Whether it’s better roads, improvements to parks, support for carers or helping people who become homeless, there are services in Coventry that are more important to different people.
Councils across the country are battling rising prices and increasing demands on their services and Coventry is no different.
This adds to the pressure on the 700 services we deliver every year.
At the same time, as a Council, we know that we cannot do everything we would really like to, but we can make sure that we give everyone the opportunity to have a say in how we build our budget for 2025 and 2026.
That’s why we want to get feedback from you, about where to focus our spending.
We would like to hear your views about the things that concern you and your family; to help us understand where we should focus resources as we work to improve lives across our city.
We have put together a survey, https://letstalk.coventry.gov.uk/local-services, to help us understand from Coventry residents your views and ensure they are embedded into our future financial plans.
If you can spend a few minutes to respond to us, we would love to get your thoughts.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Section of the new street 280th Anniversary of Barnaul, Barnaul, Altai Krai
October 10, 2024
Krasnoyarsk – Elita highway after reconstruction, Krasnoyarsk region
October 10, 2024
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Section of the new street 280th Anniversary of Barnaul, Barnaul, Altai Krai
As part of the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads”, road sections and artificial structures are being built in Russian regions. This year, work is planned to be completed on 221 road construction and reconstruction sites. Some have already opened for traffic, and some sites are at a high level of readiness. 33 sites have been put into operation, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported.
“For the sixth year in a row, the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads” helps not only to bring existing roads into compliance – repair them, but also to build new ones, as well as to modernize major highways, city bypasses, interchanges, bridges and overpasses. Thanks to this, the transport and logistics infrastructure of our country is developing: convenient routes are being laid, the road network is becoming more modern, which has a positive effect on the sustainable development of the regional economy. This year, it is planned to complete construction and reconstruction work on 221 objects on the regional and local road network. Many are in the final stage of readiness, and some have already opened for traffic. Since the beginning of the year, 33 objects have been put into operation,” said Marat Khusnullin.
Transport Minister Roman Starovoit noted that the main goal of the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads” is to improve the quality of life of Russians. The construction of new and reconstruction of existing road facilities contributes to achieving this goal. “New road sections help relieve high-traffic highways. Thanks to new bypasses of populated areas, transit transport is removed from them, the noise level in the populated area itself is reduced, the environment is improved, road safety is increased, and the carrier does not lose time on the road. In general, by the end of this year, it is planned to put into operation almost 380 km – these are construction and reconstruction sections on the regional and local network,” said Roman Starovoit.
The implementation of large-scale projects for the development of the road network of Russian regions is carried out thanks to federal support.
“The changes that have taken place in the road sector over the past few years are hard to miss. Thanks to the support of the President of the country Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and the Government of the Russian Federation, we are gradually managing to solve problems that have not been solved for decades. And the professionalism of our road workers and bridge builders, competent work on organizing the production process and uninterrupted financing allow us to complete large-scale projects ahead of schedule. In 2024, 47.8 billion rubles have been allocated for the implementation of major road projects, of which 13.2 billion rubles are federal budget funds. We all understand how people in the regions are waiting for new and renovated roads, and we strive to ensure that the work is completed not only on time, but also with high quality,” emphasized Deputy Head of Rosavtodor Igor Kostyuchenko.
Thus, in the capital of the Altai Territory, the construction of the 280th Anniversary of Barnaul Street has been completed on the section from 65 Let Pobedy Street to Popova Street. The length of the facility is 0.5 km. The new section of the street and road network is located in a densely populated area of Barnaul. Construction and installation work began in the spring and was completed ahead of schedule. Now car traffic from 65 Let Pobedy Street to Popova Street is open.
In the Yemelyanovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk region, the second stage of the reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk-Elita highway has been completed. The work took place on the section from 0.5 to 3.5 km in the area of the intersection with the Minino-Bugachevo direction.
In the Sovietsky District of Volgograd, traffic has opened on a new overpass located at the intersection of the Novy Rogachik – Volgograd highway and the Gornopolyansky – Kanalnaya railway section. Work on the site was completed two months ahead of schedule. The length of the overpass junction is more than 1.2 km.
In Leningrad Oblast, traffic has been launched on the reconstructed section of Koltushi Highway within the boundaries of Yanino. Koltushi Highway connects a significant part of the Vsevolozhsk District with St. Petersburg. The road is used by residents of Vsevolozhsk, Koltushi and Yanino. Because of this, the traffic intensity here exceeds 20 thousand cars per day. The expansion to four lanes will remove the “bottleneck” on the border with St. Petersburg.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
In Troitsk, the construction of an access road to a comprehensive school and kindergarten, which were built in microdistrict B using city budget funds, is nearing completion. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development Policy and Construction Vladimir Efimov.
“The access road to educational facilities in the V microdistrict of Troitsk runs from Polkovnika Militsii Kurochkina Street to Oktyabrsky Prospekt. Its length is 1.3 kilometers. Three underground pedestrian crossings will also be installed as part of the project. They will connect educational institutions with residential areas and public transport stops, ensuring safety and comfort. The facility is planned to be completed by the end of the year,” said Vladimir Efimov.
Two pedestrian crossings are being built by tunneling into the road embankment. Their lengths are 27 and 28 meters. The third crossing is 40 meters long. Elevators and ramps for people with limited mobility will be installed there.
All crossings are equipped with lighting with automatic control systems. The 40-meter crossing is equipped with ventilation, heating, electric automatic snow removal systems, and fire alarms. Staircases and tunnels are lined with frost-resistant heat-treated granite tiles. A protective anti-vandal coating is applied to the walls.
“Finishing works and installation of communications are currently underway. Installation of equipment has begun, as well as commissioning work,” said the head of the Department for the Development of New Territories of the City of Moscow
The giant school, built in microdistrict B in Troitsk, is designed for 2.1 thousand students, the kindergarten – for 350 pupils. Nearby there is a surface parking lot for 66 cars.
On the instructions of Sergei Sobyanin, close attention is being paid to the quality of work on road infrastructure facilities in the capital.
The progress of construction of each such facility is regularly checked by inspectors. Committee for State Construction Supervision of the City of Moscow (Mosgosstroynadzor). As part of the control and supervision activities, a comprehensive study of the road surface is carried out, including assessing the class of concrete by compressive strength, the coefficient of water saturation of asphalt concrete, measuring the thickness and number of layers of road surface, the chairman of Mosgosstroynadzor specified Anton Slobodchikov.
Since 2012, more than 400 kilometers of roads have been built in the territory of TiNAO. The total length of roads in the districts has increased by one and a half times since their annexation to the capital. Today it is about a thousand kilometers. According to the Address Investment Program of the City of Moscow, by the end of 2026 it is planned to build about 100 kilometers of roads here.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Coventry Council notes with considerable regret the death of the Indian industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata – and honorary freeman of the city – on October 9.
Mr Tata, who led the group bearing his family name for 21 years, and during that time the company acquired Jaguar Land Rover in 2008, helped to secure the future of such an important regional brand and created thousands of jobs during his chairmanship.
The city made Mr Tata a freeman of the city in 2015 in recognition of the investment of Tata Steel into Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) which enhanced and protected the status of car manufacturing in the region, the JLR brand and particularly the employment of its employees and many subsidy suppliers, supported by the Warwick Manufacturing Group.
Council leader Cllr George Duggins expressed his personal and the city’s sadness: “Ratan Tata was a great friend of the region and of the city in particular.
“Through his support to regenerate Jaguar Land Rover, his role in establishing the National Automotive Innovation Centre at the University of Warwick, his contribution to Coventry’s confident regeneration can not be underestimated. “I have written to the Tata family to pay the respects of the council and all its residents to titan of the business world.”
Environmental Health staff from Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council have welcomed the steps taken by local businesses to stop persons aged under 18 from using sunbeds at their premises.
Over recent months, council staff carried out test purchases in ten businesses which provide sunbeds and found one sale to a person aged under 18.
It is illegal for under-18s to use a sunbed on commercial premises, and it is the responsibility of the local council to enforce these laws.
A spokesperson for ABC Council said their Environmental Health staff remain committed to enforcing the legislation as well as highlighting the potential health risks of tanning beds, to both young people and parents.
“The risks of using sunbeds are very real and very serious. Using a sunbed, even once at any stage during your life increases your risk of developing melanoma by 20% compared to someone who has never used a sunbed. And this risk increases by 1.8% with each additional time you use a sunbed,” said the council spokesperson.
“We remain committed to the inspection of sunbed premises in our borough and welcome the fact that the vast majority of our local businesses are compliant, but we don’t want to see any sales at all to people aged under 18 and we will continue to work towards that.
“Businesses that don’t follow the law on sunbeds are issued with a fixed penalty notice of £250 and non-payment can result in a court case, and if convicted, this can result in a fine up to £5,000.”
For further information on sunbed safety legislation – please visit http://www.armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk/business/sunbed-safety/ If you have any concerns about a sunbed business in your area, please contact the Environmental Health Department at the Council on 0330 056 1011.
NEW parking spaces for residents have been created in the St Peters area of the city.
Leicester City Council has demolished outdated garages outside flats on Jupiter Close and Pluto Close to create the new spaces.
The work has seen 32 garages demolished at Jupiter Close, creating 30 new spaces and more than doubling the number of parking spaces available there, expanding the total number to 64. At Pluto Close, 23 garages have been demolished, creating 21 completely new parking spaces.
All of the spaces will now be made available for residents only.
The scheme has been funded by £300,000 from the city council’s public realm improvements fund for the Wycliffe ward, which covers the St Matthews and St Peters estates.
A total of 270 parking spaces are now available for use by residents, with 445 residents’ parking permits issued so far. An additional 329 parking spaces are now available on nearby streets, for anyone to park in.
Jupiter Close is now the largest parking site on the St Peters estate.
Demolition of garages at Jupiter Close
New parking spaces at Jupiter Close
Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, deputy city mayor for housing, economy and neighbourhoods, said: “We know that many vehicles from neighbouring businesses were using parking spaces on the estate in the past. Because of its proximity to Leicester city centre, there was also a problem with commuters parking here.
“These new residents’ parking spaces will stop that, significantly improving things for people who live here. It means non-residents and commuters can no longer take up their parking spaces, while customers and visitors to nearby businesses can use the on-street spaces.”
Ward councillors Hanif Aqbany and Mohammed Dawood have been closely involved in the scheme. Cllr Aqbany said: “We have now officially opened the extra parking at Jupiter Close with a really good celebration event and ribbon-cutting. But even before this, we were seeing that residents were already benefitting from the extra dedicated spaces we have created elsewhere on the estate. It’s a scheme that is having a really positive impact.”
Cllr Dawood added: “Residents on the estate have told us they are very happy with the scheme, which is great to hear. We are really pleased to be able to deliver these much-needed, updated parking facilities that will benefit residents and families living in the area.”
One resident, from Taurus Close, said: “I am so pleased with the parking now – I don’t have to worry when I come home late at night. Previously, I had to park off Melbourne Road at one in the morning and walk to my house – now I can find parking when I come home.”
Another, Mr Dassu, from Jupiter Close, said: “It is absolutely great, lovely! Residents were struggling to find parking spaces – but now it is better, I can park outside my home every day.”
The scheme complements a £1.2m project completed last year at nearby Ottawa Road on the St Matthews estate, that involved removing old brick garages and bin stores and replacing them with new parking bays, new street lighting and railings.
A £5million, three-year programme of improvements in St Matthews and St Peters will complete this year, after a commitment by City Mayor Peter Soulsby back in 2019 to invest in the two estates. Improvements have included installing more parking bays and electrical charging points; cleaning up courtyards and green spaces, and revamping the play area on Lethbridge Close in St Matthews and the central green space in St Peters.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
In a speech at Skanska’s national HQ, the Chief Secretary sets the Government’s vision for the country’s infrastructure.
Delivered on:
(Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)
Thank you for the kind introduction. Great to hear all of the great work you’re doing in my constituency. That’s always a good pitch when a member of Parliament is coming onto the stage.
And thank you to Skanska for hosting us. And it’s so great to see so many of you here. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come and listen to me today. I’m very grateful and to listen to our plans as a new government, with the intention of how we will continue to work together in delivering these priorities for the country.
So today, I’m setting out the government’s vision for our country’s infrastructure. Building on the Chancellor’s three pillars of stability, investment and reform. Taken together, we believe this approach to fixing the foundations will improve productivity in the public and private sector and help deliver on our mission for growth.
We all know why growth is this government’s first mission. If the UK’s economic growth had matched the OECD average over the past 14 years our economy would now be £140 billion larger. That would have generated £58 billion more in tax revenue to invest in our public services.
This failure to stimulate growth is the root cause of the £22 billion black hole we discovered in our public spending coming into government, which working people across the country understand all too well because they are living with the consequences of that failure to get growth into the economy.
That’s why this government, the Chancellor and I have made growth our defining mission and why, as a government of service, we will protect working people from the failures of the past.
You all know that infrastructure is a key engine for growth, but that engine is in serious need of an MOT. Because without maintained trains and roads, businesses will struggle to export, expand and grow without investing in renewable energy.
Firms and families will be exposed to the volatility and insecurity of foreign gas and oil prices, often driven by increasing conflicts overseas.
And without a clear infrastructure strategy, investors can’t take long term investment decisions in the interests of their own firms, but more importantly, in the interests of UK plc.
That’s why I welcome today’s report from the National Infrastructure Commission, which sets out the drivers behind escalating costs of major projects over the previous years. They point to a lack of strategic clarity as one of the root causes.
It lays bare in the starkest terms the consequences of what has happened over previous years. Instead of clarity, we’ve had confusion. Instead of strategy, we’ve had short termism. And instead of stability, we have had chaos.
All of which has reduced investment into infrastructure and our country. Because behind the complexity of the numbers, the graphs and the data, there is a simple truth.
What investors need most from government is trust. And sadly, that trust has been broken. So I am here to rebuild it so that you can help us rebuild our infrastructure and together we can rebuild Britain.
To do that, we have to start by fixing the foundations. We can’t build infrastructure or our economy on foundations, which have been progressively fractured over the past 14 years because just like good transport infrastructure provides a stable path for firms to grow, or a reliably priced energy supply system allows families to budget and plan for the future.
It is only through fixing the foundations that we can achieve the economic stability on which we will rebuild Britain. That will require tough decisions, not least to get a grip of public spending which had gotten out of control. But above all, it will require a change in approach.
But it will be the right type of change. It will be long term, it will be joined up and it will be strategic, not directionless chaos in the winds of political change, but the lasting change of a decade of national renewal. To sum it up in three words we will deliver strategy and delivery.
I’ll begin with strategy, which delivers on the Chancellor’s demand for stability.
We will publish a ten year national infrastructure strategy next spring, alongside the conclusion of our multi-year Spending Review. This will outline our approach to our core economic infrastructure like transport, energy and housing, and for the first time will also profile our social infrastructure plans for the schools and hospitals which support a flourishing modern economy.
This strategy will be co-ordinated across the whole of Whitehall and will align with our new, overlapping and long term spending framework, making sure that we will allocate public capital better in the future.
A new and improved relationship with the private sector will also be crucial. There is, after all, only so much that the public sector can or should do, and we all know that the vast majority of our growth will be driven by private sector investment.
So we will unlock private investment by being a real partner to business, sharing in the risks and financial burdens that come with investing.
The National Wealth Fund will provide billions of pounds of public money to be invested alongside private finance, drawing greater investment into the industries that will power our growth for years to come.
And we will bring together the deep pension pots that exist throughout the United Kingdom, but which often don’t provide a particularly good return. By our estimates, pension pots could be boosted by £11,000 on average, whilst unlocking £8 billion of new productive investment into our economy.
And of course, as so many wise voices have called for, we have committed to taking on the role of a strategic state through a new modern industrial strategy
It will provide much needed clarity and certainty over the government’s approach to key British sectors and industries, and long term guidance on our priorities and missions, helping investors to plan ahead.
It will help ensure our growth mission is resilient to global challenges, support regional growth, and deliver an acceleration on net zero. But strategy without delivery is meaningless.
The last government made a plethora of empty promises they never delivered, and this failure to deliver has further undermined the trust in government and, quite frankly, in the United Kingdom that is necessary for investors to invest. We have already taken steps to change that. Here are just three examples.
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which we will introduce this session, will accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure. It will streamline and simplify the consenting process for major infrastructure projects and enable relevant, new and improved national policy statements to come forward, giving increased certainty to developers and communities.
We are working at pace with the energy industry and regulators to connect renewable energy projects to the grid more quickly, and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has already approved several major solar projects for example, consenting more capacity in the last three months than was installed in the last year, creating thousands of jobs alongside it.
And the deputy Prime Minister herself can now intervene in the planning system where the potential for growth demands it. Early examples include recovered applications for two data centres in Buckinghamshire and Herefordshire, and a film studio near Marlow. That I hope is all welcome news, but I want to provide even more assurance to those looking to invest in Britain’s infrastructure.
Because you must all be thinking that you’ve heard it all before. Some nice words from a politician, often in a hard hat and high vis. Sadly not today. Saying this time it will be different. And then six weeks, six months, six years later, it’s the same problems and the same challenges.
You need to know that you can trust me and this government to change. And here’s why you should.
When the Chancellor addressed the state of our public spending inheritance earlier this year in Parliament, she stressed the importance of our expert led institutions such as the office for Budget Responsibility for Fiscal Stability. I fully agree with her.
And that’s why we are confirming today, in line with our reform pillar, that we are strengthening the oversight of the delivery of government’s infrastructure plans through the introduction of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, or NISTA, which will be operational by spring 2025.
We will do this by combining the functions of the National Infrastructure Commission and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. We will give NISTA a strong mandate and we will bring in external expertise and provide direct ministerial oversight from the centre of government and in each and every department across Whitehall.
The National Infrastructure Commission, as we all know, has produced excellent strategic reports of what infrastructure the country needs and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s expertise and commitment to delivering critical infrastructure projects is unmatched. But the government has collectively still failed to deliver in the past. This is what we will change.
Building on the work of the NIC and the IPA, NISTA will bring oversight of strategy and delivery into one organisation, developing and implementing our ten year infrastructure strategy in conjunction with industry, while driving more effective delivery of infrastructure across the country.
In short, it will bridge the gap between what we build and how we build it. It will be a crucial part of our plan to improve delivery.
I’m also delighted to announce that Sir John Armitt, who I’m sure you all know very well, has agreed to extend his term as the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission during this transition period and that he and his team will help inform the infrastructure strategy over the coming months.
Building on the analysis and recommendation of the Commission’s second National Infrastructure Assessment, working with the IPA as we create NISTA together.
I recognise that as ever, there will be lots of questions about what this means for industry, investors and infrastructure. I look forward to answering them and most crucially, I look forward to working with all of you as we develop these plans over the coming months, announce them in the spring and then get on with delivery.
But there is one message I want you to take away from today.
A few months ago, the Chancellor announced that we will unlock investment and deliver growth through economic and political stability, and that that growth will only come by investing and fixing the foundations.
There is much work to be done to build a new Britain, and today our infrastructure plans begin that work.
President-elect of the European Council António Costa will take office at the beginning of December. On 8 October, Mr Costa was welcomed to Stockholm by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. During a working lunch, they discussed working methods and issues that will be high on the EU agenda going forward.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and President-elect of the European Council António Costa held a working lunch in the Sager House.
Photo: Government Offices
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and President-elect of the European Council António Costa held a working lunch in the Sager House.
Photo: Magnus Liljegren/Government Offices
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and President-elect of the European Council António Costa held a working lunch in the Sager House.
Photo: Magnus Liljegren/Government Offices
“Among other topics, we spoke about Sweden’s four main priorities in the EU going forward. It’s about supporting Ukraine, strengthening the Union’s competitiveness, ambitious and effective climate action measures, and the fight against organised crime. I also underlined that Sweden will continue to be a constructive and active player in the EU,” said Mr Kristersson.
Mr Costa will take up his post as President of the European Council in early December. He succeeds Charles Michel, who has been President since 2019.
“António Costa is highly experienced and capable. I am convinced that he will take on the Presidency in a commendable manner,” said Mr Kristersson.
Yaoundé (Agenzia Fides) – The “Fidei Donum” priest Christophe Komla Badjougou, originally from Togo, was murdered on the evening of October 7 in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.The priest was shot dead in front of the gate of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) in the Mvolyé district.The Archbishop of Yaoundé, Jean Mbarga, expressed his “deep sadness” and expressed his condolences to the priest’s family, his friends and the Christian community.”In these sad circumstances, the Archdiocese of Yaoundé expresses its sincere condolences to Father Christophe’s family, his friends and the faithful of the diocese of Yagoua. The Christian community is invited to pray for him so that he may find grace with God,” said the Archbishop of Yaoundé.According to the Cameroonian authorities, the priest was killed in a robbery. Images from surveillance cameras at the crime scene have made it possible to reconstruct the events. A police spokesman told the Cameroonian press: “The surveillance cameras at the crime scene show that the priest came from the town of ‘Dakar en bas’ on a motorcycle that dropped him off at the gate of the CICM. A few seconds later, two people on motorcycles can be seen coming. After passing the priest, they turned around and came to the gate where Father Christophe was standing. The images show an altercation between the victim and one of the attackers, who managed to take the priest’s bag. The perpetrator then fired twice in the air and then three shots at the priest, who collapsed on the ground.” Father Christophe was vicar of the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Zouzoui in the diocese of Yagoua, in the north of the country. He was passing through Yaoundé, from where he was going to Italy for a year of formation. Father Christophe belonged to the “Association of Silent Workers of the Cross”, inspired by the Italian Blessed Luigi Novarese, whose mother house is in Ariano Irpino, in southern Italy, in the Marian Shrine of Valleluogo. Originally from Togo, he was ordained a priest in 2013 in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Trinity in Atakpamé.In 2014 he became a full member of the SOdC and entered the community of Mouda (Togo), where he carried out his ministry as a formator and parish priest of the parish of Zouzoui. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 10/10/2024)
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End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.
IMF staff and The Ivorian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on both the third review of Côte d’Ivoire’s economic reform program supported by the EFF and ECF arrangements, and the second review of their climate change reform program supported by the RSF arrangement. Discussions were also held in the context of the 2024 Article IV consultation.
The authorities are advancing their reform agendas for safeguarding macroeconomic stability, deepening economic transformation towards meeting upper-middle income status, and building greater climate resilience through adaptation and mitigation reforms. In addition, to boost inclusive growth, they are advancing reforms in reducing informality and social inequality and tackling gender disparities.
Completion of the reviews by the IMF Executive Board will lead to two disbursements for a total of about US$825 million of which US$498 million and US$327 million will respectively be on account of the EFF/ECF and RSF arrangements.
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team, led by Mr. Olaf Unteroberdoerster, held discussions with the Ivoirian authorities during Sept. 23 – Oct 9 on progress under both the authorities’ economic and financial program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF), and the climate reform program supported by the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), as well as on the 2024 Article IV consultation. The EFF/ECF arrangement for an amount of SDR 2.6 billion (about US$3.5 billion) and the RSF arrangement for an amount of SDR 975.6 million (about US$1.3 billion) were approved by the IMF Executive Board respectively on May 24, 2023, and March 15, 2024.
“After constructive discussions with the Ivoirian authorities, I am pleased to announce that performance under the two programs has been satisfactory so far and that we reached staff-level agreement on all policies and reform measures in line with the programs’ objectives. On the EFF/ECF arrangement, the authorities and staff agreed on additional revenue measures to meet 2024 fiscal targets, on the 2025 key policy measures including further revenue-based fiscal consolidation to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2025, and on structural measures to further strengthen domestic revenue mobilization, public financial management, and governance.
“On the RSF, understandings were reached on the timely implementation of reform measures falling due in the remainder of 2024, focusing on strengthening climate policies governance , reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing green and sustainable financing for private and public companies. Discussions also focused on the coordination between stakeholders and national development plans, and the next steps following the Climate Financing Round table of July 2024 with a view to announcing specific financing and technical assistance pledged at the COP29 in mid-November 2024.
“The completion of the programs’ reviews and disbursement of the next tranches for a total of about US$[825] million will be subject to approval of the IMF’s Executive Board.
“Côte d’Ivoire’s economy remains resilient, notwithstanding a slight moderation of growth in 2024 to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent in 2023, in part reflecting weaker agricultural production and construction activity in first half of the year and a challenging regional and external environment. More favorable terms of trade, led by higher cocoa prices, is expected to narrow the current account deficit to less than 5 percent of GDP in 2024. The budget deficit is expected to fall to 4 percent of GDP in line with program targets. The medium-term outlook remains favorable. Growth is projected to average 6.7 percent over the period 2025-2029 supported by a recovery in cocoa production and higher hydrocarbon and mining production. Inflation is projected to average 4 percent in 2024 and continue to decline over the medium term within the BCEAO target range by end 2025.
“Thanks to continued strong domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) efforts under the government’s comprehensive medium-term revenue mobilization strategy (MTRS) adopted in May 2024, the fiscal deficit is expected to further decline to 3 percent of GDP in 2025, converging to the WAEMU target. Prudent fiscal and debt management will also help safeguard a moderate risk of debt distress rating for public and external sector debt. The current account deficit is projected to decline further to average about 2 percent of GDP on the back of favorable terms of trade, a rebound in agricultural exports, and further increases in hydrocarbon exports. As a result, Côte d’Ivoire is expected to contribute significantly to the recovery of regional official reserves.
“In the 2024 Article IV consultation, discussions highlighted the links between informality, socio-economic and gender disparities, growth, and the tax system. Reducing informality across the economy could help deliver higher and more inclusive growth, support poverty reduction, boost human capital, sustain domestic revenue mobilization, and steadfast efforts to reach upper-middle income status.”
The IMF team met with His Excellency Mr. Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, Vice President of the Republic; His Excellency Robert Beugré Mambé, Prime Minister; Mr. Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Production; Mrs. Nialé Kaba, Minister of Economy, Planning and Development; Mr. Adama Coulibaly, Minister of Finance and Budget; Mr. Sangafowa Coulibaly, Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy; Mr. Souleymane Diarrassouba, Minister of Trade and Industry; Mr. Moussa Sanogo, Minister of Assets, the State Portfolio and Public Enterprises, and senior officials of the Government and the BCEAO, as well as representatives of the business community and donors.
SEOUL, South Korea — Republic of Korea (ROK) President Yoon Suk Yeol presented Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea (CNFK) Rear Adm. Neil Koprowski with the ROK Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), during the 76th Annual ROK Armed Forces Day Ceremony in Seoul, October 1.
The ROK PUC is the highest unit honor that the ROK president can bestow on a military unit and recognizes the efforts of all the Sailors of CNFK for “outstanding contribution to the defense of the Republic of Korea.” Over the last year, CNFK has supported multiple port visits in Busan and Jeju, including three carrier strike groups, amphibious strike and amphibious ready groups, the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, USS Kentucky (SSBN 737) and the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Vermont (SSN 792). CNFK also coordinated trilateral partnerships with Republic of Korea Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
“We are incredibly honored by President Yoon’s personal recognition on behalf of CNFK,” said Koprowski. “This award is a testament to the ironclad commitment to the ROK-U.S. alliance and a true reflection of the work being done every day by ROK and U.S. Sailors from CRF and CNFK. Our collaboration with the ROK Navy ensures we remain ready and vigilant, working together to safeguard the security of this great nation.”
The conferral of the PUC marks the fourth time a U.S. Navy command has received the prestigious award since 1950. Previous recipients of the award include CNFK in 2017 and U.S. Navy Task Forces 90 and 95 in periods bridging 1950-1951 during the Korean War.
Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea (CNFK), located on Busan Naval Base, South Korea, is the U.S. Navy’s representative in South Korea, providing leadership and expertise in naval matters to improve institutional and operational effectiveness between the two navies and to strengthen collective interoperability in Korea and the region.
SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly 50 Sailors and Marines participated in urban search and rescue training with members of the San Francisco Fire Department during San Francisco Fleet Week 2024 on October 9.
The training was held on Treasure Island, an artificial island in San Francisco Bay and home to Naval Station Treasure Island, a former United States Navy facility that operated there from 1942 to 1997. Today, Treasure Island hosts the San Francisco Fire Department’s Training Facility.
Doug Johnson, a firefighter with the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) and an instructor for the Northern California Rescue Training team, explains the importance of these integrations.
“In the case of a natural disaster, if everyone has basic skill sets that can be depended upon to execute a need, it allows for a much more coordinated use of personnel,” said Johnson. “If I can turn to a group of military service members as a single resource and say, ‘Hey, here’s what we need to accomplish—are you capable of helping?’ it just makes it easier for those who have training on our side to pass off some of the responsibility.”
According to attending service members, some key takeaways from the event included safety, supervision, and executing tasks methodically. U.S. Navy Lt.j.g. Henry Gao, the repair division officer aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset (LPD 25), shared his experience from the training.
“All of these activities are fun training, but you obviously need to know all the precautions, check before you do anything that might be dangerous, and have a full plan for what it should look like if it’s safe. And, of course, if something looks dangerous, you need to know how to avoid the situation,” said Gao.
U.S. Marine Corps SSgt. Talon Wolfe, assigned to Somerset, also weighed in. “Being able to get involved with the community was huge,” said Wolfe. “My biggest takeaway was that, with this training, we’re able to showcase that we can do a lot more than we initially thought. Today, I worked with a team of other Sailors and Marines to lift a 6,000-pound slab of concrete.”
Deputy Chief of Operations for the SFFD, Darius Luttropp, shared his perspective on having service members integrate with firefighters and instructors during San Francisco Fleet Week 2024.
“All the Fleet Week training and Defense Support of Civil Authority exercises are both great opportunities to highlight civilian services and the military,” said Luttropp. “They give us a chance to see how each other operates. We truly get to see the value of interaction, motivation, drive, desire, and willingness. The tempo at which the military works is very similar to how the fire department operates. It’s always been a great collaborative relationship.”
Fleet Week, now in its 43rd iteration, is a time-honored sea service celebration that allows citizens of the Bay Area to witness today’s maritime capabilities firsthand. Nearly 2,500 Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen will showcase their skills and equipment, participate in various community service events, and enjoy the hospitality of the Bay Area.
Writers with a taste for Dickensian thrills can join Blue Peter Award-winning children’s author Ali Sparkes at the Charles Dickens’ Birthplace Museum this Halloween.
Three intimate sessions, suitable for adult writers or accompanied teenagers aged over 14, will run after dark in the atmospheric Victorian terrace in Old Commercial Road, where writers will create frightening flash fiction inspired by objects around the house.
Ali Sparkes, who is well known to local schools for her many visits through Portsmouth Schools Library Service, said:
“I can’t wait to see what stories emerge from these sessions. As well as choosing authentic objects from Charles Dickens’ life to trigger ideas, the writers will be pre-chilled with excerpts from The Signalman. This short story is regarded as one of Dickens most spooky – and the true backstory behind it is even darker.
“We will also be tapping into any true ghostly experiences of the writers.”
The Halloween workshops – running on 29, 30 and 31 October between 6 and 8pm – will see the rooms dressed up for Halloween, and there will be hot sweet drinks and cake – Victorian-style – for the writers taking part.
The workshops herald a winter season of Dickensian experiences at the museum, including a festive trail celebrating the classic Victorian Christmas setting of A Christmas Carol.
Cllr Steve Pitt, the Leader of Portsmouth City Council with responsibility for culture, said:
“This is a brilliant opportunity for local writers to come together creatively in Charles Dickens’ Birthplace – it seems so fitting.”
Each of the Halloween writing workshops will accommodate no more than ten, so please book as soon as possible to secure your place. Tickets are £25. To book call 023 9283 4779.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Ministers have unveiled the Employment Rights Bill to help deliver economic security and growth to businesses, workers and communities across the UK.
Legislation introduced in Parliament to upgrade workers’ rights across the UK, tackle poor working conditions and benefit businesses and workers alike
Ahead of International Investment Summit, government reveals landmark reforms in under 100 days to boost pay and productivity, showing the benefits of a ‘pro-business, pro-worker’ approach
New balance for early months of a job at heart of pragmatic reforms to help drive growth in the economy and support more people into secure work
Employment Rights Bill will end exploitative zero-hour contracts and unscrupulous fire and rehire practices, while establishing rights to bereavement and parental leave from day one
Today (10 October) ministers have unveiled the Employment Rights Bill, introduced within 100 days of the new government coming to office, to help deliver economic security and growth to businesses, workers and communities across the UK.
Getting the labour market moving again is essential to economic growth with one in five UK businesses with more than 10 employees reporting staff shortages. Flexibility, for workers and businesses alike, is key to answering this challenge and is at the heart of the legislation to upgrade the law to ensure it is fit for modern life and a modern economy.
The existing two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal will be removed, delivering on the manifesto commitment to ensure that all workers have a right to these protections from day one on the job.
The government will also consult on a new statutory probation period for companies’ new hires. This will allow for a proper assessment of an employee’s suitability to a role as well as reassuring employees that they have rights from day one, enabling businesses to take chances on hires while giving more people confidence to re-enter the job market or change careers, improving their living standards.
The bill will bring forward 28 individual employment reforms, from ending exploitative zero hours contracts and fire and rehire practices to establishing day one rights for paternity, parental and bereavement leave for millions of workers. Statutory sick pay will also be strengthened, removing the lower earnings limit for all workers and cutting out the waiting period before sick pay kicks in.
Accompanying this will be measures to help make the workplace more compatible with people’s lives, with flexible working made the default where practical. Large employers will also be required to create action plans on addressing gender pay gaps and supporting employees through the menopause, and protections against dismissal will be strengthened for pregnant women and new mothers. This is all with the intention of keeping people in work for longer, reducing recruitment costs for employers by increasing staff retention and helping the economy grow.
A new Fair Work Agency bringing together existing enforcement bodies will also be established to enforce rights such as holiday pay and support employers looking for guidance on how to comply with the law.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said:
This government is delivering the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation, boosting pay and productivity with employment laws fit for a modern economy. We’re turning the page on an economy riven with insecurity, ravaged by dire productivity and blighted by low pay.
The UK’s out-of-date employment laws are holding our country back and failing business and workers alike. Our plans to make work pay will deliver security in work as the foundation for boosting productivity and growing our economy to make working people better off and realise our potential.
Too many people are drawn into a race to the bottom, denied the security they need to raise a family while businesses are unable to retain the workers they need to grow. We’re raising the floor on rights at work to deliver a stronger, fairer and brighter future of work for Britain.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
It is our mission to get the economy moving and create the long term, sustainable growth that people and businesses across the country need. Our plan will give the world of work a much needed upgrade, boosting pay and productivity.
The best employers know that employees are more productive when they are happy at work. That is why it’s vital to give employers the flexibility they need to grow whilst ending unscrupulous and unfair practices.
This upgrade to our laws will ensure they are fit for modern life, raise living standards and provide opportunity and security for businesses, workers and communities across the country.
Alongside the legislation, a ‘Next Steps’ document for the Make Work Pay Plan has been published outlining the government’s vision and long-term plans and setting out our ambitions for the plan to grow the economy, raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all.
Ending one-sided flexibility
The legislation will level the playing field where all parties understand what is required of them and good employers aren’t undercut by bad ones.
The bill will end exploitative zero hours contracts, following research that shows 84% of zero hours workers would rather have guaranteed hours. They, along with those on low hours contracts, will now have the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period, giving them security of earnings whilst allowing people to remain on zero hours contracts where they prefer to. According to TUC research nearly two thirds of managers (64%) believe ending zero hours contracts would have a positive impact on their business.
Ending unscrupulous employment practices is a priority for this government and none more so than shutting down the loopholes that allow bullying fire and rehire and fire and replace to continue. The government is closing these loopholes and putting in place measures to give greater protections against unfair dismissal from day one, ensuring that the feeling of security at work is no longer a luxury for the privileged few.
This bill turns the page on the previously ineffective, costly and conflicting approach to dealing with industrial relations that has brought so much disruption to businesses and livelihoods. lt repeals the anti-union legislation put in place by the previous administration, including the Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Act legislation that failed to prevent a single day of industrial action while in force.
Employment Rights Minister Justin Madders said:
We know that most employers proudly treat their staff well. However, for decades as the world of work has changed, employment rights have failed to keep pace, with an increase in one-sided flexibility slowing the potential for growth in the economy.
The steps we’re taking today will finally right these wrongs, working in partnership with business and unions to kickstart economic growth that will benefit them, their workers and local communities.
From tackling fire and rehire to ending exploitative zero hours contracts, we are delivering a modern economy that drives up living standards for families across the UK.
Supporting working families
Too many people find that the current system isn’t compatible with the realities of everyday life, whether that’s raising children or supporting a loved one with a health condition. The government wants to make sure that everyone can get on in work and not be held back because work isn’t compatible with important family responsibilities.
That is why the government will:
Change the law to make flexible working the default for all, unless the employer can prove it’s unreasonable.
Set a clear standard for employers by establishing a new right to bereavement leave, with the entitlement sculpted with the needs of employees and the concerns of employers at the forefront.
Deliver stronger protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work including protection from dismissal whilst pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work.
Tackle low pay by accounting for cost of living when setting the Minimum Wage and remove discriminatory age bands.
Establish a new Fair Work Agency that will bring together different government enforcement bodies, enforce holiday pay for the first time and strengthen statutory sick pay. It will create a stronger, recognisable single organisation that people know where to go for help – with better support for employers who want to comply with the law and tough action on the minority who deliberately flout it.
Beyond the bill
The Make Work Pay Plan doesn’t stop with this bill. Continuing to reform employment rights in line with changes to the economy and labour market is critical to maintaining growth, prosperity and opportunity. As an outlook to the future, the government has also today published a Next Steps document that outlines reforms it will look to implement in the future.
Subject to consultations, this includes:
A Right to Switch Off, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances, to allow them the rest and get the recuperation they need to give 100% during their shift.
A strong commitment to end pay discrimination by expanding the Equality (Race and Disparity) Bill to make it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap.
A move towards a single status of worker and transition towards a simpler two-part framework for employment status.
Reviews into the parental leave and carers leave systems to ensure they are delivering for employers, workers and their loved ones.
Responding to the government’s initiative, these businesses and employee groups have said:
Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of the Co-op, said:
We support the Government’s ambitions to strengthen rights for workers and value the co-operative approach to involve employers in the reforms. As the UK’s largest consumer co-operative, Co-op has long supported colleagues to have good working lives, with policies like our leading bereavement leave, day one right to request flexible working arrangements, and menopause support already in place. The positive impact of these policies is clear to see.
Being able to support colleagues when they need it, and in particular women, parents and carers, helps retain valuable talent and makes good business sense. We look forward to continuing to work with Government to make work pay and to deliver economic growth.”
Paul Nowak, TUC General Secretary, said:
After 14 years of stagnating living standards, working people desperately need secure jobs they can build a decent life on.
Whether it’s tackling the scourge of zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire, improving access to sick pay and parental leave, or clamping down on exploitation – this Bill highlights the Government’s commitment to upgrade rights and protections for millions.
Driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth. While there is still detail to be worked through, it is time to write a positive new chapter for working people in this country.”
Jane van Zyl, CEO at Working Families, said:
As campaigners for better rights for working parents and carers, we’re pleased there is hope on the horizon for the millions who stand to benefit from the transformational changes in the proposed Employment Bill.
Establishing workplace rights from day one and making flexible working the default could be the key to unlocking labour market mobility, with the promise of getting the economy moving and ensuring parents and carers are not held back in their careers. In addition, we welcome any strengthening of legislation that helps protect pregnant women and new mothers against losing their jobs unfairly at a vulnerable time in their lives.
The proposals in the Plan to Make Work Pay have the potential to remove barriers in the workplace, give a better start for new parents and reduce gendered roles in caring. The message it sends that worker’s rights matter, and the willingness to address inequalities, is very promising.”
Simon Roberts, Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s, said:
As one of the UK’s largest employers we put our colleagues at the heart of everything we do. We see the clear link between engaged, motivated colleagues and business performance and that is why we have increased colleague pay by over 50% in the last 5 years.
We share the Government’s vision of making work pay, enabling growth and driving productivity. We welcome today’s announcement and Government engagement with business to date and look forward to seeing progress on business rates reform, which would deliver real benefits for our colleagues, customers and communities.”
Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of CIPD, the professional body for HR and Learning & Development professionals, said:
We share the Government’s ambition to raise employment standards and job quality through the Employment Rights Bill as part of the wider Make Work Pay agenda.
The changes being proposed represent the greatest update in employment legislation in decades. We’re pleased to see the ongoing commitment from Government to engage with the business community to work through the important details to ensure they have a positive impact for both employers and workers.”
Jemima Olchawski, CEO of Fawcett Society, said:
Today’s draft employment bill is a win for women. Fawcett and our members have campaigned long and hard to see government chart a new course for inclusive economic growth and to improve women’s working lives. We share this government’s ambition to ensure all women can thrive at work and fully contribute to the economy.”
Mark Reynolds, Mace Group Chair and Chief Executive, said:###
Ensuring British workers are supported with strong employment rights benefits everyone – employers as well as employees. This package of reforms is a welcome insight into the Government’s plans and show that they have engaged extensively with businesses and taken a pragmatic approach. We’re pleased to support it; both on behalf of Mace and the wider construction industry. We look forward to working closely with the Government as they take these plans forward.”
Brian McNamara, CEO of Haleon, said:
It is crucial that the Government continues to engage with the business community on such an important piece of legislation and we welcome the dialogue to date. Haleon is committed to creating an inclusive culture that provides all employees with equal opportunities. This is central to our company strategy and will be core to our future success.”
Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy, said:
In formulating these proposals it’s clear that the government has listened to both workers and employers to create protections against bad practices while enabling good businesses to invest in growth and training. For example, the probation period will allow progressive employers to give a chance to people without typical experience or educational backgrounds, opening up new opportunities for them in great careers.”
Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, said:
As the largest Unionised workforce in the energy sector, we are pleased to see the Government publish their landmark legislation providing more rights and flexibility to employees.
At Centrica, we offer a range of policies to support our 21,000 colleagues including flexible working and health and wellbeing support from day one, a leading 10 days paid carers policy, our Pathway to Parenthood which offers comprehensive financial support towards fertility treatment alongside paid leave to for any fertility, adoption or surrogacy appointments, and additional support for neurodivergent colleagues. It’s the right thing to do and we want to help our employees and share best practices with others. Our experience shows that there is a clear business case for doing this with savings from increased retention and ensuring colleagues don’t have to take unplanned absences.”
Helen Dickinson OBE, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, said:
As the country’s largest private sector employer, employing three million people, the industry stands ready to work with government to ensure these reforms are a win:win for employers and colleagues, and maximise employment opportunities, investment, and growth. Many of the expected provisions, including stopping exploitative contracts and offering flexibility in employment, are things that responsible retailers already do. Introducing these standards for everyone means good employers should be competing on a level playing field. We look forward to engaging the government on the details, including around seasonal hiring and the use of probation periods.”
Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, said:
I’m pleased the Government has recognised the importance of flexibility to both workers and businesses. This is crucial for hospitality, which employs 3.5m people and provides countless flexible roles for working parents, students, carers and many more.
We look forward to continuing our engagement and consultation with the Government on its plans, which are not without cost, to get the details right for all parties.”
Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, BT Group, said
BT Group believes that a strong economy is one that works for everyone, and has already adopted many of the measures that will be covered by this legislation. It will be crucial to get the details right, to avoid unintended consequences and keep the UK competitive, and we welcome the constructive, consultative approach that the Government is taking.
Benjamin Knowles, CEO of Pedal Me, said:
Fair employment is central to an equitable society – so we’re pleased to see these regulatory changes including strong measures to tackle the undermining of fair employment through the gig economy, levelling the playing field.
End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.
IMF staff and The Ivorian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on both the third review of Côte d’Ivoire’s economic reform program supported by the EFF and ECF arrangements, and the second review of their climate change reform program supported by the RSF arrangement. Discussions were also held in the context of the 2024 Article IV consultation.
The authorities are advancing their reform agendas for safeguarding macroeconomic stability, deepening economic transformation towards meeting upper-middle income status, and building greater climate resilience through adaptation and mitigation reforms. In addition, to boost inclusive growth, they are advancing reforms in reducing informality and social inequality and tackling gender disparities.
Completion of the reviews by the IMF Executive Board will lead to two disbursements for a total of about US$825 million of which US$498 million and US$327 million will respectively be on account of the EFF/ECF and RSF arrangements.
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team, led by Mr. Olaf Unteroberdoerster, held discussions with the Ivoirian authorities during Sept. 23 – Oct 9 on progress under both the authorities’ economic and financial program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF), and the climate reform program supported by the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), as well as on the 2024 Article IV consultation. The EFF/ECF arrangement for an amount of SDR 2.6 billion (about US$3.5 billion) and the RSF arrangement for an amount of SDR 975.6 million (about US$1.3 billion) were approved by the IMF Executive Board respectively on May 24, 2023, and March 15, 2024.
“After constructive discussions with the Ivoirian authorities, I am pleased to announce that performance under the two programs has been satisfactory so far and that we reached staff-level agreement on all policies and reform measures in line with the programs’ objectives. On the EFF/ECF arrangement, the authorities and staff agreed on additional revenue measures to meet 2024 fiscal targets, on the 2025 key policy measures including further revenue-based fiscal consolidation to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2025, and on structural measures to further strengthen domestic revenue mobilization, public financial management, and governance.
“On the RSF, understandings were reached on the timely implementation of reform measures falling due in the remainder of 2024, focusing on strengthening climate policies governance , reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing green and sustainable financing for private and public companies. Discussions also focused on the coordination between stakeholders and national development plans, and the next steps following the Climate Financing Round table of July 2024 with a view to announcing specific financing and technical assistance pledged at the COP29 in mid-November 2024.
“The completion of the programs’ reviews and disbursement of the next tranches for a total of about US$[825] million will be subject to approval of the IMF’s Executive Board.
“Côte d’Ivoire’s economy remains resilient, notwithstanding a slight moderation of growth in 2024 to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent in 2023, in part reflecting weaker agricultural production and construction activity in first half of the year and a challenging regional and external environment. More favorable terms of trade, led by higher cocoa prices, is expected to narrow the current account deficit to less than 5 percent of GDP in 2024. The budget deficit is expected to fall to 4 percent of GDP in line with program targets. The medium-term outlook remains favorable. Growth is projected to average 6.7 percent over the period 2025-2029 supported by a recovery in cocoa production and higher hydrocarbon and mining production. Inflation is projected to average 4 percent in 2024 and continue to decline over the medium term within the BCEAO target range by end 2025.
“Thanks to continued strong domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) efforts under the government’s comprehensive medium-term revenue mobilization strategy (MTRS) adopted in May 2024, the fiscal deficit is expected to further decline to 3 percent of GDP in 2025, converging to the WAEMU target. Prudent fiscal and debt management will also help safeguard a moderate risk of debt distress rating for public and external sector debt. The current account deficit is projected to decline further to average about 2 percent of GDP on the back of favorable terms of trade, a rebound in agricultural exports, and further increases in hydrocarbon exports. As a result, Côte d’Ivoire is expected to contribute significantly to the recovery of regional official reserves.
“In the 2024 Article IV consultation, discussions highlighted the links between informality, socio-economic and gender disparities, growth, and the tax system. Reducing informality across the economy could help deliver higher and more inclusive growth, support poverty reduction, boost human capital, sustain domestic revenue mobilization, and steadfast efforts to reach upper-middle income status.”
The IMF team met with His Excellency Mr. Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, Vice President of the Republic; His Excellency Robert Beugré Mambé, Prime Minister; Mr. Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Production; Mrs. Nialé Kaba, Minister of Economy, Planning and Development; Mr. Adama Coulibaly, Minister of Finance and Budget; Mr. Sangafowa Coulibaly, Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy; Mr. Souleymane Diarrassouba, Minister of Trade and Industry; Mr. Moussa Sanogo, Minister of Assets, the State Portfolio and Public Enterprises, and senior officials of the Government and the BCEAO, as well as representatives of the business community and donors.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
On the third day of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, a meeting of the Scientific and Educational Interuniversity Council of PJSC Gazprom was held with the participation of the heads of the corporation and its partner universities. The Polytechnic University was represented by the Rector of SPbPU, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Rudskoy, Vice-Rector for Research Yury Fomin, Vice-Rector for Educational Activities Lyudmila Pankova, Vice-Rector for Continuing and Pre-University Education Dmitry Tikhonov, Director of the Scientific and Educational Center for Information Technology and Business Analysis of Gazprom Neft Irina Rudskaya, and Scientific Secretary Dmitry Karpov.
Opening the discussion, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of PJSC Gazprom Sergey Khomyakov named the main areas of joint activities with universities: education of the younger generation, professional orientation and training, training of qualified personnel and scientific research work.
At the meeting, the rector of SPbPU, chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Rudskoy made a report. He recalled that in 2024, important legislative regulations were signed at the federal level regulating strategic guidelines, national goals and priority areas of scientific and technological development of Russia, and noted that almost every such document speaks of close interaction between the university and academic communities with industrial partners.
The cooperation between Polytechnic University and Gazprom is developing in many areas — from educational (starting with work with schoolchildren) to scientific and technological. Of the significant results, Andrey Rudskoy highlighted several joint events this year: the Gazprom student Olympiad, a job fair and a tournament on flexible skills; modernization of the laboratory and educational base through financing from PJSC Gazprom.
In the scientific and technological sphere, the rector of the Polytechnic University noted the rapid development of the field of additive printing with metals at the university and the production of high-quality products for Gazprom using this method, the development of fundamentally new technological solutions for laser cladding, heat treatment, defect detection methods, the assembly of a mobile laser cladding complex by specialists from the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport, and projects of the Advanced Engineering School “Digital Engineering” in the areas of the fuel and energy complex.
In conclusion, Andrey Rudskoy made several proposals to strengthen cooperation between Polytechnic University and Gazprom.
“Undoubtedly, the existing forms of interaction between the Polytechnic University and PJSC Gazprom are effective, but they need to be expanded and scaled up,” the Rector of SPbPU believes. “One of the forms of integrating science and production could be the creation of research and production associations (RPAs), whose participants could be universities and high-tech industrial companies. In the USSR, RPAs demonstrated high efficiency in consolidating the resources of scientific and industrial organizations. Modern RPAs will be able to receive federal support. Following his trip to the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, the President of Russia instructed the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, as well as the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation to develop mechanisms to support RPAs. In the near future, it is planned to launch a federal pilot project to create RPAs, and the Polytechnic University is ready to join this experiment. We invite you to join the joint work to create RPAs for the further development of cooperation for the benefit of science and industry in our country.”
Andrey Rudskoy also proposed creating an association of Gazprom’s flagship universities and establishing a joint journal.
It is important that the advanced experience and knowledge that have accumulated over all this time in our flagship universities are recorded and made publicly available, Andrey Rudskoy emphasized. He asked Alexey Miller to become the editor-in-chief of the journal.
Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev and Chairman of the Management Committee of PAO Gazprom Alexey Miller took time out of their schedule to attend the meeting of the Interuniversity Council and thank its participants for their cooperation.
“Today, at this forum, higher education has the opportunity to see with its own eyes the results of our common work,” Alexey Miller addressed the audience. “The first forum took place eight years ago, we set priorities, and now every year we see fundamentally new technological developments, new equipment, at the stands, above the world level.”
At the council meeting, speaking about the interaction of the Polytechnic University and Gazprom in the field of higher education, Andrey Rudskoy cited as an example two educational systems developed this year based on VR technologies. One of them was presented at the SPbPU stand and aroused genuine interest among the forum guests, especially among young people. One of the teenagers who visited the stand even thought: Maybe I should go to the Polytechnic University?
The “Maintenance and Repair of Piston Compressor and Auxiliary Equipment for Underground Gas Storage Systems” complex is a virtual model of the real Nevskaya station and is designed to study the main actions during maintenance and operation of compressor equipment used at underground gas storage facilities. This virtual training complex is a joint effort of two departments of the Polytechnic University. The compressor engineering sector of the Higher School of Power Engineering of the Institute of Power Engineering is responsible for the technical side and implementation in the educational process, and the software implementation is performed by the Laboratory of Streaming Data Processing.
“To train students in compressor and related specialties, practical classes at compressor stations are necessary. But it is difficult to get to these facilities, or students cannot do anything with their hands. Our joint work consists of preparing a scenario and technical actions, and programmers create a virtual gas-pumping unit with all the necessary control elements, on which students can practice the necessary actions according to the scenarios of the actions of a gas-pumping unit operator and a shift engineer,” said Vasily Semenovsky, associate professor at the Higher School of Power Engineering. “The simulator has been introduced into the educational process of bachelors and masters, and if necessary, we also work with this virtual model in additional education courses.
According to Vasily Semenovsky, another virtual model is 90 percent ready: an automatic gas-filling compressor station for refueling passenger and freight vehicles with methane.
This year, Polytechnic University and the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences presented a joint stand at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum. Among the developments of the RAS institutes: Voron and Strizh unmanned aerial vehicles of the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center (FRC RAS), the small-sized quadrupole mass spectrometer MS7-200 for analyzing the composition of gas mixtures at atmospheric pressure of the Institute of Analytical Instrumentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, etc.
The Voron model is a multi-base UAV for solving a wide range of tasks. The most popular applications are: real-time aerial monitoring, signal retransmission, delivery of small-sized cargo, terrain mapping, search and rescue operations, aerial photography and aerial video filming.
The Strizh UAV can perform aerial monitoring in real time, deliver small-sized cargo, participate in search and rescue operations, and conduct aerial photography and aerial video filming.
Traditionally, the SPbPU History Museum also takes part in the exhibition. This year, the museum staff introduces the guests of the stand to the Polytechnic gas plant, which produced lighting gas for laboratories. Combustible gas was obtained by dry distillation of coal at a temperature of 1000 °C.
Every day, the institute consumed over 900 cubic meters of gas: the chemical laboratory – 425 m³, metallurgical – 283 m³, the rest – 198 m³.
Light gas prepared at the plant was collected in a gas holder (gas storage) before entering the gas network, where it was under pressure. The gas holder was designed on the principle of a caisson – an engineering structure for forming an empty chamber under water.
With the advent of main gas pipelines, the work of the institute’s gas plant became irrelevant. In the 1960s, a laboratory building appeared on the site of the gas plant. The gas holder was built into the building. The round projections in the laboratory building can still be seen today.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China ready to work with ASEAN countries to elevate comprehensive strategic partnership to higher level
VIENTIANE, Oct. 10 — Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Thursday that China will always firmly support ASEAN integration, community building, and its strategic independence, and stands ready to work with ASEAN countries to elevate the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level.
Li made the remarks at the 27th China-ASEAN Summit, noting that new steps have been taken over the past year to build the China-ASEAN community with a shared future, which has delivered tangible benefits to the people of both sides.
The global economic recovery remains sluggish, and problems such as insufficient global aggregate demand are becoming more prominent, Li said, adding that the market has become the scarcest resource in the current economic development.
Noting that China and ASEAN are two major markets with over 1.4 billion and 600 million people respectively, Li said that market resources are the most prominent advantage for China and ASEAN. The markets of China and ASEAN are fully upgrading, continuously expanding, and increasingly opening up, and strengthening market connectivity is an important direction for further cooperation, he added.
The Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations have reached a substantial conclusion, providing an institutional guarantee for the two sides to jointly build a hyper-scale market, a significant step toward leading economic integration in East Asia, the premier said.
China is ready to work with ASEAN to make more efforts to develop and share a common market, so as to generate stronger and more sustainable growth impetus for both sides while providing more robust support for the common prosperity of the region and the world at large, he added.
Noting that China-ASEAN relations have developed beyond the bilateral scope with far-reaching significance for Asia and a global impact, Li pledged to work with ASEAN to create a better future for Asia, as Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China will continue to follow the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and work with other countries in the region to build a better Asian community.
China and ASEAN should build a multidimensional connectivity network, actively promote cooperation in infrastructure construction, and expedite the signing and implementation of the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, said Li.
He called on both sides to expand cooperation in emerging industries, tap the cooperation potential in such areas as digital economy and green development, and accelerate industrial transformation.
Li urged both sides to deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges and promote the implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative in the region.
Sonexay Siphandone, prime minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and the current chair of the ASEAN, along with other ASEAN leaders attended the summit.
They praised the robust growth momentum of the ASEAN-China comprehensive strategic partnership, noting that ASEAN and China are each other’s largest trading partner, and their cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results, which has greatly improved the well-being of people in the region.
ASEAN leaders welcomed the substantial conclusion of negotiations for the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN FTA, expressing their readiness to take this opportunity to align with the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, continue to advance regional economic integration, enhance cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, agriculture, connectivity and climate change mitigation, and expand collaboration in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, digital economy and green economy.
They reaffirmed their commitment to making the China-ASEAN Year of People-to-People Exchanges a success, building a closer ASEAN-China community with a shared future, and contributing to maintaining regional peace, stability and prosperity.
During the summit, several outcome documents were adopted, including a joint statement on the substantial conclusion of Version 3.0 China-ASEAN FTA negotiations, and documents on fighting telecommunications and internet fraud, deepening cooperation in areas such as smart agriculture, digital ecosystem, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
YOKOSUKA, Japan – Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) was filled extremely demanding and diverse mission sets for the SRF-JRMC Dive Lockers.
Throughout the year, divers from SRF-JRMC Yokosuka and Detachment Sasebo supported 18 fly-away taskings, responding to numerous CASREPS and emergent repairs in locations such as Singapore, Guam, Manila, Malaysia, Subic Bay, and Thailand. This required heavy coordination between SRF-JRMC Dive Locker leadership, Commander Logistics Group Western Pacific, Commander Task Force 73 (CFT-73), Southwest Regional Maintenance Center, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility. The efforts of the SRF-JRMC divers ensured all mission objectives would be completed, supporting all Forward Deployed Naval Fleet warships in the 7th fleet area of responsibility without impacting regularly scheduled production in Yokosuka or Sasebo.
In December, the divers supported tasks in three different locations simultaneously: support of the USS Manchester (LCS 14) in Singapore, support of the USS Oakland (LCS 24) in Guam, and support of Mobile Diving & Salvage Unit-1 onboard the USNS Salvor (T-ARS 52) conducting salvage operations following an Osprey crash off the coast of Yakushima, Japan. There, they conducted personnel recovery and gathered vital information for the Air Force post-crash investigation team.
SRF-JRMC Sasebo Detachment divers conducted over 230 underwater ship husbandry dives for Sasebo forward-deployed vessels as part of regularly scheduled maintenance. They also provided support for unique technical tasks such as troubleshooting the USS Rushmore’s (LSD 47) propeller systems and a controlled waterborne monitoring of a challenging pier side repair of the New Orleans (LPD 18).
At SRF-JRMC Yokosuka, divers completed 469 underwater ship husbandry dives, including the final repair availability of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) before leaving it redeployed to the United States. They worked with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense to perform urgent running gear inspections and clear fouling for HMS Spey (P234), allowing the ship to return to sea for their Pacific Patrol and avoid a dry docking.
SRF-JRMC Yokosuka divers, with assistance from its Sasebo Dive Locker, supported outside entities in FY24, such as the Underwater Construction Team TWO (UCT2). With Sasebo divers assisting, they conducted underwater cutting and welding operations for pier repairs in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. SRF-JRMC Yokosuka divers also supported the inspection and repairs of fleet mooring chains in Yokosuka and provided support of a significant underwater repair of the USS Canberra (LCS 30) at the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center in San Diego.
The Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) schedule for the SRF-JRMC Dive Lockers is already shaping up to be even busier than 2024 as more ships are added to the Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF) and the number of U.S. naval patrols in the Pacific increases. In response, the SRF-JRMC Yokosuka Dive Locker is qualifying more Japanese Master Labor Contractors (MLCs) in diving operations who will continue operations when the U.S. Navy divers are deployed from home station. The SRF-JRMC Yokosuka Dive Locker is the only multinational U.S. Navy dive locker.
No matter what is asked of the SRF-JRMC Dive Lockers in FY25, they will stand ready to carry forward the motto of the command “Nan Demo Dekimasu!”; “We Can Do Anything!”
For over 75-years, U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) has been the linchpin of U.S. naval operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region by providing intermediate-level and depot level repair for the ships of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Sergei Sobyanin opened traffic on a new overpass – an exit from the Moscow High-Speed Diameter (MSD) to Volgogradsky Prospekt.
It is one of the components of the city’s powerful transport framework, including metro stations, Moscow Central Diameters and roads. Without it, it is impossible to implement such large-scale projects as the creation of the new business center “Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki”, the project for the creation of which was launched by the Mayor of Moscow.
“Projects of such a scale are impossible without the development of the transport system. First, we created a powerful framework here from the MCC, BKL, MCD, TTK, MSD and Kozhukhovsky Bridge. Today we opened an important facility of this framework – an overpass-exit from the Moscow High-Speed Diameter to Volgogradsky Prospekt. In the future, we will build the Yuzhny Port metro station of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line. And on the bank of the Moskva River, we will make an embankment and a stop for regular river transport,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote in his
Source: Sergei Sobyanin’s Telegram channel @mos_sobyanin
The construction of the 710-meter-long two-lane overpass was completed in October 2024. The artificial structure, which runs over the tracks of the Second Moscow Central Diameter and Lyublinskaya Street, was built in difficult conditions of cramped urban development.
The new overpass provides a direct exit from the main southern route of the Moscow High-Speed Diameter onto Volgogradsky Prospekt in the direction of the Moscow Ring Road.
As a result, motorists do not need to make a detour via Shosseynaya Street, and the excess mileage of vehicles will thus be reduced by half. Transport accessibility of the Pechatniki and Tekstilshchiki districts, where about 200 thousand people live, has been improved.
By redistributing traffic flows, the load on adjacent sections of Volgogradsky Prospekt, Volzhsky Boulevard, Zelenodolskaya, Shosseynaya and Lyublinskaya Streets will be reduced by up to 10 percent.
Traffic along the main route of the Moscow Ring Road was opened on September 9, 2023. Motorists can travel from the north to the east of Moscow from the Businovskaya interchange to the M-12 highway and south to the 32nd kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road.
Every day, about 400 thousand cars travel along the Moscow High-Speed Diameter. The highway is one of the three most popular routes in the city. Thanks to the creation of the Moscow High-Speed Diameter, travel time in some directions has decreased by 25-50 percent. Sections of the Garden Ring, the Third Transport Ring, and the Moscow Ring Road have been relieved by up to 15 percent.
In the coming years, it is planned to complete the construction of two road facilities that will increase the efficiency of the Moscow Highway. There will be connections with the Solntsevo-Butovo-Varshavskoye Shosse route. In addition, the Moscow Highway will be straightened – the road from Kantemirovskaya Street to the Paveletsky direction of the Moscow Railway will be shortened.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Sergei Sobyanin launched the project to create a new business center, Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki. It will appear on the site of a former industrial zone, where 18.8 million square meters of real estate will be built.
“Moscow continues to develop actively, and one of the main support points for development is old industrial areas, which amount to thousands of hectares. Based on architectural and urban planning analysis, about six such main development points were selected, which are, in fact, new centers of Moscow. One of them is Pechatniki. The main attention was paid to the fact that here, in addition to a huge number of abandoned industrial zones, there is a powerful development of the transport framework. The Big Circle Line, the Moscow Central Circle, the Moscow High-Speed Diameter passed nearby, new metro stations and railway stations were built. As a result, one of the largest transport hubs was created here. Based on the analysis of the development of this territory, which was done, a concept was adopted to create, perhaps, the largest industrial zone reorganization project in the world – 18 million square meters. Of these, nine million are business construction, new high-tech enterprises, offices, technology parks, and the second half is complex housing construction, starting from Volgogradsky Prospekt and ending with the Moscow River,” the Mayor of Moscow noted.
According to Sergei Sobyanin, one of these main clusters is the special economic zone (SEZ) of Moscow, where enterprises with a total area of half a million square meters have been built. In the coming years, another 700 thousand square meters of industrial buildings will be erected there.
“Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki is one of six new centers of business and public activity that we are creating within the Moscow Ring Road. It will become a place for the concentration of high-tech companies and the development of the automotive industry,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote in his
Source: Sergei Sobyanin’s Telegram channel @mos_sobyanin
New centers of economic activity
The key priority of Moscow’s urban development policy has become the formation of new centers of economic activity. This allows for a reduction in excessive pendulum migration, the creation of additional jobs and attractive places for recreation outside the historical center.
For the construction of centers, industrial zones located in close proximity to major transport hubs are actively used: intersections of metro lines, the Moscow Central Circle (MCC) and the Moscow Central Diameters (MCD).
At present, six promising centers located within the Moscow Ring Road can be identified. These are Likhobory – Okruzhnaya, Khoroshevskaya – Shelepikha, Ochakovo – Ryabinovaya, Varshavskaya – Biryulevo, Aviamotornaya – Nizhegorodskaya, Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki.
In particular, the Likhobory-Okruzhnaya center could become a cluster of technological development, Yuzhny Port-Tekstilshchiki could become a place of concentration of high-tech companies and development of the automotive industry, and Ochakovo-Ryabinovaya could become a logistics center.
Business activity centers will be formed in Zelenograd (special economic zone sites) and in TiNAO (Kommunarka, Moskino cinema park, Shcherbinka, Salaryevo and others).
According to preliminary estimates, in the next 15 years (until 2040), at least 60 million square meters of industrial, public, business and other non-residential real estate will be built on the territory of new centers of economic activity, and almost 1.3 million new jobs will be created.
“Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki”
The new economic activity center “Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki” will appear on the basis of the reorganized industrial zone “Yuzhny Port”, which occupies 633 hectares (35 percent) of the Pechatniki district. The natural continuation of the business center will be the production site “Pechatniki” of the special economic zone “Technopolis Moscow”.
In total, it is planned to construct 18.8 million square meters of public, business, industrial and residential buildings on this territory.
Large-scale development of the territory “Yuzhny Port – Tekstilshchiki” became possible thanks to the creation of a powerful transport framework, which included the Dubrovka and Ugreshskaya stations of the Moscow Central Circle, Pechatniki of the Big Circle Line of the metro and the station of the same name of the Second Moscow Central Diameter, as well as the Third Transport Ring, the Moscow High-Speed Diameter and the Kozhukhovsky Bridge across the Moskva River, connecting Pechatniki with the Nagatinsky Zaton district.
In the future, it is planned to build a new station “Yuzhny Port” on the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line and develop the local street and road network, including the reconstruction of Yuzhnoportovaya Street, 1st and 2nd Yuzhnoportovykh Proezds, the construction of a new highway that will connect the Third Transport Ring and Lyublinskaya Street, as well as roads in the new quarters of “Yuzhny Port”.
On the banks of the Moscow River, under the program of integrated development of territories, a marina for yachts, an embankment and a stop for river transport will be built, which will become a center of attraction for residents of not only the district, but the entire city. Along the coastline, in particular in the widest part of the water area, a pontoon pool, sports areas, an amphitheater on the water, a museum, restaurants and cafes with terraces will be located.
Today, residential complexes of the first stage of development and the necessary social infrastructure are being built on the reorganized territory.
Four projects for the integrated development of territories with a total area of about 115 hectares are under development, on which it is planned to build almost two million square meters of housing and about 1.6 million square meters of industrial, public, business and social facilities. Investments in the development of sites are estimated at almost 950 billion rubles. As a result, over 36 thousand jobs will appear.
Active development of the Pechatniki site of the Technopolis Moscow SEZ continues.
About 500 thousand square meters of real estate have been put into operation here to accommodate high-tech production in a wide range of industries. These include mechanical engineering, electric vehicle manufacturing, instrument making, machine tool manufacturing, microelectronics, aerospace, medical technology and other areas. There are 130 high-tech companies operating on the site, creating 7.5 thousand jobs.
By 2030, it is planned to build another 680 thousand square meters of facilities at the SEZ site in Pechatniki to accommodate 70 high-tech enterprises and create 17.5 thousand new jobs. In particular, divisions of such large companies as JSC Transmashholding, JSC MAZ Moskvich, JSC Vane Hydraulic Machines, JSC Hydromash, LLC Lassard, LLC Renera, and others will open here.
Thus, in total, about 1.2 million square meters of modern production space will be built at the Pechatniki site of the Technopolis Moscow SEZ.
Currently, construction is underway on two of the five buildings of the modern public and business complex on Kolomnikova Street. The buildings of different heights with a total area of over 300 thousand square meters will be connected by a pedestrian and exhibition gallery with panoramic windows.
The first building is planned to house offices and R
The second building will house laboratory and office space for current and potential residents of the special economic zone.
Companies will be able to begin operating in these buildings as early as 2025.
The stylobate part of the buildings will house bank branches, shops, cafes, restaurants, public services and other infrastructure facilities. A parking lot for 370 cars will be built on the adjacent territory. Thus, the new public and business complex will become a place of attraction for residents of Pechatniki and neighboring areas.
Construction of the remaining three buildings on Kolomnikova Street is planned to begin in the coming years.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Birmingham City Council’s community safety team is working in partnership with Turnaround West Midlands to create safety and support kits for sex workers across the city.
The kits will contain essential items that can help ensure well-being, such as personal hygiene products, contraception, safety tools and informational resources, and will be given out during outreach patrols by Turnaround. Funding for this initiative was secured through the Safer Street 5 programme.
To create the kits, we need the help and support from the community. If you would consider donating a new or gently used handbag that can be used for this purpose, your contribution would play a significant role in empowering individuals within this community, providing them not only with practical items but also with a sense of dignity and care.
There are five drop off locations across Birmingham.
City Centre – Council House Reception, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB, Mon-Thu 8:45am-5:15pm and Fri 8:45am-4:15pm.
North Birmingham – St Barnabas Church Centre, High Street, Erdington, Birmingham, B23 6SJ, Tue-Sat 10:00am-2:30pm and Sun 10:30am-12:00pm.
East Birmingham – Go-Woman! Alliance CIC,140 Alum Rock Road (behind the Methodist Church), Birmingham, B8 1HU, Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30am-3:00pm.
South Birmingham – Bournville Village Trust Office, 350 Bournville Lane, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 1QY, Mon-Fri 8:30am-4:40pm.
West Birmingham – Soho Road Business Improvement District, Suite 2, 118A Soho Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, B21 9DP, Mon-Sat 10:00am-6:00pm.
Councillor Nicky Brennan: Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Community Safety and Equalities, said: “This initiative will provide sex workers across the city with essential items imperative for their safety in a confidential and non-judgmental way.
“The council understands the importance of the services the community safety team and Turnaround West Midlands provide sex workers, which is vital for their well-being.
“If anyone should require help or support, reach out to us or Turnaround West Midlands. All services are free to all sex workers regardless of their gender. Services are also confidential and non-judgmental.”
Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said: “I am pleased that my Safer Streets funding is being used to provide items vital for the safety and well-being of sex workers in Birmingham.
“They will be provided in a handbag, giving people who need them a sense of dignity, while also providing essential items.
“I would urge anybody who can help by supplying a handbag to do so at one of the drop off points and they will be filled with health and hygiene products, which can ensure the safety and well-being of sex workers in Birmingham.”
The Isle of Wight Council is on track to submit the Island Planning Strategy (IPS) to government at the end of the month.
This would be a significant step in the plan-making process and would pass the IPS over to the Planning Inspectorate, the government body which will decide how to move forward.
Following the closure of the ‘Regulation 19’ consultation period on the IPS at the end of August, the council has been processing and reviewing hundreds of comments received ahead of submitting them all, together with the plan and entire evidence base, to the Secretary of State.
Once submitted, all of the information will be made available to view online.
Councillor Paul Fuller, Cabinet member for planning, coastal protection and flooding, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who made comments on the IPS in July and August.
“We are aware of what the new government think about housing numbers, however submitting the IPS before they publish a new National Planning Policy Framework is an important step for the council.
“There is no certainty on what the government will say when we do submit our plan, but as a council we will have done all we can to try to move the plan forward, which was what was agreed at Full Council in May 2024.”
Once the IPS is submitted, an independent Planning Inspector will be appointed to carry out an examination in public. The timing of the examination will be decided by the Planning Inspector.
At the end of the month, the council will be writing to all those who made representations on the draft plan, including the 40-plus people who said they would like to appear at the examination hearings if the Inspector considered it necessary, to provide an update and outline the likely next steps.
The IPS is crucial as it sets out the overall approach towards future development on the Island.
It outlines council policies on key issues like future housing need, affordable homes, associated infrastructure and how sustainable developments will help the Island drive towards its net zero carbon ambitions.
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Spokesperson Matthew Miller leads the Department Press Briefing, at the Department of State, on October 10, 2024.
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Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A ceremony in Fife marked the start of construction for a new medical and dental centre at Leuchars Station.
Representatives from the British Army, Graham Building North and Defence Medical Services at the groundbreaking event. Copyright: Graham Building North.
A ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction for a new medical and dental centre at Leuchars Station in Fife.
The construction contract, worth nearly £22 million, was awarded by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to Graham last year.
The new building will replace the aging current medical and dental centre, which was built in 1936. Once the replacement facility is complete, medical personnel and patients will transition over to the new medical and dental centre and Graham will demolish the old building.
Once complete, the new facility will be of sufficient size to cater for the increasing number of personnel forecast to be based at the station in the coming years, as it is to become the Army’s hub in Scotland. Around 3,700 personnel at the British Army establishment and their dependents will benefit from the new building, which will house physical rehabilitation and mental health facilities as well as GP and dental services.
The building has been carefully designed to be as sustainable as possible, including through thermal efficiency, solar panels, air source heat pumps and provision of four electric vehicle charging stations. Building materials have been selected not only on the basis of suitability but also to reduce carbon impact on the environment. It is hoped that the building can be an example of sustainability in construction of future MOD medical and dental centres.
Shaun Purdy, DIO’s Project Manager, said:
While the current medical and dental centre has hosted great medical care, it is important that we continually strive to improve and modernise. This new, larger facility will ensure that personnel and their families continue to receive the best possible care in the future in a modern clinical practice.
Working closely with Defence Medical Services, UK Strategic Command and partners it was agreed that a brand-new building is by far the best solution and will provide the sort of high-quality medical and dental care our personnel deserve.
It will provide a modern building suited not only for patients, but also for our dedicated professional medical staff.
Major TB Gray, Station Quartermaster, said:
It has been 10 years since the Army took ownership of Leuchars Station from the RAF and the troops returned from Germany to make Fife their permanent home. The new healthcare facility is one of many ongoing and planned multi-million-pound projects which will see Leuchars transform from an ageing RAF site into the largest Army Garrison in Scotland.
Our medical provision required a full new build, which when finished will support the Leuchars service community and dependents alike. This shows that the MOD is serious in the development of Leuchars into a modern Garrison with state-of-the-art facilities to support its operational capability.
Surgeon Commodore Andy Nelstrop, Cdr Defence Primary Healthcare, said:
Delivering expert healthcare to our Armed Forces and ensuring that they are able to see a medical professional quickly is a priority for all those who work within Defence Primary Healthcare.
It is fundamental that all our medical personnel and patients can work and be treated in a modern environment and have access to the latest equipment and resources, which is why the construction of this new centre is so important.
It is just one part of our ongoing programme to ensure everyone in our military receives the primary healthcare they deserve, and I am delighted that all those based at Leuchars will soon be able to benefit from this fantastic facility.
Chris MacLeod, Graham Building North’s Regional Director, said:
We are delighted to be continuing our longstanding relationship with Defence Infrastructure Organisation to help deliver new and improved health and wellbeing facilities for the military personnel and their families at Leuchars.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Ian Murray welcomes recommendations by Joseph Rowntree Foundation and vows to work with Scottish Government to tackle associated issues and break down barriers
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray spoke at the launch of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF) annual report into poverty in Scotland this week [7 October].
The report, summarised here, found that one million people in Scotland are living in poverty and that one in four of them are children. Recommendations were made to overhaul the social security system to tackle the problem and, in particular, for the UK and Scottish Governments to work together to make the process smoother in terms of reserved and devolved policy areas.
An excerpt follows from the remarks made by the Scottish Secretary at the event:
I want to outline some of the steps that the new UK Government is taking to reduce poverty in Scotland and across the whole of the UK.
We are committed to working together with the Scottish Government, and to reset the relationship between our two governments. Because, as this latest report highlights, it is vital that we can deliver on behalf of the people of Scotland.
I’ve spent a lot of time with organisations such as Poverty Alliance to understand fully the complexities of what’s happening.
Having one million people in poverty – a quarter of those children – is really sobering. But I think the most sobering thing is that none of us are surprised, and that really should be the thing that we need to tackle in terms of policy.
We are only 95 days into this new government and we’ve already done a lot of engagement to make sure we can develop these policies, whether it be in social security or regarding the underlying parts of poverty.
With the Budget coming up on 30 October, the Chancellor has been clear on two things. One is the economic inheritance that we’ve got to try and deal with and that those with the broadest shoulders will carry the majority of what needs to be done to grow the economy for all parts of our country.
Reducing poverty across all sections of society, particularly child poverty, is in our DNA. We did it before. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to do it again.
We will be publishing our Employment Rights Bill this week to fundamentally transform work and pay. It will ban exploitative zero-hour contracts, outlaw fire and rehire and will make sure that the National Minimum Wage becomes a genuine living wage.
It’s still sobering that two-thirds of children in poverty are in households where one or both adults are working full time, and that means that there’s a big problem with pay. We hope that our New Deal for Working People will start to resolve some of those issues.
I think it’s also important to highlight our Universal Credit review, which will look at everything from the two-child cap to housing allowances.
We’ve also launched our Child Poverty Task Force, chaired jointly by the Secretaries of State for Education and the Department of Work and Pensions. It looks at all the other big issues that are around in terms of poverty.
Yes, it’s about the social security system, Universal Credit, but it’s also about housing, educational attainment, health inequalities, pay in the workplace, progression and skills. It’s about those underlying causes of poverty that are inherent in our society that we need to find a way to resolve once and for all.
Having grown up on a council estate, I know that having that security of tenure of a house was the bedrock in which the family was built, and without that it’s difficult to see how you can get yourself out of poverty.
Housing is devolved, but both governments are working very closely together to make sure that we can resolve the housing emergency that’s been declared across a lot of our local authorities.
We’ve made a good start over the last 95 days. There will be bumps in the road, because these are fundamental challenges, but the whole culture of the new government is to try and resolve these issues.
We want to make sure the system can work better, and joint working is really important in this area. There’s no reason why Social Security Scotland and the DWP can’t work jointly in terms of the delivery of social security, to make sure that we get the best out of both systems for the benefit of everyone who needs to access that system.
Regarding the low update of benefits by ethnic minorities, I think that’s a huge challenge for us. Not just finding those individuals and families, but actually being able to engage with them and get them what they deserve to be claiming. That’s a huge battle for us all to try to work together and resolve.
We’ve got four big priorities as a new government and as a Scotland Office. Growth is the number one priority, but that also feeds into our green agenda, which is our second priority. Our third one is Brand Scotland to try and increase our exports, to improve our businesses and create more jobs. And the fourth one, which attached the first three, is the eradication of poverty.
That’s something that myself and Ministerial colleague Kirsty McNeill are fundamentally committed to doing. We can only do that by all of us – devolved governments, the UK Government and organisations like JRF working together. We must find ways we can not only make the system better, but make sure that those who require access to the system, get access to that system and get the funds and support they deserve.
There’s a huge amount of work to be done and this report gives us that very sobering starting point.
Globular cluster NGC 2005. ESA/Hubble & Nasa, F. Niederhofer, L. Girardi, CC BY-SA
As I finished my PhD in 1992, the universe was full of mystery – we didn’t even know exactly what it is made of. One could argue that cosmologists had made little progress in our understanding of these basic facts since the discovery of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the afterglow of the Big Bang, in the 1960s.
I left the UK after my doctoral studies to begin a research career in the US, where I was lucky to be recruited to work on a new experiment called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This new survey embraced advances in digital technologies with the ambition of measuring the “redshifts” (how light becomes more red if a source appears to move away from you) of a million galaxies.
These redshifts were then used to measure distances, and allowed cosmologists to map the three-dimensional structure of the universe.
One cosmic puzzle in the 1980s, based on the pioneering CfA Redshift Survey of Margaret Geller and John Huchra, was the significant lumpiness of galaxies, and therefore matter, in our cosmic neighbourhood. Galaxies were clustered together across a wide range of scales, with evidence for coherent “superclusters” of galaxies spanning over 30 million light years in length.
This article is part of our series Cosmology in crisis? which uncovers the greatest problems facing cosmologists today – and discusses the implications of solving them.
It was important to know how such superclusters could have formed from the smooth CMB, as it would tell us the total amount of matter in the universe and, more intriguingly, what that matter was made of. That was assuming the only force in play was gravity.
By the end of the first phase of the SDSS, we had achieved our goal of a million redshifts. This data was used to discover many superclusters across the universe, including the amazing “Sloan Great Wall”, which remains one of the largest known coherent structures in the universe, over a billion light years in length.
Type 1A supernova remnant. Nasa/CXC/U.Texas
I am lucky to have lived through this amazing era of cosmic discovery around the turn of the century. Surveys like SDSS, combined with new observations of the CMB and searches for distant exploding stars known as Type Ia Supernovae (SNeIa), coincided to deliver an emphatic answer to the question: “What is the universe made of?”
The discovery of dark energy
From 1999 to 2004, the cosmological community came together to agree that the universe was 5% normal (baryonic) matter, 25% dark matter (unknown, invisible matter), and 70% “dark energy” (an expansive force) – essentially a cosmological constant, which was first postulated by Einstein. The discovery that the universe was dominated by this constant energy shocked everyone, especially as Einstein had called the cosmological constant his “biggest blunder”.
Today, cosmologists still agree this is the most likely make-up of our universe. But observational cosmologists like me have refined our measurements of these cosmic variables significantly – reducing the errors on these quantities.
The latest numbers from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) indicate that 31.5% of the universe is matter (a combination of dark and normal), with the remainder being dark energy assuming a cosmological constant. The error on this measurement is just 3%.
Knowing these numbers to higher precision will hopefully help cosmologists understand why the universe is like this. Why would we expect to have 70% of the universe today as “dark” (can’t be seen via electromagnetic radiation) and not associated with “matter” like everything else in the universe?
The origin of this dark energy remains the biggest challenge to physics, even after 20 years of intense study.
Intriguing measurements
Like me, a few cosmologists have become distracted by other problems over the last two decades. However, 2024 could be the start of a new era of discovery. This year, cosmologists published new results based on two of our best cosmological probes.
The first probe consists of exploding stars dubbed “SNeIa”. As these stars have a narrow range of masses, their explosions can be well calibrated, giving cosmologists a predictable brightness that can be seen far away. By comparing the known brightness of these SNeIa to their redshifts, we can determine the expansion history of the universe. These objects were, in fact, critical for discovering that the expansion of our universe is accelerating.
The second probe works by looking at Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) – relics of predictable sound waves in the plasma (charged gas) of the early universe, before the CMB. These are now frozen into the large-scale structure of galaxies around us. Like SNeIa, their predictable size can be compared with their observed size today to measure the expansion history of the universe.
Recently, DES reported its final SNeIa results from over a decade of work, detecting and characterising many thousands of supernova events. While these SNeIa results are consistent with the orthodox view that the universe is dominated by a cosmological constant, they do leave open the tantalising possibility of new physics – namely, that the dark energy could be varying with cosmic time.
That said, scientists are trained to be sceptical, and there are many reasons to distrust a single experiment, single observation, or even a single set of cosmologists!
Cosmologists now go to extraordinary lengths to “blind” their results from themselves during analysis of the data, only revealing the answer at the last moment. This blinding is done to avoid unconscious human biases affecting the work, which could possibly encourage people to get the answer they believe they should see.
This is why repeatability of results is at the heart of all science. In cosmology, we cherish the need for multiple experiments checking and challenging each other.
The second result to turn heads was the first BAO measurements from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), successor to the SDSS. The first DESI map of the cosmos is deeper and denser than the original SDSS. Its first BAO results are intriguing – the data alone is still consistent with a cosmological constant, but with hints of a possible time-varying dark energy when combined with other data sources.
DESI in the dome of the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. wikipedia, CC BY-SA
In particular, when DESI analyses the combination of its BAO results with the final DES SNeIa data, the significance of a time-varying dark energy increases to 3.9 sigma (a measure of how unusual a set of data is if a hypothesis is true) – only 0.6% chance of being a statistical fluke.
Most of us would take such odds, but scientists have been hurt before by systematic errors within their data that can mimic such statistical certainty. Particle physicists therefore demand a discovery standard of 5 sigma for any claims of new physics – or less than a one in a million chance of being wrong!
As scientists will say: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Mindboggling implications
Are we entering a new era of cosmological discovery? If so, what would it mean?
The answer to my first question is probably yes. The next few years will be fun for cosmologists, with new data and results due from the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission. Launched last year, it is already scanning the sky with unprecedented accuracy.
Likewise, DESI will get more and better data, while the European Southern Observatory starts its own massive redshift survey in 2025. Then you have the Rubin Observatory in Chile coming online soon. Combining these datasets should prove beyond doubt if dark energy varies with cosmic time.
If it does, it implies there is less dark energy now than in the past. This could be caused by many things but, interestingly, it could signify the end of a present, accelerated phase of the expansion of the universe.
It also implies that dark energy is probably not a cosmological constant thought to be due to the background energy associated with empty space. According to quantum mechanics, empty space isn’t really empty, with particles popping in and out of existence creating something we call “vacuum energy”. Ironically, predictions of this vacuum energy do not agree with our cosmological observations by many orders of magnitude.
So, if we did discover that dark energy varies over time, it might explain why observations are at odds with quantum mechanics, which is an extremely well-tested theory. This would suggest the assumption in the standard model of cosmology, that dark energy is constant, needs a rethink. Such a realisation may help solve other mysteries about the universe – or pose new ones.
In short, the new cosmological observations coming this decade will stimulate a new era of physical thinking. Congratulations to my younger cosmologists: it is your era to have fun.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alan Jenn, Associate Professional Researcher in Transportation, University of California, Davis
A Nissan Leaf charges at a station in Pasadena, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2024.Mario Tama/Getty Images
The Biden administration is using tax credits, regulations and federal investments to shift drivers toward electric vehicles. But drivers will make the switch only if they are confident they can find reliable charging when and where they need it.
Over the past four years, the number of public charging ports across the U.S. has doubled. As of August 2024, the nation had 192,000 publicly available charging ports and was adding about 1,000 public chargers weekly. Infrastructure rarely expands at such a fast rate.
Agencies are allocating billions of dollars authorized through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for building charging infrastructure. This expansion is making long-distance EV travel more practical. It also makes EV ownership more feasible for people who can’t charge at home, such as some apartment dwellers.
Charging technology is also improving. Speeds are now reaching up to 350 kilowatts – fast enough to charge a standard electric car in less than 10 minutes. The industry has also begun to shift to a standard called ISO 15118, which governs the interface between EVs and the power grid.
This standard enables a plug-and-charge system: Just plug in the charger and you’re done, without contending with apps or multiple payment systems. Many existing chargers can be retrofitted to it, rather than needing to install totally new chargers.
Although EV charging infrastructure has improved in the past several years, reliability is still a critical issue. For example, a 2022 study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that nearly 30% of public non-Tesla fast chargers in the Bay Area didn’t work. A national study in 2023 that used artificial intelligence models to analyze driver reviews of EV charging stations reached a similar result.
These findings highlight the need for more robust maintenance and monitoring systems across charging networks. Federal guidelines require that chargers must have an average annual “uptime,” or functional time, greater than 97%, but this metric is not always as clear-cut as it sounds. While many charging-point operators report high uptime percentages, their figures often exclude factors such as slow charging speeds or incomplete charges that degrade users’ experience.
Cars waiting to charge at a center in San Diego. Gil Tal, CC BY-ND
Many drivers complain about throttling – chargers that dispense electricity at less than the maximum rate the car is capable of accepting, so the car charges more slowly than expected. Sometimes this is normal: Cars will charge more slowly as their battery gets closer to full in order to avoid damaging the battery. Other factors can include weather conditions and the number of other vehicles simultaneously using the charging station.
Drivers’ issues with chargers involve more than just uptime. Technical barriers, such as payment processing and vehicle-charger communication, sometimes can prevent a charge from starting or completing.
To ensure that all EVs can charge smoothly at any network, groups such as the National Charging Experience Consortium and CharIN are bringing automakers, charging providers and national laboratories together to address these issues.
Other obstacles are more local, such as long lines at charging stations and chargers that are blocked by parked cars, snowbanks or other obstacles. Finding vehicles with internal combustion engines parked in EV charger spots is common enough that it has a name: getting ICEd. There’s a clear need for more comprehensive solutions to help the charging experience keep pace with demand for EVs.
A Wall Street Journal tech columnist finds abundant chargers – with abundant challenges – in Los Angeles.
A street-level view
At the University of California, Davis, we are working with the California Energy Commission to understand the range of charging obstacles that EV drivers face. As part of a three-year study, we are sending undergraduate students out to test thousands of chargers across the entire state of California.
So far, our results show that just over 70% of charge attempts have succeeded. Many issues have caused failed charges, including traffic congestion at charging stations, damaged or offline chargers, difficulty using navigation apps to find charging stations, and malfunctioning chargers.
Quantity and quality both matter
As federal investments continue to pour money into EV charging, our findings indicate that it’s important to use these resources not only to expand the network but also to improve the user experience at every step.
Areas for improvement include stricter oversight of charger maintenance; more robust uptime requirements that reflect real-world performance; and better collaboration between automakers, charging-point operators and software providers to ensure that vehicles and chargers can work together seamlessly.
The future of EV adoption depends not just on how many chargers are available, but on how reliable and easy they are to use. By addressing specific pain points that drivers face, policymakers and industry leaders can create a charging ecosystem that truly supports the needs of all EV drivers. Reliability is key to unlocking widespread confidence in the EV charging infrastructure and ensuring that it can keep pace with the growing number of electric vehicles on the road.
Alan Jenn receives funding from the California Energy Commission and is a participant in the National Charging Experience Consortium (ChargeX)
The 67 million Americans eligible for Medicare make an important decision every October: Should they make changes in their Medicare health insurance plans for the next calendar year?
The decision is complicated. Medicare has an enormous variety of coverage options, with large and varying implications for people’s health and finances, both as beneficiaries and taxpayers. And the decision is consequential – some choices lock beneficiaries out of traditional Medicare.
Beneficiaries choose an insurance plan when they turn 65 or become eligible based on qualifying chronic conditions or disabilities. After the initial sign-up, most beneficiaries can make changes only during the open enrollment period each fall.
The 2024 open enrollment period, which runs from Oct. 14 to Dec. 7, marks an opportunity to reassess options. Given the complicated nature of Medicare and the scarcity of unbiased advisers, however, finding reliable information and understanding the options available can be challenging.
We are health carepolicy experts who study Medicare, and even we find it complicated. One of us recently helped a relative enroll in Medicare for the first time. She’s healthy, has access to health insurance through her employer and doesn’t regularly take prescription drugs. Even in this straightforward scenario, the number of choices were overwhelming.
The stakes of these choices are even higher for people managing multiple chronic conditions. There is help available for beneficiaries, but we have found that there is considerable room for improvement – especially in making help available for everyone who needs it.
The choice is complex, especially when you are signing up for the first time and if you are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Insurers often engage in aggressive and sometimes deceptive advertising and outreach through brokers and agents. Choose unbiased resources to guide you through the process, like http://www.shiphelp.org. Make sure to start before your 65th birthday for initial sign-up, look out for yearly plan changes, and start well before the Dec. 7 deadline for any plan changes.
2 paths with many decisions
Within Medicare, beneficiaries have a choice between two very different programs. They can enroll in either traditional Medicare, which is administered by the government, or one of the Medicare Advantage plans offered by private insurance companies.
Within each program are dozens of further choices.
Traditional Medicare is a nationally uniform cost-sharing plan for medical services that allows people to choose their providers for most types of medical care, usually without prior authorization. Deductibles for 2024 are US$1,632 for hospital costs and $240 for outpatient and medical costs. Patients also have to chip in starting on Day 61 for a hospital stay and Day 21 for a skilled nursing facility stay. This percentage is known as coinsurance. After the yearly deductible, Medicare pays 80% of outpatient and medical costs, leaving the person with a 20% copayment. Traditional Medicare’s basic plan, known as Part A and Part B, also has no out-of-pocket maximum.
People enrolled in traditional Medicare can also purchase supplemental coverage from a private insurance company, known as Part D, for drugs. And they can purchase supplemental coverage, known as Medigap, to lower or eliminate their deductibles, coinsurance and copayments, cap costs for Parts A and B, and add an emergency foreign travel benefit.
The Medicare Advantage program allows private insurers to bundle everything together and offers many enrollment options. Compared with traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans typically offer lower out-of-pocket costs. They often bundle supplemental coverage for hearing, vision and dental, which is not part of traditional Medicare.
Understanding the tradeoffs between premiums, health care access and out-of-pocket health care costs can be overwhelming.
Turning 65 begins the process of taking one of two major paths, which each have a thicket of health care choices. Rika Kanaoka/USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics
Different Medicare Advantage plans have varying and large impacts on enrollee health, including dramatic differences in mortality rates. Researchers found a 16% difference per year between the best and worst Medicare Advantage plans, meaning that for every 100 people in the worst plans who die within a year, they would expect only 84 people to die within that year if all had been enrolled in the best plans instead. They also found plans that cost more had lower mortality rates, but plans that had higher federal quality ratings – known as “star ratings” – did not necessarily have lower mortality rates.
While many Medicare Advantage plans boast about their supplemental benefits , such as vision and dental coverage, it’s often difficult to understand how generous this supplemental coverage is. For instance, while most Medicare Advantage plans offer supplemental dental benefits, cost-sharing and coverage can vary. Some plans don’t cover services such as extractions and endodontics, which includes root canals. Most plans that cover these more extensive dental services require some combination of coinsurance, copayments and annual limits.
Even when information is fully available, mistakes are likely.
At 65, when most beneficiaries first enroll in Medicare, federal regulations guarantee that anyone can get Medigap coverage. During this initial sign-up, beneficiaries can’t be charged a higher premium based on their health.
Older Americans who enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan but then want to switch back to traditional Medicare after more than a year has passed lose that guarantee. This can effectively lock them out of enrolling in supplemental Medigap insurance, making the initial decision a one-way street.
For the initial sign-up, Medigap plans are “guaranteed issue,” meaning the plan must cover preexisting health conditions without a waiting period and must allow anyone to enroll, regardless of health. They also must be “community rated,” meaning that the cost of a plan can’t rise because of age or illness, although it can go up due to other factors such as inflation.
People who enroll in traditional Medicare and a supplemental Medigap plan at 65 can expect to continue paying community-rated premiums as long as they remain enrolled, regardless of what happens to their health.
In most states, however, people who switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare don’t have as many protections. Most state regulations permit plans to deny coverage, impose waiting periods or charge higher Medigap premiums based on their expected health costs. Only Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New York guarantee that people can get Medigap plans after the initial sign-up period.
Deceptive advertising
Information about Medicare coverage and assistance choosing a plan is available but varies in quality and completeness. Older Americans are bombarded with ads for Medicare Advantage plans that they may not be eligible for and that include misleading statements about benefits.
A November 2022 report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance found deceptive and aggressive sales and marketing tactics, including mailed brochures that implied government endorsement, telemarketers who called up to 20 times a day, and salespeople who approached older adults in the grocery store to ask about their insurance coverage.
The Department of Health and Human Services tightened rules for 2024, requiring third-party marketers to include federal resources about Medicare, including the website and toll-free phone number, and limiting the number of contacts from marketers.
Although the government has the authority to review marketing materials, enforcement is partially dependent on whether complaints are filed. Complaints can be filed with the federal government’s Senior Medicare Patrol, a federally funded program that prevents and addresses unethical Medicare activities.
Nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries seek information from an insurance broker. Brokers sell health insurance plans from multiple companies. However, because they receive payment from plans in exchange for sales, and because they are unlikely to sell every option, a plan recommended by a broker may not meet a person’s needs.
Help is out there − but falls short
An alternative source of information is the federal government. It offers three sources of information to assist people with choosing one of these plans: 1-800-Medicare, medicare.gov and the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, also known as SHIP.
Telephone SHIP services are available nationally, but one of us and our colleagues have found that in-person SHIP services are not available in some areas. We tabulated areas by ZIP code in 27 states and found that although more than half of the locations had a SHIP site within the county, areas without a SHIP site included a larger proportion of people with low incomes.
Virtual services are an option that’s particularly useful in rural areas and for people with limited mobility or little access to transportation, but they require online access. Virtual and in-person services, where both a beneficiary and a counselor can look at the same computer screen, are especially useful for looking through complex coverage options.
As one SHIP coordinator noted, many people are not aware of all their coverage options. For instance, one beneficiary told a coordinator, “I’ve been on Medicaid and I’m aging out of Medicaid. And I don’t have a lot of money. And now I have to pay for my insurance?” As it turned out, the beneficiary was eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare because of their income, and so had to pay less than they thought.
The interviews made clear that many people are not aware that Medicare Advantage ads and insurance brokers may be biased. One counselor said, “There’s a lot of backing (beneficiaries) off the ledge, if you will, thanks to those TV commercials.”
Many SHIP staff counselors said they would benefit from additional training on coverage options, including for people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. The SHIP program relies heavily on volunteers, and there is often greater demand for services than the available volunteers can offer. Additional counselors would help meet needs for complex coverage decisions.
The key to making a good Medicare coverage decision is to use the help available and weigh your costs, access to health providers, current health and medication needs, and also consider how your health and medication needs might change as time goes on.
This article is part of an occasional series examining the U.S. Medicare system.
Grace McCormack receives funding from the Commonwealth Fund and Arnold Ventures.
Melissa Garrido receives funding from Commonwealth Fund, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health for Medicare-related research, including research discussed in this piece.
Donald Trump accuses others of acts he has done at an Oct. 3, 2024, rally in Michigan.AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
Donald Trump has a particular formula he uses to convey messages to his supporters and opponents alike: He highlights others’ wrongdoings even though he has committed similar acts himself.
On Oct. 3, 2024, Trump accused the Biden administration of spending Federal Emergency Management Agency funds – money meant for disaster relief – on services for immigrants. Biden did no such thing, but Trump did during his time in the White House, including to pay for additional detention space.
This is not the first time he has accused someone of something he had done or would do in the future. In 2016, Trump criticized opponent Hillary Clinton’s use of an unsecured personal email server while secretary of state as “extreme carelessness with classified material.” But once he was elected, Trump continued to use his unsecured personal cellphone while in office. And he has been criminally charged with illegally keeping classified government documents after he left office and storing them in his bedroom, bathroom and other places at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
After complaining about how Hillary Clinton handled classified documents, Donald Trump stored national secrets in a bathroom. Justice Department via AP
More recently, the Secret Service arrested a man with a rifle who was allegedly planning to shoot Trump during a round of golf. In the wake of this event, Trump accused Democrats of using “inflammatory language” that stokes the fires of political violence. Meanwhile, Trump himself has a long history of making inflammatory remarks that could potentially incite violence.
As a scholar of both politics and psychology, I’m familiar with the psychological strategies candidates use to persuade the public to support them and to cast their rivals in a negative light. This strategy Trump has used repeatedly is called “projection.” It’s a tactic people use to lessen their own faults by calling out these faults in others.
Projection abounds
There are plenty of examples. During his Sept. 10, 2024, debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump claimed that Democrats were responsible for the July 13 assassination attempt against him. “I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” he declared.
Earlier in the debate he had falsely accused immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating other people’s pets – a statement that sparked bomb threats and prompted the city’s mayor to declare a state of emergency.
Trump isn’t the only politician who uses projection. His running mate, JD Vance, claimed “the rejection of the American family is perhaps the most pernicious and the most evil thing the left has done in this country.” Critics quickly pointed out that his own family has a history of dysfunction and drug addiction.
Projection happens on both sides of the political aisle. In reference to Trump’s proposed 10% tariff on all imported goods, the Harris campaign launched social media efforts to condemn the so-called “Trump tequila tax.” While Harris frames this proposal as a sales tax that would devastate middle-class families, she deflects from the fact that inflation has made middle-class life more expensive since she and President Joe Biden took office.
How it works
Projection is one example of unconscious psychological processes called defense mechanisms. Some people find it hard to accept criticism or believe information that they wish were not true. So they seek – and then provide – another explanation for the difference between what’s happening in the world and what’s happening in their minds.
In general, this is called “motivated reasoning,” which is an umbrella phrase used to describe the array of mental gymnastics people use to reconcile their views with reality.
Some examples include seeking out information that confirms their beliefs, dismissing factual claims or creating alternate explanations. For example, a smoker might downplay or simply avoid information related to the link between smoking and lung cancer, or perhaps tell themselves that they don’t smoke as much as they actually do.
Motivated reasoning is not unique to politics. It can be a challenging concept to consider because people tend to think they are fully in control of their decision-making abilities and that they are capable of objectively processing political information. The evidence is clear, however, that there are unconscious thought processes at work, too.
Influencing the audience
Audiences are also susceptible to unconscious psychological dynamics. Research has found that over time, people’s minds subconsciously attach emotions to concepts, names or phrases. So someone might have a particular emotional reaction to the words “gun control,” “Ron DeSantis” or “tax relief.”
And people’s minds also unconsciously create defenses for those seemingly automatic emotions. When a person’s emotions and defenses are questioned, a phenomenon called the “backfire effect” can occur, in which the process of controlling, correcting or counteracting mistaken beliefs ends up reinforcing the person’s beliefs rather than changing them.
For instance, some people may find it hard to believe that the candidate they prefer – whom they believe to be the best person for the job – truly lost an election. So they seek another explanation and accept explanations that justify their beliefs. Perhaps they choose to believe, even in the absence of evidence, that the race was rigged or that many fraudulent votes were cast. And when evidence to the contrary is offered, they insist their views are correct.
Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned with Liz Cheney, right, a prominent Republican who formerly served in Congress. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
A way out
Fortunately, research shows specific ways to reduce people’s reliance on these automatic psychological processes, including reiterating and providing details of objective facts and – importantly – attempting to correct untruths via a trusted source from the same political party.
For instance, challenges to Democrats’ belief that the Trump-affiliated conservative agenda called Project 2025 is “dangerous” would be more effective coming from a Democrat than from a Republican.
Similarly, a counter to Trump’s claim that the international community is headed toward World War III with Democrats in the White House would be stronger coming from one of Trump’s fellow Republicans. And certainly, statements that Trump “can never be trusted with power again” carries more weight when it comes from the lips of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney than from any member of the Democratic Party.
Critiques from within a candidate’s own party are not out of the question. But they are certainly improbable given the hotly charged climate that is election season 2024.
April Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Republican Party and Democratic Party offer voters starkly different visions of LGBTQ rights in America.Douglas Rissing via Getty Images
Polls show that LGBTQ rights will likely factor into most Americans’ pick for president this November as they choose between former Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat.
A March 2024 survey by independent pollster PRRI found that 68% of voters will take LGBTQ rights into consideration at the polls. Fully 30% stated that they would vote only for a candidate who shares their views on the issue.
It is no coincidence, then, that LGBTQ rights issues feature prominently in the party platforms.
The Republican Party’s electoral promises include cutting existing federal funding for gender-affirming care and restricting transgender students’ participation in sports. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party platform proposes to outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ people, including passing the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, health care and public accommodations.
As a legal scholar who has written extensively on the history of LGBTQ rights, I have seen that the clearest indication of how a politician will act once in office is not what they promise on the campaign trail. Instead, it’s what they have done in the past.
Let’s examine their records.
Trump restricted some LGBTQ rights
Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, are both relatively new to politics, so their records on LGBTQ rights issues are slim.
Trump enacted two policies restricting LGBTQ rights early in his one term in office. The first was his 2017 executive order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty, which reinforced that federal law must respect conscience-based objections to comply with the First Amendment. This order indirectly imperiled LGBTQ rights because many LGBTQ rights battles are fought over whether conservative Christian businesses run afoul of anti-discrimination laws when they refuse to serve same-sex couples.
A few months later, Trump banned transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. armed forces. He ultimately revoked the directive, implementing instead a new policy that allowed existing transgender soldiers to remain in the military but barred new transgender recruits from enlisting.
Vance has opposed trans rights
Vance, a one-term senator, has accrued a record of trying to roll back the rights of transgender Americans during his short time in public office.
Between 2023 and 2024, Vance introduced or sponsored five bills opposing trans rights. One seeks to restrict gender-affirming care for minors by imposing criminal sanctions on doctors who perform such surgeries; another aims to do the same by exposing physicians to civil liability for either prescribing gender affirming hormones or performing surgeries.
Harris and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have both made LGBTQ rights a legislative priority throughout their long political careers.
Harris initially took public office in 2003 as San Francisco’s district attorney. In that role, she established a hate crimes unit that prosecuted violence against LGBTQ youth in schools. She also trained prosecutors nationwide to counter the “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses in court, which is when lawyers attempt to justify violence as a fear-based reaction to the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Since 2021, President Joe Biden has issued multiple executive orders to combat discrimination against the LGBTQ community, including by eliminating the Trump-era restrictions on transgender military service. Biden also signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, which changed the federal definition of marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two individuals.” The statute ensures that the federal government would continue to recognize same-sex unions if the Supreme Court ever reversed its decision to legalize marriage equality.
Walz: Ally in the statehouse
Harris’ vice-presidential pick has a similarly extensive record backing LGBTQ rights.
As a U.S. representative from 2007 to 2019, Walz supported efforts to grant federal benefits to same-sex couples before marriage equality became federal law. He also co-sponsored many of the House versions of the same bills as Harris.
As citizens head to the polls in November, they can be confident that, on this topic at least, the candidates mean what they say.
Marie-Amelie George does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
