The eighth annual South Wales Health and Care Awards will be taking place on Wednesday, December 4. The ceremony at Rodney Parade will celebrate the health and care providers across south Wales, and the finalists have been revealed. The finalists for the Care Hero Award are people working in care who have worked hard to enable someone to live an independent, safe, and fulfilled life and/or helped to change someone’s life for the better. Hannah Burnett, employed by Arian Care for over eight years, has consistently demonstrated exceptional commitment. Her acts of kindness include waiting 19 hours for an ambulance with clients, shopping for clients, providing emergency first aid to save someone's life, and visiting individuals in hospital. She is an 'extremely popular' and professional member of the company. Since being assessed as a Shared Lives carer in October 2019, Katerina Aspioti has been dedicated to improving the lives of others. She provides long-term care to a lady with mental and physical conditions and supports a friend of hers for occasional respite. Ms Aspioti also offers social support to a lady with dementia. Lyn and Graham's dedicated care for a woman has earned them the nomination. The couple, who have been providing support for 22 years, help with all aspects of personal care, health appointments and keeping a social lifestyle and health and wellbeing. The couple have been praised for their dedication to care. They joined the Shared Lives Scheme in 2012. These finalists exemplify the dedication and compassion that are at the heart of the Care Hero Award.

Nearly all of the 74 workers at Acrylicos Vallejo have gone on an indefinite strike. The popular Spanish paint company — which produces their Game Color and Model Color lines most popularly used in miniature painting and wargaming — first announced a partial strike in late November, but escalated earlier this week when they claimed Acrylicos Vallejo’s ownership would not negotiate with workers. According to a statement made on Bluesky by Catalonian labor organization CGT, the demands of the striking employees are threefold: a wage increase, an improvement of safety conditions, and protocols to handle workplace harassment. Incorporated in New Jersey in 1965, Acrylicos Vallejo moved to Barcelona, quickly becoming a major player in the European art scene for their vibrant and extensive color range before establishing themselves as a staple in the world of wargaming and miniatures. It currently distributes paints to over 55 countries across the globe. Following a trend of private capital consolidation, private equity firm Proa Capital purchased a majority stake in Acrylicos Vallejo for just under $53 million in December 2023. The worker’s strike comes in a parallel wave of global labor actions in nearly every sector including entertainment and gaming , most demanding higher wages and more protections in their respective industries. According to a statement by the CGT given to YouTuber Hellstorm Wargaming , workers at the Catalonian factory currently make around the Spanish minimum wage. Earlier this year, the Spanish Council of ministers raised the country’s minimum wage to €37.8 (just under $40) a day, or just over €1,134 ($1,200) a month — a roughly 50% increase from Spain’s minimum wage in 2018. Representatives from the CGT claim executive pay continues to grow with increased profits as employee wages stay stagnant. Workers are also calling for an improvement of safety conditions in the factory, which they allege to be in a “deplorable state.” In their statement they claim “Some parts of the ceiling have fallen, luckily without injuring anyone. There are outdated machines with no maintenance. To give you an idea, some machines had to be repaired by putting in brackets to keep them together.” Their final demand relates to workplace harassment, which they claim the company has no protocols to handle. “There are executives in the company who are professionals in workplace harassment, and have dedicated themselves to harassing and making workers’ lives impossible,” the CGT spokesperson alleged. Striking workers have not explicitly called for a boycott of Acrylicos Vallejo, but said “if you are considering not buying any more products until the strike is over, it will be a good way to put pressure on the company.” Many of the public responses to their strike announcement on social media have stated a refusal to purchase the company’s products until the demands are met. Acrylicos Vallejo has not made a public statement regarding the strike. Polygon did not immediately receive a response to a request for comment, and will update this article if one is provided. Gaming News Tabletop Games

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NEW ORLEANS — A scruffy little fugitive is on the lam again in New Orleans, gaining fame as he outwits a tenacious band of citizens armed with night-vision binoculars, nets and a tranquilizer rifle. Scrim, a 17-pound mutt that's mostly terrier, has become a folk hero, inspiring tattoos, T-shirts and even a ballad as he eludes capture from the posse of volunteers. And like any antihero, Scrim has a backstory: Rescued from semi-feral life at a trailer park and adopted from a shelter, the dog broke loose in April and scurried around the city until he was cornered in October and brought to a new home. Weeks later, he'd had enough. Scrim leaped out of a second-story window, a desperate act recorded in a now-viral video. Since then, despite a stream of daily sightings, he's roamed free. The dog’s fans include Myra and Steve Foster, who wrote “Ode to Scrim” to the tune of Ricky Nelson’s 1961 hit, “I’m a Travelin’ Man.” 'I'm a travelin' dog and I've made a lot of stops/All over this town...' Leading the recapture effort is Michelle Cheramie, a 55-year-old former information technology professional. She lost everything — home, car, possessions — in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in the aftermath, found her calling rescuing pets. “I was like, ‘This is what I should be doing,’” Cheramie said. “I was born to rescue.” She launched Zeus’ Rescues, a nonprofit shelter that now averages 600 cat and dog adoptions a year and offers free pet food to anyone who needs it. She helped Scrim find the home he first escaped from. It was Cheramie's window Scrim leaped from in November. She's resumed her relentless mission since then, posting flyers on telephone poles and logging social media updates on his reported whereabouts. She's invested thousands of dollars on wildlife cameras, thermal sensors and other gear. She took a course offered by the San Diego Zoo on the finer points of tranquilizing animals. And she's developed a network of volunteers — the kind of neighbors who are willing to grid-search a city at 3 a.m. '...And at every stop I own the heart, of at least one lovely...' People like writer David W. Brown, who manages a crowd-sourced Google Map of all known Scrim sightings. He says the search galvanized residents from all walks of life to come together. As they search for Scrim, they hand out supplies to people in need. “Being a member of the community is seeing problems and doing what you can to make life a little better for the people around here and the animals around you,” Brown said. Neighbor Tammy Murray had to close her furniture store and lost her father to Parkinson's disease. This search, she says, got her mojo back. “Literally, for months, I’ve done nothing but hunt this dog,” said Murray, 53. “I feel like Wile E. Coyote on a daily basis with him.” Murray drives the Zeus' Rescues van toward reported Scrim sightings. She also handles a tactical net launcher, which looks like an oversized flashlight and once misfired, shattering the van's window as Scrim sped away. After realizing Scrim came to recognize the sound of the van's diesel engine, Murray switched to a Vespa scooter for stealth. '...If you're ever in the 9th Ward stop and see/My cute little mini poodle...' Near-misses have been tantalizing. The search party spotted Scrim napping beneath an elevated house, and wrapped construction netting around the perimeter, but an over-eager volunteer broke ranks and dashed forward, leaving an opening Scrim slipped through. Scrim's repeated escapades prompted near-daily local media coverage and a devoted online following. Cheramie can relate. “We’re all running from something or to something," she said. "He's doing that, too.” Cheramie's team dreams of placing the pooch in a safe and loving environment. But a social media chorus growing under the hashtag #FreeScrim has other ideas — they say the runaway should be allowed a life of self-determination. The animal rescue volunteers consider that misguided. “The streets of New Orleans are not the place for a dog to be free,” Cheramie said. “It’s too dangerous.” '...and my Shar-Pei doll down in old Treme/Waits for my return...' Scrim was a mess when Cheramie briefly recaptured him in October, with matted fur, missing teeth and a tattered ear. His trembling body was scraped and bruised, and punctured by projectiles. A vet removed one, but decided against operating to take out a possible bullet. The dog initially appeared content indoors, sitting in Cheramie's lap or napping beside her bed. Then while she was out one day, Scrim chewed through a mesh screen, dropped 13 feet to the ground and squeezed through a gap in the fence, trotting away. Murray said Cheramie's four cats probably spooked him. Cheramie thinks they may have gotten territorial. Devastated but undeterred, the pair is reassessing where Scrim might fit best — maybe a secure animal sanctuary with big outdoor spaces where other dogs can keep him company. Somewhere, Murray says, “where he can just breathe and be.”Two US government agencies on Tuesday took action to limit the nonconsensual collection, use and sharing of consumers’ personal information. The developments could make accurate audience segmentation and ad targeting more difficult – but align with broader privacy trends globally. Both the FTC and the CFPB are moving to restrict the collection and sale of sensitive consumer data in the US / Adobe Stock The US’ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking to tighten the reins on data brokers, on Tuesday proposing a rule that would subject them to stricter oversight, including restrictions on the sale of consumers’ sensitive personal information such as phone numbers and Social Security numbers. It would also ensure that consumers’ financial information – such as their income – is only shared for “legitimate purposes, like facilitating a mortgage approval, and not sold to scammers targeting those in financial distress,” according to the filing. “By selling our most sensitive personal data without our knowledge or consent, data brokers can profit by enabling scamming, stalking, and spying,” the agency’s director Rohit Chopra said in a statement published Tuesday. He said the new proposal, if adopted, would “curtail these practices that threaten our personal safety and undermine America’s national security.” The development coincides with landmark settlements by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday against two data brokers – one involving Mobilewalla and another involving Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel Inc. Both organizations were accused of unlawfully collecting, storing and selling the location data of millions of Americans. According to the FTC, Mobilewalla tapped into sensitive data from real-time bidding exchanges and third-party aggregators without consumers’ knowledge. The company also used sensitive location data to build out audience segments for ad targeting. Between January of 2018 and June of 2020, the Georgia-based firm gathered over 500m unique advertising identifiers, paired with their precise location data, and sold this non-anonymized data to advertisers. The agency’s chair, Lina Khan, called out the bad behavior explicitly. “Persistent tracking by data brokers can put millions of Americans at risk, exposing the precise locations where service members are stationed or which medical treatments someone is seeking,” she said in a statement. “Mobilewalla exploited vulnerabilities in digital ad markets to harvest this data at a stunning scale. The FTC is cracking down on firms that unlawfully exploit people’s sensitive location data and ensuring that we protect Americans from unchecked surveillance.” Following the FTC settlements, both companies agreed to halt the collection of sensitive location data, delete previously gathered information and establish safeguards to prevent further misuse. The settlements also require the firms to create sensitive-location programs to shield areas like medical facilities and religious organizations from tracking. These settlements are just the latest in a long line of investigations into and actions against data brokers and adtech companies for privacy violations. The FTC is currently embroiled in a similar case with Kochava; the regulatory body has accused the broker of selling the geolocation data of millions of users – including from sensitive locations. Earlier this year, meanwhile, Oracle settled a class action lawsuit concerning its alleged use of invasive data tracking technologies for $115m – and just weeks later announced it would shutter its entire advertising operation. What it means for the digital advertising industry The CFPB’s proposed rule and the FTC orders share two key goals: providing consumers with greater control over how their personal data is used, shared, or sold; and limiting the collection and use of sensitive data in particular – like health or location information. These restrictions would go further than many existing state privacy laws, which often allow organizations to gather and use data unless consumers opt out. However, some states already require opt-in consent for sensitive data. Advertisement The key issue for the ad industry, according to Arielle Garcia, director of intelligence at adtech watchdog Check My Ads and former chief privacy officer at UM Worldwide, is that, taken together, the CFPB’s proposal and the FTC actions are likely to create tighter limitations on the amount of data available to companies. “The reality is that when people are given actual choice over having their visits to church or the doctor, or their income shared with an unknown number of third parties, domestically and abroad, many will choose ‘no.’ As a result, providing people with meaningful choice necessarily means a reduction in data availability,” she says. The implications for downstream data recipients, including many adtech companies and data aggregators, may be especially significant due to mandates in the FTC orders that would require companies to implement a supplier assessment program to verify that consumer consent is obtained for all location data collection. In short, it’s an extra check. This guardrail would, in Garcia’s telling, “curb the ability to turn a blind eye and rely on contractual assurances.” She adds: “The days of plausible deniability would be no more.” As a result, the digital advertising landscape could expect audience segments to become less accurate and less reliable. Advertisement Despite the potential negative effects on advertising efficacy, many advertisers – and their partners – have shifted away from a reliance on third-party data as privacy regulations proliferate in markets across the world and signal loss worsens on the open web. With these new hurdles in its way, the ad industry has embraced first-party data strategies, which are likely to remain fair game. “Generally, non-sensitive first-party data – where there is a legitimate consumer relationship, and where that data is collected with adequate notice and choice – is not in the crosshairs,” Garcia says, “despite the fear-mongering prevalent in industry about any attempt to regulate privacy.” Nonetheless, not every advertiser is well-positioned to build up strong first-party datasets, and limitations like those being considered by the CFPB could still limit the scale of available consumer data across the ecosystem. As such, experts like Garcia recommend testing other approaches like contextual targeting, running on inclusion lists and reallocating media budgets to trusted environments. A tipping point for federal action on privacy? The CFPB’s and the FTC’s crackdown on the collection, storage and sale of personal information aligns with broader efforts by the Biden administration to enhance consumers’ data privacy. In February, the President signed an executive order restricting the sale of Americans’ data to “countries of concern,” including China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. The move rattled adland at the time , with industry leaders suggesting that it could limit the commercial uses of consumer data collected by apps like TikTok and Temu. Tuesday’s developments could represent a “tipping point” in the momentum building to pass federal privacy legislation in the US, says Jamie Barnard, CEO and co-founder of Compliant, a data compliance firm serving the ad industry. These actions, he says, indicate “a growing commitment from regulatory bodies to enforce stricter data privacy measures,” and anticipates that they could spur similar action from other regulators and enforcement bodies. Catch up on the most important stories of the day, curated by our editorial team. Stay up to date with a curated digest of the most important marketing stories and expert insights from our global team. Learn how to pitch to our editors and get published on The Drum. Barnard expects that the proliferation of strict privacy regulations in Europe over the last decade could serve as a “bellwether” for what’s to come in the US – and suggests that the country may soon replace its opt-out standard for consumer choice with an opt-in regime “The US will be forced to consent. It is the only viable, reliable long-term solution,” he says. Such a change would carry major implications for the digital ad ecosystem and would require “significant adjustments for advertisers and publishers,” Barnard says, “who would need to prioritize compliance and transparency to avoid legal repercussions.” Some other industry leaders, like Mike Cross, executive vice-president of measurement at digital-first global agency Monks, agrees that the ad industry should read the writing on the wall. These developments, he says, “underscore the importance of how enterprises centralize and govern all data they use to run their businesses, including marketing,” and warns against poor data management – which could diminish organizations’ abilities to control noncompliant practices. Barnard goes so far to say that “today’s ... adtech model is living on borrowed time.” He anticipates that the data brokering business will require a fundamental overhaul sooner rather than later. And as a result, so too will digital advertising. “Relying on opaque data practices and invasive tracking is unsustainable,” he says. “The call for transparency and ethical data sourcing is deafening. Advertisers must prioritize consumer trust and adopt privacy-preserving strategies. This isn't just about compliance; it's about aligning business practices with societal values.” Despite the warning calls, the future of these regulatory efforts remains uncertain, particularly given the incoming administration’s stated intention to roll back consumer protections under the leadership of Donald Trump. The CFPB’s proposal will be open for public comment until March 2025. For more, sign up for The Drum’s daily newsletter here .