Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
They put it up for sale cultural heritage site, built at the beginning of the last century. This was reported Ekaterina Solovieva, Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Moscow Department of City Property.
The building is located at the address: Kanatchikovskiy proezd, building 7. The future owner of the property will have to rent a plot of land of about one thousand square meters on which the property is located.
“Entrepreneurs will be able to purchase from the city a historic non-residential building built in the early 20th century in the Donskoy District. The cultural heritage site of regional significance, the “Residential Building”, is part of the ensemble of buildings and structures of the Kanatchikovo station (1903-1908, architects A.N. Pomerantsev and P.I. Rashevsky, engineers S.D. Kareisha, A.D. Proskuryakov, P.Ya. Kamenev). The area of the two-story house is almost 340 square meters. The winner of the auction will have to carry out restoration work and adapt it for modern use, which will allow the historical site to be preserved in the future,” said Ekaterina Solovyova.
The Kanatchikovo station was built in the 1910s for the Moscow Ring Railway. The building was made in the Art Nouveau style. The object received its name in honor of a large estate owned by the merchant Kozma Kanatchikov.
Today, the architectural monument may be of interest to investors who are considering the Southern Administrative District as a place for business development. The building is located three minutes’ drive from the Third Transport Ring, next to Gagarin Square.
All information about the real estate objects put up for auction is presented on the capital’s investment portal. You can learn more about them, study the lot documentation and the rules for holding auctions in the section “Moscow Trades”.
“The capital regularly puts real estate up for auction – from small premises for coffee shops to historic mansions. Purchasing objects from the city is convenient and transparent, and most importantly, all the main stages are held online. Applications for participation in the auction for the sale of a historic building in the Donskoy district will be accepted until July 24, and the auction will take place on August 5,” added the head of the capital’s Department of Competition Policy
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
In 2025, the celebration of City Day in Moscow will take place on the second weekend of autumn – September 13 and 14. The corresponding decree was signed Sergei Sobyanin.
Source: Sergei Sobyanin’s Telegram channel @mos_sobyanin
This year Moscow celebrates its 878th birthday. Traditionally, festive events will take place in the historical center, parks, cultural, educational and social institutions, as well as at sites in residential areas of the capital.
The program for celebrating City Day will be approved in the near future.
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
In the heart of Hefei, Luyang is a prosperous and vigorous district with a 2,000-year-old history. Known as Luzhou in ancient times, the district is the cultural center home to many of Hefei’s historical landmarks, and offers every visitor unexpected cultural experiences.
Stretching nearly a kilometer, the Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street in Luyang district was once a bustling commercial hub during the Tang and Song dynasties, flourishing further in the Ming and Qing eras.
Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street in Luyang district, Hefei, Anhui province. [Photo by “Luyang Release” WeChat Account]
Today, revitalized as a main street of modernity and backstreets of rustic charm, it merges the old and new. Nestled on the street are ancient sites like the Jiaonutai and the Former Residence of Li Hongzhang, where the city’s memories are continually reimagined. This harmonious blend of history and innovation has made the area a must-visit destination and a hotspot for emerging industries.
Drawing on its rich past, Luyang is preserving its unique character and identity. By advancing its “Old Town Preservation and Renewal” strategy, the district is reshaping historical cityscape and reigniting cultural legacy.
The Hefei City Urban Memory Museum in Hefei, Anhui province. [Photo by “Luyang Release” WeChat Account]
In October 2024, the Hefei City Urban Memory Museum opened its doors, featuring cutting-edge digital exhibits — from immersive light projections and interactive systems to VR experiences — across 58 installations and 37 short films. These technologies breathe new life into the city’s history, making exhibitions both captivating and educational while deepening the integration of culture and tourism.
Leveraging its top-tier scientific resources, Luyang has pioneered sci-tech education tours, with 13 provincial/city-level research and tourism bases and nine curated routes. In 2025, these attracted over 150,000 visitors, showcasing the district’s thriving innovative tourism scene.
Immediately after killing Fernando Pereira and blowing up Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, several of the French agents went on a ski holiday in New Zealand’s South Island to celebrate.
Such was the contempt the French had for the Kiwis and the abilities of our police to pursue them. How wrong they were.
A new prologue by former prime minister Helen Clark and a preface by Greenpeace’s Bunny McDiarmid, along with an extensive postscript which bring us up to the present day, underline why the past is not dead; it’s with us right now.
Written by David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, who spent 11 weeks on the final voyage of the Warrior, the book is the most remarkable piece of history I have read this year and one of those rare books that has the power to expand your mind and make your blood boil at the same time. I thought I knew a fair bit about the momentous events surrounding the attack — until I read Eyes of Fire.
Heroes of our age The book covers the history of Greenpeace action — from fighting the dumping of nuclear and other toxic waste in European waters, the Arctic and the Pacific, voyages to link besieged communities across the oceans, through to their epic struggles to halt whaling and save endangered marine colonies from predators.
The Rainbow Warrior’s very last voyage before the bombing was to evacuate the entire population of Rongelap atoll (about 320 people) in the Marshall Islands who had been exposed to US nuclear radiation for decades.
This article is the first of two in which I will explore themes that the book triggered for me.
Neither secret nor intelligent – the French secret intelligence service
Jean-Luc Kister was the DGSE (Direction-générale de la Sécurité extérieure) agent who placed the two bombs that ripped a massive hole in the hull of the Warrior on 10 July 1985. The ship quickly sank, trapping Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira inside.
Former colonel Kister was a member of a large team of elite agents sent to New Zealand. One had also infiltrated Greenpeace months before, some travelled through the country prior to the attack, drinking, rooting New Zealand women and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that led all the way to the Palais de l’Élysée where François Mitterrand, Socialist President of France, had personally given the order to bomb the famous peace vessel.
Robie aptly calls the French mission “Blundergate”. The stupidity, howling incompetence and moronic lack of a sound strategic rationale behind the attack were only matched by the mendacity, the imperial hauteur and the racist contempt that lies at the heart of French policy in the Pacific to this very day.
Thinking the Kiwi police would be no match for their élan, their savoir-faire and their panache, some of the killers hit the ski slopes to celebrate “Mission Accompli”. Others fled to Norfolk Island aboard a yacht, the Ouvéa.
Tracked there by the New Zealand police it was only with the assistance of our friends and allies, the Australians, that the agents were able to escape. Within days they sank their yacht at sea during a rendezvous with a French nuclear submarine and were evenually able to return to France for medals and promotions.
Two of the agents, however, were not so lucky. As everyone my age will recall, Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, were nabbed after a lightning fast operation by New Zealand police.
With friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? We should recall that the French were our allies at the time. They decided, however, to stop the Rainbow Warrior from leading a flotilla of ships up to Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia where yet another round of nuclear tests were scheduled. In other words: they bombed a peace ship to keep testing bombs.
By 1995, France had detonated 193 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific.
David Robie sees the bombing as “a desperate attempt by one of the last colonial powers in the Pacific to hang on to the vestiges of empire by blowing up a peace ship so it could continue despoiling Pacific islands for the sake of an independent nuclear force”.
The US, UK and Australia cold-shouldered New Zealand through this period and uttered not a word of condemnation against the French. Within two years we were frog-marched out of the ANZUS alliance with Australia and the US because of our ground-breaking nuclear-free legislation.
It was a blessing and the dawn of a period in which New Zealanders had an intense sense of national pride — a far cry from today when New Zealand politicians are being referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes associated with the Gaza genocide.
The French State invented the term ‘terrorism’ I studied French History at university in France and did a paper called “La France à la veille de révolution” (France on the eve of revolution). One of the chilling cultural memories is of the period from September 1793 to July 1794, which was known as La Terreur.
At the time the French state literally coined the term “terrorisme” — with the blade of the guillotine dropping on neck after neck as the state tried to consolidate power through terror. But, as Robie points out, quoting law professor Roger S. Clark, we tend to use the term today to refer almost exclusively to non-state actors.
With the US and Israel gunning down starving civilians in Gaza every day, with wave after wave of terror attacks being committed inside Iran and across the Middle East by Mossad, the CIA and MI6, we should amend this erroneous habit.
The DGSE team who attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior did so as psychopathic servants of the French State. Eyes of Fire: “At the time, Prime Minister David Lange described the Rainbow Warrior attack as ‘nothing more than a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am not “anti-French”. I lived for years in France, had a French girlfriend, studied French history, language and literature. I even had friends in Wellington who worked at the French Embassy.
Curiously when I lived next to Premier House, the official residence of the prime minister, my other next door neighbour was a French agent who specialised in surveillance. Our houses backed onto Premier House. Quelle coïncidence. To his mild consternation I’d greet him with “Salut, mon espion favori.” (Hello, my favourite spy).
What I despise is French colonialism, French racism, and what the French call magouillage. I don’t know a good English word for it . . . it is a mix of shenanigans, duplicity, artful deception to achieve unscrupulous outcomes that can’t be publicly avowed. In brief: what the French attempted in Auckland in 1985.
Robie recounts in detail the lying, smokescreens and roadblocks that everyone from President Mitterrand through to junior officials put in the way of the New Zealand investigators. Mitterrand gave Prime Minister David Lange assurances that the culprits would be brought to justice. The French Embassy in Wellington claimed at the time: “In no way is France involved. The French government doesn’t deal with its opponents in such ways.”
It took years for the bombshell to explode that none other than Mitterrand himself had ordered the terrorist attack on New Zealand and Greenpeace!
We the people of the Pacific We, the people of the Pacific, owe a debt to Greenpeace and all those who were part of the Rainbow Warrior, including author David Robie. We must remember the crime and call it by its name: state terrorism.
The French attempted to escape justice, deny involvement and then welched on the terms of the agreement negotiated with the help of the United Nations secretary-general.
A great way to honour the sacrifice of those who stood up for justice, who stood for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific, and who honoured our own national identity would be to buy David Robie’s excellent book.
I’ll give the last word to former Prime Minister Helen Clark:
“This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces — including of nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.”
You cannot sink a rainbow.
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
Immediately after killing Fernando Pereira and blowing up Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, several of the French agents went on a ski holiday in New Zealand’s South Island to celebrate.
Such was the contempt the French had for the Kiwis and the abilities of our police to pursue them. How wrong they were.
A new prologue by former prime minister Helen Clark and a preface by Greenpeace’s Bunny McDiarmid, along with an extensive postscript which bring us up to the present day, underline why the past is not dead; it’s with us right now.
Written by David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, who spent 11 weeks on the final voyage of the Warrior, the book is the most remarkable piece of history I have read this year and one of those rare books that has the power to expand your mind and make your blood boil at the same time. I thought I knew a fair bit about the momentous events surrounding the attack — until I read Eyes of Fire.
Heroes of our age The book covers the history of Greenpeace action — from fighting the dumping of nuclear and other toxic waste in European waters, the Arctic and the Pacific, voyages to link besieged communities across the oceans, through to their epic struggles to halt whaling and save endangered marine colonies from predators.
The Rainbow Warrior’s very last voyage before the bombing was to evacuate the entire population of Rongelap atoll (about 320 people) in the Marshall Islands who had been exposed to US nuclear radiation for decades.
This article is the first of two in which I will explore themes that the book triggered for me.
Neither secret nor intelligent – the French secret intelligence service
Jean-Luc Kister was the DGSE (Direction-générale de la Sécurité extérieure) agent who placed the two bombs that ripped a massive hole in the hull of the Warrior on 10 July 1985. The ship quickly sank, trapping Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira inside.
Former colonel Kister was a member of a large team of elite agents sent to New Zealand. One had also infiltrated Greenpeace months before, some travelled through the country prior to the attack, drinking, rooting New Zealand women and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that led all the way to the Palais de l’Élysée where François Mitterrand, Socialist President of France, had personally given the order to bomb the famous peace vessel.
Robie aptly calls the French mission “Blundergate”. The stupidity, howling incompetence and moronic lack of a sound strategic rationale behind the attack were only matched by the mendacity, the imperial hauteur and the racist contempt that lies at the heart of French policy in the Pacific to this very day.
Thinking the Kiwi police would be no match for their élan, their savoir-faire and their panache, some of the killers hit the ski slopes to celebrate “Mission Accompli”. Others fled to Norfolk Island aboard a yacht, the Ouvéa.
Tracked there by the New Zealand police it was only with the assistance of our friends and allies, the Australians, that the agents were able to escape. Within days they sank their yacht at sea during a rendezvous with a French nuclear submarine and were evenually able to return to France for medals and promotions.
Two of the agents, however, were not so lucky. As everyone my age will recall, Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, were nabbed after a lightning fast operation by New Zealand police.
With friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? We should recall that the French were our allies at the time. They decided, however, to stop the Rainbow Warrior from leading a flotilla of ships up to Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia where yet another round of nuclear tests were scheduled. In other words: they bombed a peace ship to keep testing bombs.
By 1995, France had detonated 193 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific.
David Robie sees the bombing as “a desperate attempt by one of the last colonial powers in the Pacific to hang on to the vestiges of empire by blowing up a peace ship so it could continue despoiling Pacific islands for the sake of an independent nuclear force”.
The US, UK and Australia cold-shouldered New Zealand through this period and uttered not a word of condemnation against the French. Within two years we were frog-marched out of the ANZUS alliance with Australia and the US because of our ground-breaking nuclear-free legislation.
It was a blessing and the dawn of a period in which New Zealanders had an intense sense of national pride — a far cry from today when New Zealand politicians are being referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes associated with the Gaza genocide.
The French State invented the term ‘terrorism’ I studied French History at university in France and did a paper called “La France à la veille de révolution” (France on the eve of revolution). One of the chilling cultural memories is of the period from September 1793 to July 1794, which was known as La Terreur.
At the time the French state literally coined the term “terrorisme” — with the blade of the guillotine dropping on neck after neck as the state tried to consolidate power through terror. But, as Robie points out, quoting law professor Roger S. Clark, we tend to use the term today to refer almost exclusively to non-state actors.
With the US and Israel gunning down starving civilians in Gaza every day, with wave after wave of terror attacks being committed inside Iran and across the Middle East by Mossad, the CIA and MI6, we should amend this erroneous habit.
The DGSE team who attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior did so as psychopathic servants of the French State. Eyes of Fire: “At the time, Prime Minister David Lange described the Rainbow Warrior attack as ‘nothing more than a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am not “anti-French”. I lived for years in France, had a French girlfriend, studied French history, language and literature. I even had friends in Wellington who worked at the French Embassy.
Curiously when I lived next to Premier House, the official residence of the prime minister, my other next door neighbour was a French agent who specialised in surveillance. Our houses backed onto Premier House. Quelle coïncidence. To his mild consternation I’d greet him with “Salut, mon espion favori.” (Hello, my favourite spy).
What I despise is French colonialism, French racism, and what the French call magouillage. I don’t know a good English word for it . . . it is a mix of shenanigans, duplicity, artful deception to achieve unscrupulous outcomes that can’t be publicly avowed. In brief: what the French attempted in Auckland in 1985.
Robie recounts in detail the lying, smokescreens and roadblocks that everyone from President Mitterrand through to junior officials put in the way of the New Zealand investigators. Mitterrand gave Prime Minister David Lange assurances that the culprits would be brought to justice. The French Embassy in Wellington claimed at the time: “In no way is France involved. The French government doesn’t deal with its opponents in such ways.”
It took years for the bombshell to explode that none other than Mitterrand himself had ordered the terrorist attack on New Zealand and Greenpeace!
We the people of the Pacific We, the people of the Pacific, owe a debt to Greenpeace and all those who were part of the Rainbow Warrior, including author David Robie. We must remember the crime and call it by its name: state terrorism.
The French attempted to escape justice, deny involvement and then welched on the terms of the agreement negotiated with the help of the United Nations secretary-general.
A great way to honour the sacrifice of those who stood up for justice, who stood for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific, and who honoured our own national identity would be to buy David Robie’s excellent book.
I’ll give the last word to former Prime Minister Helen Clark:
“This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces — including of nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.”
You cannot sink a rainbow.
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
When flooding strikes, our screens fill with scenes of devastated victims, and men performing heroic dinghy rescues in swollen rivers. But another story often goes untold: how women step in, and step up, to hold their stricken communities together.
Unprecedented floods in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales in 2022 are a case in point. Our research shows female leadership was the hidden backbone of community recovery in the aftermath of the emergency. Women rose to leadership roles, filling crucial gaps left by formal disaster responses. As one woman told us:
I mean there’s some blokes around, I’ve got to give them some credit, but, yeah, I’m amazed … it was always the women saying, what do you need? What can I help with?
And long after the disaster had passed and the media had moved on, women were still there, quietly leading sustained recovery efforts from their homes, community halls and online networks.
But while the labour of men was generally supported and recognised, the complex and difficult work of women was largely overlooked.
In February and March 2022, the region experienced catastrophic flooding and landslips. About 11,000 homes were inundated. Health care facilities were damaged and disrupted. Emergency services were overwhelmed and many communities were cut off, some for weeks.
In response, the community stepped up in extraordinary ways. Our research explored the particular contribution of women to this effort.
The research focused on the contribution of women to community recovery after the Lismore floods. Dan Peled/Getty Images
‘No one else was going to do it’
The research involved interviews with people involved in the flood response and recovery. We also examined notes from public events and transcripts from a NSW government inquiry into the floods.
We found that, despite facing immense challenges, women played an essential role in sustaining their communities during and after the crisis.
For example, they coordinated food relief, managed donation hubs, organised volunteers and provided emotional support to neighbours and strangers. As one female interviewee told us:
It was more than about food … people would just come and then we’d just hug them and they’d just cry … the food relief turned into something deeper.
Emergency-management environments are often dominated by men. As a result, female community organisers often felt excluded from formal decision-making. As one woman told us:
every face in the meeting was a white middle-aged guy with a buzz cut. And, and I was like, there is no women. There is no diversity. There was no sense of community or that whole recovery space.
One woman cited the example of a local council celebrating “men in their dinghies” who took part in a flood rescue, while failing to recognise women who collectively contributed many thousands of unpaid hours towards the recovery effort:
here we are with just simply a trillion women doing all of the childcare, all of the cooking, all of the soft labour, literally everything plus being on dinghies … and there’s just nothing for us.
Some women took unpaid leave from work to coordinate recovery activities in their communities, because, as one woman told us, “no one else was going to do it”.
Women’s roles were not limited to unskilled tasks and care work. Women also brought professional skills to the recovery effort, such as event management, IT, nursing, communications, clinical psychology, trauma healing, business management, social work and public health.
Women: there for the long term
We found while men’s involvement in disaster recovery tended to be concentrated on specific short-term rescue and response, women tended to remain active for months or even years.
For example, two years after the flooding disaster, at a gathering of grassroots community-disaster
organisers, 87% of names on the contact list were female.
Some women continued to volunteer their labour, while others managed to obtain short-term funding. Whether paid or unpaid, the women experienced overwhelm and felt exhausted by the long-term effort, and some experienced vicarious trauma. However, their sense of community responsibility prevented them from stepping back.
Rethinking who we see as leaders
The research confirms women’s contributions are consistently overlooked during and after a disaster. It reflects a broader trend in Australia, where women’s labour is historically undervalued.
Women’s disaster work – coordinating volunteers, providing emotional care and advocating for their communities – was often unsupported by government and continued long after official agencies left.
Yet, these contributions remained largely invisible.
Three years after the floods, many women in the Northern Rivers are preparing for the next emergency, and women comprise the majority of community resilience groups in the region.
Women must be recognised and supported to ensure the health and wellbeing of disaster-affected communities. The health and wellbeing of these women themselves must also be paramount.
More government and private funding is vital. Where possible, philanthropic community grants should also be expanded.
The recently formed Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance involves 50 grassroots groups combining to provide peer support, advocate together, seek joint funding and provide training. Such networks can provide ongoing support to community organisers.
As Earth’s climate becomes more hostile and extreme weather events become more likely, there is an urgent need to support community efforts – and to rethink who we see as leaders in times of disaster. Building resilient communities starts with recognising and resourcing the people doing the work – including local women.
The authors acknowledge Emma Pittaway, Loriana Bethune and Dominica Meade who co-authored the research upon which this article is based.
Rebecca McNaught receives funding from The Peregrine Foundation and Gender and Disasters Australia. She is a board member of not-for-profit Plan C and President of the volunteer group the South Golden Beach, New Brighton and Ocean Shores Community Resilience Team. She attends the Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance.
Jo Longman has received funding from the NSW State Government Disaster Risk Reduction Fund and the Healthy Environments and Lives Innovation Fund. She is affiliated as a volunteer with Plan C’s research team.
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Since the beginning of the renovation program, over 70 thousand families have moved from more than 1.2 thousand old houses to new apartments. The new buildings are located in all administrative districts of the capital. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development Policy and Construction Vladimir Efimov.
“The resettlement of residents under the renovation program began in 2018, when a new building in the east of the capital in the Severnoye Izmailovo district was handed over for settlement. Today, the number of such houses exceeds 380, and over 70 thousand families have moved into new apartments. More than 12.7 thousand of them celebrated housewarming in the Eastern Administrative District, and over 12.4 thousand more in the South-East. In the west and north of the capital, 8.2 thousand families moved into new apartments with finished improved finishing,” said Vladimir Efimov.
For a more comfortable move under the renovation program, the city provides participants with movers and a car free of charge. The service can be ordered on the mos.ru portal as part of the super service “Moving under the renovation program” or from the administrators of the resettlement information centers.
“Of all the families that moved, about 75 percent — more than 53.5 thousand — used the “Moving Assistance” service. In particular, in the southeast of the capital, over 9.6 thousand families ordered movers and a car, in the east — over 9.4 thousand. In the Northern Administrative District, 7.6 thousand families left requests for the transportation of things from an old apartment to a new one,” clarified the Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of Urban Development Policy
The area around all new buildings is being improved according to the standards of the renovation program: trees and shrubs are being planted in the courtyards, flower beds are being laid out, and children’s and sports grounds are being set up.
In the capital Department of Information Technology noted that general instructions available in the super service will help you prepare for the move “Moving under the renovation program” on the mos.ru portal. With its help, you can find out how the move is organized, get information about the necessary documents for drawing up a contract, and also use links to useful services. If the parameters are configured correctly, instructions for a specific life situation will be available.
Earlier, Sergei Sobyanin reported that this year new housing was received under the renovation program more than 18 thousand Muscovites.
The renovation program was approved in August 2017. It concerns about a million Muscovites and provides for the resettlement of 5,176 houses. The Moscow mayor ordered to increase the pace of implementation of the renovation program intwice.
Moscow is one of the leaders among regions in terms of construction volumes. High rates of housing construction correspond to the goals and initiatives of the national project “Infrastructure for life”.
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
A beloved dog who went missing for two days has been safely rescued after falling down an abandoned mine shaft in the Wombat State Forest in Langdons Hill.
Peggy, a Kelpie-Border Collie cross, was out bushwalking with her owners when she suddenly took off into the bush and didn’t return.
After two long days of searching on foot, Peggy’s owners tracked her down on Tuesday evening (1 July) and contacted CFA’s Oscar 1 rescue team for assistance.
Crews quickly arrived on scene,and,following a challenging three-hour operation, Peggy was successfully extricated from the shaft, remarkably, totally unharmed.
Her owners said it was a huge relief to have her home, safe and sound.
“The first night was windy, so it was hard to hear anything at first. But the next night the wind dropped off and I heard her faint bark coming from across the ridge,” said the owner.
“Thankfully we found her about four metres down an old shaft.”
This isn’t the first time a member of Peggy’s family has found themselves in a rough spot.
“A couple of years ago, her brother Terry fell into a shaft about 20 metres deep. The Oscar 1 team assisted us on that occasion as well,” said the owner.
“We can’t thank them enough, they were amazing.”
CFA District 15 Commander Damien Scott was the incident controller and praised the teamwork on display.
“This was a great example of how our specialist rescue crews, and local brigades work together to get the job done,” Damien said.
“The Oscar 1 team brought their expertise to a very tricky situation and did a fantastic job bringing Peggy to safety.
“It’s always a good day when everyone goes home safe–humans and dogs alike.”
Peggy is now back at home, safe and in good spirits after her unexpected doggone adventure.
Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho attended the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU) in Lisbon, Portugal, to promote Hong Kong’s resident-oriented “Well-being design” concepts and strategies.
On Wednesday, Ms Ho began her visit to Lisbon by meeting Secretary of State for Housing in the Ministry of Infrastructure & Housing Patrícia Goncalves Costa, to exchange views on the housing policies of the two places.
Afterwards, Ms Ho attended the IFoU held at the Pavilion of Portugal for the previous World Expo, where she explored the latest trends of housing planning, design and management, community engagement and more with scholars, industry representatives, professional bodies and students from the Mainland, Europe and the US.
In the forum’s plenary session, Ms Ho highlighted that the “Well-being design” guide launched by the Housing Bureau and the Housing Authority last year, serves as a reference for the future design of new public housing estates and the improvement works of existing estates, to create a more comfortable and vibrant living environment for the residents.
She also said that Hong Kong can give full play to the role of being a “super connector” through interactions and exchanges in different places.
The IFoU is organised in different cities each year, and this year’s edition was hosted by the University of Lisbon with the theme of Future Living.
After the forum, Ms Ho had dinner with Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Portuguese Republic Zhao Bentang, and briefed him on Hong Kong’s latest housing policies and initiatives.
strong>SALEM, Ore.—The Fourth of July is a time for celebration, filled with fireworks, barbecues, and outdoor fun. But with all the excitement, it’s important to prioritize fire safety to ensure a safe and enjoyable holiday for everyone. Eighty-five percent of wildfires are started by humans—many times with fireworks and campfires. Whether you are celebrating at home or traveling out of the area, know the latest road conditions, check if you are visiting an area near a wildfire, make sure you are signed up for Oregon emergency alerts, activate Federal Wireless Emergency Alerts on your phone, understand the evacuation levels, and make sure you have an emergency kit in your car—stay safe and don’t be the spark this holiday.
Fireworks—Keep it Legal. Keep it Safe.
Fireworks are a staple of Independence Day, but they can also be dangerous. The safest way to enjoy fireworks is to attend a public display organized by professionals. There are plenty of places you can see coastal displays, Portland area displays, the southern Willamette Valley, as well as other parts of Oregon. If you choose to use consumer fireworks, follow these precautions – including:
Always check local regulations before lighting fireworks in your area.
Never give fireworks to small children and keep a bucket of water or a hose nearby in case of emergencies.
Light fireworks one at a time and never attempt to relight a dud.
Maintain a safe distance from fireworks and never point them at people, animals, or structures.
Remember, all fireworks are banned on public lands. This includes state and federal parks.
Campfire and Outdoor Fire Safety—Don’t be the Spark.
Oregon Parks and Recreation Department maintains a state parks campfire/flame restrictions in page, the Oregon Department of Forestry maintains one for state lands, and the Bureau of Land management maintains a list for federal land. If your celebration includes a campfire or fire pit, follow these guidelines:
Check if fires are allowed where you are camping.
Keep flames small—about knee height—to prevent embers from drifting into trees or dry areas. If the wind picks up embers, put the fire out.
Use designated fire rings—they’re placed in safe areas with buffers of at least 25 feet away from tents and vegetation. Use outdoor fireplaces and fire pits only in well-ventilated areas.
Always have water nearbyto fully extinguish the fire—douse, stir the embers, and ensure everything is wet.
Beach fires belong on open sand—keep them away from driftwood and plants. Pour water slowly to avoid spraying hot sand. Never use sand to smother the fire—it traps heat and can cause burns later.
Propane fire rings require the same precautions as wood fires—rules may vary by location.
Never leave a fire unattended—many accidents happen when campers step away for just a minute. Ensure everyone, including kids, understands fire safety.
Grilling Safety
Backyard barbecues are a great way to celebrate, but they also pose fire hazards. Keep these tips in mind:
Place your grill away from overhanging branches, siding, or deck railings.
Never grill indoors and always supervise the grill while in use.
Keep children and pets at least three feet away from the grill.
Use long-handled tools designed for grilling to prevent burns.
Additional Fire Risks
Discarded cigarettes – a single lit cigarette tossed carelessly can spark a wildfire.
Equipment malfunctions – sparks from machinery, vehicles, or electrical failures can ignite dry vegetation.
Dragging metal – loose chains or parts dragging on the road can create sparks.
Exhaust system failures – Worn-out catalytic converters and exhaust components can emit hot carbon particles.
Brake pad wear – thin brake pads can cause metal-on-metal contact, generating fire-causing sparks.
Low tire pressure – driving on exposed rims due to low tire pressure can throw sparks.
Parking on dry grass – hot exhaust parts can ignite dry vegetation on contact.
Electrical system failures – faulty wiring or damaged electrical components can lead to vehicle fires.
Fuel system leaks – gasoline leaks can ignite from heat or sparks.
By following the above fire safety tips and being aware of all the ways fires can spark, you can enjoy a fun and safe Fourth of July celebration.
For more fire safety tips, visit FEMA or the U.S. Fire Administration.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on March 20, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
California, leading a multistate coalition, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over leaking citizens’ personal information.
Charging the Trump administration with illegally sharing Medicaid recipients’ health data with immigration enforcement agencies, the 59-page lawsuit document was filed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their departments listed as defendants.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta led the state attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington in filing the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs challenged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granting “unfettered access” to individuals’ health records to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), saying the decision violated privacy laws and longstanding practices separating Medicaid information from law enforcement.
They highlighted that the Trump administration’s illegal actions created fear and confusion among communities that will lead noncitizens and their family members to disenroll or refuse to enroll in emergency Medicaid. Under these circumstances, some patients may not get the emergency health services they need and will suffer fatal health consequences as a result.
“The Trump Administration has upended longstanding privacy protections with its decision to illegally share sensitive, personal health data with ICE. In doing so, it has created a culture of fear that will lead to fewer people seeking vital emergency medical care,” Bonta said in a press release published by his office, noting that the lawsuit was aimed at ensuring Medicaid data would not be used for immigration enforcement purposes.
“I’m sickened by this latest salvo in the President’s anti-immigrant campaign. We’re headed to court to prevent any further sharing of Medicaid data,” he said.
According to California’s Department of Justice, Medicaid is an essential source of health insurance for lower-income individuals and particularly underserved population groups. As of January 2025, 78.4 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program across the United States.
The Medicaid program allows each participating state to develop and administer its unique health plans. In California, the most populous state in the country, the Medi-Cal program, the state’s version of Medicaid, provides healthcare coverage for one out of three residents, including more than 2 million noncitizens.
Medicaid Act, enacted by the Congress in 1965, and other U.S. federal laws defined the personal healthcare data collected by the program is confidential and could be only shared in certain narrow circumstances that benefit public health and the integrity of the Medicaid program itself, the lawsuit document said, noting that the mass transfer of data between the HHS and the DHS is illegal.
Moreover, it said reports indicated that the U.S. federal government plans to create a sweeping database after collecting data from the HHS to use for “mass deportations” and other large-scale immigration enforcement purposes.
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
This autumn it will be 20 years since one of the most recognizable theaters in the capital moved to its permanent home at 2 Frolov Lane. Six years ago, construction began on the second stage of the building on Myasnitskaya Street, and soon it acquired its now familiar appearance, and the central entrance was located within walking distance from the Chistye Prudy metro station. Kultura Moskvy visited the theater on a tour, during which it learned the specifics of its architecture, the secret of the seats in the large hall, and the role of Anatoly Efros in the life of Alexander Kalyagin.
Anatoly Efros – 100
First of all, we head to the ship’s captain’s bridge – to the office of the artistic director of the Moscow Et Cetera Theatre, People’s Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of the USSR State Prizes Alexander Kalyagin. The film crew had to wait for an audience due to a protracted staff meeting: Monday is a hard day, everyone needs to be heard, valuable instructions given and charged up for the new work week.
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich greets you very warmly, in a homely way, offering tea and smiling softly at questions and curiosity. And there is much to look at: just sitting next to a legend of Soviet theater and cinema is already a great honor, but the office, like a museum, is full of interesting exhibits. There is a globe, and numerous books, statues, a clock, and on the walls are memorable photographs and playbills.
The enchanted gaze stops at a large black-and-white poster of the festival in memory of Anatoly Efros in St. Petersburg, which took place in April 1993. Then a question arises about the teachers and mentors of Alexander Kalyagin, among whom Anatoly Vasilyevich occupies a special place. “This is a long conversation. Because every time I talk about Efros, some kind of wave sincerely rises in me. From smiles to tears, from some visions of his performances to funerals,” the master shares. Alexander Alexandrovich dreamed of playing in the productions of the famous director and was able to realize this cherished desire in two of his performances in the early 1980s on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater: “And what a company we had in “Tartuffe”! Every actor is an entire era. And Stanislav Lyubshin, and Anastasia Vertinskaya, and Nina Gulyaeva, and Yuri Bogatyrev. Everything, everything that is needed.” In those years, another equally famous and honored master served there, whose figure also had a strong influence on the future founder of the Et Cetera theater – Oleg Efremov, an outstanding teacher and an extraordinary personality. “He was so charming, believe me, he had a magical effect on everyone,” Alexander Kalyagin recalls about him.
We talked about contemporary theatre, directorial discoveries, and the different thinking of today’s directors. And then we went to the foyer to see an exhibition dedicated to Anatoly Efros, who would have turned 100 on July 3.
After the museum exhibition, Timofey Dunayev, an actor of the theater, gave a short excursion into history: “Et Cetera was founded in 1992 by graduates of the Moscow Art Theater School, course of Alexander Alexandrovich Kalyagin. On February 2, 1993, the first performance of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s play “Uncle Vanya” was performed with Vasily Lanovoy and Vladimir Simonov in the leading roles on the stage of the Pushkin Theater. And then we moved to the space on Novy Arbat (building 11), where, in fact, we settled for several years. And the construction of this building began here, on Myasnitskaya Street.”
Alexander Kalyagin worked on each stage of construction, participated directly in the development of the project, influencing the architecture of the building, as well as its interior and exterior content. The style is based on postmodernism, but in general, eclecticism – a mixture of different trends – dominates the philosophy of the theater, its interior and exterior. According to Timofey Dunayev, the repertoire also includes completely different performances both in form and meaning – from classical works like Boris Godunov directed by Peter Stein to more modern interpretations – Duck Hunt and Mandate by Vladimir Pankov, the current artistic director of the Moscow State Theater “Lenkom Mark Zakharov”.
Classicism, baroque, rococo can be seen everywhere: in the decoration, stucco, design, including the entrance to the large hall. It amazes not only with its capacity (528 seats!), but also, first of all, with its inevitably eye-catching chairs. “They are absolutely unique,” comments Timofey Dunayev, “made at a Milan furniture factory specifically for the Et Cetera theater. There are 11 types of chairs, for which sketches were developed, reviewed, and personally approved by Alexander Alexandrovich. They imitate the types of chairs that stood in different auditoriums of famous theaters at different times: in the “Comédie Française,” “Palais Royal,” in London, Spain. Such is the mystery. That is, people enter the hall — and immediately there is a certain theatricality, a mystery.”
The mysteries don’t end there, however. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the right and left sides of the mezzanine are decorated in different styles, and the central box is offset to the right relative to the center (if you look at it from the stage). The same goes for the aisles – they’re quite unusual.
The hall itself seems to reproduce a quote from William Shakespeare’s play: “All the world’s a stage, and the women and the men all players; each with his own entrance and exit, and each playing more than one part.” In this way, Et Cetera invites the audience to play a little, to feel part of the magic that the actors, directors and technical team create for them. The effect is enhanced by the boxes, each of which is named after a certain dramatic character. “There is Tartuffe’s box from Moliere’s play of the same name. There is Mitrofanushka’s box – for us, this is “The Minor”. That is, when you buy a ticket, you do not have the right side, the third box, but, let’s say, Ariel’s box from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, ” explains Timofey Dunayev. And the central box is named after the hero of Samuel Beckett’s most famous play, whom all the other characters endlessly discuss, but he never appears. Tickets are not sold for it – it stands empty, waiting for Godot.
Et Cetera, Et Cetera, Et Cetera…
Having stopped by the Efrosovsky Hall on the way and admired the spiral staircase, we set off together with Dmitry Mozgov, deputy artistic director of the Moscow Et Cetera Theatre for creative issues, to another performance space. Chamber performances and poetry evenings are held in the small hall, a laboratory is held where young directors, playwrights, actors try to find a new language, to feel out a new aesthetic. “And sometimes we have very interesting discoveries on the small stages of our theatre,” Dmitry Mozgov shares.
The Et Cetera Theatre actively participates in the cultural life of Moscow and various city events: recently one of the performances was shown in Zaryadye Park, and the May “Night at the Museum” was also celebrated brightly. Creative evenings and meetings are held here, and any viewer, while studying the intricate decoration of the building, will be able to find something interesting: a unique chandelier (and not just one), a stage that is one of the three Moscow leaders in technical capabilities, luxurious backstage areas, temporary exhibitions and high-profile premieres. Alexander Kalyagin, the heart and soul of the theatre, is invisibly present everywhere, and sometimes he appears very obviously and not only on stage: here and there you can see life-size figures of the master, with whom viewers willingly take pictures.
On the first floor, where the museum is located, you can read the words of Alexander Alexandrovich, ornately written on a rectangular plaque: “Et Cetera in Latin – and so on, and so forth, and so forth… It seems to me a wonderful name for a theater. The essence of its aspirations is to unite different schools and different artists, in a word, et cetera…” This season is coming to an end, but there will certainly be a continuation in the next one – see you at the theater!
You can explore Et Cetera’s repertoire and purchase tickets atMos.ru.
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
The active summer season continues in Moscow. When the weather permits, many residents of the capital choose to relax on city sites with open-air swimming pools. During the first weeks, about 30 thousand people visited the pools at the Moscow Seasons festival sites and in parks.
Swimming pools in Moscow parks have become a point of attraction for city residents and visitors to the capital. They are suitable for both individual and family recreation. Special small pools provide the opportunity to visit with children from three years old (when accompanied by adults). Young guests can practice swimming skills in a safe environment.
Swimming pools at festival venues in residential areas are also popular. One of the main innovations of this season was the pergolas installed at the following addresses: Pererva Street, Building 52 and Klyuchevaya Street, Building 22 (not far from the Alma-Atinskaya metro station).
Pergolas are modern suspended structures created for outdoor recreation in any weather. These are integral modular systems that cover the area both from above and from the sides, thereby protecting from rain and wind and at the same time not interfering with free movement. Pergolas are joined together and do not block passages, which ensures comfort and safety even with a large flow of guests. The structures are also equipped with heating and lighting systems, which allows you to relax here even in bad weather or in the evening.
The Moscow Seasons venues and parks feature modern heated and filtered pools, which help maintain the water temperature at a comfortable level and, thanks to modern technology, guarantee its cleanliness and safety – all of which attracts both adults and children.
In addition, 19 sites are equipped with two pools at once: a large bowl with a depth of 1.4 meters and a small one with a depth of 0.6 meters. The total capacity of such complexes is up to 108 people at a time.
For the convenience of guests, a clear and flexible schedule of visits is provided, which allows you to choose a suitable time – from morning to evening, on weekdays and weekends. Every day there are four sessions: the first – from 09:00 to 10:30, the second – from 11:00 to 14:00, the third – from 14:30 to 17:30 and the fourth – from 18:00 to 21:00.
The price of the ticket at all sites already includes the use of sun loungers, umbrellas, showers, toilets, tables and storage lockers. In addition, there are bars with soft drinks and snacks.
The Moscow Seasons festival cycle continues to create new opportunities for comfortable leisure within the city. Summer outdoor pools have become an excellent alternative to recreation outside the city, especially on weekdays.
Project “Summer in Moscow”— the main event of the season. It brings together the most vibrant events of the capital. Every day, charity, cultural and sports events are held in all districts of the city, most of which are free. “Summer in Moscow” is being held for the second time, and the new season will be more eventful: new, original and colorful festivals and events will be added to the traditional ones.
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Entrepreneurs can purchase three premises for business in the Babushkinsky District from the city. The purpose of all the objects is free, the head of the capital’s Department of Competition Policy reported Kirill Purtov.
“Commercial premises on the ground floors and in the basements of residential buildings in areas with already established development are the undisputed leaders in their category at city auctions. The infrastructure has already been formed here and there is a stable demand for everyday goods and services. Three options for such premises are presented in the Babushkinsky District. Their area varies from 106.7 to 579.2 square meters. The acceptance of applications for participation in the auction will end from July 4 to 10,” said Kirill Purtov.
The premises are located in residential buildings on the streets Lensky (house 8, first floor), Verkhoyanskaya (house 10, first floor) andPilot Babushkin (house 11/2, building 1, basement). The first premises have electricity, water supply and sewerage, the other two also have gas supply. All objects have a separate entrance from the street. The winners of the bidding will be able to open almost any type of business in them.
Open auctions will be held from July 15 to 22 on the Roseltorg electronic platform. Registration and an enhanced qualified electronic signature are required to participate.
The capital puts various properties up for auction. The showcase for them is investment portal Moscow. In the section “Moscow Trades” Information about the lots is published, including photographs, documentation, conditions and form of implementation.
Development of electronic services for business corresponds to the objectives of the national project “Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State” and the regional project of the city of Moscow “Digital Public Administration”.
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
During the first month of work, almost 900 events took place at the venues of the International Open Festival “Teatralny Bulvar”. This was reported by the Minister of the Government of Moscow, the head of the capital’s Department of Culture Alexey Fursin.
“During the first month of the festival, city residents and guests visited 850 events, 350 of which were performances. And 500 master classes and creative laboratories gave viewers the opportunity to try themselves in the roles of actors and directors. The total duration of productions and interactive activities exceeded a thousand hours. We are especially grateful to our viewers for their activity and constant full houses at the venues even in cool and inclement weather. Based on the results of the first month, we decided to expand the program of “Teatralny Boulevard”, – said Alexey Fursin.
Dozens of directions and performances for all ages
According to the head of the Moscow Department of Culture, a new chamber stage of the festival opened on Patriarch’s Ponds on July 1, where about 100 theatrical performances will take place until the end of the summer. In addition, due to the high interest of viewers in the events in the amphitheater of the Polytech Museum Park, it was decided to extend its work until August 31. Viewers will see about 50 more performances.
The genre diversity of the festival includes dozens of directions – you can see from classical drama, musical productions, puppet theater performances and circus performances to experimental formats like productions of the theater of taste and plastic theater. Special programs dedicated to memorable dates, including Russia Day, A. Pushkin’s birthday and the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, added depth and significance to the festival.
“Teatralny Bulvar” united groups from different parts of the country, from the Kaliningrad region to the Altai region. Among them, for example, are artists from the St. Petersburg Theater on Vasilievsky, the Perm “Teatr-Teatr”, the Yaroslavl Drama Theater named after F. Volkov.
Famous artists performed at the opening of the festival. For example, Andrey Merzlikin and Darya Moroz played in the amphitheater of the Polytech Museum Park. Anton Shagin and Alexander Oleshko could be seen on Chistoprudny Boulevard. Vadim Vernik transferred his popular television format to the acting studio opened as part of the Teatralny Boulevard. In June, such recognized stage masters as Mikhail Troynik, Vladimir Steklov, Alexander Dergachev and Yaroslav Chinarev became its guests. Meetings with them gave viewers the opportunity to delve deeper into the profession and see the seamy side of the acting craft.
Children’s and family events are now held not only on the boulevards, but also on the main stages of the festival. This has increased the accessibility of the performing arts for all generations. In addition, in July, the “Family Conversations” section will begin working, and “Theater Boulevard” will present the stories of acting dynasties in a unique format. Its heroes will be Konstantin and Polina Raikin, Yulia and Anna Peresild, Igor and Grigory Vernik. Viewers will also be treated to programs dedicated to Family, Love and Fidelity Day, Oleg Tabakov’s birthday and other significant dates.
The current program, map of venues and news can be found on the official website Theater.mo.ru and in the telegram channel “Theater Boulevard”.
The Theatre Boulevard Festival is organised by the capital Department of Culture on the initiative of Sergei Sobyanin and is taking place within the framework of the project “Summer in Moscow”, which started this year with records. In just one week, it collected more than 6.3 million visitors.
Project “Summer in Moscow” — the main event of the season. It brings together the most vibrant events of the capital. Every day, charity, cultural and sports events are held in all districts of the city, most of which are free. The Summer in Moscow project is being held for the second time, and this season will be more eventful: new, original and colorful festivals and events will be added to the traditional ones.
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 access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Omid Ghasemi, Research Associate in Behavioural Science at the Institute for Climate Risk & Response, UNSW Sydney
New research led by Viktoria Cologna at ETH Zurich in Switzerland may help to explain what’s going on. Using data from around the world, the study suggests simple exposure to extreme weather events does not affect people’s view of climate action – but linking those events to climate change can make a big difference.
Global opinion, global weather
The new study, published in Nature Climate Change, looked at the question of extreme weather and climate opinion using two global datasets.
The first is the Trust in Science and Science-related Populism (TISP) survey, which includes responses from more than 70,000 people in 68 countries. It measures public support for climate policies and the extent that people think climate change is behind increases in extreme weather.
The second dataset estimates how much of each country’s population has been affected each year by events such as droughts, floods, heatwaves and storms. These estimates are based on detailed models and historical climate records.
Public support for climate policies
The survey measured public support for climate policy by asking people how much they supported five specific actions to cut carbon emissions. These included raising carbon taxes, improving public transport, using more renewable energy, protecting forests and land, and taxing carbon-heavy foods.
Responses ranged from 1 (not at all) to 3 (very much). On average, support was fairly strong, with an average rating of 2.37 across the five policies. Support was especially high in parts of South Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania, but lower in countries such as Russia, Czechia and Ethiopia.
Exposure to extreme weather events
The study found most people around the world have experienced heatwaves and heavy rainfall in recent decades. Wildfires affected fewer people in many European and North American countries, but were more common in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Cyclones mostly impacted North America and Asia, while droughts affected large populations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. River flooding was widespread across most regions, except Oceania.
Do people in countries with higher exposure to extreme weather events show greater support for climate policies? This study found they don’t.
In most cases, living in a country where more people are exposed to disasters was not reflected in stronger support for climate action.
Wildfires were the only exception. Countries with more wildfire exposure showed slightly higher support, but this link disappeared once factors such as land size and overall climate belief were considered.
In short, just experiencing more disasters does not seem to translate into increased support for mitigation efforts.
Seeing the link between weather and climate change
In the global survey, people were asked how much they think climate change has increased the impact of extreme weather over recent decades. On average, responses were moderately high (3.8 out of 5) suggesting that many people do link recent weather events to climate change.
Such an attribution was especially strong in Latin America, but lower in parts of Africa (such as Congo and Ethiopia) and Northern Europe (such as Finland and Norway).
Crucially, people who more strongly believed climate change had worsened these events were also more likely to support climate policies. In fact, this belief mattered more for policy support than whether they had actually experienced the events firsthand.
Prior research shows less dramatic and chronic events like rainfall or temperature anomalies have less influence on public views than more acute hazards like floods or bushfires. Even then, the influence on beliefs and behaviour tends to be slow and limited.
This study shows climate impacts alone may not change minds. However, it also highlights what may affect public thinking: helping people recognise the link between climate change and extreme weather events.
In countries such as Australia, climate change makes up only about 1% of media coverage. What’s more, most of the coverage focuses on social or political aspects rather than scientific, ecological, or economic impacts.
Omid Ghasemi receives funding from the Australian Academy of Science. He was a member of the TISP consortium and a co-author of the dataset used in this study.
“If you’ve been impacted by severe weather and are concerned about your finances, please call us.”
That’s the message for customers from BNZ Head of Branch for the Lower North Island and top of the South, Christine Jones.
BNZ is offering a targeted assistance package to affected customers in Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough.
Available immediately, the assistance package includes:
Ability to review home lending facilities on a case-by-case basis.
Access to temporary personal overdrafts to support customers who require access to funds urgently while they await insurance pay-outs. Standard interest rates and credit criteria applies.
Access to temporary overdrafts of up to $10,000 with no application fee for Small Business customers. Standard interest rates and credit criteria applies.
Access to temporary overdrafts for Agri, Business, and Commercial customers up to $100,000, with no application fee. Standard interest rates and credit criteria applies.
“We understand that some of our customers may be facing unexpected challenges to their homes, businesses and communities as a result of the severe weather events,” says Christine.
“We are offering practical support to help relieve some of the pressure during this time, so people can focus on the clean-up and recovery.
“We also have a range of other options available, especially for customers who are facing hardship, so I encourage people to get in touch so we can see how we can help,” says Christine.
To discuss support options, business and agribusiness customers should reach out to their BNZ Partner. Small business owners can call 0800 BNZSME, while personal banking customers can access support through BNZ’s digital platforms or by calling 0800 ASKBNZ.
BNZ PremierCare Insurance customers who need assistance can call IAG NZ on 0800 248 888 or submit an online claim https://iagnz.custhelp.com/app/bnz.
Overly rigid insulation rules are being removed to ease costs for designers, builders and homeowners, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced. “I’ve heard clearly from the industry that the current one-size-fits-all approach to insulation requirements is needlessly driving-up costs. “The most prescriptive compliance pathway currently available for insulation – known as the Schedule Method – doesn’t allow for design trade-offs that can affect a home’s energy efficiency, like adjusting window size. “This has led to designers and homeowners having to over-insulate in certain areas to achieve Building Code compliance, offering little extra energy efficiency benefit at a significant cost. “To address this, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) will remove the current Schedule Method in favour of more flexible alternatives.
“Smarter online tools now let us take a balanced, whole-of-home approach to energy efficiency – enabling builders and designers to measure a home’s total heat loss instead of being locked into prescriptive requirements. “Using adaptable Calculation and Modelling Methods is shown to cut the cost of an average new build by up to $15,000. “The government will now work closely with the sector to ensure a smooth transition before the change takes effect. “The Schedule Method will be removed from the Building Code’s Acceptable Solutions and Verification Methods for Energy Efficiency by the end of the year, followed by a 12-month transition period to give the sector time to adjust. “I’ve also directed officials to explore designating the Far North as a separate climate zone under the Building Code, responding to calls from local leaders to ease insulation rules in the region. “The Far North District Council made a strong case in its energy-efficiency review submission, highlighting that the region’s warmer climate and need for affordable housing allow for a more tailored approach. “I’ve heard from the district council that building costs in the Far North are approaching $5,000 per square metre. They’re pushing for change to deliver more homes for locals at a reasonable price – an ambition I fully support. “In my view, recognising Northland’s unique climate with a separate zone is a sensible step that could lower costs and unlock much-needed housing supply. “MBIE will consult on any proposed changes to the region’s climate zone designation before final decisions are made, and I look forward to hearing feedback from the public.
“This Government is committed to making commonsense changes and cutting construction red tape to make building easier and more affordable – putting more roofs over Kiwi heads, while ensuring those homes stay safe and dry for our families.”
Note to editors:
In the context of thermal performance in buildings, insulation refers to materials that reduce heat transfer by acting as a barrier between two areas. This includes products like fibreglass, wool, and glazing.
Updated documents with the Schedule Method removed are expected to be published in November 2025. A 12-month transition period will run thereafter, so designers can continue using the old documents with the Schedule Method.
MBIE will support the sector with guidance on how to use the more flexible Calculation Method to demonstrate compliance with the Building Code.
SACRAMENTO – As House Republicans vote on the measure as soon as tonight, President Trump’s “big beautiful” national debt-adding bill is a massive tax break for the wealthiest Americans, at the cost of programs and services used by everyday families. It gives tax breaks to the ultra-rich, balloons our national debt, and guts programs that most Americans depend on – including health care, food assistance, and public safety programs. Allow us to demonstrate:
A plan for the ultra-rich
Starting in 2029, those making $30,000 a year or less would see a tax increase, while the top 0.1 percent would get a $309,000 tax cut, on average – an annual tax break that is more than three times what the typical American household earns in an entire year.
Oh, and the “no taxes on tips” program that Trump keeps raving about? Many workers will see little to no benefit. The program for tipped workers is temporary, expiring in 2028, meanwhile the tax cut for the ultra-wealthy is permanent. By 2029, those earning less than $30,000 a year will see their taxes increase, on average. These same families will also be harmed by cuts to health care and food assistance.
Here’s how Trump’s plan will hurt you
This bill is a complete betrayal of Americans by the Trump administration. Not only does it cut programs for families trying to make ends meet, but decimates middle-class opportunities – including health care and children’s access to college.
❌Eliminates American taxpayer jobs
Puts 686,000 California jobs at risk, through the elimination of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits. NABTU says that if enacted, “this stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country.”
❌Significantly cuts critical family support programs
More than $28.4 billion slashed in federal Medicaid funding to California – increasing medical debt and jeopardizing health care providers’ ability to keep their doors open.
More than 11 million newly uninsured for health care nationally.
Roughly 17 million people would lose coverage and become uninsured by 2034 due to various Medicaid reductions and the exclusion of enhanced premium subsidies.
Cuts necessary food assistance for people for 3 million people nationwide in need of quality nutrition and food.
Establishes a tax hike for parents who pay for child care.
Rural hospitals across the state are likely to see care offered cut or doors closed entirely.
❌Defunds public safety
$646 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for violence and terrorism prevention.
$545 million from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), cutting its workforce by more than 2,000 personnel and reducing its capacity to keep criminals off the street.
$491 million from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), making our cyber and physical infrastructure more vulnerable to attack.
$468 million from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), greatly reducing its ability to crack down on firearm trafficking and reduce gun violence.
$212 million from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), greatly reducing its capacity to help state and local law enforcement and weakening efforts to fight international drug smuggling impacting the United States.
$107 million from Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Public Safety and Justice, exacerbating current understaffing and making tribal communities less safe.
❌Endangers wildfire-prone communities
Cuts wildfire prevention programs like – raking the forests, forest management services – and eliminates personnel hired to fight wildfires.
❌Defunds Planned Parenthood
Defunds Planned Parenthood – essentially creating a backdoor abortion ban – that could put health care for 1.1 million patients at risk and force nearly 200 health centers to close, mostly in states where abortion is legal.
❌Unfairly targets green vehicles
Creates penalties for families who own a hybrid or electric vehicle – increasing the cost of taking personal responsibility even more.
❌Unjustly targets American students
Takes away college access from millions of children by limiting families’ ability to access financial aid for college, including Pell Grants.
Betrays student loan borrowers by ending student loan deferment for borrowers who experience job loss or other financial hardships, and forbids any future student loan forgiveness programs.
❌Raises costs and separates American families
Pours billions of dollars into supercharging the cruel and reckless raids like we have seen in Southern California and across agricultural areas, expanding the targeting of families, workers and businesses and harassment of U.S. citizens nationwide. Americans overwhelmingly agreewe should have a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who have been here for years, pay their taxes, and are good members of their communities, such as farmworkers, Dreamers, and mixed-status families.
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PORT SUDAN,03 July2025 –Nearly 1,000 people have been killed so far this year in Sudan while seeking health care or visiting loved ones in hospital, with attacks on hospitals nearly tripling after two years of conflict [1] and exacerbating a cholera outbreak, Save the Children said.
Save the Children analysis of attacks on healthcare as reported by theWorld Health Organizationfound that at least 933 people, including children, were killed in over 38 incidents in the first six months of 2025. This is nearly 60 times the number of deaths reported over the same period a year ago [2].
Over 148 people were injured in healthcare attacks in the first half of 2025, which is nearly triple the number of people injured over the same period last year.
The deadly attacks targeted clinics, health facilities, major hospitals, ambulances, and medical convoys while looting of warehouses housing drugs and medical supplies has put more people at risk in a country where half the population – 30.4 million people – are in need of humanitarian aid.
Save the Children said the number of attacks on healthcare has been high since conflict broke out in April 2023 but the spike in casualty numbers this year was alarming, with nearly four times more people killed than in 2023 and 2024 combined.
The latest attack on healthcare took place last week at Al-Mujlad Hospital in West Kordofan state and left over 40 people dead, including six children and five health workers, theWHO’s office in Sudan said. Dozens were also injured in the attack.
In January this year, at least one girl and three boys were reportedly killed and three boys injured in an attack on theSaudi Hospital in El Fasher, in Sudan’s North Darfur. The children were among patients receiving care in the hospital’s emergency ward, being treated for injuries resulting from previous bombings in the area.
The attacks on healthcare facilities and workers have increased as the country is reeling from a spiralling cholera outbreak, with 80,000 confirmed cases including more than 1,000 children under five and more than 2,000 deaths nationwide since the outbreak was declared two months ago [3].
On top of direct attacks on hospitals, looting of medical supplies is further compounding the suffering for millions in Sudan. This has included the theft of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) – a crucial treatment for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition – from UNICEF’s supplies at Al Bashair Hospital in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in March and Save the Children facilities.
Save the Children is urgently working to increase life-saving supplies, especially ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), a micronutrient-rich paste used to treat severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children-especially into Darfur. ButRUTF stocks are already dangerously low, and Sudan is among the countries projected to face critical global supply chain gaps in the coming months due to aid cuts.
“Healthcare workers should never have to worry about their safety while providing health services and patients should never have to look over their shoulders while seeking care in hospitals.
“The number of people killed and injured in direct attacks on healthcare this year is alarmingly too high and yet the biggest danger posed by these attacks is families and children opting not to seek services from hospitals when in need and turning to unsafe traditional means.
“We are concerned that in most cases, the hospitals that have come under fire also happen to be the only remaining hospitals in those areas, putting healthcare out of reach for millions including displaced people. With at least 80% of hospitals in Sudan decimated by the conflict, all efforts need to be taken to protect the few standing health facilities still providing services.”
Save the Children is urgently calling on the international community to redouble efforts to demand a ceasefire to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access and a drastic scale-up of humanitarian assistance. This includes securing safe passage for food, medical aid, commercial supplies, and critical nutrition interventions for children suffering from wasting especially in the Darfur region.
Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and is currently supporting children and their families across Sudan providing health, nutrition, education, child protection and food security and livelihoods support. Save the Children is also supporting refugees from Sudan in Egypt and South Sudan.
Notes:
[1] In the first half of 2025 at least 38 attacks on healthcare were reported compared to 13 attacks over the same period in 2024. At least 933 people were killed between 1 January and 30 June 2025 in attacks on healthcare recorded by the World Health Organisation’sSurveillance System for Attacks on Healthcare. This is compared to 16 people killed in 13 attacks on healthcare over a similar period last year. (Database accessed on 01 July 2025). Table below shows the number of attacks, deaths and injuries as retrieved from WHO’s surveillance system for attacks on health care (ssa) on 01 July 2025.
Period Number of attacks Reported deaths Injuries January – June 2024 13 16 55 January – June 2025 38 933 148 2023 – 2024 (since start of conflict) 136 238 214
[2] Important note that the WHO surveillance system came into full effect in November 2024 and there is a possibility of underreporting for previous years/ period.
[3] According to data from Sudan’s ministry of health.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Host nation Switzerland upset basketball powerhouse France 86-79 in overtime in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, advancing to the quarterfinals in its first-ever appearance at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup.
France, ranked No. 3 in the world, had finished third, second, and second in the past three editions of the tournament and was considered one of the top favorites this year. Switzerland, ranked 60th in the FIBA World Rankings for boys, had never competed in a FIBA U19 World Cup before 2025.
France took the first quarter 24-13, and both teams struggled offensively in the second, with France entering halftime holding a 12-point lead.
With five minutes, 34 seconds left in regulation, France led 66-54, but Switzerland responded with a 12-0 run to tie the game at 66-66 by the end of the fourth quarter. The Swiss maintained momentum in overtime, closing out the upset with a seven-point advantage.
Dayan Nessah posted 22 points and 15 rebounds for Switzerland, while teammate Oliver Sassella scored a game-high 25 points.
Switzerland will face New Zealand in the quarterfinals after the Kiwis defeated China 99-86.
In other Round of 16 action, the United States routed Jordan 140-67, Germany beat Serbia 92-83, Israel edged Cameroon 86-82, Australia downed the Dominican Republic 106-96, Slovenia slipped past Argentina 81-80, and Canada cruised past Mali 100-75.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
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The groundbreaking of a new electric vehicle (EV) battery megaproject in Indonesia set another milestone in the country’s rapidly growing EV supply chain, driven by Chinese investment.
JOINT VENTURE
The project, whose groundbreaking on Sunday was witnessed by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Karawang, West Java, is a joint venture with China, worth nearly 6 billion U.S. dollars, and covers the full supply chain, from nickel mining and processing to battery materials production, manufacturing and recycling.
Indonesia is currently the world’s largest producer of nickel and holds the biggest-known reserves of the metal, an essential component in EV batteries.
The project is jointly conducted by Indonesia’s state-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk, state-owned investment holding company PT Indonesia Battery Corporation and China’s Ningbo Contemporary Brunp Lygend Co., Ltd.
“This groundbreaking is proof of our leaders’ seriousness in collaborating with our partners and our friends in China. We can work together on a program that I think can be called colossal, an extraordinary breakthrough,” Prabowo said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
According to Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia, the project is expected to create 35,000 jobs and contribute up to 42 billion dollars annually to the national GDP. He also highlighted that the plant’s capacity would support the production of batteries for 300,000 vehicles, potentially reducing Indonesia’s fuel imports by approximately 300,000 kiloliters per year.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (C) attends a groundbreaking ceremony for a major electric vehicle (EV) battery megaproject in Karawang, West Java, Indonesia, June 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)
GREEN TRANSITION
The Indonesian government has been actively promoting the nickel industry to increase national competitiveness and build an ecosystem for the EV battery industry. The ambition is also aligned with Indonesia’s long-term commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.
Fahmy Radhi, an energy economics expert from Gadjah Mada University, said, “This transformation is more than an energy transition. It opens the door to clean technology, encourages green infrastructure development, and provides a strategic path for Indonesia to become a clean-energy industrial nation.”
He also highlighted the importance of ensuring that investment does not stop at the smelter level. “The process must extend to the production of final goods, such as EV batteries or even electric vehicles themselves.”
Currently, Indonesia is home to nine electric car manufacturers, seven electric bus production facilities, and 63 two- and three-wheeled electric vehicle factories.
CRUCIAL PARTNER
Kukuh Kumara, secretary general of the Association of Indonesia Automotive Industries, emphasized the critical role of partnerships with countries experienced in EV development, particularly China. “From the mining process to ready-to-use batteries, there is a huge process involved,” he said.
Kumara said that expanding industries related to the EV supply chain will not only strengthen Indonesia’s downstream capabilities but also create jobs and promote know-how transfer. “China is known for its strong EV component industry. We encourage our local companies to learn from Chinese partners,” he said.
“Our ultimate goal is to develop Indonesia’s own auto brands, local factories and indigenous technical capabilities,” Kumara said. “But at this stage, international partners are still crucial.”
Chinese firms have played a pivotal role in bringing technology, capital and global market access to Indonesia, particularly in EV batteries and supply chain integration, said the business leader.
As the first Chinese automaker to invest and establish a factory in Indonesia, SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) has helped 17 Chinese enterprises in the auto supply chain to venture into ASEAN’s biggest economy, developing over 100 local suppliers over the past seven years.
People take photos of Wuling Air EV cars at Wuling’s production factory in Bekasi, West Java province, Indonesia, Aug. 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)
The Chinese automaker has also contributed to fostering Indonesia’s own EV sector. Last November, the China-Indonesia Institute of Modern Craftsmanship of New Energy Vehicle, a training base established by China’s Liuzhou City Vocational College, Indonesia’s Anand Industrial Training Institute and the SGMW’s Indonesian subsidiary, was officially inaugurated in Indonesia.
“What is prominent in Chinese investment is the genuine willingness to implement technological transfer and human development programs through joint research, expert and trainee exchanges, vocational training, etc,” said Christine Susanna Tjhin, co-founder and director of strategic communication and research at the Gentala Institute, an independent consulting firm.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
A humanoid robot poses during a permanent exhibition at the Zhongguancun Exhibition Center in Beijing, capital of China, March 28, 2025. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
As the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates the 104th anniversary of its founding this week, the Party’s signature five-year plans continue to serve as a roadmap for China’s modernization drive.
This year, China is set to complete its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and is formulating the blueprint for the next one, marking a pivotal moment in the country’s long-term strategy for national rejuvenation.
From transforming an agrarian society into the world’s second-largest economy to charting a path toward becoming a great modern socialist country in all respects by mid-century, these plans reflect the CPC’s enduring commitment to long-term strategic vision and collective prosperity.
Through this cyclical yet ever-evolving roadmap, China sets strategic goals, defines government priorities, regulates business operations, and mobilizes national resources — all in pursuit of its overarching objective of building a modern socialist nation.
The country’s first plan in 1953 marked its initial push toward industrialization with the establishment of the nation’s first major steel and automobile plants. Fast-forward to the 13th (2016-2020), and it saw the completion of the world’s largest high-speed rail network.
“Five-year plans are to China’s development what construction drawings are to building a house,” said Ran Hao, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. “It tells the government and society which ‘floor’ to focus on and which ‘road’ to build over the next five years, helping avoid a piecemeal approach.”
A FRAMEWORK, NOT A DOGMA
Although China’s five-year plans include quantitative targets, such as the GDP growth goal, first introduced in the seventh five-year plan, it does not mean the CPC is running a centralized planned economy.
“It’s not about the government dictating everything; rather, the plans set the direction and priorities,” Ran said.
Since 2006, targets have been divided into two types: binding targets, which reflect government commitments, such as reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP, and anticipatory targets, which represent desired outcomes like GDP growth, to be pursued primarily through market mechanisms.
In a break from tradition, the 14th Five-Year Plan did not set a quantitative target for GDP growth; instead, it described expected growth in broader terms, in part to emphasize quality over speed.
“Five-year plans are suited to the Chinese mentality and the Chinese idea of thinking long-term,” said British scholar Martin Jacques. For millennia, Confucian classics have taught that those who plan ahead are more likely to succeed.
China’s five-year plans set clear goals but give regions the leeway needed to tailor their own pathways. National plans are broad frameworks that guide local governments in creating their own action plans, explained Yin Jun, a researcher with the Peking University.
At present, the CPC is drafting proposals for the country’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).
Observers said the upcoming plan will emphasize a future-oriented approach to global challenges, foster new quality productive forces, and strengthen the social safety net to improve public well-being.
PLANNING WITH COLLECTIVE EFFORTS
Given their far-reaching impact, China’s five-year plans are developed over several years, and informed by research, expert reviews, inter-agency coordination and public consultation. For example, work on the current 14th Five-Year Plan began as early as 2018.
While drafting the five-year plan, the CPC highly values public inputs, which reflect society’s needs and help foster consensus. In 2020, for the first time, public advice was collected online, with suggestions like mutual-aid elderly care included in the final plan.
Over three months that year, seven symposiums were held with the Party’s leader meeting with entrepreneurs, experts, local officials, and representatives from the grassroots level to listen to their suggestions.
The combination of top-level planning with public participation continued this year. In May, major media platforms invited public feedback, and netizens proposed improvements such as enhancing rural express delivery infrastructure and installing elevators in older communities, among other ideas.
An old saying from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” offers insight into the success of China’s five-year plans: Triumph comes when the leaders and the people share the same goal.
Visitors learn about a BYD Yangwang U9 at the 2024 World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province, Sept. 20, 2024. (Xinhua/Fu Tian)
IMPACT BEYOND BORDERS
China’s five-year plans not only guide national development but also offer opportunities for global investors.
Madiyar Tukpatov, chairman of a public transport company in Astana, Kazakhstan, visited China earlier this year to research electric buses. His company began using Chinese electric buses in 2020 and plans to further integrate Chinese EV technology into Astana’s transport system.
New energy vehicles (NEVs) have been developed as a strategic industry over several five-year plans. Their production and sales each exceeded 12.8 million units in 2024, maintaining China’s position as the global leader in this sector for 10 consecutive years. Chinese NEVs can be found in over 70 countries and regions.
Benjamin Mgana, chief editor of foreign news at The Guardian newspaper in Tanzania, praised China’s approach to planning, saying it demonstrates that developing countries can create workable strategies based on their own realities, rather than copying Western models.
Inspired by China’s success, a growing number of countries have adopted their own medium- to long-term strategies. Poland, Ethiopia and Tanzania have sought support from Chinese institutions to assist in their planning process.
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Creative Australia’s backflip on Venice Biennale representatives exposes deep governance failures Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cairnduff, Lecturer in Media and Communications, The University of Melbourne The reinstatement of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale closes a bruising recent cultural episode and exposes the fragility of the systems meant to protect artistic freedom
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Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island – SBS podcast Pacific Media Watch In July 1985, Australia’s Pacific territory of Norfolk Island (pop. 2188) became the centre of a real life international spy thriller. Four French agents sailed there on board the Ouvéa, a yacht from Kanaky New Caledonia, after bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. The Rainbow Warrior was
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ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 3, 2025.
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Homes are more than walls and a roof, especially for Indigenous people. It’s time housing policy reflects that Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giles Gunesekera, PhD Researcher, University of Technology Sydney Australia is experiencing a housing crisis. But for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the challenge runs deeper than high rents and limited supply. A major problem is that housing in Australia is rarely designed with Indigenous communities
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Thumbs up: good or passive aggressive? How emojis became the most confusing kind of online language Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Ferdinands, Lecturer in Digital Content Creation, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of Sydney The Conversation, CC BY Emojis, as well as memes and other forms of short-form content, have become central to how we express ourselves and connect online. Yet as meanings shift across different
Lung cancer screening hopes to save lives. But we also need to watch for possible harms Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katy Bell, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney There is much to commend about Australia’s lung cancer screening program, which started on July 1. The program is based on gold-standard trial evidence showing this type of screening is likely to reduce
Uganda’s ride-hailing motorbike service promised safety – but drivers are under pressure to speed Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rich Mallett, Research Associate and Independent Researcher, ODI Global Motorcycle-taxis are one of the fastest and most convenient ways to get around Uganda’s congested capital, Kampala. But they are also the most dangerous. Though they account for one-third of public transport trips taking place within the city,
Philadelphia’s $2B affordable housing plan relies heavily on municipal bonds, which can come with hidden costs for taxpayers Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jade Craig, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Mississippi The Parker administration says it will issue $800 million in bonds over the next four years to fund affordable housing. Jeff Fusco/The Conversation, CC BY-NC-SA Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative, which was included in
Around 250 million years ago, Earth was near-lifeless and locked in a hothouse state. Now scientists know why Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Merdith, DECRA Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide Some 252 million years ago, almost all life on Earth disappeared. Known as the Permian–Triassic mass extinction – or the Great Dying – this was the most catastrophic of the five mass extinction events recognised in
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kerrynne Liddle on seizing more opportunities with Indigenous Australians Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra From this Sunday, Australians will be celebrating NAIDOC Week, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The week highlights the achievements, history and culture of Australia’s First Peoples. It’s also a time to reflect on the huge effort needed to
Supervision gaps can lead to child abuse – what can be done? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marg Rogers, Senior Lecturer, Early Childhood Education; Post Doctoral Fellow, Manna Institute, University of New England Suwatchai Pluemruetai/Shutterstock The horrific allegations of child abuse by an early childhood educator in Victoria came to light at a time when the early learning sector was already under fire for
Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has passed the US Senate – these are the winners and losers Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lester Munson, Non-Resident Fellow, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Igor Link/Shutterstock One of the unique aspects of Washington life is a Senate “vote-a-rama,” in which the upper house of Congress tortures itself by pulling a marathon all-nighter of speeches, amendments and votes on a critical
Tonga cybersecurity attack wake-up call for Pacific, warns expert By Teuila Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Tongan cybersecurity expert says the country’s health data hack is a “wake-up call” for the whole region. Siosaia Vaipuna, a former director of Tonga’s cybersecurity agency, spoke to RNZ Pacific in the wake of the June 15 cyberattack on the country’s Health Ministry. Vaipuna said Tonga and
OAKLAND —California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined an amicus brief, alongside 21 attorneys general, in support of a proposed class of plaintiffs challenging the unlawful termination of Job Corps in Cabrera et al. v. Department of Labor et al., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Job Corps is a national program that offers career training and housing to young Americans from low-income backgrounds. Unlawful termination of the program would impact tens of thousands of young Americans who are currently enrolled and housed at campuses in all fifty states. Last week, in a similar case where California also joined an amicus brief, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs. The preliminary injunction in the New York case enjoins the administration from closing the Job Corps centers and from taking any action to end the Job Corps program absent congressional authorization. In today’s amicus brief, the attorneys general urge the Court to issue a preliminary injunction in Cabrera as well.
“Gutting Job Corps strips our youth, especially those from underserved communities, of one of the few accessible pathways to stable careers, education, and economic mobility,” said Attorney General Bonta. “An injunction is essential to protect this critical program and uphold the rule of law.”
Job Corps has nearly 100 residential campuses across the country, and the Trump Administration’s effort to illegally terminate the program threatens to leave thousands of vulnerable young Americans homeless. The brief explains that “in the sixty years since Congress created Job Corps, millions of young Americans from low-income backgrounds have been served by the program’s unique combination of education, training, housing, healthcare and community.”
Today’s amicus filing reaffirms that an injunction is necessary to protect vulnerable state residents and promote state goals in education and workforce development. It further reinforces the point that the Trump Administration cannot violate federal law and the Constitution by terminating congressionally mandated programs it opposes.
Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, in filing this amicus brief.
JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Good morning, mate.
LEVY: Look, I know this is not easy to talk about, but it’s an important conversation we need to have. And put simply, I mean, clearly, we’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed, Minister.
CLARE: Bang on. This is sickening stuff and it’s serious. It demands serious action from the Federal Government and from state and territory governments. I know it’s not easy to talk about, but we can’t turn away here. It’s too important. There are things that we’ve already done, but not enough and not fast enough. One of the reasons why, when Parliament comes back at the end of this month, I’ll introduce legislation to cut off funding to centres that aren’t up to scratch when it comes to safety and quality. This is the big weapon that the Federal Government can wield here. We fund child care centres. About 70 per cent of the funding to run them comes from taxpayers. And if they’re repeatedly not meeting the sort of safety and quality standards we need, then you’ve got to have the power to cut the funding off.
LEVY: What was your reaction, Minister, when you heard about the allegations levelled against these two men, these two vile humans in Victoria? And to think back to the case and the allegations and the offences that he pleaded guilty to involving Ashley Griffith, Australia’s worst paedophile. Did it make you sick like the rest of the country?
CLARE: It did. Of course it did. One of my friends is directly involved in this. One of my friends who lives in Victoria, her two girls are directly affected by this. She was one of the more than 1,000 parents the other day that got a notification saying that they need to get medical advice. You can imagine what she said to me, and I can’t repeat it on the radio, but she’s burning with rage and confusion about what she needs to do to keep her kids safe. I know how parents are feeling because they’ve told me. And it’s not just what’s happening in Victoria. I don’t want to speak specifically about that case because it’s before the court. But when that other mongrel was arrested in Queensland a couple of years ago, we commissioned a review into child safety across the country. It’s the reason why we’ve taken action on mobile phones and mandatory reporting, but it’s also the reason why we’ve got to do more here, whether it’s a national register of workers in these centres or whether it’s the sort of action that’s been recommended by the former NSW Ombudsman last week around CCTV and more and better information for parents. The honest answer, mate, is the work here will never be done and there will always be bad people that will try to break through the net. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to take action and that we don’t have to take action faster, because we do.
LEVY: I know you’ve said that you’ll be moving legislation when the Parliament returns, but. And this is not a Labor versus Liberal thing, this is not a Labor versus Coalition thing, right? I’m just sitting here expressing the anger of so many people who are, who are writing to me and talking to me about this. We had a Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in 2015, 10 years ago. It made a number of recommendations, including a nationally consistent working with children scheme, something that includes a national register of individuals working with children, particularly in out of home care settings. Yet we’ve seen nothing, not from your Government, nor the former Coalition Government. So, do politicians and those elected officials. And look, you’re the one that’s got to front up and answer these tough questions today, but do you all need to put your hand up and say, look, we’ve been sitting on our hands for too long and we’ve allowed this system to deteriorate to a point where innocent, defenceless children are being preyed upon.
CLARE: You’ve got to cough up and say it’s taken too bloody long. And that’s what I have said repeatedly about this. And to be fair when we sit around the table as Education Ministers, Labor and Liberal, we all agree it’s taken too bloody long, and we’re determined to act here. I can give you a long answer about how complicated this is, but to be honest, people listening don’t give a bugger about that. They don’t want excuses, they want action. And I spoke to the Attorney-General about this the other day. The Attorney-Generals across the country are leading work on Working with Children Checks. She agrees. If she was on the program now, she’d say exactly the same thing. We need to fix the Working with Children Checks. We need to make sure that the information goes from state to state and that if somebody’s criminal record changes, then it’s updated. Don’t think, though, that this is a silver bullet, because a lot of these mongrels you’re talking about here got a Working with Children Check, because at the time they didn’t have a criminal record. So, it’s not the only thing that needs fixing here. There’s a lot that needs to be done, but that’s one of them.
LEVY: There is one thing, though, I want to challenge you on, Minister. And earlier this week you announced that taking photos and videos of children on personal phones and devices will be restricted by early childhood education centres who adopt the new National Model Code and guidelines, code that’s now in place, but it’s voluntary. Why is it voluntary?
CLARE: The ban was put into the National Code last year. Voluntary from July but will become mandatory this year. Again, you’re not interested, and your listeners aren’t interested in the convoluted process to make this system mandatory. But it goes into regulations in a couple of months. Most centres are already doing it. All centres need to do it. Because we are doing this for a reason. All of the advice from the cops and from the regulator is that we’ve got to get the phones and the personal devices out of these centres. The only photos that mums and dads should be getting at lunchtime from their centre should be from the centre issued phone or the centre issued camera.
LEVY. So, it will become mandatory.
CLARE: Yes.
LEVY: Good. That’s good news. Because when I think about voluntary and you know, I’ve sat here, Minister, with respect, and I pointed to a Four Corners report recently and, you know, there were some horrifying examples of, you know, children being used as mops, babies being slapped, 3,000 babies and toddlers sent to hospital with injuries sustained in child care. Last year, more than 26,000 serious incidents reported. That’s a 27 per cent increase over the last three years. And I thought there shouldn’t be any voluntary nature about this, but it is going to be mandatory, well, that’s a good thing. I wanted to ask you as well. And I know we’re limited with time. There’s a call today by Louise Edmunds, a founding of the Independent Collective of Survivors, to ban men from working in this sector. I disagree with that. I’d be interested in your response as the Minister.
CLARE: I don’t think it’s the solution. You just mentioned the Four Corners report. Go back and look at that footage. It’s not men there, right? This is not just about blokes, it’s about people that work in our centres. If you go back and look at whether it’s the Royal Commission from 10 years ago or the child safety review that I kicked off, or the work that Chris Wheeler, the former Deputy Ombudsman, handed down last week, we know what we need to do. They’re not recommending that. What they’re saying is we need to toughen the penalties, improve the information for parents. Look at CCTV and the centres where they’re not up to scratch; introduce new laws to cut off funding where centres aren’t up to scratch; national register of all of the workers in this system because they move from state to state and fix the Working with Children Checks. They’re the sorts of things that Education Ministers discussed last Friday when I got people together to talk about this. And that’s the sort of work we’ve got to accelerate right now.
LEVY: All right, well, Minister, can I thank you for your strong comments this morning. We’ve got to follow those strong comments up with action, so you’ve got an open invitation. If there’s any updates you want to provide to myself and my listeners, you just give us a ring and jump on and let us know. This is such an important issue. We’re talking about innocent, defenceless children, babies. And I think there’s a lot of parents listening to you today saying this is all well and good, but we need to follow it up. So, we’re going to put it in your capable hands, and fingers crossed we can sort this out sooner rather than later because we don’t need these grubs preying on our children. Thanks so much for joining us.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Adjunct professor and adjunct senior lecturer in tourism management, University of South Australia
Also notable were the public protests that showed tensions around tourism, especially mass tourism, are increasing. Leading the action was the activist collective No space for Bezos, which declared:
[This wedding] is at the expense of those who live, work, and study in this city [and who are] already faced with countless difficulties after years of mass tourism.
They complained Venice had been turned into a “private amusement park” for the rich. Locals were fighting for what they describe as a “living Venice”, not a tourism playground.
The backlash against overtourism is sparking protests across several countries. It has even prompted the US State Department to urge travellers to be cautious when heading to Europe this summer.
Growth at all costs
Local residents feel their communities are being reshaped to cater for visitors, and are pushing back against what they call the “touristification” of place.
Touristification describes a situation where locals fear their home towns and cities are being developed, designed and managed to attract and accommodate tourists.
This touristification process benefits commerce and industries that profit from catering to visitors. Everyone else misses out, or is literally pushed out by rising housing costs.
At the heart of this polarising issue are some key questions. Are such places “tourism destinations” or do they belong to the local people who live there? Whose interests should prevail when tourism growth exacerbates tensions?
Continual growth in tourism is one of the guiding principles the industry promotes. It is this “growth fetish” that is catalysing overtourism and unsustainability. This is when tourism exceeds the local social and ecological carrying capacity of a place.
It means there are simply too many tourists, and the impact is poorly managed.
Aussie hotspots
The dynamics of overtourism are emerging in some Australian locations. This includes popular coastal destinations such as Byron Bay and small towns along the scenic Great Ocean Road.
Some places are overwhelmed by short-term overtourism. This may be the result of mega cruise ship visits or viral postings on social media, such as images of Western Australia’s popular pink lakes.
Byron Bay offers a telling example. It has evolved from a place attractive for alternative lifestyles, to a magnet for social media influencers and the location for the Netflix series Byron Baes.
Not surprisingly, there is growing local resistance to tourism overwhelming the sense of place.
Is Australia in danger of touristification?
If we aren’t careful, popular opposition to mass tourism will continue to grow here in Australia.
But whether we see the European phenomenon of touristification is harder to discern.
It may already be evident when environmental and social regulations are overturned to make development processes more friendly to the tourism industry.
Projects can be fast tracked if they are declared a high-priority “major development”, which allows governments to override restrictive regulations. Anti-red-tape rhetoric is clear in Queensland’s tourism strategy harnessing the growth power of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Another example of touristification may be when taxpayer-funded events are run for branding presence on a national or international stage rather, than for the benefit of the surrounding community.
For example, the South Australian government found itself in hot water when its tourism commission held a marketing event featuring a Sam Smith concert at d’Arenberg winery. Social media influencers were invited to attend – many from interstate with all expenses paid – but locals weren’t welcome.
It also occurs when public commons are appropriated for tourism purposes, including national parks and protected areas, public spaces and beaches.
Another example – again from South Australia – involves the decision to move the annual LIV Golf tournament to the Adelaide Parklands from 2028. The state government is being accused of a public land grab. The Adelaide community loves these heritage listed parklands and has resisted attempts to co-opt their use for private interests for decades.
Reclaimining a sense of place
Ultimately, in places like Venice, Bali and even in Byron Bay, local communities do not feel heard or empowered by tourism models which are focused on growth.
Their protest actions are designed to ensure their quality of life is not undermined in the process of catering to tourists. It is a struggle for reclaiming places as local people’s homes, rather than as tourist destinations.
While locations can be shared, tourism must be better managed so locals don’t find their homes unrecognisable – or even worse, find themselves displaced.
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles is a collaborator on a project led by colleagues at the University of the Balearic Islands entitled ‘Chronic Emergencies and Ecosocial Transformations in Touristified Coastal Spaces’. This article is part of the R+D+i PID2022-137648OB-C21 financed by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF, EU”.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
chinadaily.com.cn | July 3, 2025
Bolstered by sustained policy support for trade-in programs, China’s consumption is likely to continue its robust growth momentum in the second half of the year, better underpinning the country’s stable economic growth amid mounting external uncertainties, analysts said.
China still has ample fiscal headroom to reinforce its trade-in initiative later this year should consumer demand exhaust its initial 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) allocation, they said, emphasizing that similar policy incentives could be extended to the service sector to foster more sustainable consumption growth.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance announced the issuance of 11 ultra-long-term treasury bonds in the third quarter, with four of them seeing their timelines accelerated compared with the previous plan released in April. This will help maintain a continuous flow of funding to support policies meant to boost consumption, analysts said.
According to the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic regulator, the third group of fiscal funding through ultra-long-term treasury bonds for the consumer goods trade-in program is scheduled to be allocated in July.
The central government has earmarked 300 billion yuan in ultra-long-term treasury bonds to support the trade-in program for the whole year. The first two groups of fiscal funding, totaling 162 billion yuan, were allocated in January and April.
“If the remaining 138 billion yuan runs out ahead of schedule, the possibility of unveiling additional funding this year cannot be ruled out,” said Zhao Wei, chief economist at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities.
“As the trade war initiated by the United States still weighs on China’s economy, efforts to shore up domestic demand will be of paramount importance to mitigate external shocks and maintain steady growth,” he said.
By avoiding a one-time, large-scale fund injection that could disrupt market dynamics, the phased allocation of the fiscal funds helps create a stable and supportive environment for the consumption recovery to take hold throughout the year, Zhao added.
In late June, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, also pledged to leverage various tools in support of the trade-in programs, such as increasing credit support for recycling companies and home renovation suppliers and fast-track financing for manufacturers of energy-efficient smart home products.
“Boosted by the trade-in programs, sales of household appliances, furniture and communication devices have registered rapid growth. Sales related to trade-ins have surpassed 1.4 trillion yuan so far this year,” said Li Chao, a spokeswoman for the National Development and Reform Commission, when addressing a news conference on June 26.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s consumer spending in May posted its strongest monthly growth since 2024, with retail sales of consumer goods expanding 6.4 percent year-on-year in May, a 1.3 percentage point increase from April.
Experts cautioned that although the trade-in policies have been effective in driving sales of consumers goods, they also carry the risk of front-loading consumer demand, which could create challenges down the line.
“Providing similar consumption incentives to promote service sector spending could become a key policy lever going forward,” said Jiang Zhao, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Jiang noted that development patterns in advanced economies indicate that upon entering high-income status, nations typically experience a gradual rise in the proportion of service consumption. As China approaches this threshold, its consumption structure is transitioning from being focused on goods to being focused on both goods and services, he said.
Nevertheless, service consumption spans diverse sectors such as elderly care, tourism, fitness and healthcare, implying that subsidy programs would demand substantial fiscal funding and pose significant oversight challenges, Jiang said, adding that any decision to implement such incentives would require prudent assessment based on practical conditions.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
This photo shows the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province, Jan. 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan)
Residents of Hefei say the city has two suns — one suspends in the sky and the other lies in an industrial park in the city’s suburb.
Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, is home to the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). It has been dubbed China’s “artificial sun” due to its unique fusion process, which simulates that of the sun. This facility lies at the heart of the country’s quest for commercial fusion power, an almost inexhaustible source of clean energy.
Earlier this year, the EAST set a new world record by maintaining a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for 1,066 seconds. Motivated by its success, engineers are now busy building a new facility nearby — the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) — which is expected to showcase fusion electricity generation for the first time.
Technological breakthroughs are impressive, but equally noteworthy is the emergence of a booming industry surrounding these experimental facilities. While it may take another decade or two for commercial fusion to become a reality, the growth of the sector so far has been remarkable.
Engineers have designed a security check equipment utilizing a spin-off technology of fusion, which has been deployed at the city’s metro system. Another byproduct is a proton therapy system for treating multiple cancers, which will soon begin clinical operations.
“We aim to ‘lay eggs along the way,’ fostering new high-tech companies along our journey toward eventually realizing fusion power,” said Yang Qingxi, deputy director of the BEST department of Fusion Energy Tech., the company that is building the BEST.
Students view a model of the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) at an exhibition hall in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, July 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)
The company exemplifies the new strategy adopted by Chinese cities like Hefei to foster new industries from cutting-edge technologies. This approach leverages spin-off technologies from frontier research and focuses on quickly building a supply chain around these technologies.
Nationwide, the Chinese government has called for establishing a growth mechanism for investment in future industries, including quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, embodied intelligence and 6G. This has spurred a swift market response to transform lab-based research into operational technologies with market impact.
In Hefei, which hosts the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and several national labs, future industries including fusion energy, quantum information and commercial space industry are picking up steam.
In the fusion sector, an industrial chain was built from scratch in just a few years. The city now hosts nearly 60 fusion-related companies, many of them being suppliers of materials and equipment needed in the construction of experimental facilities.
“Our superconductors used to rely on imports, which means longer delivery time and insufficient supply. Now domestic companies have managed to greatly raise the output,” said Yan Jianwen, chairman of Fusion Energy Tech. “For them, it will become a gigantic industry if fusion energy is realized.”
This photo taken on July 1, 2025 shows a model of the quantum satellite “Micius” at China Telecom Quantum Group, in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)
The city’s quantum ascendance, derived from groundbreaking researches by USTC, has also fostered a thriving application ecosystem. Its “Quantum Avenue” has attracted dozens of tech firms to commercialize quantum technologies, including quantum computing, measurement and communication.
China Telecom Quantum Group, located near the avenue, displays a wide range of scenarios for its quantum products, from earthquake detection using quantum measurement to eavesdropping-proof phone calls powered by quantum communication.
“You can simply apply for a SIM card with quantum services to protect your phone from eavesdropping,” said Lyu Pin, chairman of the group, adding that such encrypted message and call services have nearly 6 million users, including many entrepreneurs fearing commercial espionage.
Quantum communication offers nearly unhackable data transmission, as any attempt to intercept or wiretap the quantum information will cause them to collapse and be detected.
“As public awareness of privacy protection rises, the user base of quantum communication is projected to reach tens of millions in the near future,” he said.
Lyu attributes the successful application of quantum technology to close collaboration between the company and researchers, as well as a supportive city government, which moves fast to green-light the application of new technologies.
“It usually takes decades and a lot of luck for basic science like quantum technology to enter the market, so it is very important to generate rewards through timely marketization, and for the government to facilitate this process,” said Zhang Jianxiao, who heads the group’s sci-tech innovation and strategic development department.
The city government of Hefei has set up an office dedicated to research-to-industry transformation and is soliciting companies that can form a supply chain for budding industries, said Li Chen, an official with Hefei’s development and reform commission.
“For companies and research institutes, pursuing commercialization opportunities as they develop helps generate profits and resources to better advance technologies,” he said. “For the government, this means finding new future industries and new growth points.”