Not Always Diplomatic: An Australian Woman’s Journey Through International Affairs (University of Western Australia Press, 2020)
I first met Sue Boyd in Hanoi, where she was Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam. She was an intriguing figure, combining a razor-sharp intellect, calm professionalism and a sense of command in official settings, and an irreverent wit in more relaxed contexts. She was observably highly effective as Australia’s representative in Vietnam: businesslike, personable and lacking in the pomposity that infected other diplomats.
Now retired, Boyd has produced a memoir,
Not Always Diplomatic: An Australian Woman’s Journey Through International Affairs. For anyone interested in Australian diplomatic history it will be an informative and entertaining read.
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The government of war-torn Yemen is struggling to repel rebel attacks on its last major stronghold while also scrambling to combat a devastating famine.
Houthi attacks in the northern Yemeni city of Marib could create a major roadblock for future attempts to negotiate peace in the country, according to the United Nations.
At the same time, some 50,000 people are starving to death in a steadily escalating famine.
The United Nations says Yemen is home to the world s worst humanitarian crisis . Here is who is involved and what is at stake.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthi movement was established in the 1990s to represent a branch of Shia Muslims known as the Zaidis.
In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, two experts explain how melting ice in the far north is bringing more light to the Arctic Ocean and what this means for the species that live there. And we hear from a team of archaeologists on their new research in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge that found evidence of just how adaptable early humans were to the changing environment.
Every summer, the sea ice in the Arctic melts – but it’s melting more and more each year. In September 2020, the ice covered 3.74 million square kilometres in the Arctic. That might sound like a lot, but it was actually the second smallest measurement ever – and roughly half of what was measured in 1980. This dramatic loss is because the Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet.
Directing biosynthesis online Introduction
Welcome
You are warmly invited to join us online in April 2021. The Directing Biosynthesis conference has been a key meeting in the biosynthetic research calendar for over a decade and is set to be a highlight in 2021 for the community of researchers interested in the biosynthesis of natural products.
Organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the 2021 conference will host some of the leading researchers from around the world. Networking and discussion are an important part of Directing Biosynthesis meetings and this remains true for the online forum.
The conference promises to be a great forum for established and early-career scientists, post-graduate students and industrial researchers to network with each other and build strong collaborations for the future.
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At his press conference on Wednesday, Christian Porter looked a broken man. It was as if he knew his long-held ambition to be prime minister of Australia was over.
Porter’s first thoughts were with the woman who accused him of raping her in 1988 and her parents, before he insisted that nothing of the sort happened. But he also wanted to make a point that was very personal.
“It didn’t happen”: Attorney-General Christian Porter holds a press conference in Perth over rape allegations.
Trevor Collins
If he stood down, it would mean that “any person in Australia can lose their job, their life’s work, based on nothing more than an accusation”.