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Maps

FROM stone tablets to atlases, cartographic innovations have long been an underappreciated mainstay in geopolitics and everyday life.

Besides wayfinding, the use of maps underpinned World War II.

Propaganda maps were used to influence popular opinion and mobilise troops. Instagrammers and Tiktok-ers use them to get to the hottest restaurant.

In their latest reincarnation, highprecision maps stand to change the future of navigation, logistics and spatial datacollection.

At the forefront is a little-known Japanese start-up – Dynamic Map Platform Co, or DMP. The company, supported by government-backed funds, has multibillion-dollar mandates to support next-generation industries.

DMP is creating a set of high-definition and three-dimensional maps that are more accurate than the ones we know: those on iphones, applications like

Waze and in-car navigation systems that use GPS. Its data can also be used for accurate drone flights.

This may seem like too much deeptech and a lot of unnecessary information, but mapping and data collection are increasingly at the centre of navigation and security technology. As geopolitical tensions simmer, mobility innovation ramps up and people travel more, maps are essential. | Bloomberg

Ukraine

THE US is expected to send a new longerrange weapon to Ukraine, in answer to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s plea for rockets that can strike deep behind the front lines of the conflict with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei

Lavrov said that Russian forces would respond to the delivery of longer-range Western weapons to Kyiv by trying to push Ukrainian forces further away from its borders to create a safe buffer zone.

Lavrov told state TV this week that everybody wanted the conflict in Ukraine – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – to end, but that the West’s support for Kyiv was playing an important role in how Russia approached the campaign. |

China

CHINA, only the third country to put a man in space after the Soviet Union and the US, is to build ground stations in Antarctica to back its network of ocean monitoring satellites, state media said this week. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Group is to build the stations at the Zhongshan research base, one of two permanent Chinese research stations on Antarctica, after winning the tender with its 43.95 million yuan-bid (about R111m), state-controlled China Space News reported. The project was part of initiatives aimed at building China’s marine economy and turning China into a marine power, it stated. |

Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE’S upper house of parliament has approved legislation that critics say will gag civil society groups, placing them under the threat of harsh sanctions and strict government control. The Senate voted this week in favour of the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment

Bill, which needs to be ratified by the president before passing into law. The bill bans civil society organisations from engaging in politics and allows the state to interfere in their governance and activities. Those found in breach of its provisions risk up to a year in jail and the closure of their organisation. |

Australia

THE radioactive capsule, found after a week-long search along a 1 400km stretch of the Western Australian outback, is in transit to Perth in a convoy of vehicles made up of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Nuclear and Science Technology Organisation, the authorities said. Mining company Rio Tinto expressed its gratitude to search crews for locating the capsule this week. It was lost in transit from the company’s Gudaidarri iron ore mine in the Pilbara region. According to Rio Tinto, the capsule forms part of a level sensor (gauge) that is used in some fixed plant assets. |