Doomsday vault upgrade7/10/2023 In December, the High Court in London ruled the policy was lawful, but that decision is being challenged by asylum seekers from countries including Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran and Vietnam along with some human rights organizations. The first planned flight to Rwanda last June was blocked by a last-minute ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which imposed an injunction preventing any deportations until the conclusion of legal action in Britain. On Thursday, the Court of Appeal will hand down its judgment on whether the flights are lawful. “The economic impact assessment clearly shows that doing nothing is not an option,” she said. Unless action is taken, Braverman said that the cost of housing asylum seekers will rise to 11 billion pounds a year, up from about 3.6 billion pounds currently. Home Secretary (interior minister) Suella Braverman said these costs must be considered alongside the impact of deterring others trying to reach Britain and the rising cost of housing asylum seekers. In an economic impact assessment published on Monday, the government said the cost of deporting each individual to Rwanda would include an average 105,000 pound payment to Rwanda for hosting each asylum seeker, 22,000 pounds for the flight and escorting, and 18,000 pounds for processing and legal costs. Sunak has made this one of his five priorities amid pressure from some of his own Conservative lawmakers and the public to resolve the issue. The government sees the plan as central to deterring asylum seekers arriving in small boats from France. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government wants to send thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) away to Rwanda as part of a deal with the central African country agreed last year. LONDON: Britain’s government said on Monday it will cost on average about 169,000 pounds ($215,035) to deport each asylum seeker to Rwanda in the first detailed assessment of a high-stakes promise to tackle record numbers of people arriving in small boats. The world used to cultivate over 6,000 different plants but UN experts say we now get about 40 percent of our calories from three main crops - maize, wheat and rice - making food supplies vulnerable if climate change causes harvests to fail. “In a world where the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, natural catastrophes and conflicts increasingly destabilize our food systems, it has never been more important to prioritize safeguarding these tiny seeds.” This Seed Vault represents hope, unity and security,” said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust, an international non profit that operates Svalbard along with the Norwegian authorities. “From here in Svalbard, the world looks different. The virtual tour launch, as well as the seed deposits from some 20 gene banks, were timed to mark Svalbard’s 15-year anniversary. The chambers, which are only opened three times a year to limit the seeds’ exposure to the outside world, boast temperatures of around -18 degrees Celsius. Svalbard, which also serves as a backup for plant breeders to develop new crop varieties more resistant to climate change, opened its doors to public at large for the first time on Tuesday by launching a free virtual tour of its subterranean seed chambers. “The whole of humanity relies on the genetic diversity of crops maintained in the world’s gene banks, and the Seed Vault is the last line of defense against the loss of that diversity,” said Sandra Borch, Minister of Agriculture and Food for Norway. It has seed samples from nearly every country in the world, and played an essential role between 20 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria. The vault, set in permafrost caves on an arctic mountainside halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, was launched in 2008 as a backup for the world’s national and regional gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built to protect the world’s food stock from disasters ranging from nuclear war to global warming, will add 19,500 rare seed variety samples from across the world to its collection on Tuesday, taking its total stash to more than 1.2 million. LONDON: A ‘doomsday’ Arctic seed vault on Norway’s Spitsbergen island is set to receive its most diverse batch of seed donations yet as efforts to secure the world’s food supplies ramp up amid rising climate concerns.
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