If you had a meal today (and if you did not, please go do that before finishing this), you relied on crop diversity. The very food systems that we need to stay nourished depend on crop diversity if they are to be resilient and sustainable. But crop diversity, write Hannes Dempewolf, Sarada Krishnan, and Luigi Guarino in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” can’t be used if it hasn’t been preserved.

In their article, “Our shared global responsibility: Safeguarding crop diversity for future generations,” the authors make the case that: “As the ways in which crop diversity is used in research and breeding change and expand, the global conservation system for crop diversity must keep pace; it must provide not only the biological materials themselves, but also the relevant information presented in a comprehensive and coherent way — all while ensuring equitable access and benefit sharing.”

The point of the piece is to “explore the evolving priorities for global efforts to safeguard and make available the diversity of the world's crops through ex-situ genetic resource collections.”

Collections held outside standard gene banks, they argue, should be better integrated with other global resources. “Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture” (PGRFAs) are believed by many to be increasingly important, but they cannot be used if they are not accessible and available. “Gene banks” have been set up around the world to store PGRFAs, but PGRFA networks are not always sufficiently funded, which is to say that the world is not working in concert as it ought to be.

The authors outline challenges for gene banks, which include preempting genetic erosion and making the most of the data that is available. And they concede that much of the work that needs to be done will not be done by gene banks, but insist it is impossible to do without it. And while the disparate way in which information is held is a challenge, so, too, is it a strength.

“There is much diversity among gene banks and their staff, and that is a great strength that must be fostered and embraced,” the authors write. “If they collaborate and share responsibilities, if they truly serve their users, and crucially, if they are properly resourced, gene banks will live long and prosper as will the PGRFAs in their care, the farmers on which they depend, and all of us who depend on farmers.” Which is to say, all of us.

Abishek Sharma explored the way in which India is struggling with geopolitics out at sea. Sharma wrote that India is “still oblivious” to the emerging threat of potentially compromised submarine cables, which carry an estimated 99% of Internet traffic. The current state of underwater geopolitics gives India an opportunity, according to Sharma, to improve its bureaucracy and regulatory system. But it’s an opportunity that is India’s to take or to ignore. If it chooses the latter, Sharma warned, it will find itself in a more vulnerable state than it is now.

Susanne Berger wrote that the Global Magnitsky Act is playing an increasingly prominent role but has not yet had the “decisive impact” imagined by those who pushed for its advent. The law, which allows the US government to impose sanctions for human rights abuses, and which has applied globally since 2016 (the original, Russia-specific version passed in 2012), has seen 760 individuals and entities in 46 countries on five continents. But, Berger noted, “Activists are concerned that when it comes to the designation of Magnitsky sanctions, not all human rights violations appear to be created equal. The current war in Ukraine and the civil protests in Iran have essentially usurped global attention, with other sanctions applications being pushed to the sidelines.”

Halima Gikandi looked at a new six-part series of short films that premiered in Kenya on Netflix. The series is called “African Folktales, Reimagined.” The films were produced through a Netflix partnership with UNESCO and are based on traditional African folktales. One is based on a Kenyan story about an ogre determined to eat children; another, a Mauritian tale about djinns. “Folk tales have always been an important way of passing culture and heritage and the values, you know, from generation to generation,” Tendeka Matatu, Netflix’s director of film in Africa, told Gikandi.

Battlefields are now battlefields.

Not sure we’ll be seeing this one in any neighborhood yards.

This joke has crossed the Finnish line.

I learned this about Swedish, so now you’re going to, too.

The future is now.

The answer is yes.