Mining supply disruptions mask mounting demand fears

Subject COVID-19-related disruptions to the mining supply chain. Significance The severity and length of COVID-19-related lockdowns has varied by country, but disruptions have quickly affected production. While West Africa, Russia and initially Mexico struggled to define a clear policy for mining, strict initial prohibition hit production in New Zealand, Peru, Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador and India in late March and into April. Spain, Australia, Chile, Quebec and Finland stuck to the middle ground, phasing policies in and out and permitting selected activity. Impacts Key plants, including iron ore mines in Australia and copper mines in Chile and the United States, are seeing little disruption so far. Mongolia, the first nation to close its borders with China, has also been the first to resume coal exports to its southern neighbour. Western Australia banned some fly-in, fly-out commuting arrangements to mines; similar such bans could persist elsewhere for months.

Significance The possibility of Japan joining the alliance is now seriously discussed in Tokyo and the capitals of the Five Eyes members -- the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Joining Five Eyes would signal Japan’s even deeper integration into US alliance structures, regionally and globally, and raise expectations for Japan to act as a fuller ally in all sorts of contingencies. Impacts Japan’s greatest potential contribution to allies is probably in signals and imagery intelligence, especially vis-a-vis China. The prime minister will avoid opening up a controversial foreign policy issue so close to a general election; his successor may be bolder. Japan’s partners still run a risk of leaks due to Japan’s lag in cybersecurity and institutional arrangements, but this is decreasing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-245
Author(s):  
Yasmine Dominguez-Whitehead ◽  
Felix Maringe

PurposeThis paper provides a cross-national analysis of PhD supervision models, milestones and examination procedures in order to compare PhD programs and their practices.Design/methodology/approachA comparative approach is employed, which systematically interrogates PhD supervision models, milestones and examination procedures in the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States via a comprehensive review of the practices and literature.FindingsThe findings indicate the ramifications of the different approaches and highlight the benefits and drawbacks associated with the different models.Originality/valueBy making explicit the dominant supervision models, milestones and examination procedures that exist in the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States, the authors shed light on the somewhat obscure path to earning a PhD degree.


Author(s):  
Sarah Elizabeth Stockwell

This chapter considers processes of decolonization in Britain’s ‘empires’, incorporating discussion not just of the key dynamics and manifestations of decolonization in the colonial empire in India, Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere, but also in Britain’s residual ‘informal’ empire in the Middle East, and in the ‘old’ Commonwealth countries of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The chapter argues that decolonization across these different contexts was driven by geo-political forces operating across the European empires, as the international order was reconfigured by two world wars, tilting power away from Britain and other European imperial powers. Stockwell nevertheless identifies elements of British imperial exceptionalism. She suggests that these were not to be found, as contemporaries liked to claim, in the form of a British liberal imperialism. Rather, Britain, which was at the centre of an empire larger than any other, retained a semblance of great power status, shaping British relations with the United States and Britain’s ambitions to exercise influence after empire.


Subject Outlook for the Five Eyes alliance. Significance The stability of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing partnership between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States is under stress over Chinese participation in the members’ 5G telecommunications networks. Impacts Possible US concessions on the supply chains of Chinese firms would ease strain within the Five Eyes alliance. European corporates will redouble efforts to burnish their security credentials to capture 5G market share. London’s eventual decision on Huawei will influence the EU and Asian democracies.


Author(s):  
Enrique Miguel Tébar Martínez

While adequate for English-speaking users in the United States, as well as many Commonwealth countries and other English-speaking jurisdictions (e.g., Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa among others), typing in Romance Languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian) by using a standard US-QWERTY Keyboard is not easy since it is not adapted to special characters such as accented vowels, tildes and cedillas or ligatures, used in Romance Languages. With regard to the International Layout, intended to enable access to the most common diacritics used in Western European Languages, the problem comes from the fact that accented vowels are spread throughout the Keyboard layout, and their uppercase versions need chord combinations which can require good manual dexterity. This paper will analyze how the Spanish or Portuguese Keyboards are the best options for these users since they are QWERTY-based and the most compatible ones for the different character sets in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian Languages.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Gassmann ◽  
Chris Parker

Abstract L. vulgaris is a perennial flowering plant with a spreading root system. It forms dense mats which can compete with crops and suppress native vegetation, reducing pasture productivity and/or biodiversity (ISSG, 2015). Native to temperate areas of Europe and Asia, it has been widely introduced to North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and is regarded as noxious in many of these countries. By inclusion in indexes of invasive species it is regarded as invasive widely in Canada and in the USA (Alberta Invasive Species Council, 2014; Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States, 2015). L. vulgaris received an invasive index of 69 (out of a maximum of 100) in Alaska, USA (ANHP, 2011). It is also regarded as invasive within its native range in Serbia (Dzigurski and Nikolic, 2014).


Significance DEPA was concluded by its founding members -- Singapore, New Zealand and Chile -- in 2020. South Korea applied to participate in June this year. Canada has expressed interest. China's accession would greatly raise its profile, but creates difficulties both for existing members and for Beijing. Impacts Other countries may take DEPA more seriously as a result of China's application. The United States and the EU may be spurred to devote greater attention to global digital trade integration. China's fundamentally sovereignty-based approach to data is unlikely to change.


Polar Record ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 6 (42) ◽  
pp. 179-184
Author(s):  
Anders K. Orvin

By a treaty signed in Paris on 9 February 1920, Norway was given the sovereignty of Svalbard, comprising all the islands situated between longs. 10° and 35° E. and lats. 74° and 81° N., thus including Spitsbergen, Bjørnøya (Bear Island), Hopen (Hope Island), Kong Karls Land, and Kvitøya (White Island). The treaty, which has since been recognized by a number of other states, was signed by the United States of America, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland, the Dominions of Canada and New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, India, and Sweden. The U.S.S.R. recognized Norway's sovereignty of Svalbard in 1924 but did not sign the treaty until 1935; Germany signed the treaty in 1925. On 14 August 1925, Norway formally took possession and the Norwegian flag was hoisted in Longyearbyen. Since then, twenty-five years have elapsed, and in honour of the occasion the anniversary was celebrated at Longyearbyen in 1950.


Think ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (26) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
Daniel Putman

Millions of Americans, as well as millions in Europe, have used or will use a library established by Andrew Carnegie. In his lifetime Carnegie gave the equivalent of several billion dollars in today's money to establish 1,689 public libraries in the United States, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Moreover, 660 libraries in Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada, 17 in New Zealand, 12 in South Africa and scattered others around the world exist because of this man.1 And this does not include the extensive positive influence of the foundations and grants established by Carnegie. Aristotle would likely have called him ‘magnificent’. Carnegie had the virtue beyond mere generosity available only to those with the means and position to benefit the polis on a grand scale. Unlike generosity, magnificence involves what Irwin has called ‘the judgment and tact that are needed for large benefactions.2 Whether ‘magnificent’ or ‘generous’ is a better term for Carnegie's character is not my major concern. Carnegie's recent biographer simply uses ‘generous’. So, for the remainder of this paper, I will use ‘generous’.3 But was Carnegie, in fact, generous? This paper will explore both the definition of the virtue and its application to Andrew Carnegie.


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