TThe Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operation began in 2008. Its superconducting equipment requires a cool-down/warm-up cycle lasting several months to access some key elements such as superconducting magnets, making annual shutdowns impractical and obliged for a change in programmed stops paradigm. A new lifecycle management approach for programmed stops was therefore necessary. The large interventions were grouped and performed during long shutdowns (LSs). They include maintenance, consolidation and upgrades. LSs last about three years and are scheduled typically every six years. Since the LHC depends on its chain of preceding injectors, this approach was extended to the entire CERN accelerator complex. This paper briefly outlines the methodology used to plan, prepare and coordinate these LSs and presents the interventions and main upgrades planned for the upcoming LS3, scheduled to start mid-2026 for the LHC. The paper highlights various projects, aimed at improving safety, performance, and operational availability as well as implementing new technologies and providing new facilities for the particle physics community.

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) Run 24 was 27 cryo weeks, operating with collisions at the STAR and sPHENIX detectors. The primary mode was polarized protons at 100 GeV, where there was 22 weeks of physics production. sPHENIX continued commissioning, becoming fully operational after 13 weeks and the addition of isobutane to their TPC gas mixture. STAR had a low luminosity run followed by twenty weeks of high luminosity and radially polarized beams. To reduce the beam-beam parameter and maximize the number of collisions within a small vertex region at sPHENIX, sPHENIX planned to operate with a crossing angle. For 8 weeks, collisions were only at sPHENIX until the beam-beam parameter was sufficiently low to support the additional collisions at STAR. A significant number of power dips earlier in the run greatly affected machine performance and reliability. At the maximum achieved performance, the luminosity was limited by four factors simultaneously: accelerating RF cavity intensity limit, intensity from the injectors, losses at rebucketing, and dynamic aperture. Despite these difficulties, sPHENIX and STAR were able to collect sufficient data commensurate with their goals.

We review the 2024 Pb-Pb ion run at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in terms of the operational experience, the problems encountered and the main results. This run was the second heavy-ion physics period of LHC Run 3 at 6.8 Z TeV. With only 18 days scheduled for physics data-taking, the key objective was to address the problems encountered in the 2023 Pb-Pb run and establish stable and efficient operation. Thanks to several mitigation measures, the 2023 limitations were overcome, significantly improving the machine availability. Together with substantially higher intensity, thanks to the excellent performance of the Pb ion injectors, this paved the way for a record-high performance in terms of average daily integrated luminosity with ion beams at the LHC.