Latest news with #Murdoch
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
High hopes for early childhood centre
It is hoped a newly opened early childhood centre in Cromwell's fast-growing Wooing Tree Estate will offer much-needed relief to local families, easing pressure on waiting lists at other centres bursting at the seams. BestStart Wooing Tree opened at the end of April on the edge of the new neighbourhood, beside State Highway 8B and close to the entrance of the pedestrian tunnel under the highway, linking it to the town centre. "Interest from local families has been very strong, which reflects the growing need for early childhood education in the Cromwell area," centre manager Emma Stone told The News. "We've had a steady stream of inquiries and are now taking enrolments." For months — if not years — some parents were enrolling their children as soon as they learned they were pregnant, desperate to secure a spot in a town where demand for childcare for under-5s vastly outstripped supply. Cromwell-based mothers support group Mums4Mums co-ordinator Kylie Murdoch said the shortage had placed enormous stress on working households, particularly those dependent on two incomes to manage the region's higher-than-average housing costs. Ms Murdoch said it was still too early to know the impact of the opening of the new centre, but feedback from young families suggested demand was "levelling out". Parents had told other media in the area that the lack of childcare availability had made it difficult — if not impossible — for some to return to work after parental leave, with women disproportionately affected. Some had jobs lined up or contracts signed, only to be forced to delay or abandon their return to the workforce because they could not secure the hours they needed in care. Ms Murdoch said, with the changing job market, she just hoped enough work opportunities would be available for parents that needed them as childcare became more available. Ms Murdoch said there was one upside to the childcare squeeze, "it's created a sense of community with the mums". "They've worked together and found other ways [to support each other]." Meanwhile, Ms Stone advised families interested in enrolling children at the Wooing Tree preschool to "get in touch as soon as possible". BestStart Wooing Tree can cater for up to 80 children, aged three months to 6 years. Soon-to-be-4-year-old Tyson Browne told The News his favourite thing about the centre was its slide.
India Today
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Celebrity confessions with Simi Garewal
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated April 5, 1999)Asia's biggest media baron seems a trifle uneasy. He returns her warm greeting with an awkward half smile that almost has you believing he is getting ready A to flee the television cameras chronicling his discomfort. Unruffled, the lady proceeds to work her usual, she succeeds. Seven minutes into the interview, Rupert Murdoch is telling Simi Garewal about his failed marriage and talking candidly about the resulting divorce. Ten minutes and he's sharing his concept of the ideal relationship and discussing his hopes for his few gentle nods - to indicate she is enraptured by his story - and some quiet propelling has Murdoch divulging what music he would like to play when he is wooing a woman. Celine Dion, for all those interested. By this time, Murdoch is sitting back, one foot resting casually on his other leg, laughing often enough and in no hurry to head anywhere. When it's time to say goodbye, he envelops the gracious hand - perfectly painted red nails and all - with both his own in a vigorous bear-shake. Murdoch is simply experiencing what a clutch of favoured desi celebrities before him have - a chatty yet revealing Rendezvous with Simi Garewal. The same show which entered the top five Star Plus TRP ratings within a month of its launch in October 1997 and which went on to hit No. 1 with the Shah Rukh Khan interview in January 1998 by passing Hindi serials like Tu Tu Main Main and Nina Pillai broke down in her first ever heart-to heart about her late husband Rajan. Where superstar Amitabh Bachchan said socially he had nothing in common with Rekha. Where Ismail Merchant swore he would be married by the year 2000. Where Anil Kapoor said his family thinks he is a fool. And where Shabana Azmi announced candidly that hubby Javed Akhtar always left the bathroom her on how she gets her usually not-so-garrulous guests to chatter and Garewal simply shrugs: "I ask." The popular weekly confessional that allows viewers a sometimes too saccharine-sweet peek into the lives of stars from the worlds of sport, politics, business and entertainment is back in its second season with personalities who are harder nuts to crack. Like J. Jayalalitha, for Garewal went to Chennai to interview the politician, she was told by aides that "madam" might be late. Or that she might not even show up. Her guest arrived punctually, and they chatted for a couple of minutes before the cameras began was their first meeting, but minutes into the interview they were belting out an old favourite Hindi number. How? Garewal asked, of course. The only person she probably didn't ask was Kapil Dev when she spliced together all her guests in a spoofy finale last year where one segment revolved around the pregnancy of the veteran cricketer. For weeks after that episode, every time he missed a golf shot Kapil attributed it to his pregnancy. "I didn't see it," confesses Kapil, "but everyone said it was hilarious."advertisementSo far, the new 25-episode line-up includes Vijay Mallya, Farooq Abdullah with his son Omar, Garewal's childhood idol Gayatri Devi, Aishwarya Rai, Zeenat Aman, Murdoch, Pandit Ravi Shankar with wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka and the already telecast segments of Shekhar Kapur and Suchitra Krishnamurthy who said honestly that her career is more important to her than her husband' actress-turned television director-turned celebrity interviewer who is always impeccably clothed in white - or ivory or cream or pale beige - knows exactly what makes her celebrity guests tick. Before she meets them. "You have to know everything about them so you are in control and so they can't surprise you," says Garewal, an amateur computer chess player who spent a year researching champion Vishwanatha Anand, including reading about many of the games he played. "She's very meticulous," says sister and executive producer then Garewal has always been just that. She spent almost five years with former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi chronicling his life for a high-profile documentary and still has the nearly 500 hours of footage from that style is as effective as it is simple. "You have to lead into the question slowly. Ask people too specific a question and they get stumped." Next, she listens. "When I'm doing that interview I'm at the peak of my concentration. I listen to every word because you never know what you should pick up and follow up on," says cameras that sit inconspicuously on the fringes of her elaborate set anywhere from eight to 15 feet away from her guest and a crew of 40 that largely stays out of sight further propel the flow of words. Though no diffused lighting or "soft focus" is ever used, guests know the great make-up and the bounce lighting (not directly in-your-face) will ensure that they look good on her that still doesn't explain how the concerned, well-modulated voice almost invariably elicits fresh insights from oft-interviewed celebs on everything from loveless childhoods to current relationships. Postulates Jaya Bachchan: "She doesn't create awkward moments for anyone. She makes you comfortable and that makes you drop your guard." Adds friend and another former guest Shobha De: "It's not about exposes or digging the dirt on anyone's life or embarrassing anyone. Within that context it works." Agrees Garewal: "I want to understand my guests. I'm not here to diminish or decimate them or to put them in a corner. You never get anything out of people like that."advertisementOf course it helps that Garewal herself is one of them. "I can identify with them because I have been on the same side of the fence as they are," says the actress who first turned interviewer in the early '80s with the television series It's a Woman's World. "These are the same people who I would invite to my house."The calming, almost ethereal patio set of Rendezvous is, in fact, modelled after the terrace of Garewal's south Mumbai apartment. Its all white trellis complete with antique door, homely creepers and even a pool of water that shimmers comfortingly in the light helps maintain the illusion of an informal most of Garewal's interviews peel away more layers than just a casual conversation. Like the forthcoming one with Zeenat Aman, in which the former screen goddess recounts her not-too-happy marital the course of the rendezvous, she reminisces how her mother was against her marriage to the late actor Mazhar Khan. Cut to near the end when Garewal asks her if she has any regrets? "I wish I had listened more to my mother," Zeenat woman who inspires confidences largely because people believe she is genuinely interested in what they have to say is, strangely enough, very reticent about herself. In fact, the technology junkie - "I run my life via the computer" - who is as likely to visit the nearest electronics studio as she is to pick up the whites from the latest Giorgio Armani collection on her trips abroad, says she prefers hanging out at is this inability to share her innermost feelings even with those closest to her that makes her envy the ability of her guests to pour their hearts out while the country watches. "I admire people who can talk about themselves. I can't do it." Perhaps she needs a rendezvous with Simi to India Today MagazineTrending Reel
Borneo Post
27-05-2025
- Health
- Borneo Post
Sagah: Disease surveillance programme in Ulu Undop out to boost health preparedness in Sarawak
Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn – Photo by Chimon Upon KUCHING (May 27): The Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre (SIDC) has begun a disease surveillance programme in Ulu Undop, marking a significant milestone in Sarawak's efforts in strengthening its health preparedness and response mechanisms. In this regard, Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Sarawak Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn hailed the Ulu Undop move as the first of several planned initiatives under SIDC, with two additional sites in Kuching expected to be launched later this year. 'This is part of our broader strategy to enhance early detection and response, especially in rural and vulnerable areas,' he said in his winding-up speech at the DUN sitting yesterday. It is also informed that in tandem with its surveillance efforts, SIDC is also piloting latent tuberculosis diagnosis in high-risk areas as a precursor to the Sarawak Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (STEP). Adding on, Sagah said construction of the SIDC facility in Samarahan, which kicked off in March last year, was progressing on schedule. On the international front, he said the SIDC had signed several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on May 6 with the University of Edinburgh, the ROSE Foundation (based at Universiti Malaya), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), and other global partners to advance research in diagnostics, 'One Health', human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling, and also potential vaccine development. 'SIDC also launched the Ali Wallace Joint Research and Training Centre with Murdoch University,' said the Tarat assemblyman, adding that 10 SIDC staff members wold undergo training in Australia, with four Murdoch researchers currently being based in Sarawak. 'Two PhD slots have also been allocated to SIDC under this partnership, with Murdoch supporting the Centre's AI-enabled ICT design.' Sagah also highlighted SIDC's collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Services to deploy portable genome sequencing to monitor African Swine Fever Virus and also to bolster biosecurity in the pork industry. 'These strategic partnerships, both local and international, reaffirm Sarawak's commitment to being at the forefront of infectious disease research and public health innovation,' he pointed out. healthcare Roland Sagah Wee Inn Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre
Borneo Post
27-05-2025
- Health
- Borneo Post
'Disease surveillance programme in Ulu Undop out to boost health preparedness in Sarawak'
Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn – Photo by Chimon Upon KUCHING (May 27): The Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre (SIDC) has begun a disease surveillance programme in Ulu Undop, marking a significant milestone in Sarawak's efforts in strengthening its health preparedness and response mechanisms. In this regard, Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Sarawak Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn hailed the Ulu Undop move as the first of several planned initiatives under SIDC, with two additional sites in Kuching expected to be launched later this year. 'This is part of our broader strategy to enhance early detection and response, especially in rural and vulnerable areas,' he said in his winding-up speech at the DUN sitting yesterday. It is also informed that in tandem with its surveillance efforts, SIDC is also piloting latent tuberculosis diagnosis in high-risk areas as a precursor to the Sarawak Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (STEP). Adding on, Sagah said construction of the SIDC facility in Samarahan, which kicked off in March last year, was progressing on schedule. On the international front, he said the SIDC had signed several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on May 6 with the University of Edinburgh, the ROSE Foundation (based at Universiti Malaya), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), and other global partners to advance research in diagnostics, 'One Health', human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling, and also potential vaccine development. 'SIDC also launched the Ali Wallace Joint Research and Training Centre with Murdoch University,' said the Tarat assemblyman, adding that 10 SIDC staff members wold undergo training in Australia, with four Murdoch researchers currently being based in Sarawak. 'Two PhD slots have also been allocated to SIDC under this partnership, with Murdoch supporting the Centre's AI-enabled ICT design.' Sagah also highlighted SIDC's collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Services to deploy portable genome sequencing to monitor African Swine Fever Virus and also to bolster biosecurity in the pork industry. 'These strategic partnerships, both local and international, reaffirm Sarawak's commitment to being at the forefront of infectious disease research and public health innovation,' he pointed out. healthcare Roland Sagah Wee Inn Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre
ABC News
18-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Sussan Ley's choice: an electable climate policy or abandoning the Nationals
The Liberal Party's fate was sealed on July 17, 2014, when it repealed the Gillard government's Clean Energy Act and then danced on its grave with a group hug on the floor of parliament, so iconically captured by photographer Alex Ellinghausen. It was the culmination of the party's decision five years earlier to reject — by one caucus vote — the science of climate change, and with it, Malcolm Turnbull, and instead go with the Abbott/Murdoch/Fox/Sky anti-science right-wing crankery that has since made the Murdochs so much money but done the opposite for their political adherents. As every member of the party and every Murdoch editor knows before going to hospital, making up your own science when you're not a scientist can only make you sick or dead, and so it has turned out. When Greg Hunt, Kelly O'Dwyer, Christopher Pyne and Peter Dutton were celebrating the repeal of the carbon tax that day in July 2014, the Liberal Party had 58 seats in the lower house, and the Coalition had a total of 90. Today, the party has 18 seats and the Coalition 43. Labor has 93. The Liberal Party didn't lose 40 seats in a decade only because of climate change, but it's the main reason. And now the new leader, Sussan Ley, must choose between two ways to cement the party's doom: either keep the Coalition together without an electable climate policy, or have one and go it alone, without the Nationals. Either way, they're done for. Ley can't have an electable climate policy and be in a coalition with the Nationals. Live results: Find out what's happening in your seat as counting continues It may not even be possible to keep the Liberal Party itself together; after all, there were no Nationals in that parliamentary hug on July 17, 2014, and it was the two leaders of the Liberal Party, Nick Minchin in the Senate and Tony Abbott in the lower house, who took them all up the garden path and into the Murdoch blackberries in 2009. Peter Dutton's nuclear energy wheeze seemed a clever way of keeping the Coalition together while having a policy that at least had the words "net zero by 2050" in it, and Sussan Ley might think she can do that can do that again. But that's a proven failure. That's partly because Dutton had to say the government would itself build and pay for seven nuclear power stations at vast unfunded cost in seven electorates rather than simply saying he would repeal the legislation that bans nuclear energy, because he knew the policy would look hollow when it became clear that no nuclear power stations would get built if it was left to the market. But it will always be impossible for the National Party to go along with net zero by 2050 unless it does involve nuclear power, because they can't abide renewable energy and agriculture accounts for 15.6 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural emissions can't be offset unless there is less livestock and a lot of grazing land is replaced by new trees, as well as solar panels and wind turbines. Livestock agriculture is not just a problem for the National Party, but for humanity. In their book Abundance (currently causing a riot of debate among American progressives), Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson write: "Industrial animal agriculture is more than a climate problem. It is a moral stain on humanity." "There is probably no single change that would do more for interlinked environmental problems than for the world to cease using cows and goats and sheep for food," they write. "But to suggest such a thing is to court political ruin. People want to eat meat, and they want the meat to be cheap and plentiful." They go on to posit that there is "no near-term politics" that would actually ban meat consumption. People also want electricity to cheap, plentiful and reliable, which is why conservatives who deny climate change keep getting puzzled when they don't win elections. Just last week, the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs published a poll showing that 79 per cent of Australians want energy policy to be directed to it being affordable and reliable rather than meeting net zero by 2050. It was a poll of 1,027 people between April 25 and 28, so not many, and the IPA has run campaigns against renewables, but both major parties are at least superficially committed to net zero by 2050 so there was no anti-climate change choice. Then again, the only party with abolishing the net zero commitment in its platform — Trumpet of Patriots — didn't get a single seat and managed just 1.87 per cent of the primary vote. If the IPA poll was right, they should have the balance of power. The Coalition also had "net zero by 2050" in its platform when it lost in 2022, but that was even less credible than this year, when they at least had nuclear power. In 2022 it was just about vague possible technology in the future. The point is that it does not look feasible for a political party to succeed in Australia without a credible commitment to reducing carbon emissions, and that is only likely to become more so as the planet warms, and life becomes less tolerable and more expensive through higher insurance premiums. But it also looks impossible for the National Party to do that, not just because it's further to the right but because it's based in the bush, where the biggest adjustments will be demanded: vast solar and wind farms, lots of power lines, less grazing and more trees. The irony for them is that true conservatism now requires radicalism, by which I mean the well-used quote from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel, The Leopard, in which the character Tancredi Falconeri says: "If everything is going to stay the same, everything has to change". Or as Klein and Thompson put it in Abundance: "To maintain the climate we have had, or anything close to it, requires us to remake the world we have built." That includes remaking food production as well as energy and transport, changes which are well underway, and moving rapidly towards lab-grown meat and proteins. It also means giving over grazing land to trees that are sequestering carbon from industries that can't easily be decarbonised, like cement, steel and aviation and … meat. That probably means the Nationals are out of the game. For the Liberals it's a long, long way back from 18 seats to the 75 they won in 2004, and a majority of their own. Alan Kohler is finance presenter and columnist on ABC News and he also writes for Intelligent Investor.
