Backport improvements to CI setup

This includes the ability to release from GitHub Actions.

Closes gh-33202

.github/workflows/validate-gradle-wrapper.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+name: "Validate Gradle Wrapper"
+on: [push, pull_request]
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+jobs:
+  validation:
+    name: "Validate Gradle Wrapper"
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: gradle/actions/wrapper-validation@dbbdc275be76ac10734476cc723d82dfe7ec6eda # v3.4.2