It’s time to take Donald Trump seriously. Betting markets say it’s as likely as not he will be elected US president four weeks from today.
And unlike in 2016 when his program wasn’t clearly defined, he has set out plainly what he intends to do. Which means it’s possible to model the consequences.
The three Trump promises with the greatest economic impact are
the deportation of millions of US residents
steep restrictions on imports, especially from China
presidential influence over interest rates.
The best way to model the consequences is with an established model of the kind used by the International Monetary Fund and central banks around the world rather than one set up for the purpose that could be seen as designed to favour or not favour Trump.
The Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics has just done that, noting that during Trump’s first term as president he “by and large” did what he said he would do.
It finds
ironically, despite his ‘make the foreigners pay rhetoric’, Trump’s package of policies does more damage to the US economy than to any other in the world.
No other country in the world would be hurt by Trump’s program as much as the US – not even China – although several US allies would suffer, including Australia, which would be the fourth-worst hit by the most extreme version of what Trump is proposing.
Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Mass deportations
Trump has repeatedly promised the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” targeting up to 20 million unauthorised immigrants, including about 8.3 million thought to be in the workforce.
He says his model is Operation Wetback – a 1956 Eisenhower administration program that used military-style tactics to deport 1.3 million Mexicans.
The institute says Eisenhower’s success makes it easy to believe Trump could remove 1.3 million immigrant workers. It has modelled two scenarios: removing 1.3 million and 8.3 million, both over two years in 2025 and 2026.
Both slash employment, including the employment of non-immigrants, both push up inflation, which eventually is brought under control, and both make the US a less attractive place to invest, which benefits much of the rest of the world.
The institute says the low and high scenarios differ “only by the degree of damage inflicted on people, households, firms, and the overall economy”.
Huge tariff hikes
Trump wants to increase every tariff on goods imported to the US by 10 percentage points, including where there is at present no tariff. And he wants at least a 60% tariff on imports from China. The institute has modelled both, with and without retaliatory tariffs from China and the rest of the world.
It finds, unsurprisingly, that extra tariffs push up the price of US imports and the prices of US-produced goods that compete with imports. Many are used as inputs in manufacturing, which means US manufacturing suffers (which is probably not what Trump had in mind).
Fewer imports mean less demand for foreign exchange within the US, which means a higher US dollar which makes US exports less competitive. The US economy is weaker as a result, although China’s is weaker still and Australia’s is weakened as much as the US given its role in providing resources to China.
Nobbling the Fed
Trump has raised the prospect of more presidential influence over interest rates, saying he thinks he has “a better instinct than, in many cases” the board of US Federal Reserve. This could be achieved by requiring the president to be consulted on rate decisions or by appointing a compliant chair.
The modelled result is capital flight. While the US economy is initially stronger than it would have been because of the Fed’s willingness to tolerate higher inflation, after a few years it is weaker and every other economy is stronger.
When all the measures are combined, under the extreme scenarios the US economy is 6.7% weaker than it would have been by 2035 and Australia’s is 0.2% weaker. Under the more modest scenarios, the US economy is 1.6% weaker and Australia’s is 0.06% weaker.
Why not examine Harris?
Despite a history of non-partisanship, the Peterson Institute is prepared for criticism. It points out that the economic model it used is regarded as the best in the world for scenario planning and is Australian, built by Warwick McKibbin of the Australian National University.
And it says it has modelled the Trump policies rather than the Harris policies because only Trump’s represent a departure from business as usual.
As the Institute’s president Adam Posen put it in Washington last month, the Harris campaign has said it will not impose across-the-board tariffs, will not engage in mass deportations and will not interfere with the independence of the US Federal Reserve.
The Trump campaign has indicated it will do all three.
It’s entirely possible that in office Trump wouldn’t do everything he proposed while campaigning, and it’s entirely possible that he would change course if what was doing damaged the US in the way the modelling suggests.
But there’s something to be said for taking people at their word, at least to get an idea of what we could be in store for after a knife-edge election.
Peter Martin is Economics Editor of The Conversation.
Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – In English
The disciplinary fine order related to a breach of section 325 of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch – HGB). Panamax Aktiengesellschaft failed to submit its accounting documents in full for the financial year 2022 for the purpose of disclosure to the operator of the German Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) in electronic form within the prescribed period. The legal basis for the sanction is section 335 of the HGB.
The company lodged an appeal against the Federal Office of Justice’s decision to impose a disciplinary fine.
Interview with Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, conducted by Miha Jenko
8 October 2024
You hold two high positions in the European Central Bank: you are a member of the ECB’s Executive Board as well as the Vice-Chair of its Supervisory Board. You are responsible for both monetary matters and banking supervision in the euro area. Can you explain your dual role at the ECB?
Let me clarify that, at the ECB, decision-making on monetary policy and banking supervision is separate, and for good reason. We want these two functions to pursue their specific objectives and we want to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
That being said, it is important for each side to be aware of what the other is thinking and to understand how the decisions being taken affect the other side. Let me give you a couple of examples. During our strategy review in 2021 we explicitly recognised the importance of safe and sound banks for our price stability mandate, acknowledging that financial stability is a precondition for price stability. Moreover, banks that are safe and sound are able to effectively pass through our monetary policy.
So in the governance of the ECB there is a bridge between the two sides. And I currently occupy this bridge as a member of the Executive Board, which has six members including President Lagarde, as a member of the Governing Council and as Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board. In practice, this means that I inform the Executive Board about what was discussed in the Supervisory Board, and I debrief the Supervisory Board on the decisions taken by the Governing Council. In short, my role is to help ensure that the ECB does not carry out these two separate tasks in isolation.
What is the purpose of your current visit to Slovenia?
The ECB’s two decision-making bodies – the Supervisory Board and the Governing Council – will meet in Slovenia in the space of a week. The Supervisory Board will meet for its regular retreat to discuss strategic issues, while the Governing Council will hold its next monetary policy meeting here. Our colleagues at Banka Slovenije are kindly hosting both events.
Turning to banking supervision, how are banks’ activities and lending affected by the current environment of weak economic growth and deteriorating economic trends, which include increasing bankruptcies in some euro area countries? How resilient is the banking sector in Europe?
European banks are resilient. They have sufficient and adequate capital and liquidity buffers which enable them to absorb losses and withstand shocks. But they should not be complacent, especially in the context of the worsening geopolitical environment, which could have direct and indirect effects on banks. Near-term growth prospects have deteriorated and are subject to high uncertainty because of these rising geopolitical risks. And banks also face several medium-term, more structural challenges.
In this context, our supervisory priorities, which we update every year, help us focus on both the near-term and medium-term challenges faced by banks. We want to ensure that banks are resilient not only today, but also in the long run. As part of our priorities, we want to increase their resilience to sudden macroeconomic and geopolitical shocks and to accelerate the remediation of shortcomings in the governance and management of climate-related and environmental risks. At the same time, banks need to make further progress with their digital transformation and build up their operational resilience.
In short, banks are resilient, but we should not be complacent amid these longer-term challenges, which we will address through our supervision over the coming years.
What lessons have the ECB and the Eurosystem learned from the last financial crisis in order to be better prepared for a possible new crisis, which will not necessarily originate in the banking sector itself, but in companies connected to it?
Since the global financial crisis we have created strong pan-European supervision – the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The financial reforms implemented after that crisis have strengthened banks without compromising their lending capacity. Several things have happened since the global financial crisis: we have had a pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an energy shock and high inflation. So European economies have been exposed to unforeseen challenges. We also witnessed turmoil in international banking markets last year, which exposed fragilities in banks’ risk management and internal governance.
The European banking sector has shown itself to be resilient in the face of these challenges. Take non-performing loans, for example, which have fallen significantly in the European banking system. In 2015, their share was 7%, while in 2023 it was below 2%. That is a big step forward. And as I said, capital and liquidity indicators are now much higher than they were a decade ago. But as supervisors, we should never be complacent, especially given the new risk drivers, such as energy prices, cyberattacks, climate and nature-related risks and geopolitical risks.
Turning now to current developments in the European banking sector, where UniCredit Group’s intention to take over the German bank Commerzbank has recently made headlines. What is your view as euro area banking supervisor?
Let me first say that I cannot comment on individual banks, so my answer will be more general.
We have been crystal clear that cross-border consolidation can be an instrument for further integration of the European banking sector, and we stand by that. Consolidation can also help address long-standing issues in the European banking sector, such as low profitability.
Nonetheless, mergers always carry risks and, as supervisors, we assess them carefully, always applying the limitative criteria set out in Article 23 of the Capital Requirements Directive. Our job is to ensure that every banking transaction – whether at cross-border or national level – results in a banking group that can comply with supervisory requirements in the foreseeable future.
What is your view of the banking sector in our country? What is your message to Slovenia?
Thanks to the reforms implemented after the great financial crisis, banks in Slovenia have come a long way, and in the right direction. When the crisis hit, the Government had to support the three largest banks with a recapitalisation of €3.5 billion. And, naturally, it has taken several years for lending to strengthen. More recently, the privatisation of state-owned banks increased competition in the sector, and this has attracted international banks. Slovenian banks are now well-capitalised, highly profitable and are above the euro area average for profitability, mainly on account of very high net interest margins. Some of this progress can also be attributed to the work of supervisors, including those at Banka Slovenije, with whom we work very well.
So, like in the rest of Europe, your banks are robust but they will continue to face a number of headwinds stemming from the macro-financial environment, geopolitical shocks and challenges related to the green and digital transitions.
As mentioned, our central bank will host a Governing Council meeting next week. Do you expect a new interest rate decision at this meeting?
We will come to Slovenia with an open mind, so I am looking forward to the trip to Ljubljana and to a very genuine and open discussion. Before the meeting, we will take note of all the data and analysis and, as we have said many times before, we will take a meeting-by-meeting approach. A number of recent indicators suggest that downside risks to economic growth are already materialising, so we will need to carefully assess whether this has any implications for our inflation outlook.
What is very clear, however, is the direction of travel in the period ahead. If our projections that inflation will converge towards our 2% target in the second half of 2025 continue to be confirmed, we will continue to gradually ease our restrictive policy stance. At the same time, we need to maintain flexibility regarding the pace of adjustments. This will depend on incoming data, on the economic situation and on inflation. The latest data will of course be taken into account in whatever decision we take in Slovenia.
What specific downside risks to growth do you have in mind?
Economic growth came in at 0.2% in the second quarter, falling somewhat short of our projections. We look at a broad range of data, but we have seen that households are consuming less than anticipated and firms are less keen to invest than we had projected.
What is your view on the exact nature of inflation in the euro area? In particular, services price inflation remains very persistent. Why?
We expect inflation to decline to our target in the second half of 2025. Headline inflation is projected to average 2.5% in 2024, then 2.2% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026. Services inflation remains strong but, according to our projections, we will see a deceleration going into the new year.
We always look at the upside and downside risks surrounding these projections. Geopolitical tensions could raise energy prices, shipping costs and other transport costs in the short term, which could also lead to disruptions to global trade, which would push prices up. Inflation could also increase if wages rise more than expected or if profit margins increase, and extreme weather events and the climate crisis could increase food prices. However, there are also downside risks to inflation, such as lower than expected demand or an unexpected deterioration in the economic environment in the United States and globally.
At the ECB, you are also responsible for monitoring the effects of climate change, in addition to the dual tasks mentioned at the beginning. This year we saw the catastrophic effects of floods in some central European countries, and last year we experienced them in Slovenia as well. Greece, Spain and other parts of southern Europe are ravaged by catastrophic droughts and fires. Can the ECB and national central banks contribute more effectively to mitigating the effects of climate change? After all, you have the power – you have monetary policy and banking supervision in your hands…
I am very aware of the consequences of floods, and of those last year in Slovenia. They caused €10 billion of damage and more than two-thirds of the country was affected. Some places in the Koroška region were cut off from the world and most roads were completely submerged. Recently, we have seen similar things in several other EU countries.
When talking about climate, nature and the ECB, I always say that we are not climate policymakers. We are not involved in climate policy. This is a task for governments, who implement legislation and policies like the European Climate Law and the EU “Fit for 55” plan, for example.
But this topic is also extremely relevant for our mandate, because extreme events like flooding, wildfires and summer droughts also lead to financial risks for banks and the wider economy. In our banking supervision, we check whether banks are adequately managing their climate and nature-related risks. We also take climate and nature into account in our macroeconomic projections.
Are you in favour of introducing more decisive measures that would offer banks more targeted incentives to grant loans for more environmentally friendly or “greener” purposes?
It would be speculative to talk about possible measures that we might hypothetically take in the future. What is clear is that any measure we implement must be consistent with our primary objective of price stability. Our current monetary policy stance is restrictive, so a green lending facility would be something for us to consider in the future, in another phase of the cycle.
That being said, climate change is part of our monetary policy strategy, and we have committed to regularly reviewing our climate-related measures to ensure that we continue to support a decarbonisation path that is consistent with the EU’s climate objectives. For this, within our mandate, all options are on the table. If we were to design new instruments in the future, it’s fair to assume that they would include climate considerations.
In terms of global competitiveness, the EU is falling behind the United States and China. Former ECB President Mario Draghi recently presented a very ambitious plan to increase European competitiveness, including investments of up to €800 billion per year. In his opinion, this money could also be raised through European borrowing, so common European debt. What is your take on this proposal and Mr Draghi’s other recommendations?
We welcome the publication of this report, how concrete it is and its call for urgent action. Competitiveness is critical for sustainable growth, improving the living standards of citizens and boosting economic resilience, especially in the current environment of heightened geopolitical fragmentation. We strongly support this urgent call for coordinated action at the European and national levels. It is now a matter of turning these proposals into concrete measures.
Meeting the strategic investment needs identified in the report requires completing the capital markets union, which we have been advocating for a long time.
The private sector will not be able to finance all of these investment needs alone. European initiatives, including financing through common European funds, could help finance common European public goods such as defence, public procurement, energy grids, disruptive innovation and cross-border infrastructure. Under the right conditions, the potential issuance of common European debt could help bridge the financing gap.
Finally, a new European Commission is expected to start its work in a few weeks’ time. How do you see your cooperation, including on the common objective of making Europe more competitive?
I am very much looking forward to continuing our excellent interactions with the European Commission, both with the outgoing Commission and the incoming one. There are a number of common European initiatives that we both have a very strong interest in. I have already mentioned the capital markets union. Further progress could be made on that, as well as on finalising all aspects of the banking union. And we know from the ECB’s stress tests that the longer we take to complete the green transition, the more it will cost us, so we would very much welcome further progress on that front as well.
Hera aims to confirm if it is possible to deflect a hazardous asteroid on a collision course with the Earth, as a repeatable strategy ready for use in case of an actual asteroid threat
Thales Alenia Space provided key technologies onboard the Hera spacecraft, which will send essential data from the Didymos binary asteroid, similar to one that could potentially impact our Planet
Madrid, 8 October, 2024 – Hera, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first planetary defence mission, was successfully launched yesterday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The satellite is now heading to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System.
If an incoming asteroid were to threaten Earth, what could be done to cope with the situation? On September 26th 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission performed humankind’s first test of asteroid deflection by crashing into the Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos moonlet. This resulted in a shift of its orbit around the mountain-sized Didymos main asteroid.
Next comes ESA’s own contribution to the international Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration: the Hera mission will travel to Dimorphos so as to gather vital close-up data regarding the deflected body and turn DART’s grand-scale kinetic impact experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. Hera will provide in particular accurate measurements concerning the asteroid’s mass, as well as crucial information about its make-up and structure, which are essential to interpret the outcome of the impact.
The Hera mission, will also carry out the most detailed exploration to date of a binary asteroid system – although binaries make up 15% of all known asteroids, they have never been studied in detail. Hera will also perform technology demonstration experiments, including the deployment of ESA’s first deep space ‘CubeSats’ – shoebox-sized spacecraft to venture closer than the main mission then eventually land – and an ambitious test of ‘self-driving’ for the main spacecraft, based on vision-based navigation. The OHB System AG (Germany), as prime contractor of Hera, led the industrial consortium, including responsibility for the overall spacecraft design, development, assembly, and testing.
Thales Alenia Space’s contribution: a teamwork between Spain, Italy and Belgium
Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), provided key technologies onboard Hera spacecraft. Thales Alenia Space in Spain was responsible for the communications subsystem, which allows to control and track the spacecraft from a distance up to 500 million kilometre away and to send all the information gathered by Hera back to Earth. Thales Alenia Space in Italy developed the state-of-art Deep Space Transponder, while Thales Alenia Space in Belgium developed the Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTA), as well as the Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit (PCDU), which provides power to the spacecraft during all its lifetime.
Safeguarding our planet
Asteroids are bodies originated in the young stars nebulae that never grew to planets, formed of rock and metal. Among them, those that have an orbit that brings them close to Earth (within 45 million kilometres), known as near-Earth asteroids, represent a risk of hitting the Earth. There are plenty of such bodies in our Solar system, from tiny little ones measuring a few meters (there are 40-50 millions of them) up to larger ones, measuring more than 1 km but much more scarce (there’s less than 1000 of them).
Neither the smaller near-Earth asteroids nor the larger ones represent a real threat to humanity. Small asteroids actually hit the Earth quite frequently (every two weeks) with no consequences. The larger ones, although potentially dangerous, are well known and tracked, and it takes millions of years to have one of them hitting the Earth. Actually, a 10km asteroid impact is the most accepted theory of the Cretaceous extinction around 66 million years ago, ending with three-quarters of the plant and animal species, among others the dinosaurs.
The mid-sized class asteroids of more than 100 meters are the ones we need to worry about. There are about 30,000 near-Earth asteroids of the 100 to 300 meter size class, 82% of them still to be spotted, hitting the Earth every 10,000 years. The impact energy of such an asteroid is equivalent to around 50 megatons of TNT, the power of a “Tsar Bomba”. The effect of such an impact would be devastating if it reached a populated area, capable of destroying an entire city or to create a tsunami if it impacted a sea.
The Didymos binary asteroid system is prototypical in terms of size of the thousands of asteroids that pose a hazardous risk of impact to our planet. Around the Dydimos main body, 780 meter in diameter, orbits the 150 meter Dimorphos moonlet, which is the first body in the Solar System to have had its orbit measurably changed through human action, by the DART impact, and it is also the smallest asteroid yet visited by humankind.
The Hera spacecraft will reach the binary asteroid in October 2026, after a two-year cruise phase. The day Hera reaches Didymos, it will be 195 million km away from Earth.
ABOUT THALES ALENIA SPACE
Drawing on over 40 years of experience and a unique combination of skills, expertise and cultures, Thales Alenia Space delivers cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments and private industry alike count on Thales Alenia Space to design satellite-based systems that provide anytime, anywhere connections and positioning, monitor our planet, enhance management of its resources and explore our Solar System and beyond. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of approximately €2.2 billion in 2023. Thales Alenia Space has around 8,600 employees in 9 countries, with 16 sites in Europe and a plant in the US.
The process will be led by Ambassador Petter Ølberg of Norway, the Chair of the General Council, in accordance with the WTO’s “Procedures for the Appointment of Directors-General” (WT/L/509).
Ambassador Ølberg issued a statement on 4 October, indicating that WTO members supported an early start of the process ahead of the originally planned schedule. The selection process will adhere to the established procedures, ensuring transparency, inclusiveness and alignment with the Organization’s best interests.
WTO members have until 8 November to submit nominations. After nominations close, candidates will have a three-month window, ending on 8 February 2025, to engage with members and present their qualifications.
A final two-month period, until 8 April 2025, will be devoted to a process of consultations to allow the General Council ultimately to arrive at its choice for appointment.
The incumbent, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who began her term in March 2021, has confirmed her intention to seek reappointment. Her current term is scheduled to conclude on 31 August 2025.
The call for proposals for the Documentary Heritage Communities Program 2025–2026 is now open
Gatineau, Quebec, October 8, 2024
Documentary heritage organizations across the country can now apply for funding for the 2025–2026 cycle of Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP).
LAC gives close to $1.5 million every year to community organizations so they can dedicate the necessary resources to projects aimed at promoting their collections and making them more accessible, while strengthening their capacity to preserve Canada’s documentary heritage.
These organizations play a vital role in preserving Canada’s history. LAC is proud to contribute to documenting, preserving and making accessible to the public stories that reflect the diverse experiences and cultures of Canadian society.
Visit the DHCP web page to obtain all the details, such as eligibility criteria and the application form, or for help filling out an application. Eligible organizations are invited to submit their application by January 9, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. (PST).
If you have any questions about the DHCP, contact us by email at contributions@bac-lac.gc.ca, or by telephone at 819-997-0893 or 1-844-757-8035. Subscribe to the DHCP mailing list for the latest news.
“Our government is committed to helping our country’s documentary heritage organizations preserve this heritage. I invite them to submit their projects to the Program. Besides enriching our collective memory, they make our society, our culture and our history more representative.”
—The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage
Please contact the Media Relations team to obtain a copy of the media kit.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 3
Statement by UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joanna Roper, at the 107th Executive Council.
Location:
The Hague, The Netherlands
Delivered on:
(Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)
Mr Chair, Director General, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
I would like to express my thanks to you, His Excellency, Ambassador Parral for his continuing strong leadership of this Executive Council and reiterate our support for your chairing of this 107th Session. I would also like to thank the Director General, His Excellency, Mr Fernando Arias, for his comprehensive report detailing this organisation’s continuing determined efforts to rid the world of chemical weapons. The achievements are even more remarkable considering the growing challenges presented by a difficult international security environment.
Mr Chair,
The United Kingdom’s national statement will be posted online but I would like to take this opportunity to comment on the appalling situation in Ukraine and the UK’s response.
Russia used the lethal nerve agent, Novichok, on the streets of the UK in 2018, ultimately leading to the death of Dawn Sturgess. Russia used Novichok again to poison Alexei Navalny in 2020. And now we are witness to Russian breaches of the Chemical Weapons Convention on the frontlines in Ukraine. Russia is making systematic use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces, including multiple reports of the use of the choking agent chloropicrin, with complete contempt for its legal and moral obligations to uphold the CWC.
The UK will hold all those who use these barbaric weapons to account. Today, my government has therefore announced sanctions on Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops and their commander Igor Kirillov, and 2 of their subordinate laboratories, for their role in Russia’s use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
We call on Russia to immediately cease its use of these appalling weapons and to meet its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has sent a clear message to President Putin – and I quote – that “Russia’s cruel and inhumane tactics on the battlefield are abhorrent and I will use the full arsenal of powers at my disposal to combat Russia’s malign activity.”
Alongside these sanctions, we remain committed to working through this Council and other international forums to reduce the growing threat to international security posed by Russia’s chemical weapon use. We reiterate our request to the Executive Council under Article IX paragraph 3 to assist in clarifying reports that Russian armed forces have repeatedly breached the Chemical Weapon Convention in Ukraine.
The UK is committed to supporting Ukraine’s fight for freedom, liberty and victory in the face of these inhumane attacks. The UK has now committed £12.8 billion in military, humanitarian and economic support to Ukraine. As part of this package of support, we have recently announced a further voluntary contribution to the OPCW’s Assistance to Ukraine trust fund. The UK welcomes the recent OPCW technical assistance visit to Ukraine – delivering vital equipment and training to ensure Ukraine can protect its people.
Mr Chair,
The OPCW remains one of the foremost arms control bodies, fundamental to international security. Yet, the challenges it faces are growing. The UK is fully committed to working with other states and the Technical Secretariat to meet these challenges to achieve a world free of chemical weapons.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – From left to right: Andrey Nikulin, Sergey Mikhailov, Svetlana Golovina, Inna Sukhanova, Dmitry Ulrikh and Denis Nizhegorodtsev
From October 1 to 4, the International Construction Week was held in Yekaterinburg. It was attended by a delegation from SPbGASU, consisting of First Vice-Rector Svetlana Golovina, Vice-Rector for Educational Activities Sergey Mikhailov, Director of the Educational Center for Digital Competencies Inna Sukhanova, Deputy Director of the Educational Center for Digital Competencies Denis Nizhegorodtsev, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Andrey Nikulin, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Urban Management Dmitry Ulrikh, Head of the Department of Construction Organization Roman Motylev and fourth-year bachelor’s student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Angelina Koroleva.
Representatives of our university took part in the IV International Construction Championship, as well as the XI International Construction Forum and Exhibition 100 TechnoBuild, within the framework of which a meeting of the board of the Association of Construction Universities and the presidium of the Federal Educational and Methodological Association was held.
Andrey Nikulin shared his impressions. According to him, the key event of the forum and exhibition was the plenary session “Construction of the Future”, at which representatives of developers and authorities discussed the transformation of residential spaces, the development of small towns, and trends in industrial and infrastructure construction.
– The speakers disagreed on the prospects of the “15-minute city” concept and even noted that this innovative format, actively promoted by Western countries, resembles the Khrushchev period of Soviet development, where all everyday human needs were provided within walking distance within the microdistrict. This is economically beneficial for government bodies and developers, but, of course, it harms the moral and ethical development of a person, artificially confined to the sphere of consumption. At the same time, the speakers noted the need to develop transport infrastructure, which would allow people to leave the microdistricts and reach key cultural and historical centers in 15 minutes. However, this requires significant infrastructure costs, which is beyond the capabilities of regional budgets. As the speakers noted, the city of the future will be managed by artificial intelligence, and for its residents it will become commonplace to accept the delivery of goods, carried out by drones, at floor-by-floor reception points (new residential complexes are designed for this possibility).
Andrey Nikolaevich noted a wide range of modern software products of domestic production that use TIM models of buildings and structures to control construction production, optimize costs for the purchase of building materials and equipment. Particularly memorable were BIM scanners and solutions based on artificial intelligence, which allow improving the quality of design solutions and minimizing the “human factor” in construction.
According to Andrey Nikulin, the main result of participation in events of this level is the professional calibration of knowledge, ideas and vision of the future. In addition, this is, of course, the expansion of business contacts, “building professional bridges” with representatives of the real sector of the economy, which is very important for the development of scientific and educational areas of activity.
Representatives of the companies Ascon, BRIO, PlanRadar, Jetstyle, Gectaro, TehnoPar and others received invitations to international conferences that will be held at SPbGASU in the near future.
Inna Sukhanova and Denis Nizhegorodtsev joined the expert committee of the School League of the International Construction Championship. Roman Motylev acted as an expert of the Professional League. Angelina Koroleva, who participated in the Student League competition in the nomination “Labor Protection”, was awarded third place.
Denis Nizhegorodtsev spoke about his work:
– We were able to listen to and evaluate the works of the participants in the nomination “TIM-specialist”, in which schoolchildren of grades 8–11 from different regions of Russia competed. Their task was to model architectural solutions in the classrooms of a new school in Yekaterinburg. I would like to note the high level of the participants’ works. I am very glad that modern educational projects on construction topics are already available to schoolchildren and allow them to get acquainted with the profession in advance.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The British High Commission in Kampala is inviting tender submissions for consultancy services by 14 October 2024.
Client
British High Commission (BHC) Kampala
Expected starting date
1 November 2024
Duration of consultancy
5 months (1 November 2024 to 15 March 2025)
The UK is committed to strengthening a closer UK-Uganda partnership that supports mutual prosperity, ensures stability, reduces poverty, and strengthens democracy.
The UK invests in strengthening its economic partnership with Uganda, supporting climate change adaptation efforts, building broader UK-Uganda connections, and supporting Uganda’s engagements that stabilise the region. Through all these efforts the UK has consistently used their science, innovation, and technology (SIT) strengths to partner with Uganda and deliver progress and impact.
Through a focused 5-month campaign, the British High Commission (BHC) Kampala would like to better highlight breadth of the work of the UK in Uganda, by capturing the impact, diversity, and innovation of work over the years and creatively telling the story to the Ugandan people. While we would like to use the lens of SIT as a theme, we want the work of climate, growth, energy, stability, and other priority areas to be included as part of the storytelling.
The UK is looking to strengthen its partnership with Uganda, by building new awareness of the work, new collaborations and strengthening existing ones, including but not limited to, Uganda’s young creators and innovators, women, and academic institutions around areas of research, innovation, and emerging tech.
Objectives
This Terms of Reference (ToR) is to enlist supplier(s) to:
support BHC Kampala in breaking down its broader policy and program work, achievements and impact into engaging narratives while understanding stakeholder perceptions and refining our outreach strategy
enhance and execute communication efforts through compelling storytelling, strategic content development – specifically using radio as the main platform
Work packages
Due to the breadth of the work and specialisations required in some areas, this ToR has been broken down into two packages (Package A and Package B). The supplier may bid for either one or both packages.
Up to £21,750 is available to the winning bidder for each work package. With an overall total budget for both packages not exceeding £43,500, taxes inclusive. If you are planning to bid for both packages you should clearly separate your deliverables and budgets for both in a single return.
Package ‘A’
Scope of work
The exact approach for this work will be discussed further with BHC Kampala and set out in the Supplier Proposal. However, it will require the consultant to engage in joint ideation and conceptualisation session(s) with the BHC, engage with the full breadth of the BHC’s policy and program work around areas of SIT, and proceed to breakdown the highlights and impact of this work into engaging and visually appealing content tailored for different audiences.
During the content gathering and creation process, the consultant may be required to travel up to two times outside of Kampala with responsible BHC staff in the field and produce content as required by the campaign implementation plan. The travel costs should be accounted for in the bid, with the many flexible to be re-allocated if not needed for travel.
The entire work will cut across the following four areas:
Content development
collaborate with our team to identify key projects and initiatives
extract impactful stories and results that highlight the organization’s impact
Content processing and design
create multiple formats of content that may include articles and a series of human impact stories
develop visual assets such as infographics, motion graphics, and short videos
adapt content for various digital platforms, including social media, websites, and presentations
Stakeholder mapping and analysis
identify and categorise key stakeholders based on their influence, interest, and impact on the BHC’s goals
develop stakeholder profiles and relationship dynamics to map engagement opportunities and risks
provide recommendations for targeted messaging and relationship-building strategies tailored to each stakeholder group
Deliverables
In close consultation and collaboration with the BHC, the consultant is expected to deliver the following:
Content outputs
Overall, the BHC would like to have a set of high-quality pieces of impact storytelling that highlight our different areas of work. This will include print, visuals, digital and other potential content. Pace of content creation can be discussed.
Stakeholder Mapping Report
detailed stakeholder map, including profiles, influence, and interest levels
strategic recommendations on how to engage each stakeholder group more effectively
Client responsibilities
The BHC will be responsible for:
availing data and all information material needed by the consultant in their content generation and program production work
approving all content, broadcast or digital before it is aired or published
facilitating the consultant’s representatives with access to its program sites, activities, or project beneficiaries for purposes of gathering content as part of this partnership
proven experience in content creation, storytelling, and digital strategy
Timelines
All work will need to be completed by end of February 2025 or not later than the 15th of March 2025 at the latest. Specific timelines will be agreed upon with the BHC at our first engagement meeting after which they will be spelt out in the engagement contract.
Qualifications
expertise in conducting perception research and stakeholder mapping
ability to deliver high-quality outputs within tight deadlines
knowledge of Ugandan media consumption trends, preferences, and audience dynamics
demonstrable experience in Data and Information design and visualisation
The following are desirable:
flexibility and adaptability: the consultant will have to work closely with the team from the BHC in the execution of this work, which may require them to be flexible in adapting to new deliverable dynamics during the duration of consultancy
experience working with the UK or similar development partners: demonstrating keen understanding of development work, programming, and impact assessment of the same will be an added advantage as it is an important first step towards communicating such work effectively
ability to speak at least 3 local languages intelligibly would be useful but is not essential
Package ‘B’
Scope of work
The supplier will be expected to, in consultation with the British High Commission (BHC) Kampala, design and produce a 1-hour monthly radio program devoted to the BHC’s SIT policy work, which will be co-hosted by the British High Commissioner in Uganda and a co-host agreed upon by the two parties.
The supplier will also be expected to report at least one weekly story on the BHC’s SIT-related work across its policy and program areas and do at least one ground activation from one of the areas where the BHC’s SIT-related interventions is taking place.
The supplier will also be expected to promote all stories and programs delivered as part of this partnership on all its social media programs pre, during and after the said programs, and generally produce visually appealing multimedia content communicating the BHC’s SIT work to run on the radio partner and the BHC’s official media platforms.
Occasionally, especially during the content gathering and creation process, representatives of the supplier may be required to travel with responsible BHC staff in the field and produce content as required.
Deliverables
In close consultation and collaboration with the BHC, the supplier will be expected to:
design, produce and host a 1-hour monthly program devoted to the BHC’s SIT policy work, which will be co-hosted by the British High Commissioner in Uganda and a co-host agreed upon by the two parties
report/host at least one story or radio-discussion per week on the BHC’ SIT-related work across its policy and program areas
undertake at least one on-ground activation per month to report live on the impact of the BHC’s SIT-focused interventions on people and/communities
come up with social media promotion material for all stories and programs to be hosted and reported on the radio partner station as part of this partnership, pre, during and after the said programs
come up with a data and information visualisation strategy to complement the radio broadcasts of this partnership’s activities. This will involve producing appealing multimedia content communicating the BHC’s SIT work which will run on the supplier’s and the BHC’s official media platforms
Client responsibilities
The BHC will be responsible for:
availing data and all information material needed by the radio partner in its content generation and program production work
approving all content, broadcast or digital before it is aired or published
facilitating the radio partner’s representatives with access to its program sites, activities, or project beneficiaries for purposes of gathering content as part of this partnership
Timelines
All work will need to be completed by end of February or not later than the 15th of March 2025 at the latest. Specific timelines will be agreed upon with the BHC at our first engagement meeting after which they will be spelt out in the engagement contract.
Requirements
verifiable data of audience size and reach
experience of providing similar broadcast support to recognisable organisations/development partners.
the supplier should demonstrate a keen understanding of diverse demographic content preferences and audience peak hours and how both will be used to ensure a maximum audience for the stories, programs and content produced under this partnership
The following are desirable:
flexibility and adaptability: the supplier will have to work closely with the team from the BHC in the execution of this work, which may require them to be flexible in adapting to new deliverable dynamics during the duration of consultancy
experience working with the UK or similar development partners: demonstrating keen understanding of development work, programming, and impact assessment of the same will be an added advantage as it is an important first step towards communicating such work effectively
ability to broadcast in more than one language would be useful but is not essential
experience in Data and Information Visualisation: The consultant should have demonstrable skill and expertise in designing and producing creative, visually appealing multimedia content that can give visual appeal to the UK’s work in Uganda
Budget and payment terms
Any submissions in response to this ToR must include a technical and commercial proposal. The commercial proposal will need to include a budget with a comprehensive breakdown of costs per activity for the full duration of the work.
The BHC will make available up to £21,750 to the winning bidder for each work package, with an overall total budget for both packages not exceeding £43,500, including taxes. Payments to the winning bidder(s) will be made in arrears following review of agreed deliverables in the stipulated timeframes. These will be agreed in detail with the winning bidder, prior to signing the contract with the BHC.
Intellectual Property Rights
The BHC will own all intellectual property rights to the final designs and materials created under this agreement. The designer may include the work in their portfolio with the BHC’s permission.
Application process
Interested suppliers can bid for either options – package (A) or package (B) or both, and proceed to submit a proposal outlining their approach, relevant experience, and pricing by 14 October 2024. In your submission, include samples of previous work, details of methodologies and a sample stakeholder mapping framework.
Submit your proposal (s) to Kampala.Bhcinfo@fcdo.gov.uk and include “Bid for media consultancy” in the subject line of your email.
BHC will convene an evaluation panel to score the supplier proposal based on the evaluation criteria below. The proposal will need to achieve a score of 6 ‘good’ in order to proceed.
Technical scoring methodology
The Evaluation Team will apply the following scoring methodology to the Technical Criteria:
Score
Comment
10 (Expert)
Demonstrates expert understanding of Terms of Reference and proposes excellent and accurate solutions which address all requirements, and which are innovative where appropriate. Responses are excellently tailored to the customer’s requirements in all aspects. Level of detail and quality of information provides the highest degree of confidence in certainty of delivery.
8 (Very Good)
Demonstrates a very good understanding of the majority of issues relating to delivery of the Terms of Reference. Responses are relevantly tailored to the customer’s requirements in the majority of aspects. Provides sufficient detail and quality of information to give a strong level of confidence that they will deliver.
6 (Good)
Demonstrates a good understanding of many of the issues relating to the delivery of the Terms of Reference. Responses are reasonably tailored to the customer’s requirements for many of the of aspects. Provides a good level of detail and quality of information to give a good level of confidence that they will deliver.
4 (Satisfactory)
Demonstrates a satisfactory understanding of some of the issues relating to delivery of the Terms of Reference. Only some appetite to tailor to customers requirements where required. Provides only some level of detail and quality of information to give only some level of confidence they will be able to deliver.
2 (Unsatisfactory)
Demonstrates a poor understanding of the issues relating to delivery of the Terms of Reference. Poor appetite to tailor to the customers requirements where required. Generally, an unsatisfactory and a low level of quality information and detail leading to a low level of confidence that they will deliver.
0 (Fail)
Complete failure to address all material requirements of the Terms of Reference. No tailoring of responses to meet customer requirements. No quality responses providing no confidence that they will deliver.
Technical evaluation criteria
The Evaluation Criteria and Weightings that will be applied to bids are detailed in the ‘Main Criteria’ table below. The Total Score for each Criteria will comprise of the score awarded (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10) multiplied by the weighting allocated to each Criteria.
Main criteria
Weighting
Score 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
Total score
Team leader:
Demonstrate the ability to meet all criteria outlined in the qualifications section, including individual experience and organisational track record of delivering.
Team leader should be a highly experienced individual with 8+ years in related work.
Provider will have experience of gathering evidence from multiple sources simultaneously and quality assuring data and show how this is intended to be undertaken.
[20]
0-6
[0-6×20]
Quality of personnel:
Appropriateness of Project Team. Will be judged in relation to the skills required as set out in the ToRs. This includes an appropriate mix of qualified staff with not less than five years of experience in relation to methodology and need. CVs and 3 references will be required.
[40]
0-6
[0-6×40]
Methodology:
Evidence that suppliers understand and are responding to the ToRs. This could include a work-plan and analysis that clearly shows how they will deliver the assignment e.g., what processes they will use.
Evidence that methodology will provide a high-quality outcome capturing, the key requirements in the TORs.
ECB President Christine Lagarde explains the Governing Council’s monetary policy decisions and will answer questions from journalists at the Governing Council press conference to be held on 17 October 2024 at 14:45 CET in Ljubljana.
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Spokesperson Matthew Miller leads the Department Press Briefing, at the Department of State, on October 8, 2024
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Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kenneth Evans, Scholar in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
Science topics don’t always come up during presidential debates – but they did on Sept. 10, 2024.Mario Tama via Getty Images
For the first time in American history, quantum computing was mentioned by a candidate during a presidential debate, on Sept. 10, 2024. After Vice President Kamala Harris brought up quantum technology, she and former President Donald Trump went on to have a heated back-and-forth about American chipmaking and China’s rise in semiconductor manufacturing. Science and technology policy usually takes a back seat to issues such as immigration, the economy and health care during election season.
What’s changed for 2024?
From COVID-19 to climate change, ChatGPT to, yes, quantum computers, science-related issues are on the minds of American policymakers and voters alike. The federal government spends nearly US$200 billion each year on scientific research and development to address these challenges and many others. Presidents and Congress, however, rarely agree on how – and how much – money should be spent on science.
With the increasing public focus on global competitiveness, the climate crisis and artificial intelligence, a closer look at Trump’s and Harris’ records on science and technology policy could provide a hint about how they’d approach these topics if elected this fall.
Two distinct visions for science funding
If politics can be described as “who gets what and when,” U.S. science and technology policy can be assessed through the annual budget process for R&D. By this measure, the differences between the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations couldn’t be starker.
In his first budget request to Congress, in 2017, Trump spurned decades of precedent, proposing historic cuts across nearly every federal science agency. In particular, Trump targeted climate-related programs at the Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump’s fiscal policy took a page from Reagan-era conservative orthodoxy, prioritizing military spending over social programs, including R&D. Unlike Reagan, however, Trump also took aim at basic research funding, an area with long-standing bipartisan support in Congress. His three subsequent budget proposals were no different: across-the-board reductions to federal research programs, while pushing for increases to defense technology development and demonstration projects.
Congress rebuked nearly all of Trump’s requests. Instead, it passed some of the largest increases to federal R&D programs in U.S. history, even before accounting for emergency spending packages funded as part of the government’s pandemic response.
In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration made science and innovation a centerpiece of its early policy agenda – with budgets to match. Leveraging the slim Democratic majority during the 117th Congress, Biden and Harris shepherded three landmark bills into law: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. These laws contain significant R&D provisions focused on environmental projects (IIJA), clean energy (IRA) and American semiconductor manufacturing (CHIPS).
CHIPS set up programs within the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce to create regional technology hubs in support of American manufacturing. The act also set ambitious funding targets for federal science agencies, especially at NSF, calling for its budget to be doubled from $9 billion to over $18 billion over the course of five years.
Despite its initial push for R&D, the Biden-Harris administration’s final two budget proposals offered far less to science. Years of deficit spending and a new Republican majority in the House cast a cloud of budget austerity over Congress. Instead of moving toward doubling NSF’s budget, the agency suffered an 8% decrease in fiscal year 2024 – its biggest cut in over three decades. For FY2025, which runs from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025, Biden and Harris requested a meager 3% increase for NSF, billions of dollars short of CHIPS-enacted spending levels.
An emerging consensus on China
On technology policy, Biden and Harris share more with Trump than they let on.
Their approach to competing with China on tech follows Trump’s lead: They’ve expanded tariffs on Chinese goods and severely limited China’s access to American-made computer chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
Semiconductor manufacturing is a key to many technologies; by extension, where it happens can be a security issue. Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Biden-Harris administration has also drawn from Trump-era policy to strengthen America’s leadership in “industries of the future.” The term, coined by Trump’s then-chief science adviser Kelvin Droegemeier, refers to five emerging technology areas: AI, quantum science, advanced manufacturing, advanced communications and biotechnology. This language has been parroted by the Biden-Harris administration as part of its focus on American manufacturing and throughout Harris’ campaign, including during the debate.
In short, both candidates align with the emerging Washington bipartisan consensus on China: innovation policy at home, strategic decoupling abroad.
Science advice not always a welcome resource
Trump’s dismissal of and at times outright contempt for scientific consensus is well documented. From “Sharpiegate,” when he mapped his own projected path for Hurricane Dorian, to pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, World Health Organization and the Iran nuclear deal, Trump has demonstrated an unwillingness to accept any advice, let alone from scientists.
Indeed, Trump took over two years to hire Droegemeier as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, doubling the previous record for the length of time a president has gone without a scientific adviser. This absence was no doubt reflected in Trump’s short-on-science budget requests to Congress, especially during the beginning of his administration.
On the other hand, the Biden-Harris administration has promoted science and innovation as a core part of its broader economic policy agenda. It elevated the role of OSTP: Biden is the first president to name his science adviser – a position currently held by Arati Prabhakar – as a member of his Cabinet.
By law, the president is required to appoint an OSTP director. But it is up to the president to decide how and when to use their advice. If the new White House wants the U.S. to remain a global leader in R&D, the science adviser will need to continue to fight for it.
Kenneth Evans receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the American Institute of Physics, and the Clinton Foundation. He is affiliated with Rice University and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Foreign influence campaigns, or information operations, have been widespread in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Influence campaigns are large-scale efforts to shift public opinion, push false narratives or change behaviors among a target population. Russia, China, Iran, Israel and other nations have run these campaigns by exploiting social bots, influencers, media companies and generative AI.
At the Indiana University Observatory on Social Media, my colleagues and I study influence campaigns and design technical solutions – algorithms – to detect and counter them. State-of-the-art methods developed in our center use several indicators of this type of online activity, which researchers call inauthentic coordinated behavior. We identify clusters of social media accounts that post in a synchronized fashion, amplify the same groups of users, share identical sets of links, images or hashtags, or perform suspiciously similar sequences of actions.
We have uncovered many examples of coordinated inauthentic behavior. For example, we found accounts that flood the network with tens or hundreds of thousands of posts in a single day. The same campaign can post a message with one account and then have other accounts that its organizers also control “like” and “unlike” it hundreds of times in a short time span. Once the campaign achieves its objective, all these messages can be deleted to evade detection. Using these tricks, foreign governments and their agents can manipulate social media algorithms that determine what is trending and what is engaging to decide what users see in their feeds.
Adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran aren’t the only foreign governments manipulating social media to influence U.S. politics.
Generative AI
One technique increasingly being used is creating and managing armies of fake accounts with generative artificial intelligence. We analyzed 1,420 fake Twitter – now X – accounts that used AI-generated faces for their profile pictures. These accounts were used to spread scams, disseminate spam and amplify coordinated messages, among other activities.
We estimate that at least 10,000 accounts like these were active daily on the platform, and that was before X CEO Elon Musk dramatically cut the platform’s trust and safety teams. We also identified a network of 1,140 bots that used ChatGPT to generate humanlike content to promote fake news websites and cryptocurrency scams.
In addition to posting machine-generated content, harmful comments and stolen images, these bots engaged with each other and with humans through replies and retweets. Current state-of-the-art large language model content detectors are unable to distinguish between AI-enabled social bots and human accounts in the wild.
Model misbehavior
The consequences of such operations are difficult to evaluate due to the challenges posed by collectingdata and carrying out ethical experiments that would influence online communities. Therefore it is unclear, for example, whether online influence campaigns can sway election outcomes. Yet, it is vital to understand society’s vulnerability to different manipulation tactics.
In a recent paper, we introduced a social media model called SimSoM that simulates how information spreads through the social network. The model has the key ingredients of platforms such as Instagram, X, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon: an empirical follower network, a feed algorithm, sharing and resharing mechanisms, and metrics for content quality, appeal and engagement.
SimSoM allows researchers to explore scenarios in which the network is manipulated by malicious agents who control inauthentic accounts. These bad actors aim to spread low-quality information, such as disinformation, conspiracy theories, malware or other harmful messages. We can estimate the effects of adversarial manipulation tactics by measuring the quality of information that targeted users are exposed to in the network.
We simulated scenarios to evaluate the effect of three manipulation tactics. First, infiltration: having fake accounts create believable interactions with human users in a target community, getting those users to follow them. Second, deception: having the fake accounts post engaging content, likely to be reshared by the target users. Bots can do this by, for example, leveraging emotional responses and political alignment. Third, flooding: posting high volumes of content.
Our model shows that infiltration is the most effective tactic, reducing the average quality of content in the system by more than 50%. Such harm can be further compounded by flooding the network with low-quality yet appealing content, thus reducing quality by 70%.
Curbing coordinated manipulation
We have observed all these tactics in the wild. Of particular concern is that generative AI models can make it much easier and cheaper for malicious agents to create and manage believable accounts. Further, they can use generative AI to interact nonstop with humans and create and post harmful but engaging content on a wide scale. All these capabilities are being used to infiltrate social media users’ networks and flood their feeds with deceptive posts.
These insights suggest that social media platforms should engage in more – not less – content moderation to identify and hinder manipulation campaigns and thereby increase their users’ resilience to the campaigns.
The platforms can do this by making it more difficult for malicious agents to create fake accounts and to post automatically. They can also challenge accounts that post at very high rates to prove that they are human. They can add friction in combination with educational efforts, such as nudging users to reshare accurate information. And they can educate users about their vulnerability to deceptive AI-generated content.
Open-source AI models and data make it possible for malicious agents to build their own generative AI tools. Regulation should therefore target AI content dissemination via social media platforms rather then AI content generation. For instance, before a large number of people can be exposed to some content, a platform could require its creator to prove its accuracy or provenance.
These types of content moderation would protect, rather than censor, free speech in the modern public squares. The right of free speech is not a right of exposure, and since people’s attention is limited, influence operations can be, in effect, a form of censorship by making authentic voices and opinions less visible.
Filippo Menczer receives funding from the Knight Foundation, Sloan Foundation, NSF, DoD, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
What makes these wildfires so destructive and difficult to contain?
The answer lies in a mix of changing climate, the legacy of past land-management practices, and current human activities that are reshaping fire behavior and increasing the risk they pose.
Fire’s perfect storm
Wildfires rely on three key elements to spread: conducive weather, dry fuel and an ignition source. Each of these factors has undergone pronounced changes in recent decades. While climate change sets the stage for larger and more intense fires, humans are actively fanning the flames.
Climate and weather
Extreme temperatures play a dangerous role in wildfires. Heat dries out vegetation, making it more flammable. Under these conditions, wildfires ignite more easily, spread faster and burn with greater intensity. In the western U.S., aridity attributed to climate change has doubled the amount of forestland that has burned since 1984.
Compounding the problem is the rapid rise in nighttime temperatures, now increasing faster than daytime temperatures. Nights, which used to offer a reprieve with cooler conditions and higher humidity, do so less often, allowing fires to continue raging without pause.
Ranchers watch as firefighting planes battle the Park Fire, which was fueled by extremely hot, dry conditions in Butte County, Calif. AP Photo/Noah Berger
Fuel
Fire is a natural process that has shaped ecosystems for over 420 million years. Indigenous people historically used controlled burns to manage landscapes and reduce fuel buildup. However, a century of fire suppression has allowed vast areas to accumulate dense fuels, priming them for larger and more intense wildfires.
Additionally, human development in fire-prone regions, especially in the wildland-urban interface, where neighborhoods intermingle with forest and grassland vegetation, has introduced new, highly flammable fuels. Buildings, vehicles and infrastructure often ignite easily and burn hotter and faster than natural vegetation. These changes have significantly altered fuel patterns, creating conditions conducive to more severe and harder-to-control wildfires.
More than 600 homes and buildings burned in the Park Fire, one of California’s largest fires on record. Officials say the fire was started by a man pushing a burning car into a ravine near Chico. AP Photo/Eugene Garcia
Lightning-started fires often coincide with storms that carry rain or higher humidity, which slows fires’ spread. Human-started fires, however, typically ignite under more extreme conditions – hotter temperatures, lower humidity and stronger winds. This leads to greater flame heights, faster spread in the critical early days before crews can respond, and more severe ecosystem effects, such as killing more trees and degrading the soil.
Human-ignited fires often occur in or near populated areas, where flammable structures and vegetation create even more hazardous conditions. As urban development expands into wildlands, the probability of human-started fires and the property potentially exposed to fire increase, creating a feedback loop of escalating wildfire risk.
2024 fire season’s whiplash weather
The record-breaking summer heat in 2024 intensified fire hazards, with vegetation rapidly drying out and leaving landscapes parched in many areas. In addition, a phenomenon known as whiplash weather, marked by unusually wet winters and springs followed by extreme summer heat, has been especially pronounced in Southern California.
A wet spring fostered vegetation growth, which then dried out under scorching summer temperatures, turning into highly combustible fuel. Severe heat waves, along with the associated lack of nighttime cooling, created conditions where fires not only spread faster, but were also more difficult to contain.
This cycle has fueled some of the biggest fires of the 2024 season, several of which were started by humans. Atmospheric instability during some of these fires also led to the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds – massive, fire-fueled thunderheads that can generate their own weather, including lightning and tornado-like winds that drive flames even further.
As these factors converge, the potential for increasingly severe wildfires looms ever larger. Severe fires also release large amounts of carbon from trees, vegetation and soils into the atmosphere, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbating climate change, contributing to more extreme fire seasons.
Virginia Iglesias receives funding from the National Science Foundation.
A scratchy, sore throat, a relentless fever, a pounding head and a nasty cough – these symptoms all scream upper respiratory illness. But which one?
Many of the viruses that cause upper respiratory infections such as influenza A or B and the virus that causes COVID-19 all employ similar tactics. They target the same areas in your body – primarily the upper and lower airways – and this shared battleground triggers a similar response from your immune system. Overlapping symptoms – fever, cough, fatigue, aches and pains – make it difficult to determine what may be the underlying cause.
Now, at-home rapid tests can simultaneously determine whether someone has COVID-19 or the flu. Thanks in part to the National Institutes of Health’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx, program, the Food and Drug Administration has provided emergency use authorization for seven at-home rapid tests that can distinguish between COVID-19, influenza A and influenza B.
Our team in Atlanta – composed of biomedical engineers, clinicians and researchers at Emory University, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Institute of Technology – is part of the RADx Test Verification Core. We closely collaborate with other institutions and agencies to determine whether and how well COVID-19 and influenza diagnostics work, effectively testing the tests. Our center has worked with almost every COVID and flu diagnostic on the market, and our data helped inform the instructions you might see in many of the home test kits on the market.
While no test is perfect, to now be able to test for certain viruses at home when symptoms begin can help patients and their doctors come up with appropriate care plans sooner.
A new era of at-home tests
Traditionally, identifying the virus causing upper respiratory illness symptoms required going to a clinic or hospital for a trained medical professional to collect a nasopharyngeal sample. This involves inserting a long, fiber-tipped swab that looks like a skinny Q-tip into one of your nostrils and all the way to the back of your nose and throat to collect virus-containing secretions. The sample is then typically sent to a lab for analysis, which could take hours to days for results.
The COVID-19 pandemic made over-the-counter tests for respiratory illnesses commonplace. DuKai/Moment via Getty Images
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the possibility of using over-the-counter tests to diagnose respiratory illnesses at home became a reality. These tests used a much gentler and less invasive nasal swab and could also be done by anyone, anytime and in their own home. However, these tests were designed to diagnose only COVID-19 and could not distinguish between other types of illnesses.
Since then, researchers have developed over-the-counter multiplex tests that can screen for more than one respiratory infection at once. In 2023, Pfizer’s Lucira test became the first at-home diagnostic test for both COVID-19 and influenza to gain emergency use authorization.
What are multiplex rapid tests?
There are two primary forms of at-home COVID-19 and COVID-19/flu combination tests: molecular tests such as PCR that detect genetic material from the virus, and antigen tests – commonly referred to as rapid tests – that detect proteins called antigens from the virus.
The majority of over-the-counter COVID-19 and COVID-19/flu tests on the market are antigen tests. They detect the presence of antigens in your nasal secretions that act as a biological signature for a specific virus. If viral antigens are present, that means you’re likely infected.
Respiratory illnesses such as flu, COVID-19 and RSV can be hard to tell apart.
To detect these antigens, rapid tests have paper-like strips coated with specially engineered antibodies that function like a molecular Velcro, sticking only to a specific antigen. Scientists design and manufacture specialized strips to recognize specific viral antigens, like those belonging to influenza A, influenza B or the virus that causes COVID-19.
The antibodies for these viral targets are placed on the strip, and when someone’s nasal sample has viral proteins that are applied to the test strip, a line will appear for that virus in particular.
Advancing rapid antigen tests
Like all technologies, rapid antigen tests have limitations.
Compared with lab-based PCR tests that can detect the presence of small amounts of pathogen by amplifying them, antigen tests are typically less sensitive than PCR and could miss an infection in some cases.
All at-home COVID-19 and COVID-19/flu antigen tests are authorized for repeat use. This means if someone is experiencing symptoms – or has been exposed to someone with COVID-19 but is not experiencing symptoms – and has a negative result for their first test, they should retest 48 hours later.
Another limitation to rapid antigen tests is that currently they are designed to test only for COVID-19, influenza A and influenza B. Currently available over-the-counter tests aren’t able to detect illnesses from pathogens that look like these viruses and cause similar symptoms, such as adenovirus or strep.
Because multiplex texts can detect several different viruses, they can also produce findings that are more complex to interpret than tests for single viruses. This may increase the risk of a patient incorrectly interpreting their results, misreading one infection for another.
Researchers are actively developing even more sophisticated tests that are more sensitive and can simultaneously screen for a wider range of viruses or even bacterial infections. Scientists are also examining the potential of using saliva samples in tests for bacterial or viral infections.
Additionally, scientists are exploring integrating multiplex tests with smartphones for rapid at-home diagnosis and reporting to health care providers. This may increase the accessibility of these tests for people with vision impairment, low dexterity or other challenges with conducting and interpreting at-home tests.
Faster and more accurate diagnoses lead to more targeted and effective treatment plans, potentially reducing unnecessary antibiotic use and improving patient outcomes. The ability to rapidly identify and track outbreaks can also empower public health officials to better mitigate the spread of infectious diseases.
Research conducted by ACME POCT received funding by the National Institutes of Health.
Wilbur Lam receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Source: Republic of Taiwan – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
MOFA sincerely congratulates Japanese Representative Ishiba on his election as LDP president
Date：2024-09-27
Data Source：TAIWAN-JAPAN RELATIONS ASSOCIATION
September 27, 2024
No. 319
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan elected Shigeru Ishiba, a member of the House of Representatives, as its new president after two rounds of voting on September 27. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) extends its sincere congratulations and has instructed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan to promptly send a message of felicitations on behalf of the government of Taiwan.
Taiwan and the LDP have enjoyed close interactions over the years, sharing a robust partnership and like-minded friendship. LDP parliamentary delegations have often visited Taiwan, proactively fostering Taiwan-Japan cooperation and exchanges across various domains and enhancing bilateral relations with concrete actions through values-based and alliance diplomacy.
Representative Ishiba recently led a delegation to Taiwan to exchange views on security issues with various sectors in Taiwan. During the visit, he announced his decision to run in the LDP election. In recent years, the Japanese government, led by the LDP, has reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait at major international events and endorsed Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization and other international organizations. Taiwan expresses deep appreciation for this support.
MOFA sincerely hopes that the LDP, under the leadership of President Ishiba, will continue to strengthen cooperation with Taiwan, as well as promoting a comprehensive and substantive bilateral partnership to jointly uphold peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. (E)
Source: Republic of Taiwan – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Minister Lin hosts welcome luncheon for Ukrainian parliamentary delegation
Date：2024-10-04
Data Source：Department of European Affairs
October 4, 2024
No. 329
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung hosted a luncheon on October 4 to welcome a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians led by MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi, Cochair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), and MP Akhtem Chyihoz. The two sides exchanged views on the Russia-Ukraine war, the peaceful development of Ukraine, and potential cooperation projects.
Minister Lin said that although Taiwan and Ukraine were geographically distant, both nations stood on the front line of democratic defense against the expansion of authoritarian regimes. He commended Ukraine for demonstrating resilience as well as defense and disaster response capabilities in its war against Russia, adding that this served as a valuable lesson and inspiration to all democratic countries. Minister Lin stated that Taiwan had actively assisted Ukraine with rebuilding critical infrastructure, schools, churches, and hospitals in the spirit of humanitarianism. He pledged that Taiwan would continue to support Ukraine through this difficult time.
The members of the Ukrainian delegation thanked the government of Taiwan and expressed appreciation for Taiwan’s humanitarian assistance and support. They stated that the people of Ukraine were deeply touched by Taiwan’s goodwill. Noting that Taiwan and Ukraine shared the core values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, they expressed the hope that the two countries would continue to support each other and cooperate on the basis of friendship and mutual trust.
Both Taiwan and Ukraine enjoy the common values shared by democracies and are faced with authoritarian expansionism. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Taiwan has extended consistent and unwavering support to Ukraine, staunchly backing democracy and freedom. Taiwan will continue to work with like-minded nations to assist Ukraine in overcoming adversity and returning to normal life as soon as possible. (E)
Source: United States Department of Justice (National Center for Disaster Fraud)
ATLANTA – U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan advises the public to be cautious about hurricane relief fraud in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“Natural disasters unfailingly prompt members of our communities to respond with an outpouring of compassion and support for impacted family members, neighbors, friends and strangers,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “Unfortunately, these occurrences also attract scammers who capitalize on such calamities to exploit affected fellow citizens when they are most vulnerable. By this public notice, we do not aim to deter you from offering assistance but caution you to do so with the awareness of how to detect and avoid common charity scams.”
On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend Region and quickly caused major devastation in that area and across states including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and others. As we have seen in the wake of previous national disasters, fraudsters target victims of such storms along with citizens across the country who want to do what they can to assist individuals affected by these natural disasters. Unfortunately, criminals exploit these incidents for personal gain by sending fraudulent communications through email or via social media and by creating deceptive websites designed to solicit contributions.
The public should exercise diligence before giving contributions to anyone soliciting donations or individuals offering to assist those affected by Hurricane Helene. Solicitations can originate from phone calls, texts, social media, email, door-to-door collections, flyers, mailings, and other similar methods. Before donating to benefit victims of Hurricane Helene, individuals should follow these and other guidelines:
Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf.
Do not be pressured into making contributions as reputable charities do not use such tactics.
Do not respond to any unsolicited communications (e.g., e-mails and texts), and never click links contained within those messages because they may be targeting your personal information, to include bank and credit card account information, and other identifiers such as dates of birth and social security numbers.
Rather than clicking on a purported link to a charity, verify its legitimacy by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming whether the organization is a valid charity.
Beware of organizations with copy-cat names similar to but not exactly the same as those of reputable charities.
Avoid cash donations if possible. Pay by credit card or write a check directly to the charity. Do not make checks payable to individuals.
Know that legitimate charities do not normally solicit donations via money transfer services, and their website will normally end in “.org” rather than “.com.”
Be cautious of emails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
The U.S. Department of Justice established the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to deter, investigate, and prosecute fraud in the wake of disasters. More than 50 federal, state, and local agencies participate in the NCDF, which reminds the public to be aware of and report any instances of alleged fraudulent activity related to relief operations and funding for victims. Complaints of fraud may be reported online at http://www.justice.gov/DisasterComplaintForm. Complaints may also be reported to the NCDF at (866) 720-5721, a hotline that is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
Twenty years ago, when Rebecca Thomas joined the UConn School of Social Work, she didn’t consider herself someone who specialized in global human rights – let alone someone who’d become an expert in the subject matter.
“I was just Rebecca, born and raised in another country, sensitive to issues of global concerns,” she says.
Then Thomas met colleague Lynne Healey, now a professor emeritus from UConn, who became a mentor, friend, and colleague. Together, they coupled on many projects, including the literal writing of their widely recognized textbook, “International Social Work.”
Thomas says her professional development as an international social worker helped shape her sense of self. And soon, “just Rebecca,” became chair of the Council on Social Work Education’s Global Commission, a current board member on the Katherine Kendall Institute of Council of Social Work Education, a Fulbright Scholar, and a representative of the International Association of the Schools of Social Work on the NGO Committee on Migration at the United Nations.
Now, she’s a 2024 PIE Award winner from the Council on Social Work Education, a prestigious honor given annually to a trio of winners – individual, organization, and student – for their innovative work and dedication to international social work.
The Partners in International Education awards precede the Hokenstad International Lecture at the 2024 CSWE Annual Program Meeting in late October.
“I vacillate between feeling like I have a strong knowledge base and being humbled by the vast body of knowledge of colleagues,” says Thomas, a UConn professor and director of the Center for International Social Work Studies, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary. “I recently was with the Southeast Europe Academic Women’s Leadership Network, for instance, and these women were from all over the Balkans and talking about their global perspective on social work. The adage applies, ‘The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.’”
Thomas has just returned from her Fulbright in Bulgaria where she and graduate assistant Fizza Saghir completed 30 interviews with displaced persons, many from Ukraine, and 20 interviews with service providers as part of a study that’s similar to one she did in Armenia.
She says she connected with Yerevan State University in Armenia years ago when UConn helped the school develop its Master of Social Work policy program. Now, Thomas directs a joint academic exchange between UConn and Yerevan.
Despite the leadership opportunities and accolades she’s earned, working with students is perhaps one of the things she’s most proud of, she says.
“I’m passionate about teaching. I get excited about the exchange of ideas,” Thomas says. “Helping students to see the interconnectedness of global issues and the local issues they are trying to address here in Connecticut is so important. Yesterday, I was talking to a doctoral student about a paper we’re writing together, and our discussion was so interesting because we each had different perspectives. Engaging in a dialogue, having off-the-cuff conversations has been meaningful to me.”
She adds that students need to understand they don’t have to spend time overseas to do international global work. Change can happen right here, like when a former student, who was a refugee from Albania via Greece, was in kindergarten and the school saw her struggling because of the language barrier. Her elementary teacher got someone to translate, and her learning exploded.
“As Americans, we see migrants in every sphere of our lives. They are in our classrooms. They are in our health systems. Our NESW code of ethics requires that we understand the perspectives of those who are living together here in community,” Thomas says. “We need to be sensitive to issues of immigration, like for my former student. These are not isolated situations.”
Over a 24-hour period, RCMP officers in the Halifax Regional Municipality arrested four impaired drivers and suspended the licence of another.
On October 5, at approximately 8:15 p.m., an officer from RCMP Halifax Regional Detachment Traffic Unit (HDTU) conducted a traffic stop on Knightsridge Dr. in Halifax. The driver, a 33-year-old Halifax man, provided a roadside breath sample into an approved screening device (ASD), which resulted in a “fail.” He was arrested and transported to the Lower Sackville RCMP Detachment where he provided breath samples that registered 110 mg% and 90 mg%.
Later that evening, at approximately 10:15 p.m., RCMP officers responded to a report of impaired driving on Main St. in Dartmouth. An officer from the RCMP’s Southeast Traffic Services located the suspect vehicle and conducted a traffic stop. The driver, a 35-year-old Halifax man, failed a standard field sobriety test. A subsequent drug impairment evaluation completed by a Drug Recognition Expert from Halifax Regional Police determined the man was impaired by drugs.
Approximately one hour later, an officer from RCMP Southeast Traffic Services (SETS) stopped a vehicle for speeding on Hwy. 102 in Bedford. The driver, a 29-year-old Halifax man, was administered an ASD test with a result over the provincial limit of 50 mg%. The driver’s licence was suspended for seven days.
On October 6, at approximately 12:40 a.m., an officer from RCMP SETS observed a vehicle driving erratically on Dartmoor Cres., in Bedford, and completed a traffic stop. The driver, a 71-year-old Upper Hammonds Plains man, provided a roadside breath sample into an ASD, which resulted in a “fail.” He was arrested and transported to the Lower Sackville RCMP Detachment where he provided subsequent breath samples that registered 90 mg% and 80 mg%.
That night, at approximately 8:10 p.m., an officer from the RCMP HDTU conducted a traffic stop on Baker Dr., in Dartmouth. The driver, a 51-year-old Cole Harbour man, provided a roadside breath sample into an ASD with a result of “fail.” He was arrested and transported to the Cole Harbour RCMP Detachment where he provided breath samples that registered 140 mg% and 120 mg%.
The four drivers were released from custody and are all scheduled to appear in court at later dates.
Road safety is a shared responsibility. If you suspect an impaired driver, it’s an emergency; call 911.
A decade ago, Sercan Canbolat ’17 MA ’23 Ph.D. was a graduate student in his home country of Turkey. His focus was studying the political psychology of leaders.
What makes them think?
How do they make decisions?
What influences them in their decision making?
His particular focus was on political leaders in the Middle East, where he had grown up and completed his undergraduate degrees.
But as a master’s student at Bilkent University in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara, he knew first-hand some of the challenges he would face as he tried to present his research to a broader, international audience.
“I’m from Turkey,” Canbolat says, “and I know in the broader Middle East and North Africa regions, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to get our work published, to present our work to top scholars in the field, and to get good feedback – to learn and acquire the best research skills and presentation skills.”
Sercan Canbolat ’17 MA ’23 Ph.D. at the ISA International Conference 2017 in Hong Kong. (Contributed photo)
It was during his master’s studies that his advisor, Özgür Özdamar, first introduced him to the International Studies Association, or ISA – one of the oldest interdisciplinary organizations dedicated to understanding international, transnational, and global affairs.
“I was writing my MA thesis with him,” Canbolat explains, “and he offered for me to write a paper that we could present at ISA. But I couldn’t get a visa. So, my advisor went to the conference instead, and he presented our paper.”
The following year, though – in 2014 – Canbolat was able to travel to the ISA conference in Toronto, where he put himself in front of a global audience for the first time to present his research.
“I got some feedback from the chair and from the audience, and it was great,” he says. “It helped me to build self-confidence, and actually, through ISA, I met many scholars based in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. Those connections helped me to apply for and receive a Fulbright scholarship to come to the U.S. for my Ph.D.”
That Fulbright Ph.D. grant led Canbolat to UConn in 2014, where he started his doctoral studies in political science.
And in 2015, the organization that helped Canbolat make those connections and first share his research on a global stage – the International Studies Association – also came to UConn.
Best-Kept Secret
Founded in 1959, the ISA has long served as a central hub for the exchange of ideas, for networking, and for programmatic initiatives among those involved in the study, teaching, and practice of international studies.
Through its international and regional conferences and its academic journals, the organization works to promote rigorous discussion, research, and writing on a broad range of topics, including foreign policy, environmental studies, global health, diplomacy, human rights, peace studies, law, and religion.
ISA has been headquartered at UConn since 2015. Under agreements with UConn’s Office of Global Affairs, it will remain in residence at UConn until at least 2030.
Sarah Dorr, Ph.D., ISA director of professional development (Contributed photo)
From 2015 to 2024, ISA was under the leadership of Mark Boyer, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UConn. As of July 1, 2024, Mike Bosia, professor of political science and international relations and director of gender and sexuality studies at Saint Michael’s College, took over the role of ISA’s executive director.
“ISA is a hidden gem – one of the best kept secrets at UConn,” says Sarah Dorr, the ISA’s director of professional development. “We have over 7,000 members in 120 countries.”
UConn and ISA are a good fit for each other, says Daniel Weiner, a professor of geography and UConn’s vice president for global affairs, because both the organization and the University share similar missions to foster a sense of global-mindedness and facilitate life-transformative educational and research experiences.
“ISA is really a success story about the positive impact of international collaboration,” Weiner says. “One of our major goals in Global Affairs is to support interdisciplinary research and engagement on issues of worldwide importance and impact, so partnership with ISA here at UConn is really a natural pairing.”
Evolving and Growing
In a complex and ever-changing world, adapting to the needs of the time is important for any organization – ISA included.
“Our organization is constantly evolving and growing,” says Dorr, “and we offer different levels of interaction to help people make connections and foster dialogue – something that we feel is particularly critical at this point in time in our increasingly polarized world.”
The ISA publishes seven academic journals, co-sponsors an eighth, and partners with Oxford University Press to publish the International Studies Encyclopedia, the most comprehensive reference work of its kind for the fields of international studies and international relations.
The organization has steadily grown its online and social media presence and, in response to the pandemic in 2020, launched a roster of unique virtual programs to broaden its reach to scholars who might not otherwise have the ability to take part in global opportunities.
Not all students and academics have access to the same resources at their institution. ISA’s virtual initiative provides these programs to level the playing field and create community whilst doing so. — Sarah Dorr, ISA’s director of professional development
“Not all students and academics have access to the same resources at their institution,” says Dorr, who curates virtual programming as part of her role at ISA. “ISA’s virtual initiative provides these programs to level the playing field and create community whilst doing so. Virtual programming allows people to interact with the association throughout the year, and it widens participation and increases accessibility to ISA’s pedagogical and research communities.”
ISA’s virtual programming is available to all members of the UConn community, regardless of membership. To date in 2024, ISA has produced more than 30 programs, with additional virtual events scheduled for the remainder of the calendar year on topics including banal nationalism, Fulbright scholar opportunities, and the impending results of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
But what ISA has historically been known for are its national and regional conferences – gatherings where scholars from all walks of life and levels of experience come together to share their research, build new networks, and contribute to scholarship on a global level.
An Academic Home
Canbolat’s first ISA conference was in Toronto, but in the years since, ISA has taken him to San Francisco, Nashville, Atlanta, and even Hong Kong.
“It was a great experience; my first time in that part of the world,” he recalls about the 2017 Hong Kong conference. “It was amazing. I really enjoyed it.”
ISA supported Canbolat’s travel to its conferences through a grant program that assists junior scholars, senior graduate students, and scholars from low-income countries in attending conferences that would otherwise be out of reach.
“Grad students don’t have a great budget to go to conferences, and it’s expensive,” Canbolat says. “Travel, accommodations – ISA is really great at providing financial help, especially to students and junior scholars. I benefitted a lot from my ISA travel grants. It really helped make it happen, to go and attend the conferences.”
While on those trips, Canbolat says he had opportunities to meet eminent scholars in his field, network and build relationships with them, attend panel discussions, and meet and workshop with both journal editors and book publishers.
UConn President Radenka Maric delivers remarks at the ISA International Conference 2024 at the University of Rijeka in Croatia. (Photo Courtesy of UNIRI)
“Even if you don’t present, it’s still a great experience to go to panels, listen to state-of-the-art research being presented by both prominent scholars and rising scholars,” he says. “I’ve really enjoyed meeting top scholars, prominent scholars, in a personal setting – not in a panel or in a workshop, but at a reception, and to really make personal connections. Tell them about my family. Tell them about my background. Tell them about my plans. And they were very helpful, listening and giving great feedback.
“I think that stands out, meeting those big names. We always read their books, their articles, but it’s something else to meet them, especially in a personal setting, a relaxed environment. Having a coffee with them. That stands out,” he says.
ISA holds a series of regional conferences throughout each year as well as an annual convention, which will be held in Chicago in 2025.
“One of the major benefits of attending ISA regional conferences is they become a source of intellectual community,” says Dorr. “But ISA’s annual convention is where people go to find their ‘academic home.’”
In June 2024, the ISA built on its long-standing collaboration with the Central and Eastern European International Studies Association, or CEEISA, to host a joint international conference at the University of Rijeka in Croatia.
Focused on “Knowing the Global-Local: Imagining Pasts, Debating Futures,” the conference hosted 800 participants – including Weiner and UConn President Radenka Maric – from 65 countries to discuss global and local political science and international relations.
The conference marked the largest gathering of experts in international relations in Croatia to date.
Full Circle
Canbolat wasn’t able to travel to Croatia in June, but earlier this year, he attended an ISA conference in San Francisco – to accept the ISA Foreign Policy Analysis Section Best Book Award for 2024.
In 2023, Canbolat and his co-author, Özdamar, published their book, Leaders in the Middle East and North Africa: How Ideology Shapes Foreign Policy, through Cambridge University Press in 2023.
The book is based on the initial research that Canbolat presented at his very first ISA conference in Toronto in 2014.
Co-authors Sercan Canbolat ’17 MA ’23 Ph.D. (center) and Özgür Özdamar, professor of international relations at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, (right) — with Danielle Lupton, associate professor of political science at Colgate University (left) — accept the 2024 ISA Best Book in Foreign Policy Analysis Award at the ISA 2024 Annual Convention in San Francisco. (Contributed photo)
“We published it as a journal article first,” he says. “After I presented at ISA, I got feedback. We published it in a good journal. It was well-received, and we got great feedback. And then, we discussed and decided to turn it into a book, into a larger project, and we worked on it for like five, six years. It was a blast, because it kept giving.”
Also in 2023, Canbolat completed his Ph.D. at UConn. He’s now serving as the inaugural director of Abrahamic Programs at UConn Global Affairs, and he’s teaching as a postdoctoral lecturer in the Department of Political Science.
He says he tells all his students about ISA – how it’s headquartered at UConn and how they can access the programs and opportunities ISA has to offer.
And he tells other faculty at UConn as well.
“I was surprised that some faculty don’t know that ISA is here at UConn,” Canbolat says. “I strongly suggest for anyone to try and at least give ISA a shot. Attend one year, and actually, they will be hooked.”
To learn more about or connect with the International Studies Association, headquartered at UConn Storrs, visitisanet.org. To stay up-to-date on the latest ISA virtual programs, sign up for ISA Connected atisanet.org/Programs/Virtual-Programs/ISA-Connected.
For more information about global learning, research, and entrepreneurship opportunities available through UConn’s Office of Global Affairs, visitglobal.uconn.edu.
The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that the goods and services deficit was $70.4 billion in August, down $8.5 billion from $78.9 billion in July, revised.
U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services Deficit
Deficit:
$70.4 Billion
–10.8%°
Exports:
$271.8 Billion
+2.0%°
Imports:
$342.2 Billion
–0.9%°
Next release: Tuesday, November 5, 2024
(°) Statistical significance is not applicable or not measurable. Data adjusted for seasonality but not price changes
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, October 8, 2024
Exports, Imports, and Balance (exhibit 1)
August exports were $271.8 billion, $5.3 billion more than July exports. August imports were $342.2 billion, $3.2 billion less than July imports.
The August decrease in the goods and services deficit reflected a decrease in the goods deficit of $8.4 billion to $94.9 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.1 billion to $24.4 billion.
Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit increased $47.1 billion, or 8.9 percent, from the same period in 2023. Exports increased $79.0 billion or 3.9 percent. Imports increased $126.1 billion or 4.9 percent.
Three-Month Moving Averages (exhibit 2)
The average goods and services deficit decreased $1.6 billion to $74.1 billion for the three months ending in August.
Average exports increased $3.7 billion to $267.8 billion in August.
Average imports increased $2.0 billion to $342.0 billion in August.
Year-over-year, the average goods and services deficit increased $11.1 billion from the three months ending in August 2023.
Average exports increased $13.3 billion from August 2023.
Average imports increased $24.4 billion from August 2023.
Exports (exhibits 3, 6, and 7)
Exports of goods increased $4.4 billion to $179.4 billion in August.
Exports of goods on a Census basis increased $4.9 billion.
Industrial supplies and materials increased $0.9 billion.
Nonmonetary gold increased $1.5 billion.
Crude oil decreased $1.1 billion.
Automotive vehicles, parts, and engines increased $0.8 billion.
Passenger cars increased $0.6 billion.
Net balance of payments adjustments decreased $0.5 billion.
Exports of services increased $0.9 billion to $92.3 billion in August.
Travel increased $0.5 billion
Government goods and services increased $0.2 billion.
Transport decreased $0.2 billion.
Imports (exhibits 4, 6, and 8)
Imports of goods decreased $3.9 billion to $274.3 billion in August.
Imports of goods on a Census basis decreased $3.8 billion.
Industrial supplies and materials decreased $3.9 billion.
Nonmonetary gold decreased $1.2 billion.
Finished metal shapes decreased $1.0 billion.
Crude oil decreased $1.0 billion.
Automotive vehicles, parts, and engines decreased $1.3 billion.
Passenger cars decreased $1.1 billion.
Net balance of payments adjustments decreased $0.2 billion.
Imports of services increased $0.7 billion to $67.9 billion in August.
Travel increased $0.4 billion.
Charges for the use of intellectual property increased $0.4 billion.
Transport decreased $0.3 billion.
Real Goods in 2017 Dollars – Census Basis (exhibit 11)
The real goods deficit decreased $8.6 billion, or 8.9 percent, to $88.6 billion in August, compared to an 8.5 percent decrease in the nominal deficit.
Real exports of goods increased $5.5 billion, or 3.8 percent, to $150.1 billion, compared to a 2.9 percent increase in nominal exports.
Real imports of goods decreased $3.2 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $238.7 billion, compared to a 1.4 percent decrease in nominal imports.
Revisions
Revisions to July exports
Exports of goods were revised down less than $0.1 billion.
Exports of services were revised down $0.1 billion.
Revisions to July imports
Imports of goods were revised up $0.1 billion.
Imports of services were revised down $0.1 billion.
Goods by Selected Countries and Areas: Monthly – Census Basis (exhibit 19)
The August figures show surpluses, in billions of dollars, with Netherlands ($5.5), South and Central America ($4.0), Australia ($1.9), Hong Kong ($1.6), Brazil ($0.8), Singapore ($0.5), and United Kingdom ($0.3). Deficits were recorded, in billions of dollars, with China ($24.7), European Union ($19.1), Mexico ($14.3), Vietnam ($9.8), Ireland ($8.0), Taiwan ($7.3), Germany ($6.6), Japan ($4.9), South Korea ($4.9), Canada ($3.9), Italy ($2.9), India ($2.7), Switzerland ($2.5), France ($1.7), Malaysia ($1.1), Israel ($1.0), Belgium ($0.6), and Saudi Arabia ($0.1).
The deficit with Canada decreased $3.8 billion to $3.9 billion in August. Exports increased $1.1 billion to $28.5 billion and imports decreased $2.7 billion to $32.3 billion.
The deficit with China decreased $2.6 billion to $24.7 billion in August. Exports increased $1.1 billion to $12.6 billion and imports decreased $1.5 billion to $37.3 billion.
The balance with Belgium shifted from a surplus of $1.0 billion in July to a deficit of $0.6 billion in August. Exports decreased $0.1 billion to $2.8 billion and imports increased $1.5 billion to $3.4 billion.
Foreign Minister Lin hosts welcome luncheon for Ukrainian parliamentary delegation
Date：2024-10-04 Data Source：Department of European Affairs
October 4, 2024 No. 329
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung hosted a luncheon on October 4 to welcome a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians led by MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi, Cochair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), and MP Akhtem Chyihoz. The two sides exchanged views on the Russia-Ukraine war, the peaceful development of Ukraine, and potential cooperation projects.
Minister Lin said that although Taiwan and Ukraine were geographically distant, both nations stood on the front line of democratic defense against the expansion of authoritarian regimes. He commended Ukraine for demonstrating resilience as well as defense and disaster response capabilities in its war against Russia, adding that this served as a valuable lesson and inspiration to all democratic countries. Minister Lin stated that Taiwan had actively assisted Ukraine with rebuilding critical infrastructure, schools, churches, and hospitals in the spirit of humanitarianism. He pledged that Taiwan would continue to support Ukraine through this difficult time.
The members of the Ukrainian delegation thanked the government of Taiwan and expressed appreciation for Taiwan’s humanitarian assistance and support. They stated that the people of Ukraine were deeply touched by Taiwan’s goodwill. Noting that Taiwan and Ukraine shared the core values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, they expressed the hope that the two countries would continue to support each other and cooperate on the basis of friendship and mutual trust.
Both Taiwan and Ukraine enjoy the common values shared by democracies and are faced with authoritarian expansionism. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Taiwan has extended consistent and unwavering support to Ukraine, staunchly backing democracy and freedom. Taiwan will continue to work with like-minded nations to assist Ukraine in overcoming adversity and returning to normal life as soon as possible. (E)
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
The seven-day National Day Golden Week of the Mainland ended yesterday (October 7), with the overall number of inbound visitors aligning with earlier estimates. The number recorded on National Day (October 1) reached a daily record high since the post-pandemic full opening of the borders. During the seven-day National Day Golden Week, the Immigration Department recorded a total of around 1.38 million visitors coming to Hong Kong through various sea, land and air control points. Among them, Mainland visitors accounted for about 1.22 million, representing 88 per cent of the total arrivals. The daily average of Mainland visitors was around 170 000, which exceeded that of the 2023 National Day Golden Week and the 2024 Labour Day Golden Week around 27 per cent and some 13 per cent respectively. Mainland inbound visitor arrivals peaked on National Day with around 220 000 visitors arriving in Hong Kong, marking a daily record high since the post-pandemic opening of the borders and setting a corresponding record for the overall number of visitors to Hong Kong in a single day. During the National Day Golden Week, the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and the Express Rail Link West Kowloon were the two ports with the highest daily average number of Mainland visitors, and operations at various control points and transport services ran smoothly. Regarding large-scale events, the National Day Fireworks Display over Victoria Harbour on October 1 attracted over 330 000 spectators. The event concluded with effective crowd control arrangements and was well-received by local residents and tourists. Visitors went to different parts of Hong Kong during the National Day Golden Week, with high visitor flow observed at major tourist attractions including the West Kowloon Cultural District, Ocean Park, Hong Kong Disneyland, the Peak Tram and Ngong Ping 360. Smooth and effective crowd management measures were implemented. In addition, according to the information provided by the hotel industry, the overall hotel occupancy rate during the first four days of the Golden Week (October 1 to 4) reached 90 per cent. In terms of tour groups, according to the Travel Industry Authority’s information, around 1 050 Mainland inbound tour groups visited Hong Kong during the National Day Golden Week, with around 80 per cent engaged in overnight itineraries. These tour groups involved around 36 000 visitors, accounting for around 3 per cent of all Mainland visitors, and they were generally in good order. The interdepartmental working group on festival arrangements, led by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, is pleased to note that the rich array of National Day special offers from the Government and various sectors of society were well-received by the public. Among them, the 1st October Movie Fiesta: Half-Price Spectacular 2024 organised by the Hong Kong Theatres Association and subsidised by the Government took place in 59 commercial theatres across Hong Kong. On the day of the event, there were nearly 2 000 screenings, with cumulative admissions reaching 189 000, breaking last year’s record of 155 000 and representing an increase of 22 per cent. Free admission was offered to museums and art spaces under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department on October 1, attracting nearly 60 000 attendees. Among them, there were more than 11 000 visitors to the Hong Kong Space Museum, setting a record for single-day attendance. In addition, several public transportation services provided free rides or discounts during National Day, benefitting a total of approximately 4.43 million passengers. Different sectors such as catering and retail actively launched special offers to attract spending from both locals and visitors, contributing to a festive atmosphere throughout the city. Various trade representatives and merchants reported increased customer flow and business during National Day. The embarkation and disembarkation arrangements for two homeport deployments of a mega cruise ship at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal (KTCT) during the National Day Golden Week of the Mainland were smooth, with various transport services arranged to adequately meet visitor needs. Notably, direct coach services connecting the Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point and KTCT were arranged by the Hong Kong Tourism Board in collaboration with a local coach operator to provide facilitation for a total of 3 500 Mainland visitors. Mr Chan said, “Thanks to the concerted efforts of relevant government departments, organisations and industries in making preparations and responses, this year’s arrangements for receiving visitors during the National Day Golden Week operated smoothly, enabling both locals and visitors to celebrate National Day together. The Government will draw on this experience and further enhance various arrangements in future to provide an even better experience for visitors to Hong Kong during festive periods.”
Acting Secretary for Culture, Sports & Tourism Raistlin Lau today extended his congratulations to Hong Kong actor Anson Kong for winning an award during the 29th Busan International Film Festival.
Mr Kong won the Rising Star of the Year award at the 6th Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT (Over-The-Top) Awards during the film festival.
Noting that Mr Kong has gained worldwide recognition among his peers in the industry for his acting skills, Mr Lau said this is a thrilling accomplishment that showcases the talent of Hong Kong actors.
The Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards recognise outstanding television, over-the-top and online content across Asia.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Yuri Trutnev heard reports on the implementation of the long-term plan for the comprehensive socio-economic development of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky urban district
October 8, 2024
Yuri Trutnev, Governor of Kamchatka Krai Vladimir Solodov and Deputy Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Elvira Nurgalieva
October 8, 2024
Yuri Trutnev held a meeting with the management and instructors of the Kamchatka branch of the Voin center
October 8, 2024
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Yuri Trutnev heard reports on the implementation of the long-term plan for the comprehensive socio-economic development of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky urban district
As part of a working visit to Kamchatka Krai, Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev heard reports on the implementation of the long-term plan for the comprehensive socio-economic development of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky urban district, and also held a meeting with investors and assessed the work of the Kamchatka branch of the Voin center.
The long-term plan for the socio-economic development of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky urban district provides for the implementation of 17 events containing 52 objects for the period up to 2030. The key events of the master plan include the construction of a number of roads, including a bypass road from Petropavlovsk Highway to the residential area of Severo-Vostok and a public road to the Pacific Ocean coast. A campus for students of the city’s universities and colleges will appear in the capital of Kamchatka. It is planned to place educational institutions, clubs, public spaces, recreation and leisure areas for students on the campus territory. The construction of the children’s and youth scientific and educational center “Voskhod” has begun. Among the key events of the master plan is the improvement of the city center with the construction of a public center.
The master plan includes an environmental component. Within its framework, Kultuchnoye Lake in the city center will be cleaned. City landfills will also be reclaimed and an eco-technopark will be built. At the same time, integrated development projects will also be implemented in other areas: in the Severny microdistrict, the Zarechny microdistrict (near the airport), on Pogranichnaya Street, on Komsomolskaya Square, and also on the site of the existing regional hospital after its relocation to a new location. The construction of the bypass road TPP-1 – TPP-2 also plays a major role in the development of the regional capital.
This year, the design of the interactive planetarium and creativity center on Nikolskaya Hill, the improvement of the Historical Quarter, the walking area along 50 Let Oktyabrya Street, Leninskaya, Sovetskaya, Partizanskaya Streets and the Kultuchnoye Ozero ecopark, three sewage pumping stations were completed. The implementation of 26 events continues.
By the end of the year, work is planned to be completed at 15 sites. Work on the improvement of the central embankment and the park along Voytsesheka Street will be completed. The cultural heritage site (at 13 Krasintsev Street) will be restored as part of the art cluster, and equipment will be purchased for the creative industries school being created. The construction of sewage treatment facilities for the planned building of the regional children’s hospital will be completed. The design of a cable car, a building of the regional children’s hospital, a community center, an eco-technopark, two sewage treatment facilities (“Chavycha”, “29 km”) and five sewage pumping stations (“Rybny Port”, “Torgovy Port”, “Drama Theater”, “1/1E”, “Zarechnaya”) will be completed.
Work is actively underway on the following projects, the commissioning of which is planned for 2025. A road to Khalaktyrsky Beach is being built. Construction of a gas boiler house has begun in the Severny microdistrict as part of the Far Eastern Quarter project. The Yu.A. Gagarin Children’s Health Camp is being renovated. It is planned to begin major repairs of the road along Leninskaya Street in the city center. This year, a large and extremely important project for the region will also begin on the construction of an LNG regasification complex in Rakova Bay, with a completion date of 2025.
According to Deputy Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic Elvira Nurgalieva, 12 billion rubles of a single presidential subsidy from the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and 1.5 billion rubles of special treasury loans will be allocated for the implementation of the master plan for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The region has already received some of the funds for the design, major repairs and construction of facilities. The region will receive 0.6 billion rubles as part of a landscaping competition from the Russian Ministry of Construction. These funds were used to create an observation deck on Petrovskaya Sopka, and to improve the embankment in the city center along Ozernovskaya Kosa Street, a park along Voytsesheka Street, and Nikolskaya Sopka. This year, the Russian Ministry of Culture allocated funds for the purchase of equipment for the creation of a school of creative industries as part of the art cluster. The Russian Ministry of Energy will provide funding for the construction of an LNG regasification complex in Rakova Bay.
Thanks to the implementation of the master plan activities, positive dynamics have been observed in a number of indicators this year: the volume of construction work is growing (an increase of 5.5% in the first half of 2024), the number of people employed in the construction industry is increasing, and indicators in related industries have increased many times over: the cargo turnover of sea transport has increased by more than a quarter, and automobile transport has more than doubled.
Plans for 2025–2027 were discussed. In particular, it is planned to improve Nikolskaya Sopka by 2026 using funds from the federal project “Formation of a Comfortable Urban Environment”. It is planned to build five sewage pumping stations (“Zarechnaya”, “1/1E”, “Rybny Port”, “Torgovy Port”, “Drama Theater”). The deadlines for completing the construction of a public center on Lenin Square, a hotel and business center with improvement of the park on the territory of “Petropavlovskaya Gavan”, a fish market on the territory of “Prichal Mekhzavod” and a cable car have been set by the end of 2027.
“There are initial results. An observation deck has been built, the embankment is being improved. We only started implementing the master plan this year. And there is still a lot of work to be done,” Yuri Trutnev summed up the discussion.
During a meeting with investors, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that more than 250 investors with projects worth almost 300 billion rubles have taken advantage of state support in Kamchatka, with 106 billion rubles already invested. 79 projects have been commissioned, and more than 11,000 new jobs have been created.
According to Vladimir Solodov, Governor of Kamchatka Krai, 128.2 billion rubles were attracted to Kamchatka Krai in 2023. Investment growth was 60% compared to the previous year. Tourism is a priority industry. Last year, investment growth in this area was 53%. At the same time, 17 new hotels were built in 2023 alone, and the number of accommodations increased by 1,031 places.
Projects for the construction of hotels in the Kamchatka priority development area were discussed. The Cosmos Hotel Kamchatka company plans to build a five-star tourist and recreational complex. The Berloga company will create a five-star hotel complex with a thermal spa complex in the Elizovsky district of the Kamchatka priority development area. The implementation of a major investment project by a Kamchatka priority development area resident to create an international standard resort, the Three Volcanoes Park, was discussed.
The progress of completing the construction of the new passenger terminal of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky International Airport (Yelizovo) was also considered. Several contractors are involved in the construction of the new airport complex of the Yelizovo airport. A total of 1,200 people and 50 units of special equipment are working on the construction of the facility. The overall construction readiness is 82%.
On the same day, Yuri Trutnev held a meeting with the management and instructors of the Kamchatka branch of the Voin center. “I always take the opportunity when I am in a territory where there is a branch of the center, to visit it, to see how things are going. Reviving patriotic education is our initiative with Sergei Vladilenovich [Kiriyenko]. It was supported by the President of Russia. And of course, we must monitor how things are going. The most important thing, in my opinion, the most positive thing, is that the feedback from the cadets is good everywhere. This shows that we started our work on time and that the desire for patriotism, the desire to be able to defend your homeland, to love it are in demand,” Yuri Trutnev opened the meeting.
Addressing the branch management and instructors of the Voin center, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the importance of work on patriotic education: “You are shaping the future by educating a new generation of Russians. There are currently 21 branches of the Voin center operating in the Russian Federation, including branches created in all liberated territories. Since the start of the Voin center, 35 thousand young men and women have been trained. And this year, the Voin center will train 30 thousand young people across the country.”
It was noted that the Voin center had developed a draft textbook, Basics of Initial Military Training. It is currently in the final stages of revision. This academic year, it is planned to test the publication by cadets of the Voin center and students of some educational organizations.
Director of the Voin Center branch in Kamchatka Alexander Burkhavetsky and Chairman of the regional branch of DOSAAF of Russia Dmitry Pavlov reported on the work of the Kamchatka branch. About 800 teenagers will undergo training in Kamchatka by the end of the year. Currently, construction of classrooms and arrangement of the territory of the Military Sports Training Center in the Yelizovsky District is underway. By the end of November 2024, it is planned to complete the construction of classrooms with a parade ground, a GTO site, a combined arms obstacle course, a parking lot and an entry group. In 2025, it is planned to complete the construction of a 500-meter gallery for sniping, arrangement of a tactical field, construction of several shooting galleries, installation of a facade for storming the building (for assault mountaineering), construction of a canteen, barracks for 120 people, preparation of a place for placing a tent camp for 160 people.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
The Monetary Policy Rate (MoPR) was unchanged at 1.9 percent of the previous week, for a paper maturing on 16 October 2024. The summarised results of the auction held on 9 October 2024, are attached below:
U.S. natural gas-fired power plants generated more than 7 million megawatthours (MWh) of electricity on August 2, 2024, according to our Hourly Electric Grid Monitor, making up almost half of all electricity generated in the contiguous United States that day.
On August 2, 2024, 7.1 million MWh of natural gas-fired electricity was generated in the United States, 6.8% more than the previous summer’s record set on July 28, 2023. Nine out of the ten days with the most U.S. natural gas-fired electricity generation on record occurred in the summer of 2024; of those, six occurred in August 2024. Overall electricity generation for the summer (June–August) of 2024 was up by 3% from summer 2023. The daily average for natural gas-fired electricity generation for the summer also increased 3% to 5.9 million MWh.
Reasons for increased U.S. natural gas-fired electricity generation included hotter weather, low natural gas prices, the addition of new combined-cycle generating capacity, and increased generator capacity factors.
Over the past few years, the balance of sources of electricity generation in the United States—especially in the summer—has shifted to more renewables and natural gas and less coal. As electric generation capacity from renewable sources grows, natural gas is used increasingly to balance the intermittent nature of electricity produced from wind and solar. Since 2014, the share of U.S. electricity generation from natural gas in the summer has increased every year except 2021, increasing from 29% in 2014 to 45% in 2024.
Principal contributors: Grace Wheaton, Corrina Ricker
The Albanese government on Wednesday will introduce legislation to ensure the NBN remains in government ownership.
The move is designed to set up a test for the Coalition, putting pressure on the opposition ahead of the election to declare whether it would try to privatise the NBN.
The government said in a statement from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland: “The Coalition rushed to declare the NBN ‘complete’ so they could put it on the block for sale – selling out Australian consumers and regional communities.
“The Albanese government won’t let that happen. This legislation will ensure the NBN is owned by who it belongs to – the Australian people.”
The upgrades the government had undertaken “are already making a real difference in the lives of Australians through faster, more reliable internet access. Keeping the NBN in public hands will lock in affordable and accessible high speed internet for all Australians for generations to come.”
Albanese said:“The Coalition made a mess of the NBN – my government is getting on with the job of fixing it and making sure it stays in public hands, where it belongs.”
Rowland said: “Australians don’t trust the Coalition not to flog off the NBN just like they did with Telstra, resulting in higher prices and poorer services, especially in the regions.”
Downgraded
The Rudd Labor government announced what was to be a predominantly fibre-to-the-home wholesale network in 2009, promising it would cost $43 billion and later be privatised to claw back the expense.
In 2010 Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Labor “remained firmly committed to selling its stake in NBN Co after the network was fully built and operational, subject to market conditions and security considerations”.
By 2020 the government was estimated to have spent $51 billion on a scaled-down version of the project completed using a mix of technologies.
In June that year a review by the Parliamentary Budget Office put its fair value at $8.7 billion.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
