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Throughout the entire Cold War and in the decades since, Russia was a stable supplier of gas to Europe. That changed this week.

Russia slashed gas supplies in apparent retaliation over Europe's support for Kyiv. After its biggest moves yet to use energy as a weapon, gas rationing in the region is now a very real prospect. The squeeze caused prices to surge, added pressure to the region's economy and could strain European solidarity - all victories for the Kremlin that came as European leaders underlined support for Ukraine during a high-profile trip to the country.

With European utilities forced to tap reserves intended to cover needs for the winter, government controls of gas distribution could start within months. If Russia completely shuts its main link, the region could run out of supplies by January, according consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

The heightened alarm was triggered after the Kremlin cut flows by about 60% through the Nord Stream pipeline, which pumps gas straight to Germany. The diminished deliveries had a knock-on effect for France, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Germany's Uniper SE, the biggest buyer of Russian gas in Europe, is receiving 60% less gas than ordered. Italy's Eni SpA received just half of its requested volumes from state-owned Gazprom PJSC on Friday, and France's Engie SA and Austria's OMV AG have been hit as well.

President Vladimir Putin upended decades of reliable energy relations by gradually curbing supplies in small steps.

More here:
Gas rationing now a real prospect for the European Union - Economic Times

The EuroHPC Joint Unit initiative in the European Union recently allowed for the deployment of LUMI, the continent's first pre-exascale system that will integrate next-gen technology from AMD. This initiative and involvement with AMD will allow for a quantum-ready system to be designed with carbon-negative manufacturing and enable the globe to move closer to post-exascale computing in the European Union.

Jlich's Supercomputing Centre in Germany will be the installation home for JUPITER, with over $522 million to be spent on installation, hardware, and infrastructure, with the European Union funding the costs. The expected completion and full operation timeframe will be in 2024 when the system begins to process over a trillion operations per second.

JUPITER will allow researchers to study climate modeling, engineering of materials, sustainable energy production, and biological simulations utilizing the latest in accelerated artificial intelligence. Due to the level of workloads, incredibly taxing computations, and memory alone, that is the reason the EU is investing a large number of finances towards the supercomputer.

The organizations involved have not officially stated the hardware used to be the backbone of the JUPITER supercomputer. In the press release for JUPITER, it is indicated that GPU-based accelerators will be significant to the processing power of the system. Using star-based architecture in the LUMI system, JUPITER will also house several supercomputing modules to process GPU visualization and use a universal CPU-based accelerator and high-powered GPU clusters. Also included in the system will be a quantum computing node and temperature-based storage clusters to maintain heat levels properly. It is also reported that JUPITER will utilize rare computational models that include a fully dedicated neuromorphic computing node.

JUPITER will have a power consumption level of 15 MW, 22% less than the top global supercomputer, Frontier, which averages 19 MW of consumption. Compared to Japan's Arm-based Fugaku, JUPITER reduces it to 50% less than the previous top supercomputer from 2020.

AMD will have the upper hand in rivaling Intel with this new endeavor. Intel only has contracts with five of ten supercomputing installations, with AMD having ten of twenty installations using the company's hardware for their supercomputers. However, Intel recently announced the Silicon Junction initiative, which will see $80 billion in the European Union's research, development, and manufacturing of next-gen semiconductors.

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JUPITER, the European Unions All-AMD post-exascale supercomputer, promises to access around a quintillion operations per second - Wccftech

DUSHANBE, May 11 The Government of the Republic of Tajikistans Committee of Emergency Situations and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), with financial support from the European Union, conducted a consultative workshop to discuss the results and planned actions to strengthen the countrys Disaster Risk Management System. Participants included a wide range of stakeholders from different sectors engaged in disaster risk reduction in Tajikistan, including national and international organizations in the country.

Todays workshop included the presentation and validation of the results of the comprehensive disaster risk management system capacity assessment workshop, held in October 2021, where experts from the Tajikistan National Platform on DRR, ministries and state agencies, research organizations and international development partners, learned about the Disaster Risk Management System capacity assessment methodology and process, applied it to their own context, and made proposals for future capacity building. Based on the validated results, participants discussed recommendations for an action plan for building the capacity of the Disaster Risk Management System for a period up to 2030, as well as the mid-term planning for the implementation of the National DRR Strategy of Tajikistan (2022-2024).

Background information

The EU-funded Strengthening disaster resilience and accelerating implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia initiative, delivered by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), aims to support countries in the region to implement Sendai Framework priorities. The project supports the strengthening of national and regional coordination in DRR and the development of national disaster loss accounting systems. At the local level, the project supports development of disaster resilience strategies of capital cities, and community level disaster risk reduction. The EU has committed EUR 3,750,000 for the three-year implementation of this initiative.

For additional information please contact

Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan, at: delegation-kazakhstan-pic@eeas.europa.eu

Mr. Abdurahim Muhidov, UNDRR Regional Programme Coordinator, at: muhidov@un.org

More here:
EU-Funded Consultation Workshop Validates the Results of Tajikistan's Disaster Risk Management System Capacity Assessment and Action Plan - Tajikistan...

Austin, TX, June 17, 2022 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported 139,000 encounters with illegal immigrants in Texas border patrol sectors last month, an increase from 129,000 recorded land border encounters in April.

An additional 9,000 encounters occurred at the Laredo and El Paso offices of field operations.

The agency said that it encountered about 223,000 illegal aliens along the southwest U.S. land border, a quarter of whom had already been encountered at least once before. Another 17,000 enforcement actions occurred at offices of field operations. More than two-thirds of the encounters were with single adults.

Once again, it is reported to be the highest number of encounters in a single month recorded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In a news release, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus offered insight into the reason for increased illegal crossings.

He partially attributed it to human smugglers taking advantage of the summertime temperatures and victimizing vulnerable populations.

Current restrictions at the U.S. border have not changed: single adults and families encountered at the Southwest Border will continue to be expelled, where appropriate, under Title 42, Magnus said, urging foreign individuals to avoid the dangerous journey only to be sent back.

The Biden administration has sought to end the application of Title 42, but its efforts were stymied by a federal judge. The public health measure instituted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has been used to expel hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens.

Border agents expelled 55 percent of the single adults encountered last month under Title 42. 42 percent of the total encounters last month resulted in an expulsion under the public health order.

Critics of the presidents immigration strategy have ascribed much of the increase in illegal immigration to his more lenient policies, many of which have been stricken down by federal judges appointed by former President Trump.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has enacted measures he contends are better suited to balance border security and humanitarian concerns. He and other Biden officials have characterized the Trump administrations policies as inhumane.

CBP also noted that there has been an increase in migration being experienced by nations across the Hemisphere and that the U.S. government is executing a comprehensive, whole-of-government plan to manage increases in the number of migrants encountered at our border

Mayorkas detailed his plan in a document to Homeland Security officials in April.

More here:
U.S. Government Reports Historic Level of Detected Illegal Immigration in May - The Texan

This guidance is also available in the following languages:

Migrants are often told by smugglers that travelling to the UK will be safe and easy. In reality the journey puts people at serious risk of injury, abuse and exploitation. The journey is not only expensive, but dangerous. Men, women and children have died trying to get to the UK in small boats or hidden in lorries.

Migrants are often forced into situations that are extremely dangerous. Most people smugglers:

This puts migrants lives at serious risk during every journey.

Dont risk it. Choose a safe and legal alternative.

Many people have died or been seriously injured trying to travel to the UK in a small boat or by lorry - including children.

The dangers of travelling to the UK in a small boat include:

The dangers of travelling to the UK hidden in a lorry include:

The people who arrange your journey are often part of organised crime gangs and may force you into dangerous situations to pay off your debt to them.

Despite what smugglers may tell you, many illegal migrants struggle to find work and pay for life in the UK. You could end up sleeping in the streets, made to beg and give any money to the smugglers, or forced into slavery.

You may be given work by criminal employers who pay no or low wages and ask you to work in dangerous conditions. They can charge lots of money for travel and unsuitable accommodation.

Relying on smugglers could mean youll:

If you make it to the UK safely, you may not be able to stay. If you get to the UK through a safe country and you make an asylum claim, this may not be considered.

The UK asylum process gives no advantages over other European asylum processes and you should always claim asylum in the first safe country you reach.

If you make it to the UK, the realities may be different to what you expect, for example:

From 1 January 2022, you will be considered for relocation to Rwanda if you make an illegal journey to the UK and have travelled through or have a connection to a safe country.

People relocated to Rwanda will have their asylum claim processed there. Rwanda will have full responsibility for them.

People whose claims for protection are rejected will either be offered the chance to stay in Rwanda or return to their home country they will not return to the UK once their claims have been decided by Rwanda.

There is no limit to the number of people who can be relocated to Rwanda.

The UK is also toughening penalties and introducing new criminal offences for people coming to the UK illegally. It will be a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK without a valid entry clearance when one is required. You could face up to 4 years in jail and be removed to a safe country if you arrive illegally.

If you are caught assisting people smugglers, for example by steering the boat or helping other people to pay smugglers, then the UK government can take criminal action against you. You could go to jail before being removed to a safe country.

The UK government has introduced tougher penalties for people smugglers with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Safely and anonymously report immigration crime, including people smugglers.

The UK is working closely with the French and Belgian governments to do everything possible to stop illegal migrants before they reach the UK. In 2021, French and UK authorities prevented more than 23,000 attempts to travel illegally to the UK. Over 6,000 crossings have been prevented so far in 2022, more than twice as many as at this point last year.

Some of the ways that governments are trying to stop illegal journeys to the UK are described below.

There are a variety of safe and legal routes to enter the UK. People smugglers cannot guarantee your safety or that you will be allowed to stay in the UK. Find out more about safer alternative options below.

You should always claim asylum in the first safe country you reach. You should contact authorities in the country you are in for information on how to do this.

Safe and legal routes to enter the UK include:

You can apply for a visa if you want to come to the UK to work, study or remain with family.

There are different visas you can apply for depending on your circumstances.

Under the UK Resettlement Scheme, the UK will continue to offer a safe and legal route to vulnerable refugees in need of protection. The Mandate Resettlement Scheme is a smaller global scheme that resettles refugees who have a close family member in the UK who is willing to house them.

You cannot apply to the UK government for resettlement to the UK. You will need to have been assessed for resettlement by UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency).

Visit the UNHCR website for information for refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless people.

In addition to our refugee resettlement schemes, the UK has granted over 29,000 Refugee Family Reunion visas in the last 5 years.

If you were separated from your partner or parent when you were forced to leave your country, you may be able to apply to join them in the UK.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy helps people formerly employed by the UK government (Locally Employed Staff) in Afghanistan.

Any current or former locally employed staff who are assessed to be under serious threat to life are offered priority relocation to the UK regardless of their employment status, rank or role, or length of time served.

If you believe you qualify, you should apply using the online application form.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme began on 6 January, providing up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.

The scheme prioritises:

members of Afghan civil society who supported the UK and international community effort in Afghanistan

vulnerable people, including women, girls and members of minority groups at risk

You cannot directly apply for the scheme, it is managed by a referral process. Further information is available on the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme.

The UK has launched one of the fastest and biggest visa schemes in UK history to support people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. You will need to apply online for permission to enter the UK before you travel.

If you are a Ukrainian national and have settled family in the UK, you can apply for the Ukraine Family Scheme visa for free.

If you are a Ukrainian national but do not have settled family in the UK, apply for a visa under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (also known as Homes for Ukraine) for free.

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Risks of illegal migration to the UK - GOV.UK