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Australia Should Learn from Canada and Take a Truly Global Approach to Critical Minerals
Canada and Australia are key players in the global supply chain for critical minerals. Simultaneously the top two nations for receiving minerals investment and for providing minerals investment, they are perfectly placed to use critical minerals to facilitate the global energy transition, foster innovation and build their security capabilities.
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Vietnam Isn’t North Korea—and 50 Years of Australian Aid Has Helped
How have Australia and Vietnam, two countries with extremely different political systems, built such a successful partnership? It was done through long-term investment across all the tools of statecraft—including diplomacy, trade and defense—with development cooperation as a key element. This enabled a progression from battlefield enemy to major economic and development partner in a surprisingly short period.
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Congress Bans Pentagon from Using Chinese Port Logistics Platform
The U.S. Congress has passed legislation that would ban the Pentagon from using any seaport in the world that relies on a Chinese logistics platform known as LOGINK. LOGINK, by tracking cargo and ship movements, lets Beijing monitor America’s military supply chain, which relies on commercial ports.
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How Verified Accounts on X Thrive While Spreading Misinformation About the Israel-Hamas Conflict
With the gutting of content moderation initiatives at X, accounts with blue checks, once a sign of authenticity, are disseminating debunked claims and gaining more followers. Community Notes, X’s fact-checking system, hasn’t scaled sufficiently. “The blue check is flipped now. Instead of a sign of authenticity, it’s a sign of suspicion, at least for those of us who study this enough,” said one expert.
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Tainted Applesauce Pouches May Have Been Intentionally Contaminated: FDA
Cinnamon applesauce pouches available at Weis, WanaBanana, and Schnucks have been pulled from shelves after they were found to be contaminated with lead. The FDA says it currently believes the adulteration is “economically motivated.”
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Red Sea Attacks: Why Arab Nations Won't Join Naval Coalition
The U.S. has announced a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks, but only one Middle Eastern country has joined. Why have others — like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt — not done so? Each of these states has its own reasons, but analysts say that the one thing the three powers have in common is the fact that they don’t want to be seen as working in defense of Israel.
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Red Sea Houthi Attacks: Implications for Global Trade
After a rise in attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, the world’s largest shipping firms are staying away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Will we see another supply chain crisis?
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U.S.-Led Taskforce Deploys in Red Sea as Middle East Crisis Threatens to Escalate Beyond Gaza
The world economy is strongly dependent on the global maritime supply chain. About 80% of international trade by volume is transported by sea. It does not take much to disrupt the global maritime supply chain. Intentional disruptions of the maritime supply chain by pirates or terrorists pose a challenge that goes beyond simple logistics. Attacks on civilian shipping directly affect insurance premiums and deter operators from transiting through certain areas for financial and security reasons.
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Hidden Fortunes and Surprising Overestimations in Cybercrime Revenue
To what extent methodological limitations and incomplete data impact the revenue estimations of cybercriminal groups using the Bitcoin blockchain was largely unknown. A new study challenges existing figures regarding cybercriminals’ Bitcoin earnings to date, revealing the full scale of the financial impact of cybercriminal activity.
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Taking Illinois’ Center for Digital Agriculture into the Future
The Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a new executive director, John Reid, who plans to support CDA’s growth across all dimensions of use-inspired research, translation of research into practice, and education and workforce development.
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Biden’s Trade Policy U-Turn Bodes Ill for Indo-Pacific Security
America’s economic isolationism is increasingly entrenched, with President Joe Biden’s administration no longer supporting the trade policies advocated by US multinational corporations, retreating instead to a nativist protectionism. The Biden administration’s U-turn last month on digital trade policy was a shock both to the US business community and to the nations that had been negotiating digital trade agreements with the US on the basis of its long-established position of lowering the barriers to digital commerce.
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Cryptocurrency Tech Firm Blocks Terrorists’ Access to Cash
Could Israel eradicate Hamas and other terrorist networks without a single person killed and without any boots on the ground or planes in the sky? For one technology firm, fighting terror doesn’t involve killing people, only killing the transfer of funds.
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Costs of the Climate Crisis: An Insurance Umbrella for Nations at Risk
International study in the run-up to COP28: Public-private partnerships may help protect developing countries from the financial consequences of climate change.
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Security Officers: Occupational Employment and Wages
There are more than 1.1 million security officers in the United States, and they form an essential part of the U.S. economy, playing an important role in maintaining safety and security across various sectors. The wages of security officers in the United States vary depending on several factors such as location, experience, and the specific industry they are employed in.
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How Cryptocurrency Fueled Hamas' Terror Attack on Israel
A crackdown on cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas has reignited scrutiny of digital assets after the terrorist group attacked Israel. Criminal and terrorist organizations use crypto to bypass laws and sanctions.
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More headlines
The long view
Need for National Information Clearinghouse for Cybercrime Data, Categorization of Cybercrimes: Report
There is an acute need for the U.S. to address its lack of overall governance and coordination of cybercrime statistics. A new report recommends that relevant federal agencies create or designate a national information clearinghouse to draw information from multiple sources of cybercrime data and establish connections to assist in criminal investigations.
Trying to “Bring Back” Manufacturing Jobs Is a Fool’s Errand
Advocates of recent populist policies like to focus on the supposed demise of manufacturing that occurred after the 1970s, but that focus is misleading. The populists’ bleak economic narrative ignores the truth that the service sector has always been a major driver of America’s success, for decades, even more so than manufacturing. Trying to “bring back” manufacturing jobs, through harmful tariffs or other industrial policies, is destined to end badly for Americans. It makes about as much sense as trying to “bring back” all those farm jobs we had before the 1870s.
The Potential Impact of Seabed Mining on Critical Mineral Supply Chains and Global Geopolitics
The potential emergence of a seabed mining industry has important ramifications for the diversification of critical mineral supply chains, revenues for developing nations with substantial terrestrial mining sectors, and global geopolitics.