On opposition night Uranus will be closest to Earth for this year — at a distance of 1.73 billion miles, 2.79 billion km, or 155 light-minutes. Uranus' minimum distance from Earth will boost its brightness to magnitude 5.62. It will also appear slightly larger — showing a 3.8 arc-seconds-wide disk in telescopes for a week or so centered on opposition night.

Finland is an important and like-minded partner on the Arctic, and the UK shares Finland’s ambition to protect the Arctic’s climate, environment, and the rights of its inhabitants, and to maintain Arctic expertise, infrastructure and logistics. Finland’s 2021 Strategy for Arctic Policy places special emphasis on sustainable development and leading-edge research, and we would like to explore opportunities in areas of Finnish expertise, such as clean technologies and the bio-economy. The Iveagh Guardis make a neat and natural pair, one framed at the left by the side wall of the Palazzo Civran and the other, the present painting, framed at the right by the (now destroyed) Palazzo Bembo. Guardi seems to have considered the pairing a success as the later Gulbenkian canvas was also conceived as a pendant to a similar view of Rialto from the north (also 52 by 84cm; sold in the Greve sale, Berlin, Lepke, 12-13 October, 1909). However, another version of the Iveagh pendant, of very similar dimensions to the Gulbenkian painting (53 by 85 cm; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) 9 has been traditionally paired with A view of the church of Santa Maria della Salute. 10 The Metropolitan canvas is identical to the Iveagh pendant in its arrangement of staffage but, like the Gulbenkian painting which is cropped at the left, so it is cropped at the right, omitting the Fabbriche Nuove. Morassi considered the Metropolitan version to be a slightly later reduced replica of the Iveagh painting, describing it eloquently with words that might equally apply to the present work instead: "a beautiful painting for its vivid light, transparency, clarity of handling". 11 That corresponds to six by two full moon diameters! In a dark sky, M31 can be seen with your unaided eyes as a sizeable faint smudge located 1.4 fist diameters to the lower left (or 14 degrees to the celestial northeast) of Alpheratz, the star that occupies the lower left (northeastern) corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. The three higher (westernmost) stars of Cassiopeia, named Caph, Shedar, and Gamma Cas, also conveniently form an arrow that points toward M31. On defence collaboration, the UK will develop new activities under the 2021 MOU between the Royal Navy and Canadian Coast Guard and seek opportunities to undertake UK cold weather training in Canada. Good morning and thank for joining us for the launch of “Looking North”, the UK government’s new Arctic Policy Framework.

Selwyn College’s 2024 bridging course

Finland is an important like-minded partner on climate change, having passed one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets into law. The Finnish Parliament adopted a new Climate Change Act in May 2022, enshrining in law the goals for the country to be carbon neutral by 2035. The UK’s bilateral engagement with Sweden is focussed on environmental challenges facing the Arctic. We share Sweden’s concerns that the Arctic’s Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The UK and Sweden enjoy a close relationship in science and innovation, for example collaborating closely on the transition to net zero, life sciences and space.

The UK aims for a prosperous Arctic, where economic and commercial development is achieved in a way that is safe, responsible and sustainable. The people who live in the Arctic should benefit from increasing prosperity in the region. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.Oil on canvas, 120 by 205 cm.; see Morassi, 1973, vol. I, p. 284, cat. no. 391, reproduced vol. II, fig. 414a. we will continue to be a leading producer of Arctic science and an active partner in international research collaborations, including to contribute to global understanding of climate change