Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on European leaders to support African Union measures aimed at ending unconstitutional leadership changes on the continent.

We also call for stronger support from the EU in the condemnation and imposition of weighty sanctions on countries that engage in unconstitutional change of governments.

We equally seek the EUs condemnation of manipulation of Constitutions in favour of extension of term limits, he said at a roundtable discussion on Peace, Security and Governance at the on-going 6th EU-AU summit in Brussels.

The presidents spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, stated in Abuja on Friday that Buhari described the European leaders as partners in promoting democracy and good governance.

He equally stressed the need to nip the root causes of extremism, conflicts and tensions in Africa in the bud, Shehu stated.

Africa has continued to witness different waves of violent extremism, community-based conflicts and inter-ethnic tensions, notably in rural areas.

For many decades, our continent has been deprived of political stability and socio-economic development due to terrorism and violent extremism.

More worrisome is the current state of democracy on the continent, which has become a great source of concern to many of us, Shehu quoted Buhari as saying.

He added that the Nigerian leader laid particular emphasis on increasing cases of unconstitutional change of governments in West Africa,

The African Union has often responded to these challenges through different structures such as the African Peace and Security Architecture and the African Governance Architecture.

Through enhanced collaboration with our development partners, especially the European Union, we can identify areas of cooperation for quick and substantial results, Buhari also said.

He argued that as leaders and policymakers, it was important for the partners to place priority on tackling the root causes of conflicts in Africa.

He said it was also important to take measures to safeguard peace and security if Africa would attain its African Union Agenda 2063.

According to him, it is imperative to ensure that election processes in Africa have outcomes that truly reflect the wishes of the electorate, as to go contrary to this, is courting instability.

We have a responsibility to reduce conflicts that stem from lack of good governance, unaccountability, corruption and social exclusion.

Free, fair, credible and transparent elections remain crucial elements in ensuring peace and security and promoting constitutional order, democracy and inclusive governance on the continent.

It is therefore imperative for our partnership to also focus on strengthening election processes in Africa and prevent interference to influence the processes and outcomes of elections, he told the summit.

According to Shehu, the Nigerian leader also called for the concretisation and transformation of promises of cooperation made by EU leaders into actions.

I underscore the need to convert our pledges on political cooperation in the area of peace, security and conflict prevention into concrete initiatives.

Such initiatives are needed in joint field missions, shared understanding and analysis on crisis situations, as well as joint early action and swift implementation of agreed positions.

The movement and operation of terrorists and violent extremist groups along the Sahel could better be addressed through an improved Continental Early Warning Mechanism.

Consequently, we believe there is a clear need to strengthen our cooperation on security with the EU, particularly through improved intelligence sharing and acquisition of military equipment and hardware.

We invite the EU to upscale its support for the G5 Sahel and the Multinational Joint Taskforce in the Lake Chad Region.

This is required as we strive to further degrade Boko Haram insurgents and their Islamic State in the West Africa Province counterparts.

Africa also looks up to Europe for enhanced support in combating illicit financial flows and terrorism funding that aid the activities of terrorists and violent extremist groups, Buhari stressed.

He called for all hands to be on deck to ensure that Africas Blue Economy Agenda for development is realised.

Africas Blue Economy is made of vast lakes and rivers and an extensive ocean resource base.

The Blue Economy can play a major role in Africas structural transformation, sustainable economic progress, and social development.

The largest sectors of the current African aquatic and ocean-based economy are fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, transport, ports, coastal mining, and energy.

I must emphasise the importance of expanding regional and international cooperation on ocean governance, on the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as on maritime security.

These including piracy, illicit trafficking and other maritime crimes and threats as reflected in the 2050 Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy, Buhari stressed.

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Buhari Calls For EU's Weighty Sanctions On Coup Plotters In Africa The Whistler Nigeria - The Whistler Nigeria

Black, Brown and Indigenous people have been systematically excluded from earth sciences, magnifying their exposure to the most severe impacts of climate change, said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, lead author of a recent commentary in the journal Nature Geosciences.

That adds to the burden of global warming that people of color already bear more heavily than other populations because the world for centuries has been geographically delineated based on racism, and resultant slavery and colonialism, Berhe said.

The article was the latest in a series of academic papers and articles that describe the consequences of discrimination in the sciences, but many scientists hope that it wont be the last.

Berhe, a University of California, Merced soil scientist and environmental justice advocate, said that, because of structural racism, there arent nearly enough conversations about how the worst impacts of climate change are affecting Black and Brown people disproportionately.

Most of the nearly 1 billion people worldwide facing an increased threat of food insecurity and displacement from global warming are Black and Brown, and their stories arent being told in part because voices from communities of color and Indigenous populations have been systematically excluded from scientific fields critical to fully understanding and explaining climate impacts, she said.

The loss of women and people of color from various stages of educational and career paths in science has long been referred to as the leaky pipeline. But in the article published last month, Berhe and her co-authors said that analogy ignores the systemic racism that in large part built the pipeline. Closer to the truth, they assert, is that the legacy of racism in science created a vicious and hostile obstacle course that blocks the advancement of women, as well as Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). To correct the well-documented lack of inclusion, this exclusionary obstacle course should be placed in the context of scientific racism, colonial legacies and systemic biases that permeate our disciplines, they wrote.

Conversations in some science organizations about race and racism accelerated as a wave of civil rights protests spread globally in 2020 after a policeman choked George Floyd to death in Minneapolis. Those dialogues have led some science organizations and research institutions to make diversity pledges, which will help combat global warming and other planetary emergencies like biodiversity loss, said Berhe, who has been studying the topic for 20 years.

Empowering and amplifying the voices and concerns of historically marginalized communities, she said, would build a diverse and inclusive science community that can better resolve historic inequities in access to resources and opportunities. Most important may be addressing the socio-economic and political factors that are the root causes and contemporary effects of the climate crisis, she added.

In the climate science community, the lack of diversity shows with the disproportional attention paid to the physical impacts of increasing atmospheric temperature on melting polar sea ice or permafrost, rising sea levels, and even impact on polar bears, Berhe said. These are all important issues in their own right. But, while these issues have been receiving considerable attention, what doesnt get as much press is that, in the context of human security, climate change is a threat multiplier, intensifying droughts and famines in developing African countries.

One recent study showed a dangerous lack of data about the threat of extreme heat waves in large parts of Africadata needed to create early warning systems and protect people. Other studies have identified structural racism in science showing up as research biases because most studies are conducted by white researchers in developed countries.

At national and local levels, many scientific fields and institutions are still not very inclusive and dont address the issues of harassment, discrimination and bullying in the workplace with the kind of seriousness and urgency that the issue demands, Berhe said. As a result, these exclusionary behaviors have contributed to underrepresentation and exclusion of women and BIPOC. The cost of that to science and society has been huge.

If science were more inclusive, it would have a richer and deeper understanding of pressing issues facing society, including the climate crisis, said article co-author Meredith Hastings, an environmental researcher and deputy director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.

The more minds you put toward a problem the more likely you are to find a solution, she said. We would have a more critical understanding of the changes that are already taking place.

Hastings said that ongoing exclusion of people of color, Indigenous people and women in science should also be considered in a larger societal context, including the failure of political leadership to strengthen voting rights, a measure that would empower disenfranchised people at a fundamental level.

In our country, everything is so driven by politics, she said. I get so overwhelmed by the structural, systemic racism. At the very least, cant we create a system where we remove the obstacles? And how do we actually consider a different system? You have to have politicians who are willing to fight for change.

The reality is that science, rather than being purely objective, is political and social, said Kuheli Dutt, assistant dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at MIT.

It involves questions of what should be studied, how should it be studied, how the parameters should be defined, what should be included and what should be excluded, said Dutt, who was not an author of the commentary. And there is usually an element of power relations in who gets to decide these things.

The rapid development of modern western science has been driven partly by its co-dependence with societal hunger for natural resources, she said, but people often describe geosciences as being objective study of the natural world, the oceans, soil and rocks, rather than the social world.

Concepts like resources and extraction often ignore the forced labor extracted from marginalized groups, she said. Similarly, the study of land is often limited to its physical properties; rocks, soils, rather than the history of forced displacement associated with those lands. With this focus on physical properties there is a significant historic and social context that gets ignored.

Some scientists point to organizations that have more successfully incorporated inclusivity and equity into their staffs and work as models for what science with a focus on diversity could accomplish.

Dawn Wright, an ocean researcher and chief scientist with ESRI, a digital mapping company, said she would like to see more science stories told about the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group including many developing countries. The coalition is pushing for a global agreement for nature and people to halt the accelerating loss of species, and protect vital ecosystems that are the source of our economic security, said Wright, who was not an author of the recent article.

The stories behind the critical involvement of nations such as Botswana, Cote dIvoire, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Seychelles, Mozambique and more are not being told, she said, including what the world stands to learn from their Indigenous, traditional ecological knowledge around sustainable resource management, biodiversity accounting and protection.

And while the era of direct colonization of new land areas is over, the exploitation of ocean resources, including on the seabed, is just getting started. Wright said that presents an opportunity to test diversity and justice pledges from policymakers and the scientists that inform them.

A 2021 research paper spelled out an important warning about the potential social injustices that may result from the growth of the new blue economy, including dispossession of property, displacement of communities, ocean grabbing and environmental justice concerns about pollution and waste, as well as the exclusion of Indigenous communities and people of color from governance of the ocean-based economy.

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Wright said some of the challenges described in the paper are now being addressed, and sharing those success stories more often could leverage those considerations into more hidebound institutions.

In my view we are not hearing enough about these efforts, they are not being trumpeted and feted, even to the point of forcing long-standing bastions of the old ivory tower ways to take note, to step up and to compete, she said, because graduate students are starting to gravitate toward schools that offer courses closely looking the power structures that are part of science.

The stories of scientists of color are still not being told widely enough, she said. Too many of us are still hidden figures, but ethnic history months and the remarkable outpouring of featurettes on Twitter in particular are starting to improve this.

Berhe said she hopes the science community can make swift progress, because voices of people of color are still vastly underrepresented in some of the most important conversations around identification, prioritization, implementation and even communication of climate change science, adaptation, and mitigation.

Dutt added that ignoring the social aspects of science in the name of objectivity often means that these stories dont get told or studied in a meaningful way in the geosciences. And with this focus on physical properties, there is a significant historic and social context that gets ignored.

Bob Berwyn an Austria-based reporter who has covered climate science and international climate policy for more than a decade. Previously, he reported on the environment, endangered species and public lands for several Colorado newspapers, and also worked as editor and assistant editor at community newspapers in the Colorado Rockies.

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Researchers Say Science Skewed by Racism is Increasing the Threat of Global Warming to People of Color - InsideClimate News

The Russian maritime Arctic stretches more than 160 degrees longitude from the Norwegian-Russian border in the west, to the Bering Strait in the east. It is Russias vast northern coastline, an open border to the Arctic Ocean, and a marine space that presents both strategic vulnerabilities and economic opportunities. The entire coastal area is arguably undergoing the most profound changes of any region in todays Arctic. This essay seeks to identify key influential drivers of change, and uncertainties that will plausibly determine the regions future.

The coastal seas along the northern frontier of Eurasia invite visions of marine transportation systems and shipping lanes connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Some Arctic shipping concepts are realistic and doable, and others are visionary but implausible. For accuracy, the historic name for the potential marine routes linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the entire Russian maritime is the Northeast Passage (NEP). By Russian law, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) stretches from Kara Gate at the southern tip of the island of Novaya Zemlya east to the Bering Strait, and encompasses all routes taken through the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 200 nautical miles out from the coast. Notably the special rules and regulations used along the NSR do not apply to the Barents Sea, thus the NSR is not a trans-Arctic (ocean to ocean) routing option. However, whatever ones perspective, the NSR has evolved into Russias Arctic national waterway, facilitating the movement of domestic and foreign-flag marine traffic.

One approach to better understand the complexities of the future of the Russian maritime Arctic is to compile and examine select, high level or strategic drivers of change. The drivers and their uncertainties can provide a framework for developing plausible futures or scenarios for this once remote, but now an emerging, Arctic area. Seven influential factors or drivers of regional change stand out and are included in the following narratives:

The Russian Arctic, or more precisely the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation, noted in strategic documents, holds one of the worlds largest storehouses of natural resources. While oil, natural gas, and coal are abundant and gain global attention, minerals such as nickel, palladium, platinum, copper, and more raw materials are also significant commodities available for export. Widely published data provide an important story: 22% of Russias total exports and 80% of its gas exports come from the Russian Arctic. The Kremlins long-term strategy is to increase these export totals so that the region can contribute more to Russias gross domestic product (GDP). One additional strategic goal is to move more natural gas (and oil) exports to Asian markets, to achieve a better balance with the pipeline gas flows from Western Siberia to European customers.

Two major complexes in the Russian maritime Arctic are key drivers and hubs for natural resource development. The first is the industrial complex at Norilsk, formerly the enterprise Norilsk Nickel, now named Nornickel, one of the worlds largest metal producers (Nornickel is the largest producer of nickel and palladium, the third largest platinum producer, and the fourth largest copper producer). The products are taken by rail to the port of Dudinka on the Yenisey River and loaded aboard icebreaking container ships designed in Finland and built in Germany and Finland. These specialized ships sail on year-round voyages west to Murmansk and European ports, and east through the Bering Strait in summer months to Asian markets.

The second complex of natural resource development projects is in the Ob Gulf. A new LNG plant and the port of Sabetta are located along the western shore of the Yamal Peninsula; in the southern end of the Ob Gulf, another port, Novy Port, has been built as an oil export terminal. Icebreakers, LNG icebreaking carriers, and icebreaking tankers maintain yearlong-navigation on destination voyages from the Ob Gulf along the NSR to Murmansk (and European ports), and into the Pacific in an eight-to-ten month navigation season. Russia aims to establish year-round navigation on the NSR to the east, and into the Pacific. The NSR has experienced exponential growth in cargo tonnage carried annually, with more than 35 million tons carried during 2021; most in oil and natural gas. A decree by President Putin in 2018 set a target of 80 million tons to be carried by the NSR in 2024.

Russias NSR as an Arctic national waterway is clearly linked to the flow of natural resource exports. Much uncertainty remains in how the NSR and NEP can be developed initially as a seasonal (summer) supplement to the Suez Canal for trans-Arctic navigation. Russian authorities and shippers are developing trans-shipment ports for LNG near Murmansk and on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific. This system is designed to keep the LNG icebreaking carriers operating in Arctic waters and move the LNG to larger storage sites outside the Yamal. Visionary plans have also been proposed to build a state-owned trans-shipment container operation along the NSR to compete in the future with other global trade routes. There is little doubt of further development of the NSR and its associated marine infrastructure in support of Russias economic and security interests.

The short and long-term consequences of anthropogenic climate change in the Russian Arctic are many and profound. No longer a wildcard factor, climate change has become a major disruptive force and driver of environmental change. Arctic sea ice retreat in all seasons, detailed in satellite observations during the past four decades, provides for greater marine access along the length of the NSR and potentially longer seasons of navigation. Higher temperatures throughout the Russian Arctic, with historic summer warming in Siberia, have promoted widespread forest fires and facilitated the thawing of permafrost, frozen ground, or soil. Thawing permafrost creates unstable ground conditions for all built infrastructure such as roads, buildings, runways, pipelines, and ports, and reduces land access in select areas. The Arctic coastline is particularly vulnerable to thawing permafrost that meets an increasingly ice-free ocean; the outcome is accelerating coastal erosion. Any future marine infrastructure initiatives such as rebuilding existing Arctic ports and developing new natural resource projects will need to address projected changes in the surrounding land and subsea permafrost. Highlighting this issue, the Russian government recently approved funding for a national system to monitor Russias permafrost that covers nearly two thirds of the countrys land mass. The data collected will provide not only information on permafrost hazards for infrastructure, but also an assessment of the release of vast amounts of methane and carbon to the atmosphere.

It should not be surprising that development of the Russian maritime Arctic is a top down, Russian state directed, enterprise.

Much of the current natural resource initiatives in the Russian maritime Arctic are focused on development of oil, natural gas, and coal, and facilitating their ship transport to European and Asian markets. Russia faces a major paradox, a strategy contradictory to emerging global efforts to mitigate future greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a new era of energy transition, will create uncertainties for oil, gas, and coal markets. Uncertainties in markets for hydrocarbons and commodity price volatilities will impact demand in the long-term for Russian Arctic energy resources. The pace of these changes could come as early as the 2040s, creating very serious economic challenges for the Russian Federation and its Arctic development ambitions.

It should not be surprising that development of the Russian maritime Arctic is a top down, Russian state directed, enterprise. In most respects it is a legacy of the Soviet era, with the Arctic region and resource-based activities heavily dependent on central government financing for infrastructure, and subsidizing schemes for industry, mainly through tax incentives. The entire development enterprise is a complex array of key stakeholders and actors including private companies (for example Nordnickel and Novatek), state-owned enterprises (such as Gazprom), central government ministries, regional governments, and unique state agencies such as Rosatom, the Russian State Nuclear Corporation, which not only manages the nuclear icebreaker fleet but is the key developer of marine infrastructure for the NSR.

The importance of Russian Arctic energy and minerals resources to the national economy cannot be overstated. Two key state documents signed by President Putin in 2020 indicate the breadth of Russias Arctic interests and priorities: a foundations or policy paper released on March 5, 2020 (Foundations of the Russian Federation State Policy in the Arctic for the Period up to 2035); and a comprehensive strategy released on October 26, 2020 (Strategy for the Development of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation and Provision of National Security for the Period up to 2035). These are core documents which highlight the states interests in Arctic natural resource development, further increasing traffic along the NSR (specifically a push for making the NSR an international waterway), and addressing foreign military-security threats to Russias Arctic national interests. President Putins direct involvement in shaping these policies and strategic plans is consistent with his unwavering support of Russian Arctic development during his long tenure. Since his presidency can continue to 2036, these plans should plausibly remain intact. However, the long-term role of Arctic development in a post-Putin regime is uncertain and the picture is more complicated given future global commodities markets and changes in demand away from carbon-based economies.

The largest and most formidable military-security presence in the Russian Federation is located on the Kola Peninsula. The Russian Navy takes advantage of the year-round, ice-free conditions around the Peninsula in Murmansk, Severomorsk, and other surrounding regional ports. A rebuilding Northern Fleet can effectively deploy from this Arctic location its maritime power out into the Arctic and Atlantic oceans as it did during the Cold War. Russia has also recently re-built and enhanced small air bases on the outlier Arctic islands north of the Russian coast. In summary, Russia has regained sovereign control of its marine and air spaces in its northern regions despite reduced budgets. Military units can conduct large-scale defense exercises within its Arctic EEZ and coastal zone, and they can use the large marine space for advanced weapons testing and research.

How this newly gained control meshes with the civil maritime transportation system, and increasing use of Arctic waters by commercial ships, remains unclear. The nuclear icebreaker fleet operated by Rosatomflot can support the Ministry of Defense in maintaining year-round access to all bases and civilian ports; the icebreaker fleet can also escort naval vessels during any summer operations along the NSR and escort any ships transferring between the Kola Peninsula and the Pacific. Competing interests between the defense and commercial development sectors involve national funding and waterways control. The two are vying for public funding for critical infrastructure and hardware to meet the needs of their differing Arctic strategies. And the two communities have different notions about how to control Russias Arctic waterways. While the Ministry of Defense seeks to tightly manage and control marine traffic within Russias EEZ, Arctic development planners and commercial firms (shipping, mining, oil and gas interests) see a more open marine transportation system attracting more foreign-flag ships. Achieving a future balance between the long-term security and economic interests of the state will require high-level presidential and ministerial leadership and tight management oversight.

Advanced technologies play important roles in the development of Russias Arctic marine transportation system and coastal zone, as well as in future offshore oil and gas developments and communications systems. Foreign technology transfers and international (economic) sanctions early in the 21st century are key factors that deserve consideration in evaluating the uncertainties in the regions future. Sanctions have essentially blocked the transfer of Western offshore drilling technology to Russia. Marine technology transfer is best illustrated by the design and construction of the initial fleet of fifteen large LNG icebreaking carriers that currently service the Yamal LNG project, operating from the Ob Gulf to markets in Europe and Asia. The ship design was developed by the Finnish marine firm Aker Arctic Technology in Helsinki and the vessels were constructed in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company. The ships unique Finnish design allows independent operations in ice, without icebreaker escort, in nearly all navigation seasons along the NSR.

The flagships of the Russian Arctic fleet, potentially the most prominent Russian ships in the maritime world, are the nuclear icebreakers. The long history of applying Russian civilian nuclear power to ships dates to the operation of the worlds first surface nuclear ship, the icebreaker Lenin, in service in 1959. The newest icebreakers in service in 2021 and 2022, the Arktika and Sibir, are the worlds most capable icebreakers and can operate in deep water and the shallower gulf waters of the Ob and Yenisey rivers for escorting commercial ships. Other innovative technologies have been applied to a range of capabilities: a floating nuclear power plant, the Lomonosov, now serving the city of Pevek in the Russian Far Northeast; new Russian Navy and FSB icebreakers for naval operations and law enforcement; a floating Arctic observation ship, the Severny Polyus (North Pole), for Arctic research; and, the nuclear (icebreaking) commercial ship Sevmorput, operating since 1988 along the NSR. New fiber optic cables and other communications systems will be employed, and further advanced monitoring and surveillance systems for the entire Russian maritime Arctic should be expected. Advancing technologies to the Russian Arctic will remain a significant enabler of effective and safe cold regions operations.

Governance of Russian Arctic waters is driven by a complex suite of international rules provided by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and specific domestic legislation with several laws dating back to the Soviet era. In 1985, the USSR Council of Ministers established by decree a system of straight baselines enclosing the bays, gulfs, and main navigation straits along the Arctic coast, making them internal waters of the Soviet state. The legal status of these waters remains controversial particularly in view of the elimination of the right of innocent passage by foreign ships. Having signed UNCLOS in March 1982, the Soviet Union quickly established its twelve-nautical mile territorial sea and 200-nautical mile EEZ to gain sovereignty over its fisheries and seabed resources. Russia, in more recent years, has focused on applying UNCLOS Article 234, the so-called ice navigation clause, which provides the coastal state with powers to enforce nondiscriminatory pollution prevention, reduction, and control laws within waters of its EEZ that are ice-covered for most of the year. Much uncertainty remains how Article 234 applies to polar waters where Arctic sea ice has retreated. Russia has also defined the NSR water area as most of the Russian Arctic EEZ except for the Barents Sea. In this huge area, rules under the administration of the NSR include mandatory pilotage in select areas and fees for icebreaker escort and support.

A significant, current issue is Russias plan to implement and enforce the International Maritime Organizations International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (the Polar Code), whose mandatory regulations were finalized in July 2018. With the Polar Code, special NSR regulations from domestic laws, and expansive application of UNCLOS articles, the Russian maritime Arctic is among the most closely managed and controlled marine spaces in any ocean. Such a governance regime will remain contentious and could limit international ship traffic in future decades.

State investment and subsidizing strategies for private industry are key to the overall development of the Russian North. Foreign investments are also important for specific natural resource development projects, and they indicate more regional integration with the global economy. However, these historic investments add a significant element of uncertainty to the long-term prospects and viability for these commercial ventures. An example of cooperative domestic and foreign investment can be seen in the Joint Stock Company Yamal LNG that developed the LNG1 facility and port of Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula: The Russian private gas firm Novatek owns 50.1%, and three foreign investors are involved in the remaining ownership: the French national oil and gas company Total, the China National Petroleum Corporation, and Chinas Silk Road Fund. A second LNG facility (LNG 2) on the eastern shore of the Ob Gulf has been joined by investors from a Japanese consortium led by Mitsui and the Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation. Notably only one of the initial fifteen LNG icebreaking carriers operating out of Sabetta is owned by a Russian shipping company, Sovcomflot, and the remaining ships are owned by five international shipping companies, with three of the firms owned by investors in Japan, China, and Singapore.

Overall, major economic drivers Arctic natural resource developments, Russian and foreign investment strategies, global commodities prices, and the economics of the global shipping enterprise will continue to be most influential and weigh heavily on shaping the future of this region.

The future of long-term investments in Russian Arctic energy sources is uncertain. So too are investments in the development of select hard minerals which could experience higher future demands. The Yamal gas project represents a key case study for understanding the financial risks and challenges of future foreign investments in the Russian Arctic, a relatively recent factor of influence in the region.

These seven drivers of change illustrate the complexity of factors and broad challenges facing the future of Russias maritime Arctic. Uncertainty reigns and this select list is only a baseline view of an Arctic region undergoing extraordinary change. Additional plausible factors and wild cards driving change loom large: demographic shifts in the Russian North; greater investment and trade links with China; emerging roles of the Russian Arctic Indigenous peoples; potential marine accidents involving naval or commercial vessels; regional and central government political stabilities; changes in public funding priorities for Russian Arctic development; and doubtless more technological, social, and economic megatrends to come.

Anthropogenic climate change for all of Russia, especially historic warming in the RussianArctic, is a certain game changer and disruptor with profound national and regional consequences. Increasing Arctic marine access responding to sea ice retreat will continue to provide opportunities for expanded shipborne trade. Unanticipated geopolitical events or crises will surely influence state Arctic policies and strategies, but the primary national strategy of Arctic resource development would likely be maintained under most scenarios. Overall, major economic drivers Arctic natural resource developments, Russian and foreign investment strategies, global commodities prices, and the economics of the global shipping enterprise will continue to be most influential and weigh heavily on shaping the future of this region. The remote and tightly managed Russian maritime Arctic will have long-term roles in linking Russia to the global economy, but their evolution and future trade partnerships are uncertain.

Lawson W. Brigham, PhD, is a Global Fellow in the Wilson Centers Polar Institute and a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A career U.S. Coast Guard officer, he commanded icebreakers on the Great Lakes and during Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

Cover photo: Nuclear icebreakerYamalescorting a convoy along the Northern Sea Route on July 14, 2016. Knyazev Vasily/Shutterstock.

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The Russian Maritime Arctic | Wilson Quarterly - The Wilson Quarterly

Testing, quality control, checking for bugs, managing cybersecurity. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. Being part of a quality assurance (QA) team is no easy ride. The aforementioned processes are often conducted manually and as such are time consuming, repetitive, and resource-intensive. According to one study, 26% of developer time is spent reproducing and fixing failing tests, which totals 620 million developer hours every year. Perhaps most concerning is that, due to their manual nature and the requirement to monitor and test almost continuously, these processes are also prone to human error.

About the author

Claus Topholt is CPO and co-founder of Leapwork.

Many businesses have been relying on manual software testing for years. And, (many!) years ago this was probably adequate: the business software market was in its infancy, only larger corporations with resources and digital skills were adopting software, and the pace of tech development was arguably slower. Today, this is far from the case. While the approach and workflow of QA teams may have remained the same, the digital economy and business landscape are unrecognizable.

Businesses are increasingly digital-first, with more software being built and customized into a company's infrastructure than ever before. Large enterprises which were founded before the online era are now undergoing digital transformation, which should be acknowledged as an ongoing evolution as opposed to a one-off turning point. Born-digital firms and start-ups, on the other hand, are entering the market with software-heavy businesses but struggling to find the tech talent to manage this infrastructure.

The covid-19 pandemic has forced enterprise organizations to accelerate their digital transformation strategies far more aggressively than they ever expected. Everything from work to leisure to education has moved online almost overnight. In fact, a McKinsey survey of executives estimates that covid-19 has accelerated digital transformation across business by seven years.

For end users this has clear benefits: we can engage with brands whenever, wherever and however we like. We can collaborate with colleagues, communicate with loved ones thousands of miles away, crunch millions of data points to reveal business insights,. etc. etc. etc. However, with this reliance on software, QA teams everywhere are faced with an impossible task to continuously test everything 24 hours a day and prepare for releases faster and faster, while everything continues to change. And herein lies the problem.

Most software failures and bugs can be traced back to manual processes and human error. The impact of this is huge. One study estimated that software failures are costing the enterprise market $61 billion annually. Failures are also reputationally damaging. UK bank TSB, for instance, suffered an IT meltdown which saw more than two million customers locked out of their accounts, followed by an embarrassing investigation, and the departure of its CEO.

Its not just brand damage and bottom lines that are impacted. When the UKs national health service experienced a computer failure, GPs found themselves unable to access critical blood and X-Ray results, and medical appointments were unable to take place, creating a backlog for care. Critical sectors like healthcare as well as areas like utilities, heavy industry and smart factories cannot afford to drop the ball on software testing. Businesses must find a way to allow their systems to continuously update not only out-of-box solutions, but highly customized software too. It's a problem that cant be solved by adding more testers to the team, making test automation a fundamental requirement for all enterprises.

The case for test automation really is a no-brainer. By leveraging test automation, companies can test greater volumes of software, while simultaneously removing the risk of human error and reducing application errors by as much as 90%. This approach can also cut down on the time spent on data testing preparation by some 80%, while feedback cycles are accelerated. Less repetitive, time-consuming manual tasks means more of a QA team members time is freed up to pursue tasks that deliver business value and job satisfaction.

Automation also solves another critical industry challenge: the digital skills shortage. A combination of stricter border controls, geopolitical tensions, restricted movement due to covid-19, and the Great Resignation has resulted in many businesses struggling to find the experience and tech talent needed to prevent damaging software failures.

Can businesses rely on UK talent going forward? It looks unlikely. The UK government released a report last year which found that 72% of large companies and 49% of SMEs were suffering tech skill gaps. This is further illustrated by findings from Work Skills UK: 60% of businesses believe that their reliance on advanced digital skills is set to increase over the next five years. However, less than half believe that young people are leaving education with sufficient advanced digital skills and 76% believe that a lack of digital skills would hit their profitability.

The adoption of automation by businesses would tackle this, with automated testing platforms reducing the (ever-growing) number of manhours needed for testing, and removing the challenge of hiring additional talent. So why is it then, when the business case for test automation seems to be so straightforward, 85% of all testing is still done manually, according to the 2021 World Quality Report; the same number as 10 years ago?

The reason that most organizations are still relying on manual testing is trivial: The enterprise automation tools available on the market have not evolved to overcome todays serious challenges. These solutions often referred to as low-code, are far too complex for business users, and typically require professional-grade coding skills to use.

To scale test automation it needs to be easy for businesses to implement automation at scale using their existing resources, allowing testers to build test logic based on real business processes. This is where only no-code test automation solutions has the power to enable organizations to democratize test automation. If enterprises want to successfully adopt and implement test automation at scale, they must listen to the needs of QA managers, test managers and testers, and adopt practices that regular business users can work with in the long term.

Because whatever happens, testing, quality control, checking for bugs, managing security is - and always will be critical to a functioning digital economy. Businesses can innovate (and drive revenue) with the knowledge that their software is failsafe. Consumers and end-users can take advantage of digital services with the knowledge that their data is secure. The difference between pre-pandemic and today, is that these processes no longer need to be reliant on human input and at risk from human error. In fact, due to the current tech landscape and pace of development, they no longer can be.

Automating software testing utilizing a visual no-code approach will be the only way of futureproofing businesses, safeguarding users, addressing the tech skills gap and giving QA teams the opportunity to pursue more valuable tasks. All of which will support the growth of the digital economy while allowing new projects to be tested and new ideas to flourish.

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Unity Fiji Leader and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Savenaca Narube. Photo: Unity Fiji

Unity Fiji Leader and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji Savenaca Narube says there is no such thing as smart borrowing and there was no need whatsoever for the government to borrow to avoid devaluation last year.

Narube says the Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is barking up the wrong tree and misleading the people.

He has made these comments following Sayed-Khaiyums response to questions by fijivillage where he had stated that if the government did not borrow the money, we would have had a devaluation of the Fijian dollar which would have caused enormous socio-economic issues.

Narube says the Fiji dollar is pegged to a basket of currencies and to maintain this basket peg, we must hold sufficient foreign reserves. He says if foreign reserves dropped to a critically low level, the peg comes under pressure, and we may have no choice but to devalue or even abandon the peg altogether.

He says Sayed-Khaiyums logic that he needed to borrow offshore last year to support our foreign reserves is pure propaganda.

Narube says foreign reserves are very high at 11 months of imports of goods and services, more than double the accepted benchmark for Fiji of 5 months of imports therefore, if the government did not borrow from offshore last year, foreign reserves would have remained at above 8 months of imports, well above the acceptable level.

Narube maintains there was no pressure at all for a devaluation.

He further says as incomes have dropped by $2 billion in the last two years, demand for imports are depressed and import payments had declined by 5% up to September last year.

Narube adds the higher remittances and the sale of shares of EFL also supported foreign reserves and therefore, there was no need at all to borrow to avoid devaluation.

He also says Sayed-Khaiyum went on to say that COVID had significantly reduced revenue and the Government had to borrow otherwise the economy would have been worse off.

He says this logic is flawed as the first thing that a smart government should have done in such a situation is to reduce the large wastage in the budget which would have avoided borrowing and save Fiji from interest payments and fees which are already costing the country $400 million a year.

Narube also states that the removal of wastage would have raised the impact of total government spending on the economy which would offset any impact of lower expenditure.

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Narube says the most efficient strategy to sustain growth and avoid debt is for the government to revive the ailing resource-based industries.

The former Governor of the RBF also says it is unusual for a loan agreement to stipulate that down the line, the loan can become a grant however he is not aware what is in the loan agreement.

Narube was reacting to Sayed-Khaiyums comment that a part of some of the long term loans will in fact become a grant.

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There was no need for the Govt to borrow to avoid devaluation last year - Narube - Fijivillage

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 22, 2022) - MineHub Technologies Inc. (TSXV: MHUB)(OTCQB: MHUBF) ("MineHub" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Roy Hill and their customer Xiamen Construction & Development recently completed a fully digital transaction on the MineHub platform involving the shipment of 200,000MT of iron ore (with a value of approx. USD $20 million based on market prices at the time of fixture) from Port Hedland, West Australia to the ports of Jingtang and Huanghua in China.

Arnoud Star Busmann, CEO at MineHub said: "Roy Hill is one of the main Australian iron ore producers and Xiamen C&D is one of the largest Chinese iron ore trading groups. Both customers have been incredibly supportive with feedback and their speed of engagement. As an integral part of the Company's strategy, we continue to capture the interest of significant customers who dominate some of the most valuable supply chains on the planet, and who will continue to collaborate with us in identifying new opportunities in line with our "design with industry for industry" approach."

This transaction is a further expansion of the use of the MineHub platform in the global iron ore market, as it follows on from ground breaking transactions previously published between BHP and China Baowu.

About Roy Hill Holdings Pty. Ltd.

Roy Hill is a world-class iron ore operation and one of the largest single ore mines in Australia. Situated 344km south-east of Port Hedland in Western Australia's mineral rich Pilbara region, Roy Hill is an independent iron ore operation with local majority ownership and is Chaired by Mrs Gina Rinehart. With integrated mine, rail and port facilities producing 60Mtpa - Roy Hill is one of the world's major resource-based operations and delivers enormous benefits to the Australian economy and broader community.

About Xiamen C&D

C&D Inc. is a modern service-type enterprise with supply chain operations and real-estate development as its dual main businesses. Its businesses starting in 1980, the company was established exclusively by Xiamen C&D Group Co., Ltd. and listed at Shanghai Stock Exchange in June 1998. In 2020 it realized operating revenue of 432.95 billion CNY and after tax net profit of 8.18 billion CNY. As of the end of 2020, its total asset was 387.16 billion CNY and net asset was 86.06 billion CNY. C&D Inc. adheres to value-added service concept as the guidance of business model innovation, and is committed to the development of innovation-driven strategy, strives to become the world's leading supply chain operator in the field of supply chain operations.

About MineHub Technologies

MineHub is an open, enterprise-grade platform for digital trade, bringing efficiency, transparency and responsibility to supply chains. MineHub connects the many parties involved in a physical commodity transaction in a digitally integrated workflow, operating on the basis of shared authentic and validated information secured by a global enterprise blockchain network. Users of MineHub are in full control of their supply chains, enabling them to optimize their use of resources, respond better and faster to customer needs and have confidence in the resilience, security and compliance of their operations.

Arnoud Star BusmannCEO, MineHub Technologies Inc.

For further information regarding MineHub, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or visit our website at http://www.minehub.com.

Media ContactCitigate Dewe Rogerson, Angus Campbell at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Investor RelationsRB Milestone Group, LLC (RBMG) at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains statements that are considered "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation ("forward-looking statements") with respect to MineHub including, but not limited to, statements with respect to MineHub's future operational plans, the timing of such plans and anticipated customers. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts are generally, but not always, identied by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although MineHub believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results or realities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such material risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to raise sucient capital to fund its operations, applications and for general working capital purposes, changes in economic conditions or nancial markets, changes in laws or regulations that could have an impact on the Company's operations, dependence on its key management personnel and market competition. Other risk factors are identified in the Company's prospectus dated August 18, 2021, available on the Company's SEDAR profile at http://www.sedar.com. There may be other risk factors not presently known that management believes are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information is made as of the date included herein.. Forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable beliefs, estimates and opinions of MineHub's management on the date the statements are made. However, except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors should change.

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MineHub Technologies: Iron Ore Majors Roy Hill and Xiamen C&D Complete Transaction on MineHub's Blockchain Platform - Junior Mining Network

Intricate geometric patterns alluding to astrolabes, strands of DNA, the Fibonacci sequence and silicon chips were projected on to the stunning exterior of the Museum of the Future during an elaborate opening ceremony on Tuesday.

Inaugurating the city's newest landmark, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said the museum was a message of hope, a global scientific platform and an integrated institutional framework to shape a better future for all of us".

Museum of the Future in numbers

Portraits of Sheikh Mohammed, as well as the projects he has decreed, including the Dubai Metro, the Hope probe and Burj Khalifa, were also projected on to the building.

The visual spectacle concluded with the illumination of the calligraphy by Emirati artist Mattar Bin Lahej that wraps around the curved structure.

The museum embodies the active human imagination and the Emirati will that continues to excel in the world, Sheikh Mohammed said. The museum will be a forum for great minds, scientists, thinkers and experts from around the world.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Dubai Future Foundation, said the museum is poised to become an intellectual laboratory for cities of the future and governments of the future. It will play a key role in strengthening Dubais future position. The museum will provide a clear road map for Dubais vital sectors.

The museum, which opens its doors to the public on Wednesday, aims to institutionalise future foresight and enhance the UAE's competitiveness, said Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Deputy Ruler of Dubai. We seek to accelerate the transition towards a knowledge-based economy in the region, and explore practical scientific solutions to the greatest challenges of our times, both today and tomorrow.

The museum was hailed as one of the most beautiful buildings on Earth in a 2021 list compiled by National Geographic magazine, and that was before its construction was even completed.

The museum is a reflection of the ideas of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, and the passion he holds for the future, Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and chairman of the Museum of the Future, said at the inauguration.

It is, after all, the Dubai rulers foresight that put the city on the global map as a touristic and technological hub, said the chairman of the museum. Nothing is impossible. This is a key component of His Highnesss ideology, that there is no thing greater than the will and dreams of human beings. This building is a testament to that.

The 77-metre-tall architectural marvel houses a series of interactive exhibitions that give visitors the chance to experience the technologies and trends that promise to shape the future of humanity. Spanning an area of 30,000 square metres, the pillar-less structure is also promoted as a novel global intellectual centre.

The museum is designed to foster a spirit of collaborative innovation among the regions leading scientists, to inspire out-of-the-box solutions to looming challenges and spur a new era of scientific discovery.

The museums exhibitions will fuel the passion of present and future generations, and spark their intellectual curiosity for science, technology and the knowledge that will help humanity to thrive and prosper in the decades ahead, said the chairman.

The museum will act as a global platform for pioneers, innovators and critical thinkers to exchange ideas, accelerating sustainable socioeconomic development and shaping a fair future that works for everyone.

He also said the Museum of the Future will host a series of international conversations and talks immediately after its inauguration.

The building, which is located right next to Jumeirah Emirates Towers, close to the Dubai International Financial Centre, dazzles with its unique design and cutting-edge technological innovation.

Dubai's Museum of the Future will embody the forward-thinking spirit of the UAE's founding fathers, a senior Emirati minister said. Photo: UAE Government Media Office

Its torus-shaped exterior features Arabic calligraphy, designed by acclaimed Emirati artist Mattar Bin Lahej, that adorns the museum's curved exterior. These spell out quotes from Sheikh Mohammed, including: We may not live for hundreds of years, but the products of our creativity can leave a legacy long after we are gone.

Inside, it promises an immersive experience that helps visitors imagine all that is possible for the planet, with exhibitions touching on space travel and living, climate change and ecology, health, wellness and spirituality. The museum also uses advanced technology to represent art.

Product, media, exhibition and experience designers have crafted the content.

These experiences are spread over seven floors with six exhibition floors and one administration floor, sitting on top of a three-storey podium and a food and beverage deck.

Three floors will focus on possible scenarios for outer space resource development, ecosystems and bioengineering, health, wellness and spirituality.

Another floor will display near-future technology that addresses challenges in areas such as health, water, food, transportation and energy.

Each floor resembles a futuristic film set, which visitors can explore and interact with. There is also a dedicated childrens floor, where youngsters can explore and solve challenges on their way to becoming future heroes.

Sheikh Mohammed first announced plans for the Museum of the Future in 2015, with the motto: See the future, create the future. Construction began in 2016.

The building's calligraphy and unconventional shape made it one of the most complex construction projects ever attempted, with its exterior made up of 1,024 pieces that were manufactured by automated robotic arms and installed over the course of 18 months. The museums framework, comprising 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members, was completed in November 2018.

The complex comprises three main parts: the building, the void and the green hill. According to local architectural firm Killa Design, which won the design competition, the torus shape represents humanity with its artistry and ability to create in harmony. The void represents the unknown future to which innovators can look towards.

The green mound it sits upon represents the Earth and the museum's rootedness in place, time and history.

The Museum of the Futures garden has been designed on the green plinth holding the striking structure. All photos: The Museum of the Future

At night, the calligraphy is dramatically illuminated by solar-powered LED lights that, if stretched, would be 14 kilometres long.

Sustainability is firmly at the heart of the project, as the museum is equipped with advanced building control solutions, greywater recycling systems and powered by 4,000 megawatts of electricity produced through solar energy by a new station connected to the museum.

The gardens, meanwhile, are set to be an attraction in and of themselves. Designed to house about 100 species of trees and plants, they are a reflection of the UAE's natural diversity and ecological heritage. Located on the large green plinth on which the building stands, native ghaf, sidr, palm and acacia trees are all growing in the space trees that are well adapted to local environmental conditions. The gardens are also equipped with an automated irrigation system and support bee and bird populations.

Entry to the museum costs Dh145 ($39.5), but is complimentary for children under the age of 3, people of determination and Emiratis aged 60 and older.

All visitors, including those eligible for free admission, must book a time slot to enter the museum. Tickets provide full access to the museum experience and amenities. They are available at http://www.motf.ae.

The museum is right next to Jumeirah Emirates Towers, close to the Dubai International Financial Centre. Arriving by the Dubai Metro is the easiest way to get there. The Emirates Towers Station on the Red Line is closest and is connected directly to the museum by a bridge. Another bridge links it to Jumeirah Emirates Towers.

Public bus numbers 27, 29, and X22 also go straight to the museum.

For those arriving by car, there is free self-parking for ticket holders, limited to a three-hour period. There are very limited parking spaces and there is also valet parking available.

The museum is open to the public from February 23 daily from 10am to 6pm. The last entry is one hour before closure. An annual membership will be introduced soon.

More information is available at museumofthefuture.ae

Updated: February 23rd 2022, 11:55 AM

Museum of the Future in numbers

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Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid inaugurates Museum of the Future - The National

As the world moves towards an increasingly digital future, expanded connectivity infrastructure has become a defining feature of a modern economy. It allows people and businesses across the globe to connect with and access a world of digital innovation. Whether its for social media and entertainment, or improved business performance through digital processes, connected technologies are now part of nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

Connectivity is vital for the growth and future success of every global economy, the economic benefits of which have been widely researched in many countries. Only recently, however, has a thorough study been conducted on the economic impact of connectivity delivered by submarine fibre optic cables in South Africa. The study, which was conducted by RTI International, finds the overall economic impact of connectivity to be significant, leading to increases in GDP and improvements to the likelihood of being employed. But these economic gains were not broad-based because many South Africans still do not have access to or cannot afford fast and reliable Internet services. So, why are subsea cables so important to our economy, and what can we do to get more South Africans connected?

Transitioning to a digital-first economy

Over the last few decades, South Africa has transformed from a resource-based economy relying on rich mineral reserves, to an economy driven largely by tertiary sectors such as financial and business services, transport and communication, and manufacturing. Unlike more labour-intensive and low-skilled sectors, these sectors all rely heavily on ICT infrastructure that requires connectivity. The study by RTI International demonstrates this, finding that subsea cable connectivity led to a 6.1% increase in GDP per capita between 2009 and 2014. This can be attributed to factors such as technological innovation, access to international markets, and improved education for people living in connected areas.

Connectivity also has a role to play in addressing unemployment, which remains one of South Africas most pressing socioeconomic challenges. In the aftermath of the pandemic, unemployment rose to a record high of 34.9% by the third quarter of 2021. The RTI International study finds that people were 2.2% more likely to be employed if they lived within 500 metres of the fibre network. The study also highlights that connecting South Africas most densely populated areas would translate to the greatest increases in total employment.

Connecting Africa with the world

Subsea fibre optic cables are the backbone of the Internet. But before Africa had a subsea cable system, the entire continent relied on sporadic satellite connections that made Internet access largely inaccessible and expensive. At the same time, South Africas telecommunications market suffered because it did not have a competitive structure, which changed in 2008 when a court ruling allowed other industry players to build infrastructure and provide Internet services.

One year later, Africa saw its first commercial undersea cable. The SEACOM cable spans 17,000km and connects the Eastern and Southern coasts of Africa with the rest of the world with faster and more affordable fibre connectivity. The RTI International study credits this subsea cable for disrupting the market, resulting in a substantial decrease in wholesale prices for direct fibre and an increased uptake of broadband connectivity.

Since then, South Africas fibre-to-the-home connectivity has expanded significantly, connecting over 600,000 homes in a market that was growing more than 30% per year in 2019. Now, 90% of South Africas population also lives within 10km of a fibre line because of our extensive domestic network in most major cities and towns. But even though widespread fibre penetration is eminently achievable, only 1.2% of households in rural areas had access to Internet at home in 2019, compared to 15.4% of households in metropolitan areas. And despite the fact that mobile broadband coverage reaches over 95% of the population, more than 30% of South Africans still do not use the Internet.

One reason for this is the prohibitive cost of mobile data, and the lack of incentives for last-mile infrastructure development beyond the existing fibre network. While fibre connections require a higher initial investment, fibre ultimately pays its dividends by being orders of magnitude cheaper than prepaid mobile data and providing a much faster and more reliable connection.

Looking forward

Digital technologies are evolving rapidly, which is why we need a modern approach to policy and regulation to keep up with other digitally driven economies. Our policy and regulatory environment in the telecommunications sector has been characterised as sluggish and uncoordinated, such as the failed attempt to deliver universal broadband access through SA Connect.

But there are many reasons to be optimistic. Our government has recognised the importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) for the future of our economy, and at a BRICS meeting on 11 November 2021, our Minister of Communicationsannounceda fast-trackprogramme that aimsto connect all South Africans to theInternet within 24 months. Additionally,government agencieswill be funding the development of affordableInternet accessforlow-incomeneighbourhoods. Other initiatives like Project Isizwe are also helping provide local communities with uncapped Wi-Fi for as little as R5.

Theres no doubt that South Africa needs more partnerships between government, NGOs, and the private sector to help narrow the digital divide. By allowing more people and businesses to participate in the digital economy with affordable connectivity, we can create more jobs, accelerate economic recovery, and pave the way forward to a more connected future.

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The Economic Impact Of Connectivity In South Africa - TechFinancials

IP addresses are a key basic resource for the Internet and are the foundation for identifying and data transmission between Internet systems. IPv4 has been in use for more than 30 years, and the IPv4-based Internet has carried a great majority of applications. When the Internet was being designed, the global reach achieved by the technology today wasnt considered, nor was IPv4 address exhaustion, which is becoming an increasing problem. On February 3, 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) announced that the global central pool of available IPv4 addresses was exhausted. The inventory of IPv4 addresses of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) has been declining ever since.

However, the rise of the digital economy has boosted the development of new services such as smart cities, industrial Internet, and telemedicine. In the future, the Internet will further expand to cover every street lamp, every unit of equipment and sensor in factories, every appliance in homes, and every smart wearable. The number of connections will explode from billions to hundreds of billions, requiring hundreds of millions of IP addresses. The IPv4-based Internet can no longer satisfy the digitalization needs of industries, so it's imperative to develop next-gen Internet for the intelligent connection of everything.

IPv6 allows for abundant addresses to assign unique identifiers to all devices that access the Internet, satisfying the needs of the era of connectivity of everything, where each object has an address and everything is online. The digital transformation of various industries poses different requirements for networks. Networks must both address connectivity and also provide high quality, flexibility, and a range of other capabilities. In the era where all things are connected, the virtual and physical worlds are deeply integrated, and cyberspace requires a secure and reliable network. IPv6 not only supports a large number of addresses, it also features more secure protocols by design and flexible scalability. IPv6 is the foundation of the next-generation Internet that will provide infinite possibilities for future network innovation.

IPv6+ is a systematic innovation on top of IP networks oriented towards the 5G and cloud era. IPv6+ enables more open and dynamic technological and service innovations, more efficient and flexible networking and service provisioning, better performance and user experience, and more intelligent and reliable O&M and security assurance. These will support the evolution and innovation of the next-generation Internet.

Compared with IPv6, IPv6+ delivers major innovations in three areas: 1) Innovation in network technologies, including segment routing over IPv6 (SRv6), network programming, network slicing, deterministic forwarding, in-band flow measurement, intelligent lossless algorithms, innovative multicast, and application awareness; 2) Innovations in intelligent O&M such as network fault discovery, fault identification, network self-healing, automatic optimization, and autonomous driving; 3) Network business model innovation represented by the expansion from the consumer Internet to the industrial Internet.

As an upgrade to IPv6, IPv6+ improves IP network innovation capabilities in six dimensions: ultra-broadband, ubiquitous connectivity, security, automation, determinism, and low latency, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Six-dimensional capabilities of the innovative IPv6+ system

Ultra-broadband: IPv6+ unleashes the potential of ultra-broadband to address uncertainties in future services. It provides end-to-end 400GE throughout the access, backbone, and data center networks to bear the traffic generated by hundreds of billions of connections and all things migrating to the cloud.

Ubiquitous connectivity: IPv6+ provides multi-service bearing and network-as-a-service capabilities. SRv6 and other technologies support end-to-end traffic scheduling, protocol simplification, network programmability, and user experience assurance, addressing the need for an integrated multi-service experience.

Security: IPv6+ creates an inherent security experience for the IP network. It takes a zero-trust approach, authenticating all accesses and granting the fewest privileges necessary. The collaborative cloud-network-security-integrated architecture for handling threats shortens the threat containment time from hours to minutes.

Automation: IPv6+ enables the autonomous driving network (ADN) that features automation, self-healing, self-optimization, and autonomy. It uses new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), in-band flow measurement, and knowledge graphs, to shorten fault recovery from hours to minutes and realize the intelligent prediction of network faults.

Determinism: IPv6+ delivers predictable, deterministic experiences of IP networks. It uses the network slicing technology to create a network environment that is secure, reliable, and predictable, reducing jitter from ms-level to s/ns-level. It also uses the lossless network technology to achieve zero packet loss in data centers.

Low latency: IPv6+ supports an immersive experience where people interact with the virtual world instantly. It reduces the end-to-end latency of a metropolitan area network (MAN) to about 10 ms, and through device-network synergy, reduces the static latency of a data center network from s-level to 100 ns-level, and the single-hop dynamic latency from 10100 s to 1 s. This enables more efficient data channels.

Enhanced IPv6+ networks improve network capabilities through large-scale commercial deployment of IPv6 and IPv6+ innovations, driving the convergence of networks and services. This plays a significant role in the digitalization of government services, manufacturing, finance, and energy, serving as the connectivity foundation for the digital economy.

IPv6+ digital government: A core requirement for developing digital governments is to address data interoperability to achieve the objective of one network for all services. IPv6+ breaks down organizational silos and implements intensive network construction to support all government organizations on the same network. This ensures efficient data sharing and efficient city operations, and enables cross-level coordination, inter-departmental collaboration, and service-oriented, Internet-based government services.

In Chinas Guangxi, the secondary plane of the IPv6+-based e-government extranet covers 14 districts and cities and 111 counties, solving problems such as different types of private networks for different departments, data sharing difficulties, and duplicated network construction. This lays a solid foundation for the convergence, sharing, and utilization of the region's government data. Now, 99.9% of the region's same-level government private networks are interoperable, 99.9% of the non-classified information systems in the region are now cloud-based, and 99.73% of the region's government service requests can be closed with one onsite visit. The efficiency and capabilities of government services have been significantly improved.

IPv6+ smart manufacturing: Today's advanced manufacturing plants are growing bigger, with each workshop housing dozens or even hundreds of units of equipment. As equipment is made by different manufacturers, challenges like varied specifications, multiple protocols, and data silos need to be overcome to digitalize equipment. IPv6+ enables efficient data flow across the entire network by building a new intelligent digital manufacturing networking system.

For example, Masteel Groups manufacturing processes involve thousands of industrial control systems, each with different quality requirements that make it necessary to isolate each service. Traditionally, independent industrial ring networks incur high OPEX and require many optical fibers. By introducing IPv6+ network slicing technology, Masteel now integrates multiple private networks into one network that can isolate multiple services. This ensures that the control signals of different systems dont interfere with each other, while reducing the cost of deploying fibers by 90% and O&M costs by 80%.

IPv6+ finance: The Bank 4.0 era has extended bank service hours from 8 hours a day, 5 days a week to 24/7. And service models have evolved from service halls to a combination of online and offline services. These changes require the support for digitalization, quick cloud migration, and cloud interoperability. Therefore, transformation of the underlying network architecture is necessary for the digitalization of the banking industry. The backbone network is key infrastructure for data communication, and is the most important part of network architecture transformation.

For example, China Construction Bank (CCB) uses IPv6+ as the basis of its single WAN and unified data center network architecture to deploy an intelligent, agile, simplified, elastic, and highly reliable financial backbone network. This network supports the one-hop cloud access of financial services. It can also predict and quickly locate network faults through network-wide sensing. The O&M automation rate has increased by 80% and the emergency handling time has been reduced from hours to minutes, so financial services remain uninterrupted.

IPv6+ energy: A good indicator of smart mining is safe and efficient operations that are barely staffed or even unattended. Applications like smart mechanized mining and smart tunneling has promoted the massive deployment of underground application system devices. IPv6+ provides network infrastructure support for the innovation and development of coal mines in the new era, leveraging massive address availability, embedded security capabilities, network slicing, and in-band flow measurement.

At Xinyuan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, IPv6+ has enabled the bearing of multiple services (such as the 5G video network and a comprehensive surveillance network) on a single network, avoiding overlapping investment in network construction and reducing costs by 50%. The use of in-band flow measurement technology has shortened network fault location time and the time network O&M personnel are underground by 80%. Smart mining has relocated coal miners from a complex and harsh underground environment to a safe and clean centralized control center, greatly enhancing safety and efficiency.

The scope and nature of IP network connectivity have expanded from connecting people to connecting everything. The emergence of IPv6 and IPv6+ will greatly boost the intelligent connectivity of everything and application scenario innovations. IPv6+ is a next-generation technology in the data communications industry, and a systematic innovation for IP networks oriented towards 5G and cloud. 5G and optical access both need IPv6+. With the cloud at one end and enterprises, homes, and individuals at the other, the IPv6+-based IP network transfers intelligence and computing power to everything to power the growth of the digital world.

Similar to how the convergence of 5G and various industries has unleashed the huge potential of 5G+, the technological innovation and capability expansion of IPv6+ on top of IPv6 have shown immense value beyond providing massive IP addresses. This is attracting a range of industries to collaborate and innovate, and push the Internet into a new era of IPv6-based intelligent IP networks. Looking toward the future, Huawei Datacom will continue its commitment to IP technology innovation, provide high-quality datacom products for customers in various industries, and enable ubiquitous intelligent IP connections, to build a fully connected, intelligent world.

Continued here:

IPv6+: The Connectivity Foundation of the Digital Economy - Huawei

In my column this week, I argued that Putin is even more dangerous than the West can admit.Telegraphreaders were quick to make their thoughts clear. Here, I respond to a few of them.

Anthony Lee counters that Putins hand is weak. All he has achieved is to box himself into a corner. If Putin cannot get Nato to agree that Ukraine will never become a member, he will either have an embarrassing climbdown, or will have to invade.

While I agree that Putin sensing Allied weakness and division has bet the farm on Natoconcessions, I doubt he genuinely believes the West will grant an official moratorium on Nato expansion. What he has said is that any further expansion Eastwards would be unacceptable and he wants security guarantees''. That leaves wiggle room for a de facto moratorium for example on Ukraine-Natomilitary cooperation or Nato bases in Ukraine. There are signs that he may be in with a chance. In a press briefing last night German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed that Ukraines NATO membership was not on the agenda, and a political settlement must be found to avert war.

S.S argues that Putin has shown the world that Russia is not to be messed with whilst our weak Western leaders desperately scramble about what to do next. Hell retire back to Russia shortly and has completely humiliated and run rings around us.

This is exactly the kind of narrative that America is determined to avoid, and in my view explains the bizarre nature of its tactics.

Analysts plugged into Washington have entertained various apocalyptic scenarios, with Putin rolling in tanks, cutting power supplies and killing the Ukraine chief of staff. The CIA meanwhile has espoused a nonsensical "frozen ground"theory that Putin will invade when central Ukraine is covered with ice more than a foot deep.We have even been offered specific dates for an invasion ranging from last weekend and 3am this morning to next Monday.

The only logical explanation I can think of: this is a high-stakes way for the West to set up a narrative for victory should Putin fail to invade. Yet, it is telling that at the same time Ukraine apparently faces horrifying imminent carnage, Washington dismantles telephone systems and destroys computer workstations, as it flees its Kyiv embassy. This suggests that the West prioritises winning the infowar over standing by Ukraine.

A striking number of respondents are sympathetic to Putins case against Nato. Peter Hirsch says that to some extent the current situation results from how Gorbachov's Russia was treated after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gene Freeman concurs that Putin has likely been marked by the post-Gorbachev humiliation by a very arrogant west. JP.JP says We promised that Russia wouldnt have Natoon every European border. Putins case against Nato expansionism is sound.

While I agree that Putins behaviour is explainable, that doesnt make it justified. We should not overlook the grotesque irony of the fact that Russia a country isolated from the West since the Cold War because it resents the globalist liberal orders priority of "universal values"over sovereignty will happily threaten the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Nor should we gloss over Russias dangerously inflated sense of importance. It is a dying, de-modernising country - a peripheral, middle-income entity with practically third world life expectancy and a resource-based economy comparable with Brazil. It may now be categorically incapable of producing the kind of responsible wealth creators and dynamic middle class that might drive institutional change.

And yet Putin is absolutely convinced Russia is still an important enough player in the global game to not only challenge but actively reconstitute the liberal order. Hence, instead of diversifying its economy, he splurges on nuclear weapons.

One can both be impressed by his patriotism and dismayed at the implications of such delusions of grandeur both for Ukrainians and Russians.

Sherelle will respond to the best comments and letters from this week's column in our weeklyWrite to Reply series. Leave a commentbelowor emaildtletters@telegraph.co.ukfor the chance to have yours included

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'Putin's behaviour is explainable, but that doesn't justify it': Sherelle Jacobs responds to readers - Telegraph.co.uk