Pope Francis excommunicates archenemy archbishop

By Nicole Winfield
July 6, 2024 —

The Vatican on Friday excommunicated its former ambassador to the US after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable outcome for Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

The conservative had become one of Pope Francis’ most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarised Catholic Church in the United States and beyond.

While once enjoying support in the Vatican and US church hierarchies, the Italian archbishop alienated many as he developed a fringe following while delving deeper into conspiracy theories on everything, from the coronavirus pandemic to what he called the “great reset” and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Apostolic Nuncio to the US, pictured in 2015.CREDIT:AP

The Vatican’s doctrine office announced the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision on Friday.

It cited Vigano’s public “refusal to recognise and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council”.

The excommunication, which Vigano incurred automatically with his positions, means he is formally outside communion with the church, and cannot celebrate or receive its sacraments. The crime of schism occurs when someone withdraws submission to the pope or from the communion of Catholics who are subject to him.


The papacy of Pope Francis has been opposed by many Catholic conservatives.CREDIT:AP

Unlike defrocking, a punitive measure that makes a priest a layman again, excommunication is considered a “medicinal” penalty and is declared in hope those who incurred it would repent and come back into communion. If that happens, the Holy See can lift the penalty.

Schisms, which have been regular in the church’s 2000-year history, are considered particularly dangerous as they threaten the unity of the church.

Vigano’s dire pronunciations about the current state of the church, amplified on Catholic social media and by ideologically friendly bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic, were an exaggerated version of the chasm between US ultra-conservatives and Francis. And while Vigano enjoyed mainstream support among bishops early in his career, many quietly distanced themselves as his ideas became more extreme.

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The Italian prelate, who has not been seen publicly since 2018, knew the schism declaration was coming after the Vatican informed him of the penal process launched against him last month. He defiantly called it “an honour,” and refused to appear in person or defend himself or submit a written defence.

On June 20, Vigano issued a lengthy public statement refusing to recognise the authority of the Vatican’s doctrinal office “that claims to judge me, nor of its prefect, nor of the one who appointed him.”

He did not directly respond to the schism declaration on Friday on X, his usual forum. Shortly before the Vatican decree was made public, he announced he would be celebrating a Mass on Friday for those who have been supporting him and asked for donations.

Vigano burst onto the public scene in 2012, during the first so-called Vatileaks scandal, when Pope Benedict XVI’s butler leaked the pontiff’s private papers to an Italian journalist to try to draw attention to corruption in the Holy See.

In some of the leaked letters, Vigano, then the number two in the Vatican City State administration, begged the pope not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros.

The entreaties did not work. By the time the letters were published, Vigano was appointed the Vatican’s ambassador to the US – a prestigious post but one that took him far from Rome and out of the running to one day be a cardinal.

Vigano reappeared on the scene during Francis’ 2015 visit to the US, which as nuncio he helped organise. Everything was going fine until Vigano arranged for Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk at the centre of the US gay marriage debate, to be present at the Vatican residence to greet Francis, along with many other people.

After the visit, Davis and her lawyers claimed the encounter with Francis amounted to an affirmation of her cause denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Vatican later turned the tables on Davis’ claim, saying she had merely been among a group of well-wishers but that the “only” private audience Francis had in Washington was with a small group of people that included a gay couple.


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But Vigano’s deception in inviting Davis to meet the pope put the prelate and the pontiff on a collision course that exploded in August 2018.

At the time, the US church was reeling from a new chapter in its clergy sex abuse scandal: One of the most senior US churchmen, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was accused of molesting a minor and a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a devastating investigation into decades of abuse and cover-up.

As Francis was wrapping up a tense visit to Ireland, Vigano published an 11-page screed accusing him and a long string of US and Vatican officials of covering for McCarrick. Specifically, Vigano accused Francis of rehabilitating McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict, and called on him to resign – accusations that created the greatest crisis of Francis’ then-young pontificate.

Francis quickly authorised an in-house investigation into McCarrick. The report, released in 2020, confirmed that a generation of church officials, including Pope John Paul II, had turned a blind eye to McCarrick’s misconduct. It largely spared Francis, who eventually defrocked the churchman.

But the report also faulted Vigano for not looking into new claims against McCarrick or enforcing Vatican restrictions on him when specifically ordered to do so by the Vatican.

At that point, Vigano’s claims against Francis became more unhinged, endorsing conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccines, appearing at far-right US political rallies via video, backing Russia in its war on Ukraine, and eventually, refusing to recognise Francis as pope.

Massimo Faggioli, a theologian at Villanova University, said while a good number of US bishops vouched for Vigano’s integrity when he first made his claims about McCarrick in 2018, his declarations in the ensuing years “led some of them to more prudent positions.”

In an essay in the French daily La Croix, Faggioli noted that Vigano had also had a seeming unintended effect of mainstreaming another schismatic group, the Society of St Pius X, which also rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that mo the church.

However, the society known as SSPX distanced itself from Vigano and his rejection of the legitimacy of Francis’ pontificate, saying they “have not ventured down that perilous road”.

Vigano’s positions make Lefebvre and the SSPX “look like right-of-centre Catholics, and not like the extreme traditionalists they actually are,” Faggioli wrote. “This says something about the ground shifting under the feet of Vatican II Catholics.”

AP

Vatican excommunicates its former ambassador to US

July 05, 2024
By VOA News
 

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the US, listens to remarks at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 16, 2015.

The Vatican has excommunicated controversial Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, its former ambassador to the U.S. from 2011 to 2016.

Vigano, an ultra-conservative and a strident critic of Pope Francis, was found guilty of schism and was excommunicated, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said in a statement Friday. The Catholic Church considers schisms in the church as a dangerous matter because they can threaten the unity of the church.

Vigano has declared several times in recent years that he does not recognize the legitimacy of Pope Francis or the Second Vatican Council, a series of meetings in the 1960s that modernized the church.

Vigano has also taken exception to what he perceives as the pope’s liberal stance on issues and in a statement on the X social media platform last month, Vigano accused Francis of representing an “inclusive, immigrationist, eco-sustainable and gay-friendly" church, that has strayed far from the tenets of the Catholic Church.

An article on the website vaticannews.va about the church’s move against Vigano says that "excommunication is considered a 'medicinal' penalty that aims at inviting the offender to repentance ... there is always the hope that the subject of excommunication will return to communion."

Vigano had the opportunity to defend himself in the proceedings against him at the Vatican but did not. However, a public defender was appointed for the absent cleric "who undertook Vigano’s defense, according to the norms of law," vaticannews.va reported.

Vigano has not been seen in public since 2018, after he accused Pope Francis of knowing about and ignoring the sexual misconduct of U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. His accusation came when the Church was in the middle of a sexual abuse scandal with allegations that both children and adults had been abused by priests for decades without any repercussions for the offending clerics or the clerics who knew about the offensives but did nothing.

The Vatican has rejected all of Vigano’s cover-up accusations about Pope Francis.

While Vigano has not made any public appearances, he continues to post communications on X.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.

Pongamia trees grow where citrus once flourished, offering renewable energy and plant-based protein

An ancient tree from India is now thriving in groves where citrus trees once flourished in Florida, and could help provide the nation with renewable energy

ByFREIDA FRISARO Associated Press
July 5, 2024, 


An ancient tree from India is now thriving in groves where citrus trees once flourished in Florida, and could help provide the nation with renewable energy.

As large parts of the Sunshine State’s once-famous citrus industry have all but dried up over the past two decades due to two fatal diseases, greening and citrus canker, some farmers are turning to the pongamia tree, a climate-resilient tree with the potential to produce plant-based proteins and a sustainable biofuel.

For years, pongamia has been used for shade trees, producing legumes — little brown beans — that are so bitter wild hogs won't even eat them.

But unlike the orange and grapefruit trees that long occupied these rural Florida groves northwest of West Palm Beach, pongamia trees don’t need much attention.

Pongamia trees also don’t need fertilizer or pesticides. They flourish in drought or rainy conditions. And they don’t require teams of workers to pick the beans. A machine simply shakes the tiny beans from the branches when they’re ready to harvest.

Terviva, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2010 by Naveen Sikka, then uses its patented process to remove the biopesticides that cause the bitter taste, making the beans suitable for food production.

“Florida offers a rare opportunity for both Terviva and former citrus farmers. The historical decline of the citrus industry has left farmers without a crop that can grow profitably on hundreds of thousands of acres, and there needs to be a very scalable replacement, very soon,” Sikka told The Associated Press. “Pongamia is the perfect fit."

The pongamia is a wild tree native to India, Southeast Asia and Australia.

The legume is now being used to produce several products, including Panova table oil, Kona protein bars and protein flour.

The legumes also produce oil that can be used as a biofuel, largely for aviation, which leaves a very low carbon footprint, said Ron Edwards, chairman of Terviva's board of directors and a long-time Florida citrus grower.

Turning a wild tree into a domestic one hasn't been easy, Edwards said.

“There are no books to read on it, either, because no one else has ever done it,” he said.

Bees and other pollinators feast on the pongamia’s flowers, supporting local biodiversity, Edwards said. An acre of the trees can potentially provide the same amount of oil as four acres of soy beans, he added.

What’s left after the oil is removed from the pongamia bean is “a very high-grade protein that can be used as a substitute in baking and smoothies and all kinds of other plant-based protein products,” Edwards said. “There’s a lot of potential for the food industry and the oil and petroleum industry.”

“We know pongamia grows well in Florida, and the end markets for the oil and protein that come from the pongamia beans — biofuel, feed, and food ingredients — are enormous," Sikka said. “So farmers can now reduce their costs and more closely align to the leading edge of sustainable farming practices."

At a nursery near Fort Pierce, workers skilled in pongamia grafting techniques affix a portion of the mother tree to a pongamia rootstock, which ensures the genetics and desired characteristics of the mother tree are perpetuated in all of Terviva's trees.

Citrus had been Florida's premier crop for years until disease caught up with it starting in the 1990s with citrus canker and later greening.

Citrus canker, a bacterial disease, is not harmful to humans, but causes lesions on the fruit, stems and leaves. Eventually, it makes the trees unproductive.

Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing, slowly kills trees and degrades the fruit, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Greening has spread throughout Florida since 2005, devastating countless groves and reducing citrus production by 75%. The disease has spread to Louisiana, Texas and California.

Hurricane Ian caused about $1.8 billion in damages to Florida's agriculture in September 2023, hitting the citrus industry at the beginning of its growing season.

Disease and climate issues have also affected most of the world's top citrus-producing countries. For example, this year's harvest in Brazil — the world’s largest exporter of orange juice — is forecast to be the worst in 36 years due to flooding and drought, according to a forecast by Fundecitrus, a citrus growers’ organization in Sao Paulo state.

But climate and disease have little effect on pongamia trees, the company's officials said.

“It’s just tough, a jungle-tested tree” Edwards said. “It stands up to a lot of abuse with very little caretaking."

Pongamia also grows well in Hawaii, where it now thrives on land previously used for sugarcane.

John Olson, who owns Circle O Ranch, west of Fort Pierce, has replaced his grapefruit groves with 215 acres (87.01 hectares) of pongamia trees.

“We went through all the ups and downs of citrus and eventually because of greening, abandoned citrus production,” Olson said. “For the most part the citrus industry has died in Florida.”

While the grapefruit grove was modest, it was common for a grove that size to be profitable in the 1980s and 1990s, Olson said.

Edwards said farmers used various sprays to kill the insect that was spreading the disease. Eventually, the cost of taking care of citrus trees became too risky.

That's when he decided to go a different route.

“What attracted me to pongamia was the fact that one it can repurpose fallow land that was citrus and is now lying dormant,” he said. "From an ecological point of view, it’s very attractive because it can replace some of the oils and vegetable proteins that are now being generated by things like palm oil, which is environmentally a much more damaging crop.”

In December 2023, Terviva signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation to provide biofuel feedstock that can be converted into biodiesel or renewable diesel.

“Our partnership with Mitsubishi is off to a great start,” Sikka said, noting that the company coordinates closely with Mitsubishi on tree plantings and product development and sales. “Terviva’s progress has accelerated thanks to Mitsubishi’s expertise and leadership around the globe on all facets of Terviva’s business.”

The research is ongoing, but Edwards said they've made really good graham crackers in addition to the table oil and other plant-based protein products, including flour and protein bars.

Pongamia offers an alternative to soybean and yellow pea protein “if you don’t want your protein to come from meat," he said.

North Dakota tribe goes back to its roots with a massive greenhouse operation



This aerial photo shows the first phase of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s Native Green Grow greenhouse operation on May 15, 2024, near Parshall, N.D. The greenhouse is planned for growing large quantities of leafy greens and vine crops for exports, distribution on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, to other tribes in neighboring states and food banks for isolated and impoverished areas. (RML Architects via AP)

Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Tribal Chairman Mark Fox stands for a photo on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in Bismarck, N.D. The MHA Nation is planning a complex of greenhouses to grow and provide produce on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and to other tribes and recipients, including exports. The project returns the MHA Nation to its historical agricultural roots, when tribal members long ago grew corn, beans, squash and watermelons on fertile land along the Missouri River, before that land was flooded for Garrison Dam in the 1950s. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)

This photo shows the interior of the first greenhouse of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s Native Green Grow complex, taken April 3, 2024, near Parshall, N.D. The greenhouse is part of the first of four phases MHA Nation has planned for the growing operation. (RML Architects via AP)

BY JACK DURA
 July 5, 2024


BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A Native American tribe in North Dakota will soon grow lettuce in a giant greenhouse complex that when fully completed will be among the country’s largest, enabling the tribe to grow much of its own food decades after a federal dam flooded the land where they had cultivated corn, beans and other crops for millennia.

Work is ongoing on the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s 3.3-acre (1.3-hectare) greenhouse that will make up most of the Native Green Grow operation’s initial phase. However, enough of the structure will be completed this summer to start growing leafy greens and other crops such as tomatoes and strawberries.

“We’re the first farmers of this land,” Tribal Chairman Mark Fox said. “We once were part of an aboriginal trade center for thousands and thousands of years because we grew crops — corn, beans, squash, watermelons — all these things at massive levels, so all the tribes depended on us greatly as part of the aboriginal trade system.”

The tribe will spend roughly $76 million on the initial phase, which also will includes a warehouse and other facilities near the tiny town of Parshall. It plans to add to the growing space in the coming years, eventually totaling about 14.5 acres (5.9 hectares), which officials say would make it one of the world’s largest facilities of its type.

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The initial greenhouse will have enough glass to cover the equivalent of seven football fields.

The tribe’s fertile land along the Missouri River was inundated in the mid-1950s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Garrison Dam, which created Lake Sakakawea.

Getting fresh produce has long been a challenge in the area of western North Dakota where the tribe is based, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The rolling, rugged landscape — split by Lake Sakakawea — is a long drive from the state’s biggest cities, Bismarck and Fargo.

That isolation makes the greenhouses all the more important, as they will enable the tribe to provide food to the roughly 8,300 people on the Fort Berthold reservation and to reservations elsewhere. The tribe also hopes to stock food banks that serve isolated and impoverished areas in the region, and plans to export its produce.

Initially, the MHA Nation expects to grow nearly 2 million pounds (907,000 kilograms) of food a year and for that to eventually increase to 12 to 15 million pounds (5.4 million to 6.4 million kilograms) annually. Fox said the operation’s first phase will create 30 to 35 jobs.

The effort coincides with a national move to increase food sovereignty among tribes.

Supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic led tribes nationwide to use federal coronavirus aid to invest in food systems, including underground greenhouses in South Dakota to feed the local community, said Heather Dawn Thompson, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Tribal Relations. In Oklahoma, multiple tribes are running or building their own meat processing plant, she said.

The USDA promotes its Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative, which “really challenges us to think about food and the way we do business at USDA from an indigenous, tribal lens,” Thompson said. Examples include indigenous seed hubs, foraging videos and guides, cooking videos and a meat processing program for indigenous animals.
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“We have always been a very independent, sovereign people that have been able to hunt, gather, grow and feed ourselves, and forces have intervened over the last century that have disrupted those independent food resources, and it made it very challenging. But the desire and goal has always been there,” said Thompson, whose tribal affiliation is Cheyenne River Sioux.

The MHA Nation’s greenhouse plans are possible in large part because of access to potable water and natural gas resources.

The natural gas released in North Dakota’s Bakken oil field has long been seen by critics as a waste and environmental concern, but Fox said the tribal nation intends to capture and compress that gas to heat and power the greenhouse and process into fertilizer.
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Flaring, in which natural gas is burned off from pipes that emerge from the ground, has been a longtime issue in the No. 3 oil-producing state.

North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad said that key to capturing the gas is building needed infrastructure, as the MHA Nation intends to do.

“With those operators that are trying to get to that level of zero, it’s certainly going to take more infrastructure, more buildout of pipes, processing plants, all of the above to stay on top of this issue,” he said.

The Fort Berthold Reservation had nearly 3,000 active wells in April, when oil production totaled 203,000 barrels a day on the reservation. Oil production has helped the MHA Nation build schools, roads, housing and medical facilities, Fox said.

 What happens to Larry the cat now? 

A TORY PUTTY CAT

Larry has lived at Number 10 since 2011 - but what happens to him when there is a new prime minister?

Jul 5, 2024

#Shorts #DowningStreet #LarryTheCat

Why Keir Starmer's hard to pin down:

 A Trotskyist who's capitalists' delight

Keir Starmer, the UK PM, a Trotskyist in his youth, has become capitalists' favourite now. As a lawyer, he helped over 400 people escape the gallows but defended police excesses too. The ambiguity in his personality might help him respond to changing situations and come up with pragmatic and radical solutions.


Keir Starmer is set to be the UK PM and his ambiguous personality might help him respond to changing situations and come up with pragmatic and radical solutions. (Image: AP)

Priyanjali Narayan
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Jul 6, 2024 1

In ShortKeir Starmer is the most working-class Labour Party leader of his generation
He was a Troskyist, who now supports wealth creation as part of Labour agenda
These shades in Starmer's personality show his evolution and flexibility


Keir Starmer becoming the Prime Minister of the UK was inevitable, if his ex-partner, Philipa Kauffman, is to be believed. "If you’d told me back then that Keir would be prime minister, it wouldn’t have surprised me one little bit. One, he is very capable. Two, he is utterly driven. Three, his values and principles are so important," Kauffman says in Starmer's biography by Tom Baldwin.

Capable, utterly driven and principled. Keir Starmer's win is no surprise for his ex-partner.

The biography was released in February, when it had become pretty evident that the Starmer-led Labour Party wasn't just on course to win the general election, but to sweep it.

On Friday, the Labour Party leader emerged victorious in the July 4 election, enabling Labour to form the government in the UK after 14 years. It was Starmer who steered Labour to victory by wooing and consolidating voter anger against the Conservatives.

"Starmer is peculiarly hard to pin down, especially for people who work in politics, because he resists being fitted into the clean lines within which politicians usually project themselves," wrote his biographer.

It is really "hard to pin down" who Starmer is. In Starmer's personality, we see many shades, even paradoxes.

He was the editor of Trotsky magazine in the UK who put "wealth creation" as an important agenda of the Labour Party in this election.

He is the most working-class leader of the Labour Party Britain has seen for years. But he is 'Sir', having been knighted by the British crown. He is a private man who has chosen public life to be in the political limelight.

Starmer is an anti-monarchist, who will now meet the King once a week. These paradoxes show his evolution as a political leader and a person over time. He adapts and is quick to understand and respond.

He was a human rights lawyer who became the adviser to the Northern Irish Policing Board, where he helped police officers justify their use of guns and plastic bullets.
'MY DAD WAS A TOOLMAKER, MY MOM A NURSE,' SAYS STARMER

Starmer is going to be the most working-class PM of the generation in the UK. He has defeated a man -- Rishi Sunak -- who some say was even richer than the royals.

Born to a toolmaker and a nurse, Starmer never had to think of or mention his origins till he entered politics.

"'My dad was a toolmaker and my mum was a nurse,' before adding – in words that these days might induce some form of aneurysm among those who have followed his interviews and speeches since – 'not everybody knows that and that’s because I don’t say it very often," wrote his biographer.

Starmer also spoke about unpaid bills and the phone being cut off. They could not eat pasta or travel abroad. His father felt "very disrespected" working as a factory worker, revealed Starmer.

But Starmer moved beyond his circumstances and was the first in the family to attend University of Leeds, and then do a year at Oxford.

Now, he is helping families get their first mortgage as his family's humble home "was everything to my family — it gave us stability, and I believe every family deserves the same".

He would go on to be a lawyer.

STARMER BECOMES A LAWYER, BUT WILL LAW BE ENOUGH?

He was a human rights lawyer at the famous Doughty Street Chambers. He fought death penalty cases for Commonwealth countries and was even part of a legal team that got the death sentences of 417 people removed.

He would never mention his working-class roots to win a case. In fact, he was never a "jury's lawyer". He built his case with facts. His style was considered "forensic" even when he represented the opposition in the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

He was a problem solver, not a poser.

"He’ll walk around a problem, look at it from every angle, almost touch and feel it before working out what to do. If we can’t abolish the death penalty altogether, he’ll find ways to engage with the prosecutors in that country or the government. There’s no point in telling these countries that capital punishment is barbaric just to get some cheap applause – where does that get you?"

He had pragmatic solutions to radical problems and was more interested in getting solutions than posturing, wrote his biographer.

This side of his personality is what will be of great use in 10 Downing Street. A London-based lawyer who worked with him said he was always "looking 10 miles down the road."

He became the top prosecutor of the country.

After being a human rights lawyer for decades, Starmer became in-charge of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2008 and was responsible for criminal prosecutions in England and Wales.

He saw the first British prosecution of al-Qaeda terrorists. He also came under scrutiny after he was, what some considered, harsh to rioters in London after the police shot dead a black man in 2011, Mark Duggan.

Finally, in 2014, Starmer was knighted and he became, 'Sir Keir'. But as Kauffman said, law was not enough for him.

KEIR STARMER ENTERS BRITISH POLITICS

Starmer finally entered electoral politics at the age of 52.

In 2015, he became the MP for the London district of Holborn and St Pancras in 2015, and was the “shadow minister” and dealt with Labour's position on Brexit.

Starmer had been against leaving the European Union but many Labour voters were in favour of it. Finally, the party could not reach a conclusion and asked for a second referendum.

This, along with other factors, led to the defeat of the Labour Party in 2019.

After the elections, Starmer became the party leader. He worked relentlessly and his fluidity as a leader made him cater to many. While several people say they do not know what he stands for, in reality, he stands for a few things.

“What Keir has done is taken all the left out of the Labour Party,” billionaire John Caudwell, told the BBC. “He’s come out with a brilliant set of values and principles and ways of growing Britain in complete alignment with my views as a commercial capitalist.”

Another strength of Starmer is that he hasn't been tied down to any of the party's factions and adapts to the situation.

“One of Keir’s greatest strengths is that he’s never been from or beholden to a particular faction of the Labour Party. I think that’s because – unlike almost every previous Labour leader – he didn’t spend his life in the Labour Party, and it isn’t his whole life, even now. It’s why he could win a leadership contest from the soft left, but now lead it from the centre-right," said Chris Ward, one of his principal advisers until 2021.

As for what he stands for?

“He believes in pragmatism, in developing policy by solving problems, not through grand theory. And he doesn’t come to the table with ideological presuppositions,” said Josh Simons, who headed the think tank, Labour Together.

As for immigration, Starmer has stated that they will use the money currently being used to send the immigrants to Rwanda to establish a new Border Security Command to tackle gangs operating via small boats across the border and other purposes.

He also stands for supporting his British Indian voters as he visited the Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury on June 28 to reiterate his commitment to building a “strategic partnership with India”.

"If we’re elected next week, we will strive to govern in the spirit of sewa to serve you and a world in need,” said Starmer, reiterating his promise of “absolutely no place for Hinduphobia in Britain”.

Though it is hard to pond down the real Starmer, the advantage of this flexibility of personality is that the new British Prime Minister can adapt to fast-changing situations and respond to them fast.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for TROTSKYISM 

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Gazans ‘taught to hate Jews from birth,’ ‘most radicalized population’

Pro-Palestinian protesters chanted “Lindsey Graham we’re not done, intifada has just begun” outside the senator's Fourth of July celebrations.

By DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

JULY 6, 2024 

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at a Republican fundraising dinner in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. August 5, 2023

.(photo credit: REUTERS/SAM WOLFE)

Senator Lindsey Graham, while addressing the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that took place on America’s Independence Day, claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that Palestinians born in Gaza are “the most radicalized population on the planet.”

Graham added that in addition to being the “most radicalized,” Gazans are “taught to hate Jews from birth,” and this “will take years to fix.”

Graham further noted that he saw widespread antisemitism in the pro-Palestinian movement, comparing the popular protest chant “from the river to the sea” to the Nazis’ final solution - which planned to see the complete extermination of the Jewish people.

“From the river to the sea” is in reference to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area that encompasses the entire state of Israel.

Many critique this chant as advocating for the creation of a Palestinian state at the expense of Israel's existence

.

Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades Flag at a June 28 NYC protest

. (credit: Screenshot/ Within Our Lifetime video/ X)

“The Hamas terrorists are the SS on steroids,” Graham said, while asserting, “I will always support giving Israel the weapons and the space they need to destroy Hamas so there is never another October 7. “

On pro-Palestinian protests, Graham wrote that he supported the right to “peacefully protest” but expressed his apologies to nearby households disrupted from their celebrations by the demonstrations.

The protesters were recorded shouting “Lindsey Graham we’re not done, intifada has just begun.” The chants were met with accompanying drum beats.

“Intifada” is an Arabic word for “uprising” and references the waves of terrorism that targeted Israeli civilians and soldiers from 1987-1993 in the first intifada and in 2000 in the second intifada.

Over 1000 Israelis were killed in the second intifada, and thousands more were wounded, according to Israel’s foreign ministry. Thousands of Palestinians were also killed during the intifadas.

Lindsey Graham’s vocal support for Israel

In June, Graham told the Jerusalem Post’s Tovah Lazaroff that Iran must be held accountable for major Hezbollah attacks against Israel, adding that failing to do so would have a costly impact on the United States.

Graham explained that if the US failed to take a strong stance with Israel against Hezbollah, then “Iran will see this as yet another example of weakness and timidity, and they [it] will break out to a nuclear weapon.”

Only one day after Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, Graham posted on X that Iran must be held responsible for the terror inflicted.

"It is long past time for the Iranian terrorist state to pay a price for all the upheaval and destruction being sown throughout the region and world,” the senator wrote.

At the end of October, Graham repeated that he would see to it that the US would hold Iran accountable for Hamas’s murdering of captives.

“We are here today to tell Iran that we are watching you,” he told reporters. “If this war grows, it’s coming to your backyard.”

SPIRITUAL CAPITAL$M

Gen Z, social media helping fuel spiritual tourism in India

Spiritual tourism is seeing a boom in India thanks to the wide reach of social media and better transport connectivity.

Faith-based travel makes up 60 percent of tourism in India 

[Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera]

By Gurvinder Singh
Published On 6 Jul 2024

Varanasi, India – In India, some members of Generation Z prefer temples over nightclubs.

Shivam Dwivedi, a native of Prayagraj district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, prays at a neighbourhood temple at least twice a week.

The 19-year-old and his friends have shunned trips to beach and party destinations popular with this age group. Instead, Dwivedi and his friends Saurabh Shukla, 21, and Anand Dwivedi, 20, prefer to visit important Hindu shrines, some in remote corners of the country.

The friends, who are studying engineering, told Al Jazeera they get mental peace and find a “source of energy” on their trips to religious places.

“We feel a connect with the divine. … There is a source of energy that flows inside us that gives us mental peace as pressure of education and career building often becomes too hectic to handle,” Shukla told Al Jazeera while standing in line outside Kashi Vishwanath Temple in the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Parties and a dazzling nightlife do not attract them, Shivam Dwivedi added. “We have never planned a visit to Goa and other such places where people go just for raging parties, casinos and nightlife. We want peace and positivity that is available in religious places and in nature,” he explained.

Impact of social media

Faith-based holidays make up 60 percent of India’s domestic tourism, according to a March report by the real estate consultancy CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd.

The industry is estimated to grow at a compounded annual rate of 16.2 percent and is likely to reach $4.6bn in size by 2033, according to the report.

Some of that business is being driven by members of Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012).

The consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in January and coverage of the event in social and news media have helped fuel interest.

Anand Dwivedi, Saurabh Shukla and Shivam Dwivedi prefer trips to religious places over party spots [Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera]

Giresh Vasudev Kulkarni, founder of Temple Connect, a company that provides information on Hindu temples to global pilgrims, said the widespread use of social media coupled with curiosity among young people has helped lead to an increase in spiritual tourism in the country.

“The young generation is completely hooked to social media where people are creating content by reaching even those places which were considered far off and remote till a few years ago. Such contents when posted on YouTube and other social media platforms generate curiosity among people, especially youths to visit there for making similar content or to offer prayers,” Kulkarni explained.

Santosh Singh, founder of Spiritual Tour, a Varanasi-based company that offers tours to religious places, pointed out that the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a major breakthrough in the rise of spiritual tourism.

New roads connecting Varanasi and Ayodhya, both cities in Uttar Pradesh, have cut travel time down to four hours from six, he said.

Pilgrims have also been tacking on a trip to Sarnath, about 10km (6 miles) northeast of Varanasi. It is considered the place where Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment.

“Since January, we are witnessing 60 to 70 percent growth in business,” Singh told Al Jazeera. “Earlier, there used to be an off season between April to September, but now there is a massive rush, and even 2,000 odd hotels in Varanasi are finding it difficult to accommodate the surge in crowds,” Singh said.

In April alone, Varanasi received about 8.2 million visitors, according to RK Rawat, deputy director of tourism for the Varanasi and Vidyanchal division. And about 150,000 visitors on average visit the Ram temple per day since it opened to the public, the state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, told local media.

Government efforts

In 2015, the federal government introduced a scheme called the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive, or PRASHAD, which is Hindi for food offered to the gods. Under that scheme, it has spent 16.3 billion rupees ($195.43m) to develop infrastructure around 73 religious sites.

Visitors to the Jagannath Temple in Puri can rest in a passage

[Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera]

It has also introduced high-speed trains connecting some of these sites with other big cities and has proposed international airports in cities like Ayodhya and Puri, providing easier access to foreign tourists. It also offers interest-free loans to states to set up malls to showcase their unique products.

State governments, too, have played a role in attracting more tourists to important shrines.

In January, the Odisha government opened a 75-metre (250ft) passage that it had built around the outer walls of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, which it developed at an investment of 8 billion rupees ($96m). Its air-conditioned sections as well as drinking water and toilet facilities are a welcome escape for devotees from the searing heat and humidity as they wait in line to enter the temple.

“The corridor has led to the rise of tourists … because the passage is chaos-free,” said Jatin Panda, senior administrator for security for the Shree Jagannath Temple Office, which manages temple affairs.

“We are also witnessing a rise in teenage and young visitors coming to visit the temple post-COVID. Earlier, we used to have 10 young visitors out of every 100 coming to the temple, but now, it has risen to at least 40 young people out of the same numbers. It might be connected to increasing belief in the divinity [or] job insecurity post-pandemic,” he said, pointing to the 10.47 million tourists in Puri in 2022, the latest data available, up from 10.35 million tourists in 2018.

Business booming

The rise in spiritual tourism has been profitable for the sectors connected with it, including hospitality and retail, which are jumping on the trend with wellness packages, including yoga retreats, meditation centres, and food and shopping around those themes.

The CBRE report identified 14 Indian cities – including Amritsar, Ajmer, Varanasi, Ayodhya and Puri – as key cities witnessing this boom.

“The rapid expansion of spiritual tourism in India is driving the growth of the country’s faith-based tourism market,” said Anshuman Magazine, chairman and CEO of CBRE India.

Debasis Kumar, vice president of the Hotel Association of Puri, told Al Jazeera that the average occupancy of the hotels in the city has shot up from 70 percent in the pre-pandemic era to 90 percent now.


“Puri has a unique advantage of having a temple and a sea beach that attracts the young generation,” Kumar said.

“It is difficult to find quality manpower [to keep up with the tourist influx], and the layoffs during COVID have been haunting the industry. We are also noticing young people booking rooms in the hotels, and most of them are also driving solo to reach here and spending time in the temple. The chaos-free corridor attracts the young generation.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

GEN-Z

Protest in Nairobi Reveals Kenya’s Weakness

The recent protest in Kenya has come out as deadly. The protest was triggered by the new taxation bill, which proposed new taxes on bread and cooking oil.

BYHAOYU "HENRY" HUANG
JULY 6, 2024
MODERN DIPLOMACY

People participate in anti-tax demonstrations in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, June 25, 2024. (Photo by Charles Onyango/Xinhua)

The recent protest in Kenya has come out as deadly. The protest was triggered by the new taxation bill, which proposed new taxes on bread and cooking oil. Thirty-nine people have lost their lives while parts of the Kenyan Parliament were set on fire. Although President Ruto has declared that he will not approve the new tax bill and will be withdrawn from Parliament, protests are still ongoing. Some even started to call for the president’s resignation.

Kenya is one of the biggest economies in Africa and a stable nation most of the time. Still, the new tax bill and the protest revealed the significant challenges that this East African nation faces. The Nairobi government is in a dire debt crisis. Kenya is also haunted by internal political instability and corruption. Externally, the international price hike and a shrinking Kenya export market in East Africa have worsened the situation.

Kenya’s Debt Crisis

On paper, Kenya’s economy is much stronger than expected. It is the third biggest in Africa and is considered a lower-middle-income country. The current government has also sustained a high level of economic growth. With the rapid economic growth, the Kenyan government has lowered the national poverty rate from 47% to 33%.

However, despite the tremendous growth, there are also great uncertainties. Kenya has accumulated a significant debt over the years. Kenyans’ domestic and international debt has reached 80 billion US dollars, almost 70% of its GDP. This level is far higher than the World Bank’s suggested 55%. The external debt makes up more than half of Kenya’s debt. Most external debt comes from international finance institutions such as the World Bank. Although international financial institutions have provided funds to support Kenya’s efforts to achieve financial stability, these institutions also attached harsh terms on financial reformations. The proposed Kenyan taxation bill was in response to this crisis.

A high level of debt comes with high interest. The interest payment alone accounts for 27% of the Nairobi government’s total expenditure. Earlier this year, the Kenyan government had to buy back its Eurobonds and significantly raise the interest rate to 9.75% to avoid default risk. The direct consequence is the higher cost of refinancing for the Kenyans. Yet, with a relatively lower international credit rating and the warning from the World Bank for future liquidation squeeze, the refinancing cost for the Kenyan government will remain high.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan Shilling is also experiencing a depreciation in the international financial market. Although the exchange rate has bounced back, it still lost 20% of its value in 2023. More than half of Kenya’s total debt is in foreign exchange. A depreciated shilling means it will cost more for the Nairobi government to cover the cost of interest and future payback. The higher cost of foreign exchange has further fueled Kenya’s debt crisis.

Political Challenges

Besides the rising taxes, the protesters voiced their grave dissatisfaction with the current situation. For the most part, Kenya is a stable country with a growing economy. However, political instability still looms in the country, while corruption remains a significant issue for the nation’s future. Kenya still sits on the powder keg that could be ignited at any moment.

Kenya is not unfamiliar with political unrest. The 2007-2008 protest after the presidential election left the country with high casualties and a divide among ethnic groups in the country. The 2022 election was still risky. Although international observers have recognized the legitimacy, the election result has been highly contested. Some members of the election commission chose to distance themselves from the final result as issues occurred in vote counting. Although the final result was verified, and there were no substantial incidents of political violence, the conflict surrounding the result still reveals the uncertainty of Kenyan democracy.

The massive dissatisfaction also reflects the endemic corruption in Kenya. Transparency International’s data shows that although Kenya’s score has improved over the years, the country still ranks 126 out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index. Bribery is everywhere, from exiting and entering the country to conducting business there. Due to conflict of interest charges, the World Bank banned Ernst and Young’s Kenyan office from its programs and projects. The incident further proves the commonness of corruption in Kenya.

International Elements

The external element should also not be ignored when considering Kenya’s challenges. Kenya heavily relies on imports, while Kenya’s main exporting partners are within the East African Community. The tiniest shift in trade policy and international commodity prices could have an important impact on Kenya’s economy, further intensifying the current crisis.

The ongoing price hike worldwide significantly impacted Kenya. Due to the trade deficit and the rising international price fueled by the Russian-Ukraine war, Kenyans must spend more than before to make ends meet, from wheat to cooking oil. Last year’s gas price increase across Africa also impacted Kenya. Meanwhile, as Kenya imports food from its trade partners, the increasing food prices also took a toll on the nation’s food security.

Even trade disputes within East African countries have hindered Kenya’s trade. Kenya’s main export destinations are Uganda and Tanzania, which are parts of the East African Community. Rising tariffs and trade barriers have shrunk the trade. Kenya had prolonged trade friction with Tanzania. Kenya exports agricultural produce, directly competing with Tanzanian farmers. Although the two countries have been working together to lift these restrictions, new disputes and trade barriers still appear.

Meanwhile, trade between Kenya and Uganda has also experienced unpleasantry in the past year. From taxation to import bans, the friction has shrunk the bilateral trade. Trade frictions and rising trade barriers have made Kenya’s primary export market much more complicated to develop. As Kenya also faces a significant trade deficit, a shrinking export market means the Nairobi government has to borrow more from external partners to meet its budgetary needs.

Conclusion

Even with the debt crisis, Kenya had protests in 2023. However, the current protest is on a much bigger scale. On the surface, this protest is in response to the new taxation bill. Yet, the deep debt crisis that the Nairobi government faces and the massive political dissatisfaction rooted in corruption and political instability further exacerbate public discontent. The international turmoil since 2022 worsened the Nairobi government’s situation. The protest reveals Kenya’s weak spots behind its prosperity!

Haoyu "Henry" Huang is an independent international affairs observer. He graduated with a Bachelors's degree from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs in May 2020. He is from China and has previously lived and worked in the United States and Kazakhstan. He is currently based in Tanzania.

Colombia warns about danger for migrants after Panama closes Darien routes

Newly-installed Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, US agreed to repatriate migrants

Laura Gamba Fadul |06.07.2024 


BOGOTA, Colombia

The decision by Panama's new President Jose Raul Mulino to build barbed fences in the Darien Gap to block migrants has caused tensions with Colombian authorities on Friday.


The Colombian Ombudsman's Office warned the measure “will affect the rights” of migrants and urged the government to ask Panamanian authorities to comply with the human rights of those crossing the Darien stretch.

The government must ensure "shelter, accessibility to basic needs and guarantees of non-refoulement of migrants eligible for asylum and in need of international protection," it said.

Colombian authorities also expressed concern about the possibility of migrants piling up in Colombian cities from where thousands of migrants dare to undertake the journey to the US every year.

Photographs published by migrants on social media show the fence consisting of several barbed wires that are nailed to trees, which has prevented their passage to Panama.

Under a deal with Mulino, the US agreed to cover the costs of repatriation of migrants who enter Panama illegally.

The agreement, signed by US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, seeks to reduce the number of migrants “smuggled through the Darién, usually en route to the United States, the White House said in a statement.

In his first address as president on July 1, Mulino promised to find solutions to what he described as a costly “humanitarian and environmental crisis.”

“I will not allow Panama to be a path open to thousands of people who enter our country illegally, supported by an entire international organization related to drug trafficking and human trafficking,” he said.

Juanita Goebertus, director for the Americas for Human Rights Watch criticized the decision.

“Not only is it physically impracticable due to the geography and the lack of binational territorial control of the border, but it also generates an additional risk of serious violations of the human rights of migrants and asylum seekers,” said Goebertus.

More than 197,000 people have risked their lives by crossing the jungle from January to June 2024, where they face criminal organizations, wild animals and dangerous landscapes. Most of the migrants crossing the stretch of land are from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and China.

The Amplifying Capacity of Critical and Emerging Technologies in the Arctic and Antarctic

Understanding of the Polar Regions has grown exponentially.

BYMAJ. VINEET KUMAR
JULY 6, 2024
MODERN DIPLM

photo:Unsplash

Authors: Maj. Vineet Kumar and Dr. Preethi Amaresh

Understanding of the Polar Regions has grown exponentially. The Arctic and Antarctic poles today to an increasing extent has become one of the most critical areas of research and exploration, predominantly due to the possibility of untapped natural resources and challenges such as global warming and climate change.

Critical and Emerging technologies (CETs) have been presently playing a substantial part in facilitating researchers and scientists to analyze isolated and severe environments in ways that were formerly inaccessible and elusive. Through CETs, one can gain a more profound understanding of the crucial regions and their function in shaping the global climate system. Being the most outlying and uninhabitable areas in the world, these Polar Regions have increasingly become the priority of the countries to showcase their power via emerging technological progress in the contemporary years.

Correspondingly, in the last few decades, CETs have unlocked added opportunities for interdisciplinary research in the Polar Regions. Scientists and researchers from various specializations such as climatology, geology, oceanography and so on have been involved in research assignments that demand data from numerous sources. Through cutting-edge technologies and their additional expertise, they can get more thorough insights into the interconnected processes that shape the polar environment. This interdisciplinary strategy is crucial for addressing the intricate challenges of global warming and climate change and for securing the long-term sustainability of these regions.

Cutting-edge technologies are consequently revolutionizing research and exploration through advancements in satellite technology, robotics, quantum technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), machine learning algorithms and remote sensing instruments by providing useful insights into the effects of climate change, natural processes in polar regions and also the impact of human activity.

The CETs are being used as a means for sustainable development and scientific research conservation, rather than as an instrument of exploitation and environmental degradation in these regions. For instance, remote sensing technologies have been used to equip a more comprehensive outlook of Polar Regions, wildlife populations and enabling researchers to observe changes in sea levels and ice cover from a far- reach. The drones have likewise been utilized to gather explicit data on particular areas of interest—for example, wildlife migration patterns and to measure the thickness of the ice. Blockchain technology can further assist in ensuring data integrity, improving trust among global research partners in joint undertakings and also construct a steadfast record of data transactions. Virtual Reality (VR) technology can affect Polar Regions for academic and training purposes, while securing data integration and proper representation poses challenges in research undertakings. The 3D printing technology can decrease reliance on external supply chains; facilitate on- site production of spare equipment, and enhancing sustainability in polar-research station functions. Internet of Things (IoT) devices to a greater extent can help in tracking supplies, equipment and personnel, optimizing operations in logistics and guaranteeing efficient administration of resources in harsh polar conditions.

Furthermore, International organizations have been playing a critical and binding function in the oversight and conservation of the Arctic and Antarctic regions considering their distinctive environmental and geopolitical significance. First and foremost, the United Nations (UN) has been perpetually striving for new and innovative ways to address the unusual challenges faced in these Polar Regions by working towards a more sustainable and secure future for these vulnerable regions. The UN has been at the forefront of facilitating the use of CETs to better understand and safeguard these fragile ecosystems and can reasonably comprehend the complicated exchanges to engage in these regions and work towards sustainable solutions. Besides, the Arctic Council, a high-level intergovernmental platform has been fostering partnerships among Arctic states and indigenous peoples on matters like environmental conservation and sustainable development. In the Antarctic, the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) functions as the preliminary global framework for overseeing activities in the region. The ATS further sets Antarctica as a natural reserve designated for peace and scientific research, restricting any military activities or mineral exploitation. International organizations like the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) likewise has been playing a pivotal role in driving the region’s marine resources sustainably.

Major global powers have moreover largely invested in developing CETs for exploring both regions. For example, Russia has created a fleet of icebreakers equipped with powerful engines and reinforced hulls to navigate the treacherous waters of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. These icebreakers are essential for accessing the extensive oil and gas reserves of the following regions apart from opening up unexplored shipping paths. Russia has also been investing greatly in innovative technologies such as AUVs, cutting-edge icebreakers, and remote-sensing satellites. India through the progress in CETs and its expertise in areas such as satellite technology, robotics and remote sensing has enabled it to produce momentous contributions to the scientific community and international efforts for fragile ecosystems. India via “Polar Diplomacy” has been taking strategic measures with other countries to safeguard its interests. The country has also been vigorously involved in different platforms such as the Arctic Council and the ATS, for scientific research advancement besides contributing towards the preservation of the environment locally and globally. The U.S. is at the frontline of developing CETs in these regions due to the growing extent of understanding these Polar Regions in the face of environmental challenges. The state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies, such as drones and satellites of the U.K, have allowed researchers to collect important data on wildlife populations, ice melting and atmospheric conditions. The country’s investments in AUVs and ice-penetrating radar systems have enabled scientists to explore the dynamics of ice sheets and glaciers in unprecedented detail. Through the evolution of advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles, and satellite technology, Australia as well has been achieving groundbreaking scientific studies in these harsh environments. In this context, The Australian Antarctic Program (AAP) has access to CETs, to support this equipment operating to the high benchmarks needed by scientists. Also, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean research will be further enhanced through a recently founded Centre for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Technology (CAST). Furthermore, China’s progress in CETs in these regions is both intrigue and concern among international stakeholders including questions about resource management and governance. Its commitment to leveraging technology for scientific exploration and resource development is reshaping the geopolitical terrain of these parts.

However, despite the numerous advantages of CETs in polar research and analysis, some corresponding barriers and constraints must be addressed. This can regardless raise significant ethical and environmental concerns. This includes devastating outcomes for the Indigenous communities and fragile ecosystems. Also, particularly, for research teams from developing nations or small organizations, the increased cost of achieving and maintaining state-of-the-art equipment can be a challenge. The extreme and unforeseen events in these Polar Regions can likewise lead to technological barriers for fragile electronics including sensors. Similarly, the ethical importance of deploying technology in these remote and untouched environments must be carefully taken into consideration to decrease the influence on regional wildlife and ecosystems. By the same token, ethical concerns like privacy of data, indigenous knowledge protection and environmental impact assessment (EIA) are binding when incorporating new technologies into polar research initiatives to secure responsible and sustainable approaches.

Nevertheless, through continued investment and innovation in CETs, one can improve the understanding of these critical ecosystems and work towards finding sustainable solutions for the hereafter. These technologies have consequently revolutionized our capability to explore, analyze and comprehend the Polar Regions, further equipping us with an invaluable understanding of the effects of various environmental challenges. To boot, it is important that major countries balance their technological accomplishments with responsible environmental stewardship and consideration for the rights of regional inhabitants.

The decline of sea ice in the last few decades has brought new risks and challenges.

The confluence of polar diplomacy, technology, and sustainability in these regions further present both opportunities and intricate obstacles for the global society to navigate in the forthcoming years.

As CETs continue to develop, they will play an integral part in informing policy decisions and strategies for mitigating the outcomes of climate change in the Polar Regions and beyond. In this regard, more sustainable smart solutions such as carbon capture and storage technologies, clean and renewable energy and increased adoption of circularity practices should be the need of the hour.

Maj. Vineet Kumar is the Founder and Global President of CyberPeace.