Editorial Gavan Jennings In Passing: The Extraordinary Life and Art of Andrey Tarkovsky (Part II) Michael Kirke What will our AI-shaped future look like? David Gibney How (some) poor places have been transformed James Bradshaw A Fatherly Spiritual Testament Fr Donncha ÓhAodha Keeping (or Making) Catholic Education Great George Weigel What Alone Teaches Us About Living in Accord with Nature Kody W. Cooper
Editorial Gavan Jennings In Passing: Faustian temptations and Promethean dreams Michael Kirke Blessed are the Peacemakers Pat Hanratty The Cardinal who fearlessly opposed the “armed struggle” Tim O’Sullivan Church and community in a post-Christian world (Part Two) James Bradshaw Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson on the Bible Christopher Kaczor New Atheism grows old Patrick Gorevan Film review: Poor Things Juan Luis Sánchez
Editorial Gavan Jennings In Passing: Endgame or Game On? Part Two Michael Kirke The Evangelicals and a secularising America James Bradshaw The 1968 presidential election’s 2024 re-run James Bradshaw Creating safe, connected and anxious children Margaret Hickey The myths surrounding mythology David Gibney The uniqueness of the Book of Genesis Patrick Gorevan The Real Saint Patrick? Pat Hanratty Films: What IF Says About AI and Love Karl D. Stephan
Editorial Gavan Jennings In Passing: A Howling Emptiness Michael Kirke The hidden legacy of ordinary people Margaret Hickey A call to action for the twenty-somethings Luke Power The master of misguided philanthropy James Bradshaw God’s undying love for all of us Pat Hanratty Civilization at the crossroads David Gibney The Keys to the Kingdom: A Gentle But Firm Correction to The Chosen Dr Richard DeClue Film review: Cabrini Matthew Becklo
Editorial Gavan Jennings In Passing: René Girard and the test of history (Part I) Michael Kirke A useful but flawed history of Ireland’s recent past James Bradshaw God comes knocking on the door of science Patrick Gorevan A deep dive into gender ideology Gavan Jennings Film review: Am I Racist? Kody W. Cooper Film review: Small Things like These James Bradshaw
WHO has progressively strengthened its work for adolescent health, growing its portfolio of research, norms and standards, country support and advocacy, and expanding the scope of work across over 17 departments, regional and country offices to address the multifaceted needs of the global adolescent population. Central to a coordinated approach to adolescent health across the organization is the HQ Interdepartmental Technical Working Group on Adolescent Health and Well-being. In 2021, the group produced the first report on its work on adolescent health and well-being, celebrating efforts across many areas of work and all levels of the organization. This is the second in the series of biennial reports that comes on the wake of the Global Forum for Adolescents 2023 and is powered by its 1.8 Billion Young People for Change campaign. The report describes WHO’s efforts to elevate adolescent health and well-being through collaboration and by coordinating new initiatives, addressing emerging needs and establishing ambitious objectives with its development partners and adolescents. Target audience: this WHO serial publication is designed to be used by policy-makers, media and donors.
• On October 11, 2024, the IMF’s Executive Board concluded the Review of Charges and the Surcharge Policy. The review is part of a broader ongoing effort to ensure that the IMF’s lending policies remain fit for purpose to meet the evolving needs of the membership. Charges and surcharges are important elements of the IMF’s cooperative lending and risk-management framework, where all members contribute and all can benefit from support when needed. Together, they cover lending intermediation expenses, help accumulate reserves to protect against financial risks, and provide incentives for prudent and temporary borrowing. This provides a strong financial foundation that allows the IMF to extend vital balance of payments support on affordable terms to member countries when they need it most. • Against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment and high global interest rates, the Executive Board reached consensus on a comprehensive package of reforms that substantially reduces the cost of borrowing for members while safeguarding the IMF's financial capacity to support countries in need. The approved measures will lower IMF borrowing costs by about US$1.2 billion annually or reduce payments on the margin of the rate of charge as well as surcharges on average by 36 percent. The number of countries subject to surcharges in fiscal year 2026 is expected to fall from 20 to 13. • Key reforms include a reduction in the margin for the rate of charge, an increase in the threshold for level-based surcharges, a reduction in rate for time-based surcharges, an alignment of thresholds for commitment fees with annual and cumulative access limits for GRA lending facilities, and institution of regular reviews of surcharges. • The series of three papers informed the Executive Board’s first and second informal engagements (July and September 2024) and the formal meeting (October 2024) on this review.
Introducing a framework for obtaining and maintaining renewable energy security at the local community level Local energy communities are a framework for assembling and coordinating major stakeholders, individual, corporate, and institutional, in the pursuit of long-term renewable energy projects in a given area. They are aimed at community benefits rather than profit, and have become an invaluable tool in the fight to reimagine the global power grid, one community at a time. With climate change making this fight ever more urgent, integrated local energy communities (ILECs) have never been a more important social force. Integrated Local Energy Communities offers a framework for designing, planning, and operating one of these communities from end to end. Incorporating regulatory and policy issues, the mechanics of local multi-carrier energy systems, and more, it provides viable solutions to one of the most urgent energy challenges of our time. The result is an indispensable contribution to a potentially transformative process. Integrated Local Energy Communities readers will also find: Comprehensive coverage of all types of energy conversion Analysis of the entire value chain, from concepts to planning to operation Discussion of all key actors for integrating the ILEC energy paradigm at the local level Integrated Local Energy Communities is ideal for power engineers, electrical engineers, engineering scientists working in consultancy and industry, as well as the libraries that serve them.
This paper reviews Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) facilities and financing. It proposes a comprehensive package of lending policy reforms and financing measures that aims to bolster the Fund’s capacity to support Low-Income Countries (LICs) in addressing their balance of payment needs, while restoring the self-sustainability of the Trust. The Review proposes a long-term self-sustained annual PRGT lending envelope of SDR 2.7 billion, more than double the PRGT envelope before the Covid-19 pandemic, consistent with the expected demand for Fund’s concessional financial support in the years ahead. The paper also proposes to introduce a new interest rate mechanism to better reflect the heterogeneity among LICs and focus further concessional resources to the poorest countries. These countries (currently 31 LICs) will continue to benefit from an interest-free lending under the PRGT, while other LICs will be charged a modest, and still concessional, interest rate. Additionally, the paper proposes to keep PRGT access limits at their current levels and to implement several reforms, including: reverting the PRGT access norm to the level prevailing before December 2023, streamlining and strengthening the PRGT safeguards, adjusting the PRGT eligibility and graduation framework and updating the list of PRGT-eligible countries, extending the temporarily higher cumulative access limits under the RCF until the end of December 2025, and implementing a targeted adjustment to the Policy Safeguards for High Combined Credit Exposure. On financing measures, the paper proposes to address the remaining gap in PRGT subsidy resources after accounting for the lending policy changes through (1) a further five-year suspension of PRGT administrative expenses reimbursement to the GRA and (2) a framework to deploy IMF internal resources to facilitate the generation of PRGT subsidy resources.
An authoritative account of Xi Jinping's worldview and how it drives Chinese behaviour both domestically and on the world stage. In his new book, On Xi Jinping, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd provides an authoritative account of the ideological worldview driving Chinese behaviour both domestically and on the world stage--that of President Xi Jinping, who now hold near-total control over the Chinese Communist Party and is now, in effect, president-for-life. Rudd argues that Xi's worldview differs significantly from those of the leaders who preceded him, and that this ideological shift is reflected in the real world of Chinese policy and behaviour. Focusing on China's domestic politics, political economy, and foreign policy, Rudd characterises Xi Jinping's ideological framing of the world as "Marxist-Leninist nationalism." According to Rudd, Xi's notion of Leninism has taken the party and Chinese politics further to the left in comparison to his predecessors. Also, his Marxism has also taken Chinese economic thinking to the left-in a more decisively more statist direction and away from the historical dynamism of the private sector. However, Chinese nationalism under Xi has moved further to the right- towards a much, harder-edged, foreign policy vision of China and a new determination to change the international status quo. Xi's worldview is an integrated one, where his national ideological vision for China's future is ultimately inseparable from his view on China's position in the region and the world. These changes in worldview are also reflected in Xi's broader rehabilitation of the concept of "struggle" as a legitimate concept for the conduct of both Chinese domestic and foreign policy--a struggle that need not necessarily always be peaceful. Finally, Xi's ideological worldview also exhibits a new level of nationalist self-confidence about China's future--derived from China's historical and civilizational strengths but reinforced by his Marxist-Leninist concept of historical determinism and the belief that the tides of history are now on firmly China's side. A powerful analysis of the worldview of arguably the most consequential world leader of our era, this will be essential reading for anyone interested in how Xi is transforming both China and the international order, and, most importantly, why?
