previously hosted by Pete Evans, (left), Feildel (right) and Colin Fassnidge (centre)

The cooking show was previously hosted by Pete Evans, (left), Feildel (right) and Colin Fassnidge (centre)

‘I’m a home cook and it’s the food that I want to eat. I’ve eaten 17,000 kilometers to find Australia’s best home cooks.’

The best-selling author will travel around the country with Manu as they criticize a new batch of passionate home cooks.

‘As MKR judges we make the perfect team, with our years of experience in professional and home kitchens respectively,’ Manu said.

‘And as lovers of delicious food and a fabulous dinner party, I can promise you we’re also going to have a lot of fun!’

Nigella's scant appearance comes despite her 'reputedly huge fee' the paper reports

Nigella’s scant appearance comes despite her ‘reputedly huge fee’ the paper reports

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Categories
Sports

Commonwealth Games 2022: hockey, cycling and Peaty back in the pool on day four – live! | Commonwealth Games

Key events

Badminton: It is Malaysian who have won the second mixed doubles game in the mixed team event, to level that 1-1 with England. That goes to a third and deciding game now.

women’s hockey: Scotland have eased up a bit against Kenyanonly adding one goal in the second quarter, so they lead 7-0 at the halfway point.

Gold in men’s 81kg weightlifting for England’s Chris Murray!

Men’s 81kg weightlifting: England‘s Chris Murray set a Commonwealth Games record of a combined 326kg to go into first place, then Kyle Bruce of Australia tried to beat it. It wasn’t the cleanest of lifts, and the judges wanted a replay – then it failed. Bruce appealed – unsuccessfully.

Nicolas Vachon of Canada then had the last lift – he put 7kg on the bar, when he only needed 6kg for gold. An inexplicable decision. He dropped the bar behind him after a wonderful lift, so it is no lift.

Gold for England! Silver for Australia! Bronze for Canada! Confusion for me!

England's Chris Murray celebrates after winning the final and setting a Commonwealth Games record.
England’s Chris Murray celebrates after winning the final and setting a Commonwealth Games record. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Reuters

(I also feel like Team England may have been casting sprays on my weightlifting expertise on Twitter.)

Anyone else have someone with them who is suddenly an expert in weightlifting!?

COME ON CHRIS MURRAY!!!#BringItHome

— Team England (@TeamEngland) August 1, 2022

Men’s 81kg weightlifting: This contest has got to the sharp end and in contention for the medals are Chris Murray of England, Kyle Bruce Australia, Ajay Singh of India and Nicolas Vachon of Canada. Singh is ahead on 319, Murray and Bruce are tied on 318.

women’s hockey: Scotland are leading Kenyan 6-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Kenyans have previously been beaten 16-0 by New Zealand and 8-0 by Australia at these games, so you fear for them here again.

Badminton: I’m going to confess I’m not a Badminton expert, but I do know that England have just won the opening game in the mixed doubles in the semi-final of the mixed team event against Malaysian. Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith beat Chan Peng Soon and Cheah Yee See 21-12. They’ve started the second game now.

women’s hockey: Earlier in Pool A, wales‘ women won their first match of the group stages, with a 4-0 win over Ghana.

If you need a reminder of how it works, there are two pools of five teams in a round-robin format. The top two in each pool go through to semi-finals which are on Friday.

The Pool A standings are currently England and India tied on six points each after two matches, Canada and wales both have three points, but Wales have played a match more than the Canadians. Canada play Ghana tomorrow at 11am, while England and India will play at 2pm in a match likely to decide who wins the group.

Women’s hockey: Scotland are playing Kenyan and we are currently having a video referee referral. Scotland were already leading 1-0, when a goalbound shot was cleared off the line, but with the wrong side of the stick. The resulting penalty stroke has been converted, so Scotland now lead 2-0. And in fact Jennifer Eadie has just immediately made it 3-0 while I was typing that. There are nine minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Good morning, it is Martin Belam here. A curious beast, the Commonwealth Games, but one thing you can’t complain about is the sheer volume of sport going on. Give me a moment while I set up my 1,057 different iPlayer streams.

Thanks for joining me for the early stint. The good news for you is that Martin Belam is lined up to take you through the coming hours.

Peaty: “I didn’t even do a warm up, I wasn’t that bothered. I only had two hours sleep.

“I am going to have a strong winter, I haven’t had one in two years. I need to reset.

“People don’t appreciate it, why would they? Going through a five-year period as Olympic champion is pressure.”

Swimming: Peaty and Houlie finish in a dead heat. He looked in reasonable nick over the shorter difference but still plenty to do.

England's Adam Peaty and South Africa's Michael Houlie react after qualifying in their 50m breaststroke heat.
England’s Adam Peaty and South Africa’s Michael Houlie react after qualifying in their 50m breaststroke heat. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA

Swimming: Here comes the men’s 50m breaststroke heats. James Wilby, the 100m champion, takes second in the fourth heat. Australia’s Grayson Bell speeds through in first.

Surely the loser should buy the dog…

Men’s bowls: Wales and England shake hands. England looked in fine fettle and the Welsh could not keep up, resulting in a 15-5 victory.

A general view of the green during the Men's Triples semi-final match between Wales and England.
A Wales bowler (right) in action during the match. Photograph: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images

Some athletics news…

Men’s bowls: It is 14-5 to England against Wales in the treble semi-final. The standard is incredibly high and the English seem to be edging every end at the moment to extend their lead. We are 15 ends down, can Wales get back into this?

table tennis: Australia have seen off Wales in the women’s team bronze match opener 11-5 11-5 11-8.

Wales' Anna Hursey in action during her match against Australia's Yangzi Lu.
Wales’ Anna Hursey in action during her match against Australia’s Yangzi Lu. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Reuters

Beach volleyball: There might not be a beach in Birmingham but there will be some sand at Smithfield today and the teams will have the weather for it. It’ll be like the Copacabana eats 7pm.

Men’s bowls: It is 10-5 to England against Wales in the triples after 12 ends in their semi-final.

Swimming: Adam Peaty is back in the pool in the 50m breaststroke heats at 10.45am or so. He finished fourth in the 100m final yesterday so he will be hoping to do better today.

Men’s bowls: Tomlinson nails it with the final roll of the 10th end to earn three points for Wales to move the score on to 8-5. It’s a tense one.

Cycling: Some reaction to yesterday’s crash at VeloPark.

Men’s bowls: England are 7-2 up on Wales after eight ends in their treble semi-final. It is a pretty tight contest at Victoria Park in the sunshine.

Preamble

It is another action-packed day in Birmingham. We will have everything from hockey to weightlifting with a little bit of gymnastics thrown in for good measure.

There are medals up for grabs in all sorts of events, including bowls and cycling. Hopefully it will be a calmer day on the track after the dramatic crash which saw Matt Walls going over the side and into the crowd during a race, resulting in the curtailing of the session. Thankfully, he and everyone else seem to be all right.

Going into the evening we will have some pretty exciting swimming on our hands. We start with the 100m men’s freestyle final and conclude with the 4x200m relay of the same discipline, with plenty packed in between.

It should be another cracking day aided by some decent weather to boot in Birmingham.

Categories
Australia

Cattle arrive for the Ekka as organizers ramp up biosecurity measures against foot-and-mouth disease

A boy wearing a cowboy hat stands next to a cow

While fears of foot-and-mouth disease loom over the Ekka, organizers and breeders say “very comprehensive” plans are in place to limit risk.

Cattle began arriving yesterday for the stud beef competition, the largest annual showing of stud beef in the southern hemisphere.

Around 1,300 head of cattle are expected to attend the show, which runs from August 6 to 14.

Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland (RNA) chief executive Brendan Christou said organizers were working closely with authorities.

A man holding the reins of a cow at the Ekka
The threat of FMD has not stopped many from bringing cattle to the show.(ABC News: Elizabeth Cramsie )

“Biosecurity Queensland will be here, onsite, throughout the show and we have our own vet committee that looks at all of those things as well,” he said.

Mr Christou said there were a range of measures being taken, including ensuring animals were healthy before their arrival, separation of breeds and use of foot baths.

“It is very comprehensive,” he said.

‘Very minimal risk’

However, for all the precautions, some breeders are still unwilling to take the risk.

Breeder Bronwyn Betts will be missing her first Ekka in more than a decade

“We were just concerned about the risk of foot-and-mouth disease, notwithstanding that that risk is low. The potential consequences can be quite dire,” she said.

Bronwyn Betts patting a cow.
Bronwyn Betts is sitting out the Ekka this year.(ABC news: Elizabeth Pickering)

Ms Betts said the Ekka and shows like it brought greater risk than other sales meet-ups because of the large presence of the public.

“Just in terms of the demographics of people [who] are there. At a sale, you’re largely going to get cattle people that are going to be coming in from cattle properties. They’ll be cognisant of foot-and-mouth [risk] and they will have taken measures,” she said.

“But that’s different from a show where there’s larger numbers of [the] public [who] are entering into an area, and they may well include some people [who] have recently returned from the popular holiday destination of Bali.

“I think there needs to be a lot more public education about what foot-and-mouth disease is, how it enters our country but, also, once it does, how it moves around, because the reality is that people play a big role in that.”

At the Ekka, cattle breeder Jason Childs said he felt enough precautions were being taken.

“Foot and mouth has been around the world for a long time and it hasn’t managed to get into Australia yet and it’s not in Australia yet,” he said.

“I think the risk here is very, very minimal.”

What is foot-and-mouth disease?

Foot and mouth (FMD) affects cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, pigs, goats and deer.

It causes fever and painful blisters on the animals’ tongues and hooves, which can make animals lick.

While Australia has been FMD-free for more than 100 years, the disease was detected in Indonesia in May and, by July, it had spread to Bali, sparking concerns it could be brought back by tourists.

It is not dangerous to humans, but people can facilitate the spread through products containing fragments of the disease or through dirty clothes and footwear.

A foot and mouth disease blister on the tongue of an animal with FMD.
FMD causes blisters on the tongues of infected animals.(Supplied: Agriculture Victoria)

FMD also spreads through close contact between animals and can be carried short distances by wind.

An outbreak in Australia would likely lead to mass culls of infected animals. It would also rob the country of its status as being free of FMD, causing major disruption to the meat and livestock trade.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) estimates an outbreak could cost the country $80 billion over 10 years.

A person in black leather shoes walks over a wet black mat.
People arriving on flights from Indonesia are asked to walk on citric acid mats to kill the FMD virus.(Supplied: Perth Airport)

After Indonesia’s outbreak spread to Bali, the federal government introduced extra measures at airports to stop it spreading to Australia.

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