#Leadership Reshuffle

[gurutrends]

Nigerian State Oil Company NNPC Announces Leadership Reshuffle

In a statement released on Wednesday night by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, the company confirmed the following key appointments: Mr Adedapo A. Segun has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), after making significant contributions as the Executive Vice President, Downstream. The Board of Directors of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has…

[f1]

Mercedes confirm leadership reshuffle as James Allison returns to Technical Director role

Mercedes have confirmed that James Allison will return as the Technical Director of their F1 team with immediate effect, taking the place of Mike Elliott, who at the same time moves into the broader Chief Technical Officer role. Allison joined Mercedes in 2017, initially working as Technical Director before becoming their Chief Technical Officer four years later, which led to him combining F1 with other projects such as the INEOS Britannia America’s Cup team. READ MORE: Wolff says W14 pace is ‘only the tip of the iceberg’ as Mercedes upgrades imminent Elliott succeeded Allison as Technical Director in 2021, only for 2022’s major ‘ground effect’ regulation changes to signal a shift in the F1 pecking order, with Mercedes going from perennial championship winners to a distant third in the championship. Heading into the 2023 season, hopes were high in the Mercedes camp that they could get their F1 fortunes back on track, but a similarly challenging start saw them qualify behind Red Bull, Ferrari and a much-improved Aston Martin at the season opener. As work goes on behind-the-scenes to overhaul their W14 challenger, Mercedes confirmed on Friday that Allison and Elliott will effectively swap roles – Allison stepping into the Technical Director role again, and Elliott into the Chief Technical Officer position. “Mike has led a review of our technical organisation to ensure we have the right structure to deliver sustainable success in the future,” said a Mercedes spokesperson. “We are focused on building the best racing car – and building the best team to develop that car, with everybody playing to their greatest strengths in the organisation.” Allison boasts a wealth of F1 experience beyond his championship-winning time at Mercedes, also picking up drivers’ and constructors’ titles at Renault and Ferrari in a career that started back in the early-1990s. via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[townpostin]

Ramdas Soren to Replace Champai as Jharkhand Minister

Ghatsila MLA to take oath on Friday, assuming Higher Education and Water Resources portfolios Ramdas Soren, Ghatsila legislator, has been chosen to succeed former Chief Minister Champai Soren in Jharkhand’s cabinet. RANCHI – Chief Minister Hemant Soren has nominated Ramdas Soren, the Ghatsila MLA, to replace former minister Champai Soren in Jharkhand’s cabinet. The oath-taking ceremony for Ramdas…

[blueikeproductions]

So we’ve established the modern idea for Transformers leadership is some combination of the Primes and a Council.

But what I forgot to mention last time was IDW’s stab at both ideas.

I think we all forget IDW’s era of Transformers was around for longer than we remember. It started around the time of Animated and the first Bay movie, ending with Cyberverse and Bee.

As such, IDW went through a lot of growing pains as Hasbro started modifying the brand into what we know today.

Furman kicked things off, with his story revolving around a modified version of his own Prime lineage, with Prime Nova, now Nova Prime, as a central antagonist for much of the run.

As time went on, Hasbro had started to reshuffle the Prime concept after RotF brought the ancient Primes to general audiences, ushering in the the modern version of the group that included Solus, Quintus and so forth. The main line books hadn’t included ancient Primes yet, so the book could slide them in fairly easily, but as usual there was a catch.

It’s pretty apparent Roberts didn’t want to be saddled with the Primes, as his MTMTE series largely went out of its way to ignore them. Instead, he had his own vision for the legendary original Transformers in the Guiding Hand.

13 robots whittled down to five, they represented the three core components of a Transformer: the Spark (life in Primus and death in Mortilus), the Brain Module (wisdom and knowledge in in Solomus and Epestimus) and the Transformation Cog (Adaptus).

These five would shape creation myths on Cybertron, and hence the group’s name, would guide the early Transformer race, part of which were members of their own group, the legendary Knights of Cybertron.

Don’t get too excited about these guys, despite the book hyping them up as being as important, if not more than the Hand or Primes as this benevolent group who led Cybertron to prosperity until they tried to spread their philosophy to the stars, they were basically normal, religious, space explores who got fatally sick from being in “too much contact” with organic species and were euthanized.

I really do think Roberts hated most things about Transformers, from being very dismissive to the human component (despite writing the Transformers as sitcom humans), the unusual lack of Transforming to the point it was a running gag, and trying to erase the mysticism Transformers has had since the 80’s movie.

See the Guiding Hand do represent this mysticism to a degree, right down to legend saying the death of Mortilius is the reason Transformers have millennia long life spans, but in actuality it’s all a sham.

Like the Primes, the Guiding Hand was undone by infighting. Legends claimed the death god Mortilius was the one to start the first wars on Cybertron.

However, the Guiding Hand turned out to not only be real, but the legends were all wrong. It was the ambitious Amalgamous Prime stand in Adaptus that betrayed his brothers, wanting war purely so the Transformers wouldn’t stagnate in peace time, and gradually evolve from the coming conflicts so that they may ascend as organics do to higher plains of existence.

These were the true forms of the Hand, just simply ordinary Transformers, with the unassuming psychiatrist Rung actually being the first ever Transformer born on Cybertron: Primus.

Adaptus and Solomus, now Tyrest, would serve as series antagonists, with Epestimus being retconned into being the ancient Magic 8 Ball artifact The Magnificence the early IDW Furman run used. Mortilius was actually a nice guy, though he still did observe death, being a sort of mortician chronicling the death of individual Transformers, but also having the means to save others thought lost to history.

Like the Primes, all of the Hand ultimately died for the Transformers species to move on to other things.

The group doesn’t appear to be that popular, with Rung being Primus met with a particular revulsion, as the Lord of Light was whittled down to a nerdy, forgettable twig boy that had some healing factor powers. Rung did have the ability to create the Matrix in his unusual “ornament” mode, but perhaps to add to the annoyance, he could build multiple versions of the Matrix, further reducing the mysticism. Like can you imagine TFONE doing this? Oh Sentinel couldn’t get the Matrix, because he accidentally destroyed it when he shot Zeta? No big! He can just force Rung to pop out a brand new one! Yeah it just doesn’t work.

Rung being Primus or the first Transformer tends to be ignored, and so far he’s the only one of his group to make the leap to other media, where he’s usually just treated as a field medic like Ratchet. His alternate form is instead a weaponized medical device rather than a Matrix Maker.

Rung is so far the only one to get a toy, but general audiences and kids weren’t terribly interested, his WFC toy clogged Ollies for the longest time.

Rung would get a surprise return in Japanese media, as the leader of a group of human made Transformers called Selectors, who were powered by the mysterious Angolmois Energy deposits found on Earth. Unhappy with his people’s lot in life, being a (somewhat unintentional) servant class for humans, Rung turned to the Decepticons to start an uprising against humanity, fracturing the unified Cybertron brought about in G2.

When the Quintessons interfered, corrupting several Selectors into their servitude using the chaotic power of Angolmois Energy and later observing Spike Witwicky admit to mistakes and declare his love of the Selectors as friends and fellow people, Rung realized his mistake and helped humans and Autobots fight back with the power of true “Good” Angolmois Energy.

Notably the manga references a dirty joke from Rung’s appearance in Earth Wars…

Where a now Autobot X Spike uses Rung’s weapon mode against a Quintesson in a … much deserved but still painful way.

The battle ultimately saw the Angolmois Energy too dangerous to use, as humanity rightfully feared the power would react to the evil in all human hearts, so humans and Selectors, now cool with each other, evacuated Earth for greener pastures, setting the scene for Beast Wars II’s Angolmois plot with Galvatron. Spike wasn’t too concerned about the Selector’s still being fueled by Angolmois, as they proved they can work together in peace, which feels a bit contradictory, but whatever, Rung and Spike seem happy.

The similarities the Guiding Hand had to the Primes would see a couple of them be regarded as actual Primes in IDW 2, but otherwise the group has largely been ignored after IDW ended.

As for the Thirteen Primes, they came off as an afterthought in the original IDW comics. I’m not sure if Furman had any immediate plans for Prima, Liege Maximo, Maccadam and others he had a hand in creating, but that ultimately fell John Barber and Mairghread Scott to fill in some blanks. The Thirteen were not demigods but instead simply the leaders of various tribes of the discombobulated Transformers race after Adaptus’ so called God War. A time displaced Shockwave created a time paradox where the Primes only formed due to Shockers’ awareness of the future. Killing Onyx and assuming his identity, Shockwave kicked things off by making Megatronus his student, ushering in the era of the Primes. This also saw the eventual rise of the corrupt Prime lineage Nova Prime, Sentinel Prime, Nominus Prime and Zeta Prime would go on to define.

So why are the Primes so clumsily implemented here? Two reasons: the reintegration of the Primes via TFP came much later into IDW’s run, where like most series up until that point, IDW was mostly content to ignore the concept of a group of ancient prototypical Transformers. The other I believe boils down to IDW wanting its own unique creation myth, but because of Hasbro wanting to enforce the updated Prime mythology, they had to included it whether they wanted to or not. I think this is also why MTMTE feels more like its own thing divorced from what the rest of IDW was doing, as Roberts seems to have had more freedom to do what he wanted, using his old fan fics as a basis. Ergo the creation myth of the Guiding Hand persisted over the Thirteen Primes here, although the rebooted IDW2 would more organically implement the Primes as the first Transformers, with some of the Hand in their ranks, but still treat them as myths and legends vs most media showing the Transformers being fully aware they existed, with older Bots having even worked alongside them, like Starscream’s High Guard in TFONE.

As for a Council, that was the awkwardly implemented Functionist Council, which would later give way to the oppressive Senate. Both were exaggerated versions of the Caste System (Transformers can only have work and benefits based on what they turn into) from Aligned with the simpler Cog and Cogless concept succeeding it in TFONE. In one timeline, the Functionist Council evolved into an oppressive dictatorship worse than the Senate, who casually enforced the deaths, or “Mass Recalls” of Transformers whose alternate forms no longer served a purpose to them on a whim like spaceship Transformers or cassettes/data sticks. Think that obsolescence episode of the Twilight Zone, but cranked up to 11. While the original Functionists died off in the Great War, their fingers in the pie of the Senate beforehand, their alternate versions were the final antagonists of MTMTE while the main books fought Unicron. The cog headed nitwits had managed to Transform their Cybertron into a more traditional looking Primus to cleanse all universes of non Transformer life, but were stopped and killed by Rodimus and Autobot Megatron’s group.

These clockwork bean counters don’t appear to Transform, but apparently these Skeksis wannabes can Combine to form The Key to Vector Sigma. Like most of Roberts’ stuff, we never actually see them do this, and it would appear they found a way to access Vector Sigma without needing to Transform to do so. I understand this is probably intentional to make them hypocrites, but even so… I would think maybe just having them be cars, spaceships and other things that were recalled might be more appropriate.

Some earlier ideas that were kicked around to make these IDW concepts a bit closer to older creation material would’ve seen the Knights of Cybertron have ties to the Quintessons, and Rung channel his inner Ultraman to fight Unicron. The later was recycled for alternate Rung to fight a super weapon of the Functionists, but that resulted in Rung both dying, and further abusing concepts like Mass Shifting, making the Transformers more broken and oddly overpowered which annoyed fans.

For now, the concept of the Guiding Hand and Functionists as alternate creation myths and governing bodies seems to be utterly ignored in favor of doubling down more on the Primes. Rung is the only one to make it into toy form, and other non IDW media, but he along with many other IDW originals appear to be benched for the time being. While Skybound can use whoever they like, so far they seem mostly content to stick to the G1 cartoon cast and the occasional OC like Starscream’s friend Genvo. I don’t really see Rung having a role here anyway, and frankly he’d probably just get shot in the head and stay dead if he did appear considering the violent struggles of the Autobots here…

Funny enough I could see Rung as a Miner class robot in TFONE, he fits the aesthetic, but so far no. I feel like he’d probably just be a car or bike to stream line things if he did appear though.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Thuong is the youngest member of the party's Politburo, the country's top decision-making body, and is considered a veteran of the party having begun his political career at university in communist youth organisations.

He is widely regarded as being close to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's most powerful figure and the main architect of the party's battle against corruption.

2 Mar 23

[tomorrowusa]

Putin has effectively fired his hunting buddy Sergei Shoigu as defense minister. He is being replaced by an economist with no military background. What could possibly go wrong?

Vladimir Putin has removed his longtime ally Sergei Shoigu as defence minister in the most significant reshuffle to the military command since Russian troops invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. In a surprise announcement, the Kremlin said Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics, will replace Shoigu. Putin, who was sworn into his fifth term as Russia’s leader earlier this week, proposed that Shoigu take the position as head of Russia’s powerful security council. It is currently led by Nikolai Patrushev, a hawkish former spy and one of Putin’s closest advisers. Shoigu, Russia’s longest-serving minister, assumed leadership of the defence ministry in 2012 after his tenure as the emergency services minister. He has been leading Russia’s military through its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.

That Russian 3-day "special operation" in Ukraine is now in Day 809.

Russian losses in Ukraine make Soviet losses in Afghanistan seem like a day at the beach.

Shoigu must have had an especially difficult time explaining to Putin how a country with no conventional navy managed to sink 26 Russian warships as well as a submarine.

Ukraine is not just playing defense. It continues to hit oil installations and other heavy industry deep inside Russia. At the very least, that looks embarrassing for Russia.

Media: Drones attacked Russia’s Volgograd oil refinery, Kaluga oil depot, Lipetsk steel mill

Of course Putin himself has only himself to blame for this military fiasco. His unhinged desire to restore the decrepit Soviet Union in all but name is the real cause of this ongoing disaster.

Analysis of the departure of Shoigu via DW.

[mariacallous]

The recent reshuffling of the Russian government and presidential administration represent qualitative changes to Vladimir Putin's aging regime. The losers were those directly responsible for the preparation and execution of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Putin's new government is weighted much more clearly in favor of the clans that formed under his rule. According to Alexei Levchenko, editor of The Insider, the rise of the “princelings” — relatives of Putin and his closest associates — suggests that the government is preparing for a new stage in the transition of power.

While most observers are discussing the unexpected appointment of new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, much less attention has been paid to the simultaneous demotion of the main planners of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although both Sergei Shoigu and Nikolai Patrushev were given new positions (as we know, Vladimir Putin rarely lets anyone leave his circle completely), the change in their jobs does not look like a promotion — to say the least.

After serving as FSB director from 1999 to 2008, Patrushev was tasked with leading Russia’s Security Council, a coordinating body operating under the authority of the presidential administration and staffed largely with special services officers, generals, and former intelligence officials. Under Patrushev’s highly influential leadership, the council has become a kind of think tank aimed at fighting against “enemies” inside Russia, at masterminding schemes of political repression, and at dealing with any potential threats to Putin's regime of personal power. It is rumored that the lists of foreign agents and new candidates for undesirable organizations are approved at Security Council meetings every Friday.

The Security Council played a key role in the analytical preparation for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The operational reports and coded messages that passed through this body — and which were condensed by Patrushev personally — are believed to have promised a quick and glorious victory on the Ukrainian front.

Success in the “short, victorious war” was to be secured by the shiny new Russian army, a brand created by Sergei Shoigu and triumphantly sold to Vladimir Putin at parades, military exercises, and well-choreographed forums in Moscow’s Patriot Park. The PR successes of Shoigu's tank biathlons were so impressive that even Western military analysts began to consider Russian troops “the second best army in the world.”

The sandcastle collapsed in the first month of the war. Rather than crushing the enemy using its modern Armata “super tanks,” Russian soldiers attempting to advance on Kyiv in Soviet-era T-72s were killed en masse by Ukrainian forces wielding Western-supplied Javelin missiles. ” The Security Council and Ministry of Defense blamed each other, with sources close to the military blaming the very wrong analysis of Patrushev’s group, and sources friendly to the FSB and the Security Council blaming rampant corruption in Shoigu’s ministry.

But the Kremlin could not confess to such a catastrophic failure. That's why the two long-time, high-level Putin confidants were replaced in a manner that made it appear as if it were simply part of a routine, scheduled rotation at the beginning of Putin's new presidential term. In practice, however, neither Shoigu nor Patrushev will have the same opportunities as they did before. Shoigu will not become Russia’s new mastermind of political security, as he lacks the necessary skills and access to the infrastructure of the security services. For Patrushev’s part, the appointment of a man once seen as the second most powerful figure in the country to the role of “presidential aide on shipbuilding” looks like mockery.

The emergence of Andrei Belousov as Defense Minister indicates Putin's deep distrust of the military. But then again, the president has never trusted his country’s generals. That began in 2001, when Putin replaced the last military officer to hold the top job in the MoD, Igor Sergeyev, with his ex-KGB colleague Sergei Ivanov. The Kremlin chief has always been afraid of rebellion — and as demonstrated by Yevgeny Prigozhin's antics of 2023, which were supported by several generals, that fear was not groundless.

Belousov's surprise candidacy for his new post appears natural in hindsight. A workaholic economist absolutely devoted to Putin could not be kept in the job of first deputy prime minister forever. Isolated from all Russian clans and without his own team, Belousov came into conflict with half of Russia's oligarchs and business elite, whose profits he actively “confiscated” for the benefit of the state budget — and also with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, with whom he never found a common language. Putin could not simply throw away such an important and useful person, especially when Belousov’s anomalous attributes — the absence of a personalistic team and no traces of serious corruption, combined with meticulous administrative abilities — were so fitting for the suddenly open post in the Defense Ministry.

For opponents of Russia’s war in Ukraine, this is bad news. Belousov, a cold, introverted statesman, will be expected to cleanse the military establishment of corruption and direct the freed-up funds to the increasingly efficient killing of Ukrainian military personnel and civilians. Shoigu's former economic team is already being dismantled in the harshest possible manner, a process that shows the supreme commander-in-chief's extreme disappointment. However, defeating the military corporation will not be an easy task. In the army, Belousov, who has no military experience, will be seen as nothing less than the second coming of Anatoly Serdyukov.

Serdyukov, a businessman and former tax official who served as Russia’s Defense Minister from 2007 to 2012, was tasked with reforming the country’s armed forces and creating an efficient, “professional” military — better equipped, smaller in troop size, and more financially responsible. Several aspects of the reforms, such as major cuts to Russia’s officer corps, were met with fierce opposition from the army’s “old guard.”

Putin’s other personnel moves appear to preserve the previous balance of factions, at least at first glance. However, while there has been no change in the quantitative nomenclature of positions, there has been a change in the quality of those positions. Mishustin's new government has moved away from the dichotomy of previous cabinets, in which supervisors-slash-deputy ministers and sectoral ministers often came from different teams. This created a conflict that worked to the Kremlin's advantage, allowing it to avoid over-strengthening any of the members of the government.

This time, the clans of the Russian government have distributed responsibility quite openly. The Rostec-Sergei Chemezov vertical has emerged, evident in the link between First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Minister for Industry Anton Alikhanov. Transportation and logistics are linked to the Rotenbergs, who are close to both Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev and the new Minister of Transportation Roman Starovoit, the former governor of the Kursk Region.

Former FSB men who had previously taken over the agriculture sector retained control not only over the Agriculture Ministry, but also saw the promotion of Dmitry Patrushev — son of the freshly appointed “presidential aide for shipbuilding” Nikolai — to the post of supervising Deputy Prime Minister.

The team of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin — represented by the head of the Ministry of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov, and the Deputy Prime Minister for Construction Marat Khusnullin — has seen its representatives retain their posts. Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev has two ministers of his own — Alexei Chekunkov, head of the Ministry for the Development of the Far East, and Alexei Kozlov, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The biggest loser, oddly, looks like Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who lost one of the figures in the new government makeup — Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko. Although the loss does not look critical, the beginning of the cutback in spheres of influence foreshadows a future career decline for Mishustin himself toward the end of Putin's term.

Mishustin has a reputation as an extremely ambitious bureaucrat, but he avoids showing it, remaining the modern equivalent of the inconspicuous Nikita Khrushchev in Stalin's Politburo. However, the post of the Prime Minister is an extremely important one, as in the event of any kind of force majeure, he will become the acting head of state. And the closer we get to 2030, the more arguments Putin will have to appoint a truly “dear” person as prime minister.

As a regime ages, authoritarian leaders have less and less trust, even in their inner circle. Once former friends turn into powerful bosses themselves and start playing their own games. This forces the dictator to periodically thin out and shake up the elites.

During Putin’s 24-year reign, the banker Sergei Pugachev, special services associates Viktor Ivanov and Vladimir Yakunin (who were once considered aces in the Kremlin deck) have fallen out of the boss’s inner circle. At the current stage of the reshuffle, it seems that representatives of the Yeltsin “family” have finally been distanced from the Kremlin. In the newest incarnation of the presidential administration, Alexandra Levitskaya, wife of the once influential Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff during Putin's first term, has lost her position as an adviser.

And the closer the transition of power gets, the more often the leader’s closest relatives appear to be the most reliable potential successors. Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, for example, tried to pass power to their daughters — but both failed. Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus also dreams of monarchic succession.

Vladimir Putin's daughters still seem to be on the sidelines, but the appointment of Sergei Tsivilev, husband of Putin’s great-niece Anna, as Minister of Energy, already looks quite revealing. And Anna herself, by the way, also holds an important position in Putin's value system as director of the “Special Military Operation” veterans' fund, which enjoys a multibillion-dollar budget.

The example of the Tsivilevs is not the only case of the rise of “princelings” as a result of the recent reshuffling of power. The appearance of Yuri Kovalchuk's son Boris at the head of the Accounts Chamber and his rise to the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Dmitry Patrushev fall in the same line.

The elite, wanting to consolidate its position, will try to appoint more and more of its children, wives, nieces, and nephews to senior positions. But it is this very symptom that often becomes a harbinger of change, when, in the final stage of a dying regime, the authorities fail to resist the fact that society is tired of stagnation.

[newfoundlandcastle]

After the loss of Taesan Kim, Newfoundland Castle army has had to reshuffle leadership.

Congratulations to Hans Lambda who has been promoted to Major.

Isabel Fox has been promoted to Captain, so congratulations to her. And after a long awaited promotion Adrian Carlson has been promoted to Lieutenant.

And welcome to new recruit Keegan Hyland who will join us as an Officer Cadet.

[southeastasianists]

“I am ready for my next assignment,” a beaming Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had declared at a People’s Action Party (PAP) convention last November.

“I am all in, heart and soul,” he said, adding that he has been working hard to get ready for what would be the “biggest responsibility” of his career – to take over the baton from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as Singapore’s next leader.

Now, the assignment has come as Mr Lee announced his retirement on Monday (Apr 15).

Mr Wong will officially take over the leadership reins on May 15, when he becomes Singapore's fourth Prime Minister.

RISE THROUGH THE RANKS

The 51-year-old entered politics in 2011 after being elected as a Member of Parliament in West Coast GRC. He was given his first political office two weeks after the election – as Minister of State for education and defence.

In the 2015 General Election, Mr Wong moved to contest in the new Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, where he has been anchor minister ever since.

By then, he had risen steadily through the ranks with positions in various ministries, including the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth where he was appointed acting minister in 2012 and made full minister two years later.

After the elections in 2015, he moved to head the Ministry of National Development where he stayed on until July 2020.

In 2020, Mr Wong was tasked to co-chair Singapore’s multi-ministry COVID-19 task force with then-Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.   Together with Mr Gan, and later, new Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, he helmed the country’s pandemic response and fronted key announcements at frequently held press conferences.

Political observers later said that it was Mr Wong’s steady leadership style during COVID-19, clear explanation of policies and grasp of details that put him in pole position to take over as the country’s next leader when Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat took himself out of the running for the top job in April 2021.

Mr Heng, then 60, had cited his age as the reason and that he would have “too short a runway” should he become Prime Minister after the pandemic.

Mr Wong, who was then Education Minister, took over the Finance Ministry from Mr Heng in the ensuing Cabinet reshuffle, providing the first hint of his frontrunner position given how the high-profile finance portfolio has traditionally been helmed by PAP heavyweights.

Questions about political succession were finally laid to rest in April 2022 when Mr Wong was named as the leader of the PAP’s fourth-generation, or 4G, team.   Two months later, he was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister in another Cabinet reshuffle, while holding on to his finance portfolio.

Since cementing his standing as Singapore’s next Prime Minister, Mr Wong has fronted major speeches, such as delivering the keynote speech at the May Day Rally last year in place of Mr Lee.

He has also launched the Forward Singapore exercise, which provided a glimpse of how he and the 4G team intends to take the country forward.

A CIVIL SERVANT AND GUITAR LOVER

Prior to entering politics, Mr Wong was a civil servant for 14 years.

He began his career at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1997 before moving on to other roles in the finance and health ministries.

Mr Wong became principal private secretary to the Prime Minister in 2005.

In 2008, he joined the Energy Market Authority as deputy chief executive and was promoted to chief executive in 2009.

Two years later, he stepped down from the post to enter politics as the youngest of five candidates tipped to form the core of the PAP’s 4G leadership.

The Straits Times reported previously that Mr Wong had resigned from the public sector to enter politics, a year short before reaching 15 years of service. Administrative Service officers were eligible for pension after 15 years of service.

“It was a loss, but it was not something that factored into my consideration at the time,” he had said.

On the personal front, Mr Wong grew up in what he described as an “ordinary family” in the Marine Parade HDB estate.

His late father was born in China’s Hainan Island, went to Malaysia as a young boy before moving to Singapore to work in a sales job.

His mother was a teacher. Describing her as a disciplinarian both in school and at home, Mr Wong has spoken highly of his mother in several interviews and public speeches for managing to teach while caring for him and his brother.

Mr Wong is an alumnus of Haig Boys’ Primary where his mother taught. In his teens, he attended Tanjong Katong Secondary School, which he chose because it was near his home, and later on, Victoria Junior College.

He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He also holds a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Outside of work, Mr Wong, who is married to Ms Loo Tze Lui, is known to be an avid music lover and skilled guitar player.

His love for the guitar goes back to when his father gave him his first guitar at the age of eight. He spent his weekends borrowing guitar books from the old Marine Parade library and when he got a government scholarship to study in the United States, he made sure to bring his guitar along.

Mr Wong has said that playing the guitar helps him to destress and unwind.

The incoming Prime Minister has posted several videos of him strumming his six string, including an acoustic rendition of American pop star Taylor Swift’s hit song Love Story as a tribute to educators on Teachers’ Day last year.

[leqclerc]

Is Fred becoming binotto 2.0? He's completely incapable of taking accountability for any errors from the team. He'd prefer making his driver look like a liar. In one interview he says that we must check what happened, maybe it's the tyre blanket, maybe we got stuck in the pit lane too long. The next interview he's saying I don't know what charles is talking about, the tyres were in the right temperature window. We all heard the team radio of charles being told his fronts are cold, so I don't get why he does theses media games when all it does is show that he's disengenious. Taking accountability shows so much more leadership abilities than this tactic of burying his head in the sand binotto style. My god, when will charles get a tp who will fully back him and not shelter the team at his expense. All the other top drivers have had that at some point in their career besides charles. I hate this

Coming back to this ask now that the weekend's done and we got more info on this.

So as it stands, Charles went back on what he said after qualifying and stated that regardless of the tyre temps he should've done a better job as a driver, which. Wasn't there a video going around from like Charles's side of the garage that shows one of the mechanics struggling with the tyre blankets on the front left, I believe? Something about wires having to be replaced pretty last-minute.Seems like a bigger issue than just driver error or poor prep. I know Charles is a perfectionist and he's the first to point the blame in his own direction but how can a driver perform to the best of their ability if he can't trust the tools at their disposal in the garage? And iirc Carlos also suggested his Q3 crash was down to cold tyres, which again, indicates there's something going on on the technical side in the garage.

As for Fred himself... I've got personal beef with him ngl 🧍🏻I still think the Xavi situation was handled extremely poorly on his side and I will die on that hill. I would be lying if I said that didn't sour me on him. I get wanting to try something different, but then have a staff reshuffle during the off-season, instead of confirming he's continuing with the driver and then changing your mind, what, five races into the season? And then Charles having to clarify that not only was it not his decision, it was also taken quite suddenly and without his knowledge. No reason why they couldn't have waited it out until the summer break or, hell, at the very very least made the situation clear to Charles ahead of time so he could have proper closure after the race instead of being blindsided and finding out between races that the race engineer he's worked with for the past five seasons is just????? Not only being replaced by someone else but apparently being removed from his side of the garage altogether. What little acknowledgement Fred/Ferrari gave him afterwards heavily implied they were the ones to pull the trigger because Fred thought "if they can have something better why not go for it." One day someone will say the same about him when he's on the way out. That's not to say Bryan is doing a bad job, but yeah, it still doesn't sit right with me, how everything went down and how Fred handled it.

From what I see across social media the fans kind of flip flop on him, depending on the results. One week he's being criticized for his vague statements and giving explanations incongruous with what Charles has been saying, and the next he's being touted as everyone's favourite bald guy because Charles won Monaco and they held hands and jumped into the water together. The way he's been fraternizing with Zak Brown and McLaren is also A Choice and he's been getting heat for it from some in the Lecfosi circle online, who think it's a bad look for him to be goofing around with the TP of a rival team that outdeveloped Ferrari and is now running away with the constructors' championship, and that he should put more effort into protesting their latest inventions.

So I'm definitely side-eyeing him but objectively it's probably too early to definitively say he's heading for a Binotto-style downfall, at least for the time being. The team has generally cleaned up their act in terms of strategy, making sensible tyre choices, pretty smooth pitstops—eliminating or at least mitigating all of those gremlins that consistently tripped up the drivers, and Charles particularly bore the brunt of, under Binotto. Under his leadership Charles and Ferrari delivered that long-awaited Monaco win and a second Monza victory, which I think will placate most fans at least until the end of the season. It's like, they're not having their best ever season and they're not really in the mix in terms of the championship crown, but they've had memorable performances and depending on the weekend can solidly be second-best so in that sense I think he's still got more of a grace period going for him compared to Binotto. And, much like with Binotto, I think the first big indicator of him being on thin ice will be a very visible disconnect between him and Charles. Monaco 2022 was a warning sign but Silverstone was the final nail in the proverbial coffin of Binotto's career as Ferrari TP.

I do wonder how much of the "sheltering the team at Charles's expense" is just in the job description of a Ferrari TP. Historically Ferrari has placed a lot of emphasis on optics and protecting the good name of the team.

At any rate it'll be interesting to see how Fred handles the situation next year and beyond, with Charles and Lewis at the team, particularly if there's more to play for and more at stake.

[mspbandj]

Im gonna make a new post about this, coz there are a few people in the tags of the post about the UK Ceasefire vote pushing back against my claim that our current leaders are unelected. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Our last General Election was in 2019, when the leader of the Conservative (Tory) party was Boris Johnson and the leader of UK Labour Party (UKLP) was Jeremy Corbyn. Since then, leadership has changed hand once in the UKLP and twice in the Tories, so now in 2023 the leader of UKLP is Keir Starmer and the leader of the Tories is Rishi Sunak. As the Tory Party are currently in power, this makes Sunak the British Prime Minister.

While its perfectly normal to have leadership changes and cabinet reshuffles within government, the issue lies with the fact that no General Elections have been called alongside these changes. While its not a strict legal requirement to call a General Election when the Prime Minister changes mid-term, it has historically been considered a show of good faith and transparency within politics for new Prime Ministers to call snap elections upon being appointed.

For example, Theresa May was internally elected as leader of the Tory Party mid-term in 2016, and she called a snap General Election in 2017 as a show of good faith to the voters, to allow us to have a fair say in the changes.

Neither Lizz Truss nor Rishi Sunak, the two people who have been internally elected as leader of the Tory Party and, by extension, the Prime Minister, have called an Election. By failing to do so, they have broken the (albeit tentative) good faith previously held between the voting public and the government. Leading theories are that Sunak did not have the confidence that he would win a General Election at that time, so he opted to forego the expectation and remain in power without the consent of the voting public.

This is what I mean when I say our current officials are unelected. They were voted in as MPs for their areas in 2019, but Sunak and his cabinet hold positions of higher power without having consulted the British voting public (and for what its worth, they have been hemorrhaging popularity in recent months to boot.)

UK politics yall! shit sucks!

[townpostin]

UCIL Announces Key Leadership Changes; Rakesh Kumar New Mines Agent for Narwa

Rakesh Kumar appointed as mines agent for Narwa Uranium Project Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) has implemented a series of high-level transfers, reshaping its management structure. JAMSHEDPUR – UCIL has announced significant leadership changes, with several senior officials receiving new assignments across its operations. Rakesh Kumar has been appointed as the mines agent for the…

[tobiasdrake]

babe are you okay you haven't touched drv3 analyses for two months now

Yeah, I know. I still have 3-4, 3-5, and 3-6 to get to. It's a timing issue.

I do my Danganronpa stuff during the downtime at work. Depending on how many escalation requests and special projects I'm asked to do in a day, I can have between 1-6 hours where I'm just twiddling my thumbs. I'm a very important cog in the machine, but there isn't always work for me to do so often I'm just on standby waiting for something to break.

Basically, the way my job works is that I sit on the intersection between accounting and tech. I have about 2-5 hours of daily tasks I need to complete depending on volume but I'm also the point of escalation for problem-solving on about 3-4 different teams.

If accounting can't figure out how to make the tech do what it needs or tech is brushing up against inability to understand the accounting needs in play, it comes to me. Leadership also tends to call on me directly for account or tech needs, since I have a foot in both worlds.

So, depending on how many of these escalated requests and stuff I have in a day, I can have a ton of downtime or be packed.

So I fill that time with these long-form analyses and stuff. But a chapter of Danganronpa is a lot bigger than 2 or 3 hours here or there. It takes a lot of days of downtime to get through one.

Normally, that's not a problem. But a couple months ago, we had a complete disruption to our entire leadership and organizational structure. In fact, one of our highest-ranking accounting teams left entirely; The team still exists, but every single employee took new jobs or retired at about the same time, clearing the entire shop and requiring a whole new team of exclusively brand new staff now responsible for some of our most important finances.

We also had multiple managers change positions or retire, and some entire teams had to be reshuffled under new organizational brackets. And we got new tech people who haven't touched our system before, to boot.

Consequentially, this has resulted in a lot more How I Mine 4 Fish requests hitting my desk. Right now, I'm basically the only thing holding the finance and tech departments together while everyone gets their shit figured out.

But I am really excited for when things calm down, and I can get back to comfy days where I can anticipate when and where the downtime is going to come so I can return to the last three chapters of Danganronpa.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Vanuatu narrowly avoided a political crisis as Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday.

The putsch was led by former prime minister and now opposition leader Bob Loughman, who urged for the immediate election of a new prime minister in a no-confidence motion submitted to Parliament.

Loughman has criticized Kalsakau’s foreign policy decisions, saying in the no-confidence motion that they had undermined Vanuatu’s independence, sovereignty, and position as a non-aligned state. Guardian Australian reported that this list of grievances included a security deal Vanuatu signed with Australia in December last year.[...]

Despite the motion not mentioning Australia directly, this is the only pact of its kind signed under Kalsakau’s leadership. It further stated that: “The Hon Prime Minister and his Government must conduct its relations impartially and not allow our independent and sovereign nation to be sucked into a game it does not want and to be used inappropriately by competing nations to exert dominance in our region.”[...]

However, despite the best efforts of the opposition, the vote failed. The no-confidence motion fell short of an absolute majority, gaining 26 votes compared to the 23 votes against. [...]

Kalsakau told a press conference on Tuesday his government would set up a capital development fund. This would be used to buy new aircraft and build roads, to boost the tourism-reliant economy. He also reshuffled his cabinet in a move designed to win support ahead of the vote.

16 Aug 23

[beardedmrbean]

Boyko Borissov, the leader of GERB, has taken direct charge of the Sofia branch of his party, marking a significant shift in the local leadership. The party revealed this move via social media, disclosing that a substantial 80% of the Sofia chapter's leadership underwent a change.

The fresh team primarily comprises individuals from GERB's youth organization. Borissov expressed his confidence in the vigor and fervor of the younger members, emphasizing their importance within the party.

This development surfaces shortly after the recent local elections, where GERB's candidate, Anton Hekimyan, secured the third position in the initial voting round. This outcome pushed the nominees of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and a Socialist coalition into a runoff. Presently, GERB holds 14 seats in the 61-seat Municipal Council of Sofia.

Borissov attributed the election results to an extensive anti-party campaign over the past few years. He characterized these elections as a collective rebuke of the political establishment but praised GERB's performance as "excellent" in contrast to other parties' results.

The reshuffling at the helm of the Sofia chapter of GERB signals a strategic reinvigoration within the party's local leadership, potentially heralding a new direction for the party in the region.