#supply-chains

#supply-chains

Author: Editorial Board, ANU It's now been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine.In response to an unprovoked act of aggression, Western countries imposed a sweeping set of sanctions designed to force the Russian army back behind its own borders.These included disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank communication system, export controls on technologically advanced goods and the freezing of Russian reserves held in overseas central banks.

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Bigger vehicles, whether they're gas-guzzling or electric, come with bigger environmental problems.SUV sales soared in 2022, a trend that makes it much harder to reach global climate goals, experts say.And while car buyers flocked to electric SUVs along with their gas-guzzling counterparts, supersize EVs pose their own environmental challenges.

Businesses globally have introduced automation into their operations at a slower pace than previously anticipated, the World Economic Forum (WEF) opined this week.The org's annual Future of Jobs report said businesses currently estimate 34 percent of all their tasks are completed by machines - a trajectory that would see its 2020 prediction of 47 percent automation by 2025 fall short.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has warned that the U.S. and China are on the brink of war and are beyond the ability to talk.The billionaire added that their relations are getting so bad that U.S.-China trade could collapse.He cautioned that the next 18 months will be a very risky period.U.S. and China on the Brink of War, Says Dalio Ray Dalio, the founder of the world's largest asset manager, Bridgewater Associates, warned in a Linkedin post, published Wednesday, that the U.S. and China are on the brink of war.

British ammunition stockpiles are being used for the purpose they were intended degrading Russia's fighting ability, Rishi Sunak has said.The Prime Minister said he would not necessarily see it as a negative that levels of shells and missiles were being run down because they were being used to deter the threat from Vladimir Putin's military.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands after speaking to the media during a signing ceremony following their talks in Moscow on Tuesday.Mikhail Tereshchenko/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP TAIPEI and MOSCOW China's top leader Xi Jinping has wrapped up a state visit to Moscow, where he held nearly three full days of talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

One of Chicago's most unique grocery stores - home to a first-class butchery - is closing.After eight years, Local Foods will close its public-facing market later this month off the Elston Industrial Corridor.Its wholesale operations will continue, according to an email sent Friday afternoon to customers.

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Two supermarket chains have started rationing selected fruit and vegetables as supply issues caused empty shelves across the country.Retailers have warned that the shortages could last for weeks as bad weather and transport problems in Africa and Europe have left supermarkets with a low supply of tomatoes and other fresh produce.

Dozens of American companies are in Vietnam this week in hopes of pushing further into the fast-growing Southeast Asian economy, which has emerged as an attractive potential alternative to China as companies seek to diversify their markets and supply chains.Senior executives from 52 US firms are taking part in the biggest business mission ever organized by the US-ASEAN Business Council, the trade lobby told CNN.

Two US Air Force commanders and four of their subordinates at a key nuclear base in North Dakota were relieved of duty this week after their units failed an inspection designed to ensure that the nuclear weapons stockpile is safe and secure at all times, two defense officials told CNN.The removals occurred at Minot Air Force Base, which is the only Air Force installation that houses two legs of the nuclear triad ballistic missile silos and strategic bombers.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday held the first round of government consultations in Tokyo as they seek to strengthen economic and defense ties in a global landscape dominated by China's growing influence and the war in Ukraine.Scholz brought six of his ministers for talks with Japanese counterparts to deepen cooperation in the economy and national security in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as other global issues including China's assertiveness in pressing its maritime territorial claims and its closer ties with Russia.

Microsoft's AI-enabled Bing search is making waves for all the wrong reasons.The machine learning search bot is clearly not ready for primetime - but that's not stopping Microsoft.Its ad unit is already pitching at least one agency on paid ads for its new plaything, reports.Microsoft reportedly showed off a demo that inserts links akin to traditional search ads into Bing's AI-generated responses.

These days there is a lot of talk about a cost of living crisis, but as Unite's most recent research confirms, we should actually be talking about a cost of profiteering crisis.From rising supermarket prices, to energy bills, to transport costs, we are all paying the price.Take UK Power Networks, the National Grid power distributor.

For the fourth edition of Tealium's State of the CDP 2023 report, we surveyed over 1,200 professionals worldwide in B2B, B2C, and B2B2C industries through an independent firm.The responses revealed that Customer data platforms (CDPs) have proven critical to organizational growth during demanding times, especially as we see a global tightening of the collective purse strings.

Sikov - stock.adobe.comThe US government has launched the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, a collaboration of US law enforcement led by the Justice and Commerce Department, to stop hostile states gaining access to critical US technology.The initiative, announced by Deputy Attorney General, Lisa O Monaco, focuses on preventing adversaries from violating US export controls, which restrict the sale of "dual use" technologies with both military and technology use.

China's leader Xi Jinping has called for "more quickly elevating the armed forces to world-class standards".is comments in a speech come days after a top diplomat warned of the growing possibility of conflict with the US unless Washington alters course.China must maximise its "national strategic capabilities" in a bid to "systematically upgrade the country's overall strength to cope with strategic risks, safeguard strategic interests and realise strategic objectives," Mr Xi said on Wednesday.

Poland has formally asked Germany for permission to transfer its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the Polish defense minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said on Tuesday, and his German counterpart said Berlin would decide soon on whether it would send its own tanks.We are preparing our decision, which will come very soon, the German official, Boris Pistorius, said, speaking at a news conference with Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of NATO.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says that although a slowing economy may not seem like a good thing, it is when the economy is overheated.Speaking in Quebec City on Tuesday, Macklem said that higher interest rates are working to cool the economy as elevated borrowing costs are constraining spending on big-ticket items such as vehicles, furniture and appliances.

Not only has the data stayed firm, but the economic data has improved recently.Also, gas prices are down from the peak, and the inflation growth rate is no longer skyrocketing.If the labor market breaks this year, meaning jobless claims noticeably rise, that should send the 10-year yield to 2.73%, and mortgage rates can go as low as 5.25%.

On Feb. 22, 2022, I joined a video call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was then facing a terrifying build-up of Russian troops along his country's borders.Calm and composed, he talked at length about his strategy for Ukraine's economic transformation and shared his plans to bring foreign investment into the Donbass region, the Eastern part of Ukraine that had seen so much unrest and conflict.

Canada's inflation rate slowed to 5.9 per cent in January, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.That number was lower than the 6.2 per cent that economists were expecting.However, the price of groceries continued to accelerate at a faster pace than in December, the statistics agency reported.Mortgage interest costs continued to rise, clocking in at 21.2 per cent in January as the Bank of Canada tries to tame inflation with high interest rates.

The economy wasn't supposed to add half a million jobs in January.In fact, a consensus poll of 81 economists expected job gains to land at around 185,000, according to Refinitiv.After 11 months of aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, the experts were naturally expecting the economy's job gains to slow as higher borrowing costs percolated through the economy, slowing investment and growth and pushing companies to pull back on spending and hiring.

If you are one of those Canadians who remain confident that central bank governor Tiff Macklem has a good handle on the economy, the future looks pretty bright."It's working," Macklem boasted at Wednesday's monetary policy news conference.Yes, another quarter-point rate hike means Canadians paying off their mortgages will now be forking out 4.25 percentage points more than they expected just two years ago.

A coalition of charities and campaigners have demanded the chancellor funnel more funds into making Britain's leaky housing stock energy efficient at next week's budget to help cut bills and protect the environment.In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, more than 20 organisations asked the government to set aside at least 6bn a year over the next decade to support an acceleration in insulating home and installations of heat pumps.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Kate Forbes has pledged to create a national housebuilding body if elected as first minister.The SNP leadership candidate, who said housebuilding was under immense pressure in Scotland, pledged that the organisation would seek to build thousands of homes per year although she did not set a firm target.

Microsoft has dosed its Dynamics 365 business apps with "AI capabilities" to help human workers delegate tedious tasks to machines.Redmond's automation tools come in a preview form in a release called Dynamics 365 Copilot, a nod to the success of its GitHub subsidiary's controversial Copilot assistive code service.

Food shortages in supermarkets could last for weeks, retail experts have warned as the government is told the clock is ticking.Tesco joined Asda, Aldi and Morrison's as the latest supermarket to ration fresh produce a shelves across the country lay empty.National Farming Union (NFU) president Minette Batters said this week at the NFU conference that the production of tomatoes and cucumbers is expected to drop to the lowest levels since records began in 1985.

The Northern Ireland Protocol has led to a democratic deficit where politicians in the region have no say over rules which govern trade, a Westminster committee has been told.A barrister told the European Scrutiny Committee that the current oversight role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on protocol-related issues raised concerns around identity.