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After countless negotiations, all sides see themselves as winners: u.S. President donald trump has pushed through a free trade agreement for north america that he had pushed for, while the democrats in congress, in turn, want the pact to be significantly improved.

Even the unions buried the agreement. The pact now includes stricter rules for workers’ rights and environmental protection, among other things, house of representatives speaker nancy pelosi told reporters tuesday.

The agreement, known as the USMCA, for the u.S., mexico and canada is now expected to be ratified by parliament shortly. It will replace nafta, the north american free trade pact signed in 1994. "There’s no question that this agreement is better than nafta," pelosi said. USMCA also includes stronger mechanisms to enforce agreed norms. "We celebrate a victory for american workers today," pelosi said. The original text proposed by the government had not been acceptable. AFL-CIO chief richard trumka buried the deal. Workers could be proud, he said.

David akinjise experienced first-hand how fast and merciless technical progress can be. At the beginning of the new millennium, he was employed by nokia, the market leader for cell phones at the time. "When apple introduced its iphone, the development was laughed at in the boardroom." But the laughter soon got stuck in the throats of those in charge. Only a few years later nokia was finished – and apple the top dog.

At present, the founder of "the new now gmbh" also sees a technology shift underway – in mobility.

Families in autonomous cars watching the latest movies while driving; city centers experiencing a miracle as parking lots are transformed into parks; robotic drones delivering parcels; and air cabs for everyone: the visions of future transportation presented at the district’s mobility summit in baunach on thursday evening were literally out of this world. The three speakers’ loud, flashy presentations had the effect of a three-hour brainwash on the 70 or so visitors – somewhere on the borderline between science and science fiction.

Next year, the hitherto rather loose friendship with the u.S. City of toledo is to become an official city twinning. "In january, an annual plan is drawn up with the aim of visiting toledo and cementing the city partnership there", explains jurgen heeb upon request. Heeb is the city partnership officer of the coburg city council and currently keeps a close and lively e-mail communication. Various individuals have traveled to ohio this year, he said. "A wide variety of institutions have expressed interest in a partnership."

The coburg city council decided in 2017 to discontinue its partnership with garden city due to inactivity and at the same time, on heeb’s recommendation, to look for a new partner in the u.S.

Relations with the u.S. In particular continue to be important despite the political situation. With the city of toledo/ohio, a partner has been found who is looking forward to a friendship with the city of coburg and is striving for intensive relations. This interest is based not least on the fact that there is a large group of german-born citizens there. Jurgen heeb visited toledo in august 2017 and was able to establish contacts.

The battery charger can be set up in public parking lots or on company land – fast-charging takes an average of 17 minutes, according to the VW group’s component plant division.

For a pilot project in wolfsburg, the first mobile charging columns should be installed in the first half of 2019. From 2020, the saule, which will continue to use old batteries from electric cars, is also to be used in other cities.

The saule, with a charging capacity of 360 kilowatt hours, can be set up independently of the power grid, according to the information, but can also be charged via alternating current. This makes it possible to store solar or wind energy temporarily. Up to 15 e-cars could recharge their batteries during operation without a power connection. If the energy level falls below 20 percent, the empty charging lug can be exchanged for a charged one. The locations of the pillars love to find each other via app.

German carmakers are facing stiffer headwinds when it comes to managing vehicle data: in addition to insurers, the tuv is now also taking a stand against the industry’s approach. This is a matter of both security and the business with vehicle data, which is considered a rough future market.

"From our point of view, however, three aspects must be guaranteed: the operational safety of the vehicle, data security and data protection or the privacy of the car driver," said richard goebelt, member of the executive board of the umbrella organization vdtuv, to the german press agency.

Modern cars with their many electronic control units are, according to widespread opinion in specialist circles, susceptible to hacker attacks. According to the car industry’s concept, the data from the vehicle is to be transferred to the manufacturer’s secure servers, and other companies are then to gain access to the data via these servers. Tuv doesn’t think much of it: "from our point of view, data processing has to take place in the vehicle and must not be outsourced to backend servers," said goebelt.