The House Subcommittee on Appropriations will mark up the Fiscal Year 2022 Defense Subcommittee Appropriations Bill.

The House Subcommittee on the Department of Homeland Security will markup the Fiscal Year 2022 Homeland Security Subcommittee Appropriations Bill.

The House Appropriations Committee will markup the FY2022 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bills.

The Arctic could potentially become the next region in which the U.S. executes "freedom of navigation operations," or FONOPS, the Coast Guard's top officer said Monday. Home to an estimated $1 trillion worth of rare minerals, a third of the world's supply of liquefied natural gas and migratory fish species, the Arctic is increasingly attracting traffic -- especially from Russia, which draws 20% to 24% of its gross domestic product from the region, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said in an online discussion hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

The Arctic Council says its first executive meeting during the Russian Chairmanship will focus on the work to be undertaken as set by the Foreign Ministers in the Reykjavik Declaration and Strategic Plan at the May 2021 Ministerial meeting. On 29-30 June, the Arctic Council will convene virtually and in Moscow for the first executive meeting during the Russian Chairmanship (2021-2023). During the meeting, delegates will discuss plans for the action items outlined in the Reykjavik Declaration and initial work to implement priorities of the newly adopted 2021-2030 Strategic Plan.

Central Marine Research and Design Institute has conducted a comprehensive technical and economic analysis under the project on arranging a transarctic container line. The priority option recommended by is a 6,000 TEU container ship of Arc8 ice class with steerable propellers powered by LNG as the main fuel. JSC has performed a simulation modelling and a comprehensive technical and economic analysis of a transarctic container line under the Northern Sea Transit Corridor project.

The Government of Nunavut is hosting a leadership forum in August to build capacity among Nunavummiut women. The GN’s department of Family Services is hosting the four-day event with funding provided through the federal government’s Women and Gender Equality Canada department. The forum aims to empower Nunavut’s women and girls using traditional knowledge, skills, and their roles as natural leaders.

For the first time, a Regional Conference on Permafrost will be combined with the bi-annual 19th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering. This conference is hosted by the US Permafrost Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Permafrost Association, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network, and the University of Colorado Boulder. A complete list of planned sessions is available here.

Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2022. This symposium will bring together molecular microbial ecologists specializing in different organism groups to share our latest results and discuss methodological problems, as well as future prospects in the field, including practical international collaborations. The environmental focus will be on cryospheric environments including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, but excellent research in other polar environments is also invited. The methods to be discussed will focus on 'omics' techniques, ranging from single cells to metagenomes, but research using additional methods is encouraged as well.