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☆ U.S. food benefits for poor to shrink as pandemic provisions end
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Leah Douglas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives may also pursue further cuts to food assistance to shrink the U.S. deficit. “It’s going to put millions of households at risk of hunger,” said Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger. The changes mean cuts of about $82 a month beginning in March for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, said Ellen Vollinger of the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger group. But in December’s spending bill fight, Congress negotiated a compromise to end them in February in exchange for a new summer food program for children. More than 76% of the current farm bill’s $428 billion price tag went to food assistance programs that serve 41 million people annually.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives may also pursue further cuts to food assistance to shrink the U.S. deficit. "It’s going to put millions of households at risk of hunger," said Eric Mitchell, president of the Alliance to End Hunger. The changes mean cuts of about $82 a month beginning in March for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, said Ellen Vollinger of the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger group. But in December's spending bill fight, Congress negotiated a compromise to end them in February in exchange for a new summer food program for children. More than 76% of the current farm bill's $428 billion price tag went to food assistance programs that serve 41 million people annually.

☆ North Korean food shortage seems to be worsening, South Korea says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Soo-Hyang Choi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SEOUL, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A North Korean food crisis appears to have deteriorated, South Korea said on Wednesday, as a newspaper reported that North Korea has cut rations to its soldiers for the first time in more than two decades. North Korea has effectively acknowledged serious food shortages, South Korea's unification ministry said, referring to a North Korean state media report this month about plans for an "urgent" ruling party meeting on agriculture. "Its food situation seems to have deteriorated," the South's unification ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said in a statement. South Korea's DongA Ilbo newspaper said on Wednesday that North Korea has reduced daily food rations to its soldiers for the first time since 2000, citing an unidentified senior South Korean official. The WFP, which has helped North Korea over the years, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

☆ Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave 11.5 million shares of his stake in the electric automaker to an undisclosed charity last year, shares worth about $1.9 billion at the time they were donated. Musk’s net worth at the end of 2022 stood at $137 billion, according to Forbes’ real time billionaire tracker, so the $1.9 billion represented about 1.4% of his net worth at that time. Then in 2022 he sold $22.9 billion worth of Tesla shares as he raised cash for his purchase of Twitter. Given Tuesday’s closing price, the 11.5 million shares that Musk donated last year are worth $2.4 billion. The typical US household has a net worth of about $121,700, according to the most recent estimate from the Federal Reserve.

[1/6] Rescue workers try to rescue a 15-year-old girl trapped under the rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey February 10, 2023. The death toll exceeded 24,150 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to Monday's huge earthquake. Earlier, the World Food Programme said it was running out of stocks in rebel-held northwest Syria as the state of war complicated relief efforts. A similarly powerful earthquake in northwest Turkey in 1999 killed more than 17,000 killed in 1999. In the Samandag district of Turkey, rescuers crouched under concrete slabs and whispered "Inshallah" - "God willing" - as they carefully reached into the rubble and plucked out a 10-day-old newborn.

☆ World Food Programme warns of stock shortage in quake-hit northwest Syria
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The World Food Programme (WFP) is running out of stocks in northwest Syria and called to open more border crossings from Turkey after both countries were ravaged by earthquakes, the U.N. food aid organisation said on Friday. "Northwest Syria, where 90% of the population depends on humanitarian assistance, is a big concern. The border crossing is open now, but we need to get new border crossings open." Currently, there is only one open crossing, at Bab al-Hawa, between Turkey and the opposition-held northwest Syria. Fleischer stressed that opening a second border crossing was essential to getting aid to northwest Syria.

☆ Some UN Afghan aid delivered by men only, donors voice alarm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

PRECEDENT TO REGRETAny potential change to the U.N. approach to food aid following the ban has alarmed some donor nations and aid groups. Ambassador to the United Nations, Lisa Carty, said on Wednesday during a briefing by Griffiths to U.N. member states. Griffiths stressed that Afghan women need to work in food aid distribution to ensure supplies reached the most vulnerable - women and girls. The United Nations has appealed for $4.6 billion to fund the aid operation in Afghanistan in 2023. Griffiths and the heads of some international aid groups met Taliban officials last week to push for more, including in the areas of cash and food aid distribution.

☆ World Trade Organization head wants to 'double or triple' Africa's share of global trade
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Nell Lewis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The World Trade Organization (WTO) projected in October that after growing by 3.5% in 2022, trade volumes will increase by just 1% in 2023. Either way, Africa may start to reap the benefits of a free trade deal that came into effect in 2021. The landmark African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement created the world’s largest new free trade area since the establishment of the WTO. What do they need and what are they telling you in terms of doing cross-border trade on the African continent? What we’ve seen during the pandemic is that Africa needs to get its own manufacturing capacity, and this falls right back into what can make the continental free trade area work.

☆ Pope Francis to visit two fragile African nations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/6] Pope Francis attends the Vespers prayer service to celebrate the conversion of St. Paul at St. Paul's Basilica in Rome, Italy. REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapaneVATICAN CITY, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Pope Francis starts a trip on Tuesday to two fragile African nations often forgotten by the world, where protracted conflicts have left millions of refugees and displaced people grappling with hunger. Both countries are rich in natural resources - DRC in minerals and South Sudan in oil - but beset with poverty and strife. DRC is getting its first visit by a pope since John Paul II travelled there in 1985, when it still was known as Zaire. Trott, a former ambassador in South Sudan, said he hoped the three Churchmen can convince political leaders to "fulfil the promise of the independence movement".

☆ Afghan malnutrition rates at record high, U.N. food agency says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Malnutrition rates in Afghanistan are at record highs — with half the country enduring severe hunger year-round — a spokesman for the U.N.'s World Food Program said. “Half of Afghanistan endures severe hunger throughout the year, regardless of the season, and malnutrition rates are at a record high for Afghanistan,” said Phillipe Kropf, a spokesman for the United Nations food agency in Kabul. The Taliban takeover in August 2021 drove millions into poverty and hunger after foreign aid stopped almost overnight. Ebrahim Noroozi / APAid agencies have been providing food, education and healthcare support to Afghans, including heating, cash for fuel and warm clothes. “Since the Taliban have come, the economic condition is so bad and people don’t have food to eat.

☆ India's 2023/24 budget likely to be cautious, cutting deficit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Aftab Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The federal government is likely to cut its fiscal deficit to between 5.8% and 5.9% of GDP in 2023/24 from the 6.4% of 2022/23, other officials have said. The deficit will remain much larger than the 4% to 4.5% of GDP that was usual for decades. Reuters GraphicsThe international slowdown will hold down growth in nominal GDP - real growth plus inflation - to about 11% for 2023/24 from an estimated 15.4% for 2022/23. NUMBERS VS SPEECHModi's government in the past has used the budget document to lay out a broad economic vision and social agenda. The government is expected to borrow a record 16 trillion rupees in 2023/24, according to a Reuters poll.

☆ Russia’s war in Ukraine sparked a historic food crisis. It’s not over
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“All the major causes of the food crisis are still with us — conflict, Covid, climate change, high fuel prices,” Cary Fowler, the US special envoy for global food security, told CNN. But high food prices mean that funding can’t go as far, and Russia’s war continues to generate volatility. “The Ukraine crisis has had this ongoing negative impact on world food prices and [added] even more volatility,” said Abby Maxman, CEO of Oxfam America. Russia “is not assisting in alleviating the food crisis in slowing down the grain inspections,” Fowler said. Oxfam’s Maxman, who traveled there in September, said disruptions to food supplies were obvious in markets.

The free food programme, however, cost the government around $47 billion, worsened the fiscal deficit and reduced wheat stocks in government warehouses to multi-year lows. The government expects to save nearly $20 billion a year by ending the COVID free food scheme. MODI TRUSTED BY VOTERSSome economists had wanted the food programme gone months ago as COVID curbs eased. Had the trust not been there, and for any other leader, it would have been difficult to end such a food programme ahead of elections." But senior BJP leader and former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the decision to reduce food aid should not be linked to elections or politics.

☆ U.N. halts some programs in Afghanistan after ban on women aid workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Wednesday that some "time-critical" programs in Afghanistan have temporarily stopped and warned many other activities will also likely need to be paused because of a ban by the Taliban-led administration on women aid workers. "Banning women from humanitarian work has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans. But we foresee that many activities will need to be paused as we cannot deliver principled humanitarian assistance without female aid workers." The ban on female aid workers was announced by the Islamist Taliban-led administration on Saturday. Four major global groups, whose humanitarian aid has reached millions of Afghans, said on Sunday that they were suspending operations because they were unable to run their programs without female staff.

☆ Congress Funds Summer Food Program to Help an Estimated 29 Million Children
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Kristina Peterson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers are taking aim at childhood hunger by funding a new program that would help feed roughly 29 million school children over the summer months, with an estimated cost of almost $23 billion over 10 years. The program would start in the summer of 2024 and be funded in part by winding down supplemental food-stamp benefits enacted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Those extra funds will now stop at the end of February, instead of ending a month after the public health emergency is declared over, as originally planned.

REUTERS/Amit Dave/File PhotoSummary India to save nearly $20 billion over 12 monthsEnding pandemic-era free food programme may cool pricesIndia to provide already highly subsidised food for freeNEW DELHI, Dec 23 (Reuters) - India will end its COVID-19 era free food programme on Dec. 31 and replace it with a cheaper programme that will save the government nearly $20 billion in the next 12 months. Late on Friday, India's Food and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said the government will stop the free food programme after 28 months as the economic situation has improved since COVID-19 cases and restrictions have eased. The programme provided poor families with 5 kg (11 lb) of foodgrains each month in addition to other highly subsidised foodgrains. Now the government will make the highly subsidised foodgrain free for the next 12 months, Goyal said. The government will save at least $20 billion over the next 12 months by ending the pandemic-era free food programme, as they will only spend on one food scheme instead of multiple programmes, according to an official, who did not want to be named.

☆ EU members fail to reach agreement on new Russia sanctions - diplomats
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - European Union member states failed to agree on a ninth package of Russia sanctions in talks late on Wednesday, diplomats said as EU leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday for their last summit of the year. Fresh sanctions on Moscow have been held up by disagreement over whether the EU should make it easier for Russian fertiliser exports to pass through European ports, even in the case when the fertiliser companies are owned by blacklisted oligarchs. Some say EU restrictions pose a food security threat to developing countries, while others argue that relaxing them would allow Russian oligarchs who own fertiliser businesses to dodge EU sanctions against them. Some member states want the World Food Programme involved on authorisation for exports of fertilisers to countries that need it. Reporting by Sabine Siebold and John Chalmers Editing by Tomasz JanowskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lawmakers explain why they went to Qatar for the World Cup despite human rights concerns: 'There are no perfect countries'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Qatar's hosting of the 2022 World Cup has been controversial, given the country's human rights record. The congresswoman also suggested that the 2026 World Cup may prompt similar conversations about human rights abuses in North America. "We are slated to host the World Cup next with Mexico and Canada," she said, referring to the 2026 World Cup. "The spotlight of the World Cup has caused Qatar to make a lot of important reforms to their employment law." According to Human Rights Watch, LGBTQ people have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment in detention.

☆ 'The worst is yet to come': the curse of high inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

While wealthier consumers can rely on savings built up during pandemic lockdowns, others struggle to make ends meet and a growing number rely on food banks. Workers have taken strike action in sectors from healthcare to aviation to demand that wages keep pace with inflation. But if things are tough in industrialised economies, rocketing food prices are worsening poverty and suffering in poorer countries, from Haiti to Sudan and Lebanon to Sri Lanka. The world's central banks have embarked on steep interest rate hikes to cool demand and tame inflation. From U.S. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell to the European Central Bank's Christine Lagarde, there is growing talk that rate-hike medicine may taste bitter.

☆ Inflation in 2023: experts predict ‘worst is yet to come’ as recession looms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

☆ FDA Needs Leadership Role for Food-Safety Mission, Report Says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Kristina Peterson | Jesse Newman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The Food and Drug Administration needs to overhaul its structure so that a single person is clearly in charge of its food programs, an independent panel said in a report released Tuesday. The report from the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, a nonprofit created by Congress and funded largely by the FDA, also recommended that the agency boost the visibility of its food programs and create a new center focused on nutrition to elevate its role.

☆ In wake of baby formula crisis, critical report recommends major food safety changes at FDA
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jen Christensen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

It enforces food safety regulations, works with local governments on food safety information, promotes dietary guidelines, and develops food safety information and education, as well as overseeing nutrition labels on most food and being responsible for promoting good nutrition practices to the US public. Another would have the FDA develop a strategy to increase funding for the Human Foods Program, with help from Congress. “The current culture of the FDA Human Foods Program is inhibiting its ability to effectively accomplish this goal” of protecting public health,” the report says. “The work of these independent evaluators will help to inform a new vision for the FDA Human Foods Program,” Califf said in a news release. Some critics have suggested that food safety takes a back seat to the FDA’s regulations of drugs and medical devices.

His children's school expenses are mostly covered by a charity and a portion of his medicine is subsidised by the state. Before, we used to plan for a month or a year or two ... now, we've lost that ability," he said. The government says it remains committed to implementing reforms that would pave the way for an IMF deal. While Lebanon had long relied on remittances, the flow has increased as some 200,000 people had emigrated since 2019, he said. Meanwhile, basic state functions are increasingly propped up by international donors seeking to prevent total state failure.

☆ Hunger-struck Africa needs liquidity, debt relief
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Joe Bavier | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"It's not just been these macroeconomic fallouts, but also, heart-wrenchingly, the food insecurity issue," said Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Africa Department. "Food insecurity has shot up like never before." The number of East Africans facing acute food insecurity has jumped by 60% to 82 million in the past year. But Razia Khan, Middle East and Africa Chief Economist at Standard Chartered Bank, questioned whether simply providing more liquidity would be enough. Easing their debt burdens would allow governments to focus on pressing problems including food insecurity.

☆ Elon Musk puts an end to some Twitter perks, limits expenses due to company's 'challenging' financial situation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The email also addressed new policies on free food at Twitter, vacation time and other processes. "The future of Twitter is super bright if we can work together to be wise stewards of the company's resources." In addition to these and other changes detailed in the email, Twitter employees are expected to work in the office everyday as of Monday, the day the email was sent. "Allowances will be reevaluated over time and may be added back when the company's financial situation improves," the email noted. Meaning Twitter employees will now have to pay for much of the food the company will offer, where before everything was free.

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