GENEVA: Some 300 million children who depend on school meals are missing out due to closures triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the World Food Programme said Friday.
The WFP pointed out that more than 860 million children -- roughly half the world's student population -- were having to stay away from schools and universities due to shutdowns aimed at halting the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to missing out on learning, hundreds of thousands of children are now missing free school lunches, the UN agency said.
The WFP said nearly nine million children out of the 18 million the organisation itself feeds through school meals across 61 countries were no longer receiving them.
The agency said it was looking into alternative ways of providing children out of school with food, including take-home meals.
"Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some 300 million primary schoolchildren are now missing out on school meals on which they depend," WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in an online briefing from Geneva.
She warned that the number of children deprived of WFP-provided school meals "is set to rise in coming days and weeks."
"In countries where schools are closed, WFP is evaluating possible alternatives.
"This includes providing take-home rations in lieu of the meals, home delivery of food and provision of cash or vouchers," she said.
Byrs stressed that without alternative solutions, many children around the world blocked from attending school would otherwise go hungry.
She said the idea of take-home rations would benefit not only children but their families too.
The governments of wealthy countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Canada have adopted special mechanisms to ensure that their poorest schoolchildren will not go hungry.
But the situation is much more precarious for children living in countries plagued by extreme poverty, armed conflict, and whose health systems are weak or almost non-existent.
"We can shift to online learning, but not online eating. Some solutions are needed," Carmen Burbano, director of the WFP's school feeding division, told AFP.
300m children missing school meals due to virus closures: WFP
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300m children missing school meals due to virus closures: WFP
- In addition to missing out on learning, hundreds of thousands of children are now missing free school lunches, the UN agency said
- The governments of wealthy countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Canada have adopted special mechanisms to ensure that their poorest schoolchildren will not go hungry
‘Anti-woke’ Americans hail death of DEI as another domino topples
Walmart said it will phase out the terms “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) and “Latinx,” end supplier diversity programs, shutter a racial equity center and pull out of a prominent gay rights index.
The announcement comes in the wake of similar moves by a string of prestige brands — from Ford, John Deere and Lowe’s to Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s — reflecting a backlash against so-called political correctness in American public life.
The rightward shift is credited in part for populist Donald Trump’s White House comeback and for laying the groundwork for a 2023 Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions.
DEI initiatives aim to right historical discrimination but conservatives have long criticized them as unfairly targeting white people, particularly men, as well as being performative “virtue-signaling.”
Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck, who lobbied Walmart before its announcement, celebrated the “biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America” and noted that the company’s stock had risen 2.1 percent.
“Our movement is a force in the market. Go woke, go broke actually has meaning now,” he posted on X.
Starbuck, 35, told AFP in an interview before Trump’s November 5 victory over Democrat Kamala Harris — who was criticized for previous “woke” policy positions — that ordinary Americans were sick of inclusivity and diversity policies at US companies.
“People are entitled to their views, and we need to have a system that creates equal footing for everybody and doesn’t force any one ideology down everybody’s throats,” he said.
Emboldened by Trump’s campaign pledges to end “wokeness,” conservative groups have been filing numerous lawsuits targeting corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minorities and women.
Trump himself focused mostly on political correctness that he says is infecting the nation’s classrooms, promising executive orders to cut federal funding schools pushing critical race theory and “transgender insanity.”
The president-elect has surrounded himself with anti-woke allies of all stripes, including his incoming deputy policy chief Stephen Miller, whose America First Legal group has targeted corporate diversity.
The military has been the main target of anti-woke crusaders in the US Congress, who argue that racial justice education and an obsession with climate change have made the troops go soft and driven a recruitment slump.
Republican lawmakers who spent much of the last congressional session locked in a war with Pentagon leaders on political-correctness were rewarded with Trump’s pick to lead the defense department’s workforce of three million — anti-DEI Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
Conservative activists hailed 2023 as a landmark year in America’s never-ending culture wars, when the conservative-majority Supreme Court ended affirmative action in university admissions, reversing a major gain of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Conservative groups pounced on the ruling to fight all manner of diversity programs in court.
And in March, the University of Florida ended DEI programs and related jobs as part of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s offensive against “woke ideology” — joining campuses in around a dozen other states.
Workers are divided on the merits of DEI, with a slowly-growing share saying their company pays too much attention to the issue — 19 percent in an October Pew Research Center poll compared with 14 percent in the same survey in February 2023.
But a new poll of 1,300 employees from business think tank The Conference Board, showed a robust 58 percent indicating that their organization devotes the appropriate level of effort on DEI.
“Leaders should focus on what really matters for their workforce amid the noise, as these initiatives are crucial for attracting and retaining current and future talent,” said Allan Schweyer, the group’s principal Researcher for human capital.
Global operation seizes 1,400 tons of drugs, unearths new Pacific trafficking route
- More than 1,400 tons of drugs seized, over 400 criminals arrested in global operation in October and November
- Operation “Orion” involved the US, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands and other nations, as well as multiple international organizations
- The seizure deprived drug cartels of more than $8.4 billion dollars, according to the Colombian Navy
BOGOTA: Authorities from dozens of countries seized 225 metric tons of cocaine in a six-week mega-operation where they unearthed a new Pacific trafficking route from South America to Australia, the Colombian Navy said Wednesday.
The latest phase of global naval operation “Orion” resulted in the seizure of more than 1,400 tons of drugs, including 225 tons of cocaine and 128 tons of marijuana, navy official Orlando Enrique Grisales told reporters.
More than 400 people were arrested in the operation targeting oceans, coasts, rivers and ports around the globe in October and November.
The massive bust involved the security agencies of the United States, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands and several other nations, as well as multiple international organizations.
The seizure deprived drug cartels of more than $8.4 billion dollars, according to a Navy statement.
Grisales said officials also seized a semisubmersible wood-and-fiber glass vessel on its way to Australia with five tons of Colombian cocaine.
This was the third such vessel discovered in this area, revealing a “new route” of trafficking with sophisticated boats that can cover the distance of some 10,000 miles without needing to refuel.
A kilogram of cocaine is sold for up to $240,000 in Australia, said Grisales — about six times more than the price in the United States.
“It is a route that is becoming increasingly profitable because prices are much higher in Australia,” a security source told AFP.
“Initially, these boats were used mainly to take the drugs out of the country and move them off the coast of Colombia and then transfer them to ships,” added the source.
“It has been found that these semisubmersibles, sometimes even submersibles, are now increasingly sophisticated, with very fine engineering.”
The operation also uncovered previously-unknown alliances between cartels from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru with groups from Europe and Oceania.
“It is not just a pyramid structure as the cartels once were. Today they are organized crime networks joined together,” said Grisales.
Colombia is the world’s biggest cocaine producer and exporter, mainly to the United States and Europe.
Last year, the South American country set a new record for cocaine production and cultivation of the coca leaf it is made from.
Under tariff threat, US wholesaler warns: ‘People will pay’
- No matter what happens in January, retailer Melquiades Flores says he has no option but to keep importing produce from Mexico
- The tomato-growing season in California lasts four months. The rest of the year, he gets the produce from Mexico
LOS ANGELES: While most of Los Angeles sleeps, 58-year-old Melquiades Flores starts his day at 1 a.m., supervising the unloading of produce at M&M Tomatoes and Chile Company, the wholesaler he started in 2019.
But the business that Flores hopes to pass to his children one day is bracing for a disruption.
US President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada when he takes office on Jan. 20, plus an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
“Produce of Mexico” is stamped on almost all the boxes of tomatoes and chilies that arrive at Flores’ downtown warehouse, destined for homes, hotels and restaurant kitchens across the city.
“People will have to pay a higher price. Whatever they charge us, we will pass on to the consumer,” Flores said from his section of the larger complex, the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market.
No matter what happens in January, Flores says he has no option but to keep importing produce from Mexico. The tomato-growing season in California lasts four months, from August to November, he says. The rest of the year, he gets the produce from the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Baja California and Sonora.
His team stacks boxes upon boxes of tomatoes in every size and shade of red, plus some shiny green ones for making zesty tomatillo sauce.
“Any tariff is an added tax that impacts all of us, including those who buy a pound, two pounds, or a thousand or 10,000 pounds,” said Flores, who has lived in Los Angeles for 40 years and is originally from the Mexican state of Morelos.
Trump has pronounced his love of tariffs, presumably for raising revenue and protecting US industries against imports, but he avoids speaking about the inflationary effect or the impact of potential retaliation from the United States’ top three trading partners.
Officials from Mexico, Canada and China and major industry groups have warned that the tariffs Trump proposes would harm the economies of all involved, cause inflation to spike and damage job markets.
“The president should have first seen how much this will impact everyone before speaking,” Flores said.
Biden readies $725 million arms aid package for Ukraine, sources say
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing a $725 million weapons package for Ukraine, two US officials said on Wednesday, as the outgoing president seeks to bolster the government in Kyiv before leaving office in January.
According to an official familiar with the plan, the Biden administration plans to provide a variety of anti-tank weapons from US stocks to blunt Russia’s advancing troops, including land mines, drones, Stinger missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
The package is also expected to include cluster munitions, which are typically found in Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets fired by HIMARS launchers, according to the notification, seen by Reuters.
The formal notification to Congress of the weapons package could come as soon as Monday, one official said.
The contents and size of the package could change in the coming days ahead of Biden’s expected signature.
It marks a steep uptick in size from Biden’s recent use of so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the US to draw from current weapons stocks to help allies in an emergency.
Recent PDA announcements have typically ranged from $125 million to $250 million. Biden has an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion in PDA already authorized by Congress that he is expected to use before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
The United States has not exported land mines in decades, and their use is controversial because of the potential harm to civilians. Although more than 160 countries have signed a treaty banning their use, Kyiv has been asking for them since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 and Russian forces have used them on the front lines.
Russian forces currently are making gains in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London over the past month, analysts and war bloggers said this week.
The United States expects Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory, though it has committed not to use them in areas populated with its own civilians.
Trump on Wednesday tapped Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, to serve as special envoy for the conflict. Quickly winding down the Ukraine war was one of Trump’s central campaign promises, though he has avoided discussing how he would do so.
Tariff plan would hurt both the US and Mexico, Sheinbaum tells Trump
- Mexico says Trump tariffs would kill 400,000 US jobs and drive up prices for US consumers
- Sheinbaum also warned that Mexico would retaliate if Trump makes good his tariff plan
MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s president discussed migration and drug trafficking with US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday — two issues he had raised as justification for raising import tariffs on America’s southern neighbor.
Claudia Sheinbaum said she had had “an excellent conversation” with Trump, just hours after her economy minister warned that the cost to US companies of Trump’s tariffs would be “huge.”
“We discussed Mexico’s strategy regarding the phenomenon of migration,” Sheinbaum said on X, adding she had told Trump that caravans of migrants “are not arriving at the northern border because they are being attended to in Mexico.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Sheinbaum said Mexico would retaliate if US President-elect Donald Trump followed through with his proposed 25 percent across-the-board tariff, a move her government warned could kill 400,000 US jobs and drive up prices for US consumers.
“If there are US tariffs, Mexico would also raise tariffs,” Sheinbaum said during a press conference, in her clearest statement yet that the country was preparing possible retaliatory trade measures against its top trade partner.
Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, speaking alongside Sheinbaum, called for more regional cooperation and integration instead of a war of retaliatory import taxes.
“It’s a shot in the foot,” Ebrard said of Trump’s proposed tariffs, which appear to violate the USMCA trade deal between Mexico, Canada and the US.
Discussion with Trump
In her talks with Trump later, she said they discussed “strengthening collaboration on security issues” as well as “the campaign we are conducting in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl.”
Trump on Monday said he would impose tariffs of 25 percent on Mexican and Canadian imports and 10 percent on goods from China.
“This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page.
The Republican, who won an election in which illegal migration was a top issue, has vowed to declare a national emergency on border security and use the US military to carry out a mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday some “400,000 jobs will be lost” in the United States if Trump followed through on his threat. He cited a study based on figures from US carmakers that manufacture in Mexico.
Tariff impact
Ebrard said the tariffs would also hit US consumers hard, citing the US market for pickup trucks — most of which are manufactured in Mexico. The tariffs, the minister said, would add $3,000 to the cost of a new vehicle.
“The impact of this measure will chiefly be felt by consumers in the United States... That is why we say that it would be a shot in the foot,” Ebrard told reporters, speaking alongside Sheinbaum at her regular morning conference.
The proposed tariffs would hit the automotive sector’s top cross-border exporters especially hard, Ebrard added, namely Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
Ebrard noted that 88 percent of pickup trucks sold in the US are made in Mexico and would see a price increase. These vehicles are popular in rural areas that overwhelmingly voted for Trump.
Mexico and China have been particularly vociferous in their opposition to Trump’s threats of a trade war from day one of his second presidential term, which begins on January 20.
Sheinbaum has declared the threats “unacceptable” and pointed out that Mexico’s drug cartels exist mainly to serve drug use in the United States.
China has warned that “no one will win a trade war.”
During his first term as president, Trump launched full-blown trade hostilities with Beijing, imposing significant tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods.
China responded with retaliatory tariffs on American products, particularly affecting US farmers.
The United States, Mexico and Canada are tied to a three-decade-old largely duty-free trade agreement, called the USMCA, that was renegotiated under Trump after he complained that US businesses, especially automakers, were losing out.
Many analysts regard Trump’s tariff threats as more of a negotiating tactic than trade policy.
“The lack of a clear link between this threat and questions related to trade suggests the new president plans to use tariffs as a negotiating strategy to achieve goals largely unrelated to trade,” said David Kohl, chief economist at Julius Baer.
Profit wiped out
Mexico’s automotive industry is the country’s most important manufacturing sector, exporting predominantly to the United States. It represents nearly 25 percent of all North American vehicle production.
Analysts at Barclays said they estimate the proposed tariffs “could wipe out effectively all profits” from the Detroit Three automakers.
“While it’s generally understood that a blanket 25 percent tariff on any vehicles or content from Mexico or Canada could be disruptive, investors under-appreciate how disruptive this could be,” they wrote in a note on Tuesday.
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team, said the tariffs would protect US manufacturers and workers from “unfair practices of foreign companies and foreign markets.”
Hughes said Trump would implement policies to make life affordable and more prosperous for his country.
GM and Stellantis declined to comment. Ford did not comment on how the threatened tariffs would affect its business but said it manufactures more vehicles in the United States than most major automakers.
Mexico’s automotive industry group AMIA said it would prepare for any possibility and wait to see what formal actions are taken.
The Institute of International Finance, a trade group for the global financial services industry, warned Mexico-US relations would be challenging going forward.
“The imposition of tariffs, eventually leading to increased protectionism, and other policies affecting exchange rates and commodity prices could have significant implications for the region,” it said in a note.
The USMCA is up for review in 2026.
Katia Goya, director of international economics at Grupo Financiero Banorte, said it was likely the three USMCA countries would seek wholesale renegotiation of the pact rather than just rubber-stamp it to continue in its current form.
“The effect of a trade-conflict situation is that it will mean lower economic growth in the United States, higher unemployment and higher inflation,” Goya said.
Ebrard said USMCA trade amounted to $1.78 trillion in the first nine months of this year.
“We can fragment and divide with tariffs,” Ebrard said. “Mexico does not want conflicts and divisions, but to build a stronger region.”
