Soft soils are well represented as the foundation of buildings all over the world. Settlements of buildings that are built on soft soils are developing over decades and often uneven. This can cause structural damages to constructions and as consequence unplanned repairs or even collapses of buildings in general. To justify the use of different models of soil mechanics it is necessary to carry out their verification. Verification of the model consists of compliance to the simple laboratory experiments and of the adequacy of the field tests description. And the most important thing is that the results of calculations should be based on comparison between series of field observations. The principal difficulty of comparing calculation results with field observations is that the actual soil deformation is developing over a long time, and most of the calculation methods are aimed to obtain finite values of deformations. Comparison between data of finite deformations and data of field observations is not quite correct, because, as a rule, in-situ (field) observations recorded incomplete development process of deformations but not only the final result of settlement. Therefore, to compare these calculations and observations we should select calculation models that can examine the development of deformations in time. Based on the above, it is interesting to analyze the applicability of the most common engineering methods and calculation models of the soils that underlie different calculation programs used in practice.

The article provides an overview of the reports of the 27th annual scientific inter-institutional conference "Southeast Asia and the South Pacific: Actual Development Issues", which took place on 17 (in person) and 22 (online) November 2022. The conference, organized by the Center for Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was attended by scientists, as well as applicants and graduate students from various academic, research and educational institutions.

The article analyzes the alignment of political forces on the eve of the general parliamentary elections in Singapore. The author dwells on main political parties of the country, cites data on the results of the last parliamentary elections held in Singapore in 2015. Particular attention is paid to changing the procedure for conducting both the election campaign and the elections themselves in the context of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In conclusion, the author makes a forecast about the results of the elections, which will be held on 10 July 2020.

The paper provides an overview of the reports presented at the conference "Southeast Asia and the South Pacific region: current problems of development", which was held in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences on December 18, 2019. In the annual inter-institute conference of Orientalists organized by the Center for Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania studies academics, as well as applicants and post-graduates from various academic, research and educational institutions, participated.

The article is devoted to the general parliamentary elections in Singapore, held on July 10, 2020. The author refers to the analysis of the election procedure in the context of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the problems that arose during their holding. Particular attention is paid to the results of the elections in the context of the growing political influence of the opposition. In conclusion, the author examines the possible prospects for the political development of Singapore.