Municipality issues 9 warnings in Sulaibikhat area
KUWAIT CITY, June 15, (KUNA): The Kuwait Municipality announced Monday that it has issued 9 warnings for violating properties in the areas northwest of Sulaibikhat and Granada, as part of a campaign to detect building violations of all kinds, in implementation of building regulations and rules.
Director of the Engineering Audit and Follow-up Department at the Capital Governorate Municipality branch, Yousef Al-Bathali said in a statement to reporters on the sidelines of the tour that the team set 22 warnings of encroachments on state property, in addition to issuing two violations for not assigning an engineering office and establishing construction work without a license.
He added that the supervisory teams in the Kuwait Municipality will continue their field tours to detect building violations of all kinds and take all supervisory measures in implementation of building regulations, noting that the violations that were issued came after the end of the legal period from the date of placing the warning label.
He explained that the media campaign launched by the Public Relations Department aims to detect all building violations and monitor the violating properties in all governorates, noting that the violations will be submitted to the legal department to take the necessary action.
The Health Regulations Committee in Jahra Governorate announced Sunday the closure of seven shops within the governorate during the month of May that did not comply with the precautionary requirements and measures approved by the health authorities to confront the spread of COVID-19.
Committee member and head of the removal department of the Jahra Municipality branch, Suleiman Al-Ghais, told Kuwait News Agency on the sidelines of a tour of one of the complexes that the rate of adherence to health requirements and the increase in health awareness in Jahra Governorate has become high, especially among the elderly.
Al-Ghais added that the teams concerned with following up the extent of commitment to implementing the relevant Cabinet decisions will continue their field tours in order to contribute to maintaining community health.
LONDON, June 15, (AP): Britain and Australia announced the broad outlines of a free trade deal Tuesday, eliminating tariffs on a wide range of goods as the U.K. seeks to expand links around the world following its exit from the European Union.
The pact is expected to boost exports of traditional British products such as Scotch whisky, while boosting imports of lamb and wine from Australia. The U.K. also hopes the deal will help it join the trans-Pacific trade partnership, which would open the door to increased trade throughout the AsiaPacific region.
It is the first trade deal Britain has negotiated from scratch since it left the EU. Earlier deals with countries including Japan and Canada were built on existing agreements struck by the EU.
Johnson and his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, appeared outside Downing Street on Tuesday in a jovial mood, underlining the benefits each county would receive in the deal and stressing the long ties between the two nations.
“This is an ambitious free trade agreement,’’ Morrison told reporters. “This is not a standard cookie cutter agreement. This is an agreement with great ambition for both countries.’’
Britain is Australia’s fifth largest trading partner with two-way goods and services valued at 36.6 billion Australian dollars ($28.2 billion) a year.
U.K. farm groups reacted with caution, saying they were waiting to see the details of the agreement. British meat producers have expressed concerns that they wouldn’t be able to compete with cheap imports from Australia.
DETROIT, June 15, (AP): The president of General Motors says his company plans to announce more U.S. battery factories later this week.
Mark Reuss gave no details of where the factories would be located or exactly what they would manufacture. He spoke in a weekend interview with The Associated Press at an IndyCar race on an island park near downtown Detroit.
Company spokesman Jim Cain wouldn’t comment Monday on the announcements, but noted GM previously stated it would build more factories to add battery capacity as electric vehicles grow in sales. GM has set a goal to stop selling internal-combustion passenger vehicles by 2035.
“In the next week we’ll announce some more, and it will be here in the U.S.,” Reuss said of the new battery factories.
The factories would be in addition to two battery cell plants that the company announced in the past two years, both geared to ramp up production as GM rolls out 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025, with more than two-thirds sold in North America.
GM and joint venture partner LG Energy Solution already have announced battery cell factories in Lordstown, Ohio, near Cleveland, and Spring Hill, Tennessee. The company is investing $2.3 billion to build each of the facilities. Lordstown is expected to open next year and employ 1,100 workers, while Spring Hill is to open in 2023 and employ 1,300. It’s likely the new battery plants would employ similar numbers of people, but Cain wouldn’t comment on numbers.
The two plants under construction would send cells to five factories where GM plans to build electric vehicles. But the two factories can’t make enough to feed all of the plants if sales rise.
The EV assembly plants are in Detroit-Hamtramck, Michigan; Orion Township, Michigan; Spring Hill, Tennessee; Ingersoll, Ontario; and Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. It’s likely that the new battery plants would be close to at least some of the assembly factories.
Electric vehicles now amount to less than 2% of U.S. new vehicle sales, but they are rising and projected to grow as more manufacturers roll out additional models and the U.S. government comes out with expanded tax credits and other incentives to buy them.